My understanding is that the crafting system has gone in a somewhat different direction since the developer journal about it, but we don't have any solid information about what the system looks like now. I'm very excited about crafting, so I hope the system turns out well. We just need to wait and see at the moment, though.

I look forward to the market for counterfeit goods.

Hopefully crafting will be deep enough that botting won't work and that it doesn't feel stale and repetitive; but that's just wishful thinking.

I think having actual player skill impact crafting could be very interesting. I cringe thinking back on my decades of MMO gaming to the hours I'd hit the "craft all" button and watch some movies. Now, I love SWG - pre ruination - as much as the next guy, but there are still areas for improvement and I actually think the "mini game" approach is interesting enough to warrant exploration. Although I also think Quix is correct that the direction has changed somewhat.

Posted By Nostradumbass at

You want an example of someone who got it right (as far as crafting goes), look at SWG.

If you really want to see complex crafting systems, check out A Tale in the Desert. Blacksmithing was done particularly well, IMO. Players became known as experts based on their real-life skill.

The crafting system seems to benefit artists with what was mentioned in the DJ. Especially with the trace the item mini game mentioned. Wacom board FTW!

I really hope that the quality that you are trying to achieve would be contingent upon the barrier of your own skill first and foremost, but also that the quality is based off the amount of time you put into it and not just hinged on flying by the seat of your pants in some mini game that goes quicker the higher quality you want to achieve by tracing patterns.

I would hope that anyone or everyone could achieve the same quality eventually. Those who are beginners could in time create the same high quality object with the same quality resources. Its just that it might take a higher skilled craftsman less time to do so then the beginner.

The processing of the resources should be the first skill check in what can be made. Then the actual forging of the item should be the second skill check. Player skill during those two processes in getting rid of contaminants should be paramount as well as keeping the metal or wood from fracturing or cracking.

Where as if you try to go too quick you might just need to reforge the item again.

Or that shrapening the weapon would take skill for weapons that need a sharp edge.

While that system in A Tale in the Desert game sounds great, and I sincerely hope they consider additional depth like that, a relevant minigame at all is still a step up over the "Craft All" button.

SWG definitely had a good system for the materials, both finding them and knowing what attributes made for good items...especially as you may want to produce the same item with some variability for different situations. However, once you had picked your ingredients and item, it was still a simple "Craft" button.

Combine the complexity of ingredients and the choices of picking the right ones for the job with an actual skill-based crafting process, and that's even better than what SWG had.

The better the minigame the better, certainly, and few things are worse than bad minigames...but so long as its well done, I don't mind if it's a tracing game.

I would not spend too much of your time worrying over Crafting and the Mini Games. The idea of the mini games were to have actual player skill mean something, instead of just a repetition of making 100 units of a item to gain the next level. Since the Devs have taken a second look at crafting I believe everything has been tabled for now. When they have more time they will readdress Crafting and who knows it might be completely different this time around. So my suggestion is just wait and see what they come up with next before passing judgment.

My hope is that they will get rid of the player skill checks. I have a condition similar to Parkinson’s, but why should my character be less do to my inability to draw a straight line?

I love crafting, but was assuming I wouldn’t be able to this time, hope burns anew :-)

Well... CoE has been designed from the ground up focusing of player skills. While other games may focus on the equipment (Axe of Uberness), CoE doe not have that same focus. Instead the are concentrating on making the gear less important and the actual skill mean something. While it will not be a Twitch game, and equipment will contribute to the overall effectiveness, the focus is on the skills themselves, the attacks, the parry and repost, and the combos. A less player with a higher more efficient skill should be able to take out a heavily equipped player with less skills.

As far as crafting they wanted to bring the same skill focused game play to those professions as well. I highly doubt they will have the same complexity or reaction times as combat, and I hope they start off easy and you will only need a higher reaction at the highest levels. Now that leaves the gathering skills, which we know little about. I am sure they will be skill based to some degree (higher skills means a higher yield or higher quality) but without information we are only left to speculate. I have talked to a couple of other players with limitations and they indicated that they will give crafting and gathering a try but they will likely fall back on a shop keeper or traveling merchant if they can't do it. I am not sure if this is something you would be interested in but the option is there.

Posted By Sullen at 5:12 PM - Wed Oct 04 2017

Well... CoE has been designed from the ground up focusing of player skills. While other games may focus on the equipment (Axe of Uberness), CoE doe not have that same focus. Instead the are concentrating on making the gear less important and the actual skill mean something. While it will not be a Twitch game, and equipment will contribute to the overall effectiveness, the focus is on the skills themselves, the attacks, the parry and repost, and the combos. A less player with a higher more efficient skill should be able to take out a heavily equipped player with less skills.

As far as crafting they wanted to bring the same skill focused game play to those professions as well. I highly doubt they will have the same complexity or reaction times as combat, and I hope they start off easy and you will only need a higher reaction at the highest levels. Now that leaves the gathering skills, which we know little about. I am sure they will be skill based to some degree (higher skills means a higher yield or higher quality) but without information we are only left to speculate. I have talked to a couple of other players with limitations and they indicated that they will give crafting and gathering a try but they will likely fall back on a shop keeper or traveling merchant if they can't do it. I am not sure if this is something you would be interested in but the option is there.

A solid crafting system can make or break a game. Of course no-one is suggesting old school "craft 10x swords" kind of mechanics. But the mini-game whatever it is should be as immersive as possible in my view. Connected in some way with how the act is actually done in the real world. After seeing the 10 for the chairman and design documents for star citizen as well as various other modern crafting approaches the example presented for this game so far seems a bit... Lackluster to be quite frank...

There's aspects of this game that really appeals to me. Player created missions/quests and player driven economy, politics and social structure chief among them.

But without proper crafting mechanics I doubt I'll spend much time on this game or buy more then the one spark of life I've already purchased... Actually if it's not improved I'm not actually sure if I'll even use the one I do have... It's quite possible that I'd be so annoyed by the crafting mechanics even when not crafting that I'd be unable to enjoy the game itself... :-/

My hope is that the highest end items in the game will be craftable. I'm a huge crafter.

Posted By Dojigger at 11:16 AM - Tue Oct 03 2017

for these 'cut the dots' mini-games that are currently shown as the main part of crafting the pieces seem a good idea to me, so an artist with a Wacom tablet would be more skilled at crafting than someone with a potato hand and terrible mouse.

I didn't even think of using my wacom tablet, thank you!

Posted By Dojigger at 8:16 PM - Tue Oct 03 2017

so an artist with a Wacom tablet would be more skilled at crafting than someone with a potato hand and terrible mouse.

I'm looking forward to whatever experiences SBS is actually cooking up, but I gotta say that anything that would give me an excuse to use my Wacom Cintiq 24HD monitor would be awesome in my book, lol.