Player Home Personal Crafting Stations Concepts

Gidorick

Many of us agree that having Crafting Stations within player homes would be a detriment town functionality. There are also those of us who feel that having crafting stations within player homes is a must to make player homes a viable addition to ESO.

TL/DR Personal Crafting stations should be different from town crafting stations by requiring additional skill and resources of the player.

Topics:

• How Personal Crafting Stations are the Same
• How Personal Crafting Stations are Different
• Crafting Skills

How Personal Crafting Stations are the Same
It is my personal belief that Crafting Stations CAN be included in player homes, but not exactly how they exist in towns. They should provide many of the same core functions that town crafting stations provide.

Personal Crafting Stations should offer…

• The same crafting ability
• The same research ability
• The same deconstructing ability
• The same access to materials in the bank

This is so a player using a personal crafting station has all the same capabilities that a person using a crafting station in a town will have. At this point you’re probably thinking that there is nothing that can be changed to make personal crafting stations different. While the functions should be the same, personal crafting stations should differ in their effectiveness.

How Personal Crafting Stations are Different
In towns, players have one benefit they would not have in their personal crafting station, the Craftsman. The Craftsaman is there to upkeep the crafting station and is able to provide more capable crafting stations than those players should be able to have in their homes. As such, the player crafting stations should differ in five ways:

Personal Crafting Stations should…

• Differ visually
• Yield less material
• Require more material
• Result in longer research times
• Consume resources

Visual Difference - All
Personal crafting tables should look a little different from the crafting stations found in towns. They should be smaller and should be more compact. A smaller forge for a blacksmith, perhaps a vertical tanning station for clothier, a smaller woodworking table, etc. This would also enable players more possibilities when placing them inside/outside their homes.

Less Material Yield – Blacksmith / Woodworking / Clothier
Since the personal crafting stations aren’t of the same quality as those that can be found in towns, the yield from deconstruct should be less than if the player were to deconstruct their material in town. This could be accompanied by the chances of getting rare materials being lowered. The result would be players would have a reason to deconstruct rare pieces in town instead of at their personal crafting stations so they have a greater chance of obtaining rare materials.

More Material Required – All
Just as a player will generate less materials from deconstructing, constructing should cost more when making items on a personal crafting station. This would likely be the greatest incentive to crafting in towns rather than crafting using personal stations. This doesn’t, however, mean that this increased cost of crafting shouldn’t be able to be mitigated. More on that below in the Crafting Skills section.

Longer Research – Blacksmith / Woodworking / Clothier
Since players aren’t using a crafting station that is overseen by a professional craftsman it should take them longer to research items. Pretty straight forward. This DOES mean, however, that a player should be able to research on a public table and then research separately on their private table. It’s a limitation with a benefit!

Consuming Resources – All
Now, let’s get all minecrafty here. Personal crafting stations should require a consumable craft-specific resource. Each activity on that station should consume a certain amount of that resource. Each station should contain a slot for the crafting resource. If the crafting station contains none of the needed resource, then the station cannot be used.

Each crafting station should have its own consumable resources.

• Blacksmith Forge = EmberCoal
• Woodworking Station = Carpenter’s Oil
• Clothier Station = Surfacing Wax
• Alchemy Station = Tinder / Emulsifyer / Bottles
• Cooking Fire = Potable Water / Firewood / Kindling
• Enchanting table = Candles / Enchanting Crystal / Incense

The resources should be manually placed in a slot in the personal crafting station, this means the resource cannot be placed in and used from the bank. The resources should all stack in piles of 200. The resource should stay in the station after the player finishes using it meaning a player can fill up a resource and leave it until they run out of the resource.

Each resource can be obtained using different means. ZOS could choose to have the resources craftable to where players need to farm the resource out in the wild, they could be purchasable from the Craftsman, or they could be bought in stacks through the Crown Store.

