Crafting: A Few Ideas

[GullyFoyle]

Crafting seems to be favored by quite a few MMORPG players, and I\'ve been giving it some thought on how it could possibly be implemented. So here goes:

Multiple Tiered Professions
===================

I propose 3 Tiers of Professions. The first tier would be gathering professions. Tier 2 would be refining/low level crafting, and Tier 3 would be final end-user production using any combination of products/items from the first two tiers of skills.


Tier 1 Professions: Gathering/Harvesting Skills

these skills are for gathering raw materials for later refinement

mining: ores, rough gems, stones, silicate powders
herbalism: picking various wild flowers, herbs, weeds
skinning: skins, hide, bones
hunting: meat, skin, hides (could be combined with skinning), furs. sinew
lumberjack: logs, rough lumber
runelore: identifying old arcane items (like old scrolls, parts of tablets, runestones)
essence reaving: collecting the essences of monsters/animals containing traces of the victim\'s primary skill/attacks (i.e firebreath essence from a wyrm), to use in   enchantments.
fishing: catching fish, harvesting mollusks
animal empathy: taming animals
shearing: collecting animal
surveying: identifying likely locations of various harvestables, be they mineral, plant or animal


Tier 2 Professions: Refinement and Trade Goods

cooking: simple recipes for foods
brewing: making simple drinks
butchery: curing/smoking meats, making better cuts for advanced cooking recipes
woodcraft: making lumber, veneers, wood strips
papermaking: making variety of papers for scrolls, books, maps
gem-cutting: preparing rough gems for later use in other goods
smelting: refining ores into bars, and creating alloys
animal husbandry: raising domesticated animals for food (meat, milk) and pets
horticulture: essentially farming, providing food and plant fibers
glassmaking: using silicates to make vials, bottles and other drinking vessels for use in cooking, alchemy
stonemason: preparing stone for use in building
arcanist: combining reaved essence for more powerful mods for use in enchantments/imbuing
advanced runelore: creating magical bind runes for similar purposes as enchantments/bind runes
tanner: crafting leathers and cured hides for use in armor craft
weaver: creating string, threads, fabrics and cloth padding from plant/animal fibers  for armorcraft, tailoring
alchemy: making potions and dyes


Tier 3: End-user Products

Armorcraft: cloth, leather, mail, plate armor
Tailoring: making other non-armor clothing, including hats, shirts, pants, formal wear, underwear
Jewelcraft: making rings, necklaces, and other baubles.
Weaponcrafting: making blunt, edged, rod/staves
Creature Trainer: training mounts, guard/attack pets, or training simple tricks for show pets
Culinary master: high end foods providing significant buffs
Brewmaster: high end drinks providing buffs
Enchanter: making enchantments to imbue normal non-modded items
Architect: using lumber, stone, mortar to build player housing

This list could go on. Basically, the end user item crafting can/must depend on the lower tier items in whatever combination to craft a final product.


Skill Progression or Recipe Discovery?

I have given this some thought, and i\'m wondering if it\'s a desirable method. Do you really want to create 50 of Item A so you can finally be able to create item B? Or would it be better to discover a recipe or combination of items/reagents that have a final outcome? I kinda like the discovery method, as I think it would be less frustrating and cut down on spawn camping for farming \"skill grinding\" materials.


Actual Crafting Process

How should this be done? Dump stuff in a \"crafting box\" you have in a workshop or elsewhere? Some things can be done anywhere, while things like smelting have to be done at a forge, etc.

Profession Selection and Changes

I would rather be able to chose my profession after character creation by seeing an NPC trainer, rather than having it set during character creation. I would also like to have the option to drop a profession in favor of another one if i get bored of it.


The above list(s) of professions is merely some rambling and by no means complete. There\'s TONS of things we could do. I\'m going to try to organize a chart of what the profession dependencies should be. Some of the weirder stuff, like the runelore and essence reaving i have to flesh out a bit (i thought those up on a whim).

Add your ideas. I know I\'ll be adding to it. Fire up your noggins, people! Let\'s hear what you gotta say!

-GullyFoyle

[acraig]

Our crafting system works a bit like this now.  To use your frame of view each of the three Tiers require different skills, equipment, hardware and design patterns.  So you can try to be jack of all trades and master of none or focus your attention on one particular area.

Actual Crafting Process

How should this be done? Dump stuff in a \"crafting box\" you have in a workshop or elsewhere? Some things can be done anywhere, while things like smelting have to be done at a forge, etc.

Crafting will be done through a mixture of hardware ( ie hammers, cutters, etc ), equipment ( tables, sinks, bowels, etc ) and transformation containers ( like ovens, forges, etc ).  So in many cases you will have to use several different pieces of hardware and equipment to get a final finished item.


Right now you don\'t pick a profession and are limited to that.  It\'s based on your skill level.  If you want to be a master sword maker then you level up those skills, if you want to make potions on the side you can learn the required knowledge to do that as well ( and pick up the required hardware and know where the equipment is you will need ).

