Arremus
Cadet
[Part B - Forum is 404'ing and won't let me post this in full]
So, how would I do things differently?
Remove the concept of you being a crafter or an adventurer altogether.
Remove the need for their to be two groups, who eventually start fighting each other on the forums and bring about nerfs where they don't need to be.
When creating your character, you have the different skill choices you can learn.
You can only learn one or two.
Even have it secondary to the Class choices.
In this list of skill choices have things like Geology, Prospecting, Herbalist, Alchemist, Lore Expert etc.
Then, when you travelling on your adventures, you come across an interesting looking rock. You use your Prospecting(+mining) skill and extract a pretty little pink rough gem (skill+practise = chance at good gem). You put it in your pocket and keep walking.
Later you come by an abandoned house, go inside and search around. You find an old tome you cannot read. You put it in your backpack. You also find a chunk of metal that you know to be iron. You take that too.
When you return to town, you look through your pack and find the gem and book, and wander off to the tavern. You ask around for a Geologist, finding a couple, and ask what the gem is. They appraise it for a fee (one can't due to too low skill at trying, the other can). You pay your fee and now know what the gem is. It's a gem that, when combined with metal, makes any edge razor sharp! (Hey this is fantasy! hehe).
You then carefully bore a socket into your favourite sword using a tool you bought, and insert the gem in there (this could even be the domain of a jeweler - making the socket and putting a clasp on top so the gem doesn't fall out).
You then wander off to the Temple, to find a Lore Expert, usually found with the Priestly types. You find one, show her the book. She translates it for you (perhaps on a timer) and you now have a translated version of the book.
Reading the book (only you can, not the Lore Expert, as it's your loot) you find it's a map of a secret dungeon - or a book of training that gives you a skill up etc.
You then wander off to the forge and smelt that piece of metal, and manually hammer it out - you know manually? as in direct the hammer, not click 'Go' - trying to make a nice sword edge. You bugger it? Well re-smelt it and try again. One blade at a time. When completed, sharpen the blade and polish it. All tools available to use in the town forge.
In the end, with that one piece of iron, you've experimented and played with it for a couple of hours and made ONE blade. You can then buy a leather strap to bind a hilt, and a custom made sheath (NPC perhaps). There you have one very nice, hard fought over sword! One. Depending on your skill, the sword will have certain stats or whatever. Even depending on the type of metal and what region it comes from! (sharper, harder etc)
And this is only a very basic, off the top of my head process. People with the skill of Devs of games etc could advance this tenfold.
To my mind, having something like this (of course refined into a system that works haha) would easily constitute crafting and would be a big advancement on the mind numbingly dull grind of current 'crafting'.
I just don't understand why crafting and adventuring are not part of the same lifestyle.
People say they want to craft and don't like getting involved in fighting etc, so create a system of classes where someone doesn't need to fight mobs to raise levels. Use things like I've described, make crafting a social aspect of the game.
As it is, crafting in EQ2, which is supposed to be about the community, is the most solo, self absorbed thing you can do. There's very little about it which says community.
You stand there alone, watching a DVD while hitting buttons.
Yay.
***
Well, it won't let me post Part C haha. "Thankyou!" I hear you say
. Is only short anyways, saying that companies are in such a rush to release these days that content and mechanics never get realised.
And let's all just hope that Simu bring the DR / GS glory to MMOs and give us something beyond boring craft grinding!!
So, how would I do things differently?
Remove the concept of you being a crafter or an adventurer altogether.
Remove the need for their to be two groups, who eventually start fighting each other on the forums and bring about nerfs where they don't need to be.
When creating your character, you have the different skill choices you can learn.
You can only learn one or two.
Even have it secondary to the Class choices.
In this list of skill choices have things like Geology, Prospecting, Herbalist, Alchemist, Lore Expert etc.
Then, when you travelling on your adventures, you come across an interesting looking rock. You use your Prospecting(+mining) skill and extract a pretty little pink rough gem (skill+practise = chance at good gem). You put it in your pocket and keep walking.
Later you come by an abandoned house, go inside and search around. You find an old tome you cannot read. You put it in your backpack. You also find a chunk of metal that you know to be iron. You take that too.
When you return to town, you look through your pack and find the gem and book, and wander off to the tavern. You ask around for a Geologist, finding a couple, and ask what the gem is. They appraise it for a fee (one can't due to too low skill at trying, the other can). You pay your fee and now know what the gem is. It's a gem that, when combined with metal, makes any edge razor sharp! (Hey this is fantasy! hehe).
You then carefully bore a socket into your favourite sword using a tool you bought, and insert the gem in there (this could even be the domain of a jeweler - making the socket and putting a clasp on top so the gem doesn't fall out).
You then wander off to the Temple, to find a Lore Expert, usually found with the Priestly types. You find one, show her the book. She translates it for you (perhaps on a timer) and you now have a translated version of the book.
Reading the book (only you can, not the Lore Expert, as it's your loot) you find it's a map of a secret dungeon - or a book of training that gives you a skill up etc.
You then wander off to the forge and smelt that piece of metal, and manually hammer it out - you know manually? as in direct the hammer, not click 'Go' - trying to make a nice sword edge. You bugger it? Well re-smelt it and try again. One blade at a time. When completed, sharpen the blade and polish it. All tools available to use in the town forge.
In the end, with that one piece of iron, you've experimented and played with it for a couple of hours and made ONE blade. You can then buy a leather strap to bind a hilt, and a custom made sheath (NPC perhaps). There you have one very nice, hard fought over sword! One. Depending on your skill, the sword will have certain stats or whatever. Even depending on the type of metal and what region it comes from! (sharper, harder etc)
And this is only a very basic, off the top of my head process. People with the skill of Devs of games etc could advance this tenfold.
To my mind, having something like this (of course refined into a system that works haha) would easily constitute crafting and would be a big advancement on the mind numbingly dull grind of current 'crafting'.
I just don't understand why crafting and adventuring are not part of the same lifestyle.
People say they want to craft and don't like getting involved in fighting etc, so create a system of classes where someone doesn't need to fight mobs to raise levels. Use things like I've described, make crafting a social aspect of the game.
As it is, crafting in EQ2, which is supposed to be about the community, is the most solo, self absorbed thing you can do. There's very little about it which says community.
You stand there alone, watching a DVD while hitting buttons.
Yay.
***
Well, it won't let me post Part C haha. "Thankyou!" I hear you say
. Is only short anyways, saying that companies are in such a rush to release these days that content and mechanics never get realised.And let's all just hope that Simu bring the DR / GS glory to MMOs and give us something beyond boring craft grinding!!
