A True Crafting System

[krj12]

In almost every other MMO I've played,  crafting involved leveling up your skills and being able to craft better items as you go along.

Also, in one particular MMO I played,  there was a chance ( when you had high enough level of skill ), to craft items of "high" quality ( i.e. just a bit better than the normal item ).   In this game.... you have the recipe and required components, you can make it. Period.  

 

Ideas:

1.   Some kind of  system to keep track of how many of a particular recipe you've crafted.   As you gain in skill with that recipe ( by repetition ),

you get a chance to create a slightly better version.   Example:   The item usually gives +20% to accuracy,  and you have a chance to create a +25% version.... or  a chance to make a level 51+ IO, based on your skill.

2.  As you become very highly skilled with that particular item, perhaps a chance to give it a bonus that it normally doesn't.   Perhaps a proc, or maybe a bonus to defense where it normally wouldn't.

3.  New badges as you create so many of these enhanced items.

4.  A chance to get one or more of the components rebated.

5.  New items or IO sets that only crafters can make after they reach a certain overall level of skill.

 

 

 

[0th Power]

We have too much power creep already. 

[SuperPlyx]

Not to say the idea is bad but I think you're comparing apples and potatoes. Those other MMOs crafting was almost mandatory. You had to craft either for your gear or to make some game currency. City of Heroes  you can play the whole game and never craft anything. Just not sure enough people would be willing to take advantage of such a system to make it a worth while addition.

 

[Vanden]

21 minutes ago, krj12 said:

In this game.... you have the recipe and required components, you can make it. Period.

 

I know, isn’t it great?

[Doomguide2005]

      And you do benefit from doing it over and over.  Eventually you can do it without purchase of the recipe, reduced cost, shiny badge(s) and portable workbench.  So not quite what the OP envisions but there are benefits for 'becoming better' from repetition.  And I for one appreciate the lack of necessity for what would essentially become grinding to get skills increased across a very large number of skills.

[RikOz]

To a certain extent, I think the medieval fantasy RPG style of crafting is out of place in a modern setting like we have here.

 

In a medieval setting, you would genuinely need to obtain the necessary raw materials, and then have the proper training, practice, and, importantly, proper tools, to transform those raw materials into something useful.

 

In a modern/futuristic setting that includes a large-scale manufacturing industry, individual inventing/crafting skill becomes more of a niche hobby thing, because you can essentially buy what you need off the shelf, already assembled. So inventing, as CoX calls it, is really more of an abstraction for "obtaining necessary items in various ways".

 

An important distinction between medieval RPG crafting and CoX inventing is that, in CoX, we (mostly) aren't making "gear". We're making (or otherwise obtaining) "enhancements", i.e. "finding ways to improve what we already have". This is reflected in the names given to DOs and SOs. Enhancements for Natural origin characters read like the protein powders and other supplements you'd buy off the shelf at GNC. Same with Science and Technology enhancements, just stuff purchased at a specialty store. Magic enhancements are "artifacts" that are found or purchased. Mutation enhancements are medical treatments.

 

By the time we get to IOs, origin labels go away, and the IOs (even the named sets) more or less stop representing an actual item and instead begin representing our character's own natural improvement via experience, practice, and continued training. Because, if you think about, where exactly are we "slotting" these things? We don't have "slots". "Slotting" a better Accuracy enhancement represents spending time on target practice. A better Damage enhancement represents extra strength training, or finding ways to concentrate the force of your attacks better. A better Recharge enhancement represents finding ways to work more efficiently. And so on.

 

In other words, slotting an enhancement is not the same thing as equipping a better breastplate.

[Ruin Mage]

Other MMO designs do not need to be forced into this MMO.

[kelika2]

Nah, every MMOs crafting is mostly for leveling/killing time/money sink or if you cant wait for a drop.  all easily replaceable

 

Well, minus SWG.  I miss my dmg sliced krayt pistol collection for my Pistoleer/Fencer

Edited October 24, 2021 by kelika2

[Greycat]

There are reasons for the other MMOs to have the crafting systems they do.

 

One is grind, of course. Sit there and fish for weeks, or slowly make daggers of dullness 'til you can upgrade after 100 to daggers of butterknifery, to dagger of hey that kind of hurt, etc... in the meantime, you're paying a sub.

 

The other - and bigger - item is that they're *gear* based. Why do you craft? To make and upgrade gear. Why do you rush to the end to raid raid raid? (And why do they keep adding expansions and bumping level caps?) The gear treadmill. (And why? To get you to pay a sub - or buy a microtransaction to bypass that grind.) COH is not "gear" based. Yes, we have enhancements - but they're not gear, they're essentially skill modifiers. If you swap out Gladiator's Javelin for Thunderstrike, you're not suddenly moving from throwing javelins to zapping people with electricity - you're getting different set bonuses and changing how the power works slightly, perhaps. And of course you can't just swap in a melee set and go from blasting to beating them with a club.

 

Now, for your specific suggestions:

 

On 10/23/2021 at 8:06 AM, krj12 said:

1.   Some kind of  system to keep track of how many of a particular recipe you've crafted.   As you gain in skill with that recipe ( by repetition ),

you get a chance to create a slightly better version.   Example:   The item usually gives +20% to accuracy,  and you have a chance to create a +25% version.... or  a chance to make a level 51+ IO, based on your skill.

2.  As you become very highly skilled with that particular item, perhaps a chance to give it a bonus that it normally doesn't.   Perhaps a proc, or maybe a bonus to defense where it normally wouldn't.

3.  New badges as you create so many of these enhanced items.

4.  A chance to get one or more of the components rebated.

5.  New items or IO sets that only crafters can make after they reach a certain overall level of skill.

 

1. A tracking system already exists. And you do get to craft slightly better versions... by crafting higher level IOs. You get a discount, too, once you memorize the recipe (and a badge!)

2. I would not be against adding "lone wolf" procs to add some variety to builds, but not as part of a crafting system.

3. No real opinion. They add badges for things frequently. And you do get badges for crafting things already.

4. Not sure what you are looking at here. Components for recipes are so easy to come by - even rares - a "rebate" system isn't really a starter.

5. Eh. I, for one, prefer the accessibility of the system as it is right now. Not against new IO sets or the like, but I'm not fond of the idea of locking them behind things. We passed beyond that already. Finding something new to implement it feels like a step back to bad old days.

[Haijinx]

Jranger crafting masterwork armor pst

[Shenanigunner]

Agree with most of the responses. "Crafting" the way Batman and Lucius Fox do it: appropriate. Spending hours knitting one's own armor from pine needles scavenged in the forests of Muddor: not appropriate.

 

The system as implemented already feels too contrived and complicated. No need to make it something yet more worktable-y.