Crafting Skills
Just as the stablemaster can help a player by providing riding lesson, each Craftsman can provide lessons to increase a crafting skill. Each Craft should have 4 crafting skills

Blacksmithing / Woodworking / Clothier Skills

• Deconstruction (max level = same yield as town crafting)
• Construction (max level = same requirements as town crafting)
• Research (max level = As fast as town crafting)
• Efficiency (level increase = Less resourced needed per use)

Alchemy / Enchanting / Provisioning Skills

• Construction (max level = same requirements as town crafting)
• Efficiency (level increase = Less of resource 1 needed per use)
• Ingenuity(level increase = Less of resource 2 needed per use)
• Creativity (level increase = Less of resource 3 needed per use)

Each Crafting Skill could be set to 50 or 100 and as players increase their crafting skills, they get closer to the abilities that crafting stations in towns enjoy. At max level, the capabilities of personal crafting stations should equal the capabilities of town crafting stations.

Note that personal crafting stations should ALWAYS require the consumption of the crafting resource.

You’ll also notice that since Alchemy, Enchanting, and Provisioning are less complex crafting skills than Blacksmithing, Woodworking, and Clothier I added more consumable resources required to use their personal crafting stations. This could be changed so that each crafting station only have 1 consumable resource. In the end I chose to have multiple crafting resources to be able to have 4 Crafting Skills available for each craft. This would have to be a design decision made by ZOS. I can personally see the reasons for having it either way.

The core concept here is that personal crafting stations can not only add functionality to personal homes but could add extended gameplay through resource management. With this concept the personal crafting stations would be difficult enough to maintain and level that many players would just use town crafting stations while others who want personal crafting stations would be empowered to do so.

Thoughts? Differing opinions? Tweaks?

Rev Rielle

I think you may have over thought it without looking at it more fundamentally and in a wider context first. Crafting stations in-game at the moment are used for three basic long-term functions:

1. Deconstruct Equipment
2. Completing Crafting Writs
3. Crafting Equipment

The first two can be completed at any crafting station, and as a result usually happen in town areas near bankers/merchants/crafting writ boards/etc. Crafting equipment predominantly occurs these days at any number of set crafting stations located around the world.

So, even if crafting stations were able to be added in to player housing I think they would not be used. Having a common crafting table isolated by itself in housing with none of the other services nearby that are used in tandem results in a mostly useless crafting station.

Gidorick

So do you simply disagree that we even need crafting stations in player homes @Rev Rielle ?

Eriquito3

Only add personal crafting stations IF there would be a global auction house.

I saybthat because if they add a personal crafting station then it would take crafters outnofnthe city and into their homes. Thus making it difficult to find master crafters.

Just my opinion.

Gidorick

Eriquito3 wrote: »

Only add personal crafting stations IF there would be a global auction house.

I saybthat because if they add a personal crafting station then it would take crafters outnofnthe city and into their homes. Thus making it difficult to find master crafters.

Just my opinion.

Fixed with player created writs.

Tholian1

Gidorick wrote: »

Eriquito3 wrote: »

Only add personal crafting stations IF there would be a global auction house.

I saybthat because if they add a personal crafting station then it would take crafters outnofnthe city and into their homes. Thus making it difficult to find master crafters.

Just my opinion.

Fixed with player created writs.

I REALLY like that. Yes please.

Eriquito3

Gidorick wrote: »

Eriquito3 wrote: »

Only add personal crafting stations IF there would be a global auction house.

I saybthat because if they add a personal crafting station then it would take crafters outnofnthe city and into their homes. Thus making it difficult to find master crafters.

Just my opinion.

Fixed with player created writs.

Very true. Is that getting added?

Gidorick

Eriquito3 wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Eriquito3 wrote: »

Only add personal crafting stations IF there would be a global auction house.

I saybthat because if they add a personal crafting station then it would take crafters outnofnthe city and into their homes. Thus making it difficult to find master crafters.

Just my opinion.

Fixed with player created writs.

Very true. Is that getting added?

Lol. Not that I'm aware.

Psychobunni

MOVED? This isnt a crafting thread persay. It was a suggestion towards "housing"

Which says again, we need a suggestion specific forum....especially if mods are just going to bury them.


@Gidorick I like this idea better than no stations at all

Gidorick

What... Moved?.... Moved! Son of a daedroth!