[GullyFoyle]

Profession/Job Scenarios

Scenario 1

OH boy! the prospects of becoming the chief supplier of armor to all our combative fellows! But wait! I need stuff to make armor with! I need leather from the local tanner! Oh I better go see about some buckles from our blacksmith, and some cloth from the local weaver to make armor padding.


Scenario 2

I love growing food for our town chef. He makes the best pies! But wait! Someone keeps stealing my pumpkins and carrots! Should I call upon our local creature trainer to buy a guard dog? See  our local engineer to set traps around my garden perimeter? Or some kind of magical ward from our local enchanter to deter anyone trying to sneak into the pumpkin patch?


Scenario 3

A raiding party needs more powerful weapons to fight off a threat to our community. They want you to fashion magical blades to cull this threat. My blades are of the finest steel from the mines, but how to imbue them? Should i go see our local enchanter to add their arcane essences to our blades? or perhaps imbue the weapon with magical bindrunes from our runemaster?


Scenario 4

I love being a blacksmith but i sure hate the line up in town to use the forge! I\'ll just set up my own work shop! I\'ll just go see the architect about getting my own building, and perhaps the local engineer for some bellows for my own forge. Work can\'t progress without an anvil either!



As you can see, the above simple scenarios could generate a very vibrant and diverse crafting community. None of the above scenarios even included Tier 1 gathering professions. There would be scores of people out there, hunting for that hide or meat, or going into that dark cave to pick that special mushroom for a dish or potion, or cave molds or other plants for making dyes. Or even the lumberjack going out to get that special yew wood for poison shafts for the local fletcher. The possibilities are endless.


-GullyFoyle

[GullyFoyle]

Originally posted by acraig
Our crafting system works a bit like this now.  To use your frame of view each of the three Tiers require different skills, equipment, hardware and design patterns.  So you can try to be jack of all trades and master of none or focus your attention on one particular area.

Ah that\'s good to hear. I haven\'t had a chance to delve deeper into the game yet to experience these things. Give me some time and I\'ll have a go at it once i\'m more familiarized!

Is there a limit to how many things you can do at once?

I can think of one particular example where there was no limit. Someone had scripted a clever tradeskill system for a NWN mod and you could basically master all of them if you were so inclined. But that\'s hardly fair to someone who wants to be known as, say, Bob the Tanner. Specialization could breed extinction, but for the sake of RP, it\'s nice to have a reputation as a reliable supplier of whatever you supply.

[acraig]

Originally posted by GullyFoyle

Ah that\'s good to hear. I haven\'t had a chance to delve deeper into the game yet to experience these things. Give me some time and I\'ll have a go at it once i\'m more familiarized!

Well,  technically the crafting system is in place but lacks the required data set. So that is one of my todos this week is to start cracking on the inserting of a large chunk of smithing data.

Is there a limit to how many things you can do at once?

I can think of one particular example where there was no limit. Someone had scripted a clever tradeskill system for a NWN mod and you could basically master all of them if you were so inclined. But that\'s hardly fair to someone who wants to be known as, say, Bob the Tanner. Specialization could breed extinction, but for the sake of RP, it\'s nice to have a reputation as a reliable supplier of whatever you supply.

You can only be working on one thing at once, since that is way it was designed.

[GullyFoyle]

Originally posted by acraig

You can only be working on one thing at once, since that is way it was designed.

So, only 1 job at any given time. I can\'t be, say an alchemist and a herbalist at the same time? Meaning I can\'t gather my own herbs for concocting salves, poultices? I don\'t want to do everything (aka jack of all trades) but it would be nice to have a bit of flexibility.

[acraig]

Originally posted by GullyFoyle

Originally posted by acraig

You can only be working on one thing at once, since that is way it was designed.

So, only 1 job at any given time. I can\'t be, say an alchemist and a herbalist at the same time? Meaning I can\'t gather my own herbs for concocting salves, poultices? I don\'t want to do everything (aka jack of all trades) but it would be nice to have a bit of flexibility.

Ah, no I meant that you can only do one thing at once.  You cannot bake a cake and gather herbs at the same time, or mine and smelt a blade at the same time, that sort of thing.  For sure you can do as you suggest as long as you have the proper tools and training for it.

[GullyFoyle]

Originally posted by acraig

Originally posted by GullyFoyle

Originally posted by acraig

You can only be working on one thing at once, since that is way it was designed.

So, only 1 job at any given time. I can\'t be, say an alchemist and a herbalist at the same time? Meaning I can\'t gather my own herbs for concocting salves, poultices? I don\'t want to do everything (aka jack of all trades) but it would be nice to have a bit of flexibility.

Ah, no I meant that you can only do one thing at once.  You cannot bake a cake and gather herbs at the same time, or mine and smelt a blade at the same time, that sort of thing.  For sure you can do as you suggest as long as you have the proper tools and training for it.

Haha I see your point. I wasn\'t sure how you\'d interpreted that. If it were possible to DO all that stuff at once, that would make anyone godly, ingame or out! Needless to say is that I\'m quite pleased that I can take on as many jobs as I wish to help out our fellow crafters.