Another idea: Crafting mini games

t0mmeh

This would be kind of a big undertaking, but would probably add a lot of immersion to crafting. What if crafting was akin to lock picking in a sense that you have to actively do things like hammer a piece of steel and cool it off in water while blacksmithing? It would obviously take more time to create an item this way, but you could offset that by having larger experience gains. Also you could incorporate skill elements into this that test your hand-eye coordination in little ways that add a little excitement that you can't get with a menu.

EDIT: You could reward getting better at the mini games by having like a 5-10% variable in the quality of the items you create based on how you perform at the process, and the better you do would also give you more experience.

Brennan

t0mmeh wrote: »

This would be kind of a big undertaking, but would probably add a lot of immersion to crafting. What if crafting was akin to lock picking in a sense that you have to actively do things like hammer a piece of steel and cool it off in water while blacksmithing? It would obviously take more time to create an item this way, but you could offset that by having larger experience gains. Also you could incorporate skill elements into this that test your hand-eye coordination in little ways that add a little excitement that you can't get with a menu.

EDIT: You could reward getting better at the mini games by having like a 5-10% variable in the quality of the items you create based on how you perform at the process, and the better you do would also give you more experience.

I don't hate this idea.

Hellorush

Today I've played very interesting mini-game - press 'R' button 200 times for 200 Soups, Stews etc in Provisioning. Quite a lot of fun if you have a spare finger and a smartphone to watch some videos on Youtube

Setting quanities of crafted items is a must..

Brennan

Hellorush wrote: »

Setting quanities of crafted items is a must..

Is a must or what?

t0mmeh

I mean I think crafting could potentially be just as exciting as combat if they approached it as mini games that become increasingly difficult. It would be ideal in a game trying to eliminate the grindfest mentality of MMOs.

Chalybos

t0mmeh wrote: »

I mean I think crafting could potentially be just as exciting as combat if they approached it as mini games that become increasingly difficult. It would be ideal in a game trying to eliminate the grindfest mentality of MMOs.

EQ2 has that. You used to die in the early days, if you screwed up and missed countering an effect. I had several endgame crafters, and while I got a kick out of that aspect of it, I'd rather they didn't do that.

Woogawoman

The absolutely best game I ever played from a crafting perspective was "A Tale in the Desert (http://www.atitd.com)"

Very small, very quirky game where the world starts out with nothing in it except the schools/universities where you can learn skills (and do research to unlock new skills). Everything else is created by the players and becomes persistent in the world.

And many of the tasks to create items included some aspect of a mini-game. Blacksmithing in particular really felt like something you had to learn by practicing, and folks who got good at it were in very high demand.

ETA a link to a blacksmithing guide from ATITD to give you an idea of what was involved: http://www.atitd.org/wiki/tale4/Guilds/Coastal_Plains/Hatchet

t0mmeh

I mean the death for failure aspect is a bit extreme, I just thought it'd be nice to have a motor skill component to creating higher quality items.

Chalybos

t0mmeh wrote: »

I mean the death for failure aspect is a bit extreme, I just thought it'd be nice to have a motor skill component to creating higher quality items.

Extreme? Yes. But it really was funny as hell, watching someone gasp, groan, and keel over at a forge. You couldn't exit crafting, either, so once hit the "well, this ain't salvageable" mark, you were toast. But I digress. The "counter this reaction with that action", or vise-versa, is entertaining for all of about 4 levels. After that, it makes you want to quit crafting. I much prefer this. But then that's just my personal opinion.

anton1nh

omg please no...

a mini game may be fun to level up. so you invest materials to create practice items and if you do better you get more XP.

absolutely no mini-game to determine the quality of items.