Oh well... Yea @Psychobunni, I tried to think of an amicable solution. Something that's difficult enough a lot of people wouldn't bother but accessible enough that it would be fun to accomplish. Not to mention this would add 24 new skills for players to level plus 12 more items that can be sold in the crown store.

After I finished writing up the concept I thought to myself that the consumable materials being required for personal crafting stations would probably be enough... but my thought is shoot for the moon and maybe we will land on top of a mountain.

Gidorick

@P3ZZL3 brought up a really interesting point in a thread about what should NOT be in player homes (http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2159720/#Comment_2159720) and it got me wondering if personal crafting stations should only unlock once a player becomes a master craftsman. I would completely be fine with the above system being sort of like the crafting end game....

P3ZZL3

@Gidorick I would say the individual needs it personally and I don't think it would break anything in therms of people in the towns. As already mentioned, it's the "impression" of a bustling town people like, over and above the actual ability to engage with the individuals.

There should be 3 unlock stages imo. lvl1-50 / v1 / v14

v14 + lvl50 Crafting trait should unlock various things, and I would even go as far as saying the "out of the way" special sets (Not new ones in IC Obviously).

Tarukmockto

I find the hopefulness of all the new players amusing, in light of ZOS performance to date.

Of course this all hinges on if there ever IS Player Housing in game. Oh well, one can dream.

anitajoneb17_ESO

I think you need some aspirin and tranquilizer, Gidorick.

This is all far too sophisticated, not to say uselessly complicated.

I don't feel any need to "save town population by nerfing player homes". Towns with only NPCs + thieves + players going to guild stores and fence would be much better and more immersive.

Gidorick

Am I this new player of which you speak @Tarukmockto? I've been with ESO since the beginning.I'm not ashamed to admit, I still hope.

Gidorick

Lol @anitajoneb17_ESO. I'll admit, the concept got away from me a little.

But I doubt ZOS takes these kinds of posts seriously so I just let my dreamy imagination go. Functionally, I think the consumable crafting materials (one type for each station) would be sufficient to make personal crafting stations different from town stations.

BenevolentBowd

In my opinion, it would depend on how the housing is implemented.

If just an instanced style personal house, I think there might be some demand for personal crafting stations to make research items and consumables which don't require any special crafting set centers.

In one game I played, there were player housing settlements with crafting stations. I wasn't bad but involved some running back and forth from the housing storage.

If guild housing was implemented with a recall like capability, then things could become more interesting for crafting or trading guilds. Guildies could easily meet and trade items.

A possible suggestion I have if guild housing was implemented, it would be to have the available world crafting sets be unlocked at the guild crafting stations, if say, the guild was able to retain a certain number of master crafters in the various crafting professions (clothiers, woodworkers, smiths). This would provide incentives for low level crafters to join a guild as it would provide safe access to the sets and the convenience of not having to do a lot of travelling to craft custom orders.

Tarukmockto

Gidorick wrote: »

Am I this new player of which you speak @Tarukmockto? I've been with ESO since the beginning.I'm not ashamed to admit, I still hope.

@Gidorick: Sorry for the implication. I didn't even notice the 5 star rating when I had that thought. You have to admit though, that most of the recent complex suggestions are from the influx of new players with the console release. And its that hopefulness, that I find amusing.

I am impressed that after being here from the beginning, you can still find the motivation to make such in depth suggestions for changes to the game. I envy your resolve.

Gidorick

Thanks @Tarukmockto. I try to remain positive. It helps that I accepted a very long time ago that likely nothing that I suggest on these forms will ever see the light of day. It's likely that none of it is even taken seriously if it ever actually even gets to the people that would make the decisions about these sorts of features.

I absolutely adore eso but it will never be the game I hoped it would be. So instead of getting upset about it, I dream about what could have been. Since I believe my suggestions live and die on the forums, I sort of go nuts with them. Thinking up ludacris concepts has become a sort of meta game for me.

So whenever you see my name beside some long convoluted concept just know that it's more of a kind of fan fiction than it is something that I seriously expect to see in eso.

But don't get me wrong my suggestions are serious. Even though I don't ever expect them to actually be in the game, I try to suggest things I do truly believe would improve the game.

I guess ESO kind of inspires me to dream of the possibilities.

anitajoneb17_ESO

We will most certainly have portable crafting stations, which makes this entire discussion quite obsolete, I think..

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/209933/datamine-akaviri-mercenary-yokudan-portable-crafting-wrothgar

Gidorick

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

We will most certainly have portable crafting stations, which makes this entire discussion quite obsolete, I think..

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/209933/datamine-akaviri-mercenary-yokudan-portable-crafting-wrothgar

That's a bad bad bad thing.

anitajoneb17_ESO

I think it's very good news...

But it comes down to you liking to see cities crowded with players and me disliking it, so ... matter of taste.

Gidorick

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

I think it's very good news...

But it comes down to you liking to see cities crowded with players and me disliking it, so ... matter of taste.

Honestly it's more about retaining the integrity of the elder scrolls for me.

anitajoneb17_ESO

The... integrity of the Elder Scrolls ??? In crafting stations ... ????

I guess I miss the point here. I don't see the "identity" of the franchise nor the lore itself being threatened in any way by portable crafting stations ! And just because there haven't been any in previous games (but via modding) doesn't mean there shouldn't ever be any...

Gidorick

If magical summonable crafting stations existed in the second era why aren't they around in the following eras? If they bother to add a bit of lore to explain this I would be less resistant to the idea, but they won't. They haven't with any of the other questionable crown store releases.

It's ok if you don't understand that is not about the crafting stations specifically, but the design concept behind including them. What possible reason Is there to add these other than "they'll sell."

Inventory concerns? There's much better ways to handle that...
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/162693/more-bags-and-encumbrance-concepts/p1

Of course, I'm the type of player that doesn't use wayshrines and I don't like that our mount "materializes" next to us.

anitajoneb17_ESO

You're a hardcore RPer and I respect that :-)

Why portable crafting stations in the 2nd era and not later ? Well, very valid question, but imho not really lore-breaking. Crafting stations have been all over the place even in the most remote locations in previous games without anyone bothering to ask what the hell an enchanting table is doing at the very far bottom of a draugr dungeon... or in dwemer dungeons when the dwemer didn't even use magic...

Come to think of it, portable stations in the 2nd era could explain why they are all over the place later : people forgot them there or died there :-)

Gidorick

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

You're a hardcore RPer and I respect that :-)

Why portable crafting stations in the 2nd era and not later ? Well, very valid question, but imho not really lore-breaking. Crafting stations have been all over the place even in the most remote locations in previous games without anyone bothering to ask what the hell an enchanting table is doing at the very far bottom of a draugr dungeon... or in dwemer dungeons when the dwemer didn't even use magic...

Come to think of it, portable stations in the 2nd era could explain why they are all over the place later : people forgot them there or died there :-)

not when they disappear after 30 seconds.

Anyway. This thread is about the concept of personal home crafting stations, not portable summonable crafting stations. I fully intend to make a thread about them later tonight, so we can continue this conversation then.

Thanks for bringing my attention to the new data mined items.

BabeestorGor

Gidorick wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

I think it's very good news...

But it comes down to you liking to see cities crowded with players and me disliking it, so ... matter of taste.

Honestly it's more about retaining the integrity of the elder scrolls for me.

I remember taking my mortar and pestle everywhere in MW and knocking up a potion in the field so to speak and you didn't even need any gear apart from a soul gem and knowledge of a spell effect to enchant in MW. The "integrity" of the Elder Scrolls lies not in mechanics which Bethesda changes every game but in the lore, the setting.

Gidorick

BabeestorGor wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

I think it's very good news...

But it comes down to you liking to see cities crowded with players and me disliking it, so ... matter of taste.

Honestly it's more about retaining the integrity of the elder scrolls for me.

I remember taking my mortar and pestle everywhere in MW and knocking up a potion in the field so to speak and you didn't even need any gear apart from a soul gem and knowledge of a spell effect to enchant in MW. The "integrity" of the Elder Scrolls lies not in mechanics which Bethesda changes every game but in the lore, the setting.

A portable mortar and pestle....


Is completely different from a portable wood working station...