278 réponses à ce sujet

[jbland]

Jessica Merizan wrote...

 Hey everyone! 
It's time again for another Dragon Age Question of the Month! Apologies for the delay this month - we've just returned from Geek Girl Con and Gamescom, and getting ready to go to PAX and Dragon*Con. Eee!!! 

This time, we want to ask you about crafting! What are some of the best things you've seen in crafting systems before?

Some examples: 
The ability to tailor the way an item works (stats)
The ability to tailor the way an item looks (visual)
The ability to upgrade an item (runes)
Collecting lots of things to use in crafting
Randomizing the process (so you aren't guarenteed to always craft exactly the same thing; stats/visual variable etc)
Limits on what you can craft based on skill
Limits on what you can craft based on class
The ability to buy crafting materials
No crafting materials
etc etc etc

Remember, this is to call out the BEST things that you've seen in crafting systems or how you enjoy engaging with this feature.

Toodle pip! Looking forward to you answers! As a reminder, this thread will be open until next Monday!

I should go.  

I never really thought much of the crafting system.  I just threw the biggest looking one's on and left it at that.  I didn't care for the Rune leveling system of Awakenings, where you crafted rune after rune to make a better rune.

I would like it if Runes were rewards in quests, and rare.  Maybe the quality of the rune you recieve is based on the objectives met during a certain quest... or certain things you did.  Maybe you have two ways up mountain, and if you go down the dragon's path, you get a +5 Fire rune, but if you go up and fight the Ogre legion of the mountain, you earn a +10 Defense rune.  Not the best example, but I like crafting to be simple... I usually ignore crafting unless I have to do it for an objective.

[fussycat]

Being able to customize the visuals to make my character look different from everyone else's characters. If not changing the entire model of armor then at least changing colors and detail.
I don't care much about crafting something that only affects stats, like runes.

[sca462069]

How it looks
I've downloaded mods for the PC version of DA:II / DA:A & DA:O because I've liked how a piece of armor looks but the stats sucked.

I'd like to color stuff, change how it looks, and know what stats I'm getting I don't want random stats everytime because its not an MMO where the market would get flooded with only the best stuff, all random stats would do would be wasting my time. 
Maybe like the mod system in SWTOR, or just apperance slots. 

Modifié par sca462069, 27 août 2012 - 10:24 .

[Gebert]

 I really like being able to customize the visuals of an armour, and to a lesser degree of a weapon. Stat customization can be okay, but it has to be balanced properly (I'm looking at you, Skyrim<_<).

[Ballistic714]

 The ability to tailor the way an item looks, including changing the color on found items. Purchasing crafting materials is a plus. Crafted armor should be on par with items you can find, but not significantly better. That would take the fun out of the hunt for rare, powerful items.

[Ivanesca]

I think visual, it seems fun... though I HATE crafting and one of the reasons I love Origins so much is because crafting wasn't important.

[George Heroes]

All things listed are useful and like many people said, items should be able to look how you want them and have stats which you want them obviously based on skill or some kind of level system but maybe not have the player pick between leveling between crafting and the weapon abilities because then your class might be too underpowered , because i dislike having a weapon which looks cool but statistically is worse than another one which doesn't look as good

[King Cousland]

The best things I've seen?

Being able to change appearance is always a plus (and I don't just mean tinkering with colours). 

I'd also like the ability to construct something from scratch (eg, deciding on a potion or rune you want to create and choosing the effects and potency yourself, with no recipes).

I'd like the to see the ability to enchant generic jewellery such as silver necklaces.

It'd be nice if we could smith or tailor our own armour and clothes.

Apart from those two, I confess I don't use crafting outside of rune upgrades. 

Modifié par King Cousland, 27 août 2012 - 11:02 .

[AbsoluteApril]

- Ability to craft specific items limited to class or skill (and if PC cannot, ability to have merchant do it for a price)
- The ability to tailor the way an item looks (visual)
- limited resources which can increase challenge or planning, unlike DA2 where once you find it, it's always there.
- The ability to further craft/customize an existing weapon/armor using materials (adding runes but could we also add resources? hmm could we add lyrium thread to mage outfit? I imagine glowing red/blue thread througout the outfit, perhaps a mage could draw on it for mana replenishment?)

edit to add - I also like when different items/resources can be combined or layered to make a stronger item.. sort of along the lines of LO's ring crafting system - where you can craft basic rings yourself from found components and then later you can take those rings and have a 'master smith' combine them for more unique rings.

I hope I explained myself clearly. Thank you for reading.

Modifié par AbsoluteApril, 27 août 2012 - 11:28 .

[VampireCommando]

Upgrading the stats... Two worlds two did a good job you could keep upgrading your weapon a little bit at a time until you had done it ten times. Although it was only by a small amount each time after all ten is made a pritty big diffrence. It allowed you to keep your favirote weapons that bit longer, make them a bit better. Of course this was limited by crafting materials and skill but never the less it was nice to be able to get your favirote sword to put out a bit more damage especially if its stats were mediocore.

Being able to change the apperance of the weapon as well. Such as for a sword i want real changes like changing the blade style, grip stule and so fourth, you coukd even make certain items have certain qualities so you could forge weapons to best suit your needs from the ground up. But seriously dont just allow us to change the colour or something and call it customization because thats not, thats just changing the colour not true customization.

[andar91]

Visuals are the most important for me. Being able to alter the way a weapon or, most importantly, armor is incredibly fun when it's offered in games. Especially when one prefers mage pants to mage skirts.

I'd accept being able to do this by visiting a tailor or weaponsmith and paying a small fee, but it shouldn't be punishing. Cosmetic choices exist, in my opinion, solely to enhance a player's visual experience with a game and should be granted generously if possible.

[PaulSX]

err...just go back to NWN HotU. It had the most solid crafting system in computer role playing games. But it would be better to streamline NWN's system, for example you really do not need that many different types of weapons and magical staff. I have an idea that make crafting related to class/specialization, for example, each character could have the same crafting skill, but rogues can only craft light/leather armor, warriors can only craft heavy/plate armor and Mages can craft robes, etc. I also would love to see herbalism, survival, trap and poison skill back (survival could be a skill to make food).

Modifié par suntzuxi, 27 août 2012 - 11:13 .

[boodrl]

The ability to tailor the way an item works (stats)
The ability to tailor the way an item looks (visual)
The ability to upgrade an item (runes)
Collecting lots of things to use in crafting
The ability to buy crafting materials....to a point. I think if it's super simple crafting then some stores should have some of the materials available but the more rewarding items need be crafted by going on epic/hard quests.

[SGRockR]

Upgrading something with runes but this time in away that each rune changes the way that item looks or behaves. And of course collecting the ingredients to craft stuff, not just finding them and making them unlimited... Just saying

[Madmarx]

 The best creafting system I've seen in any game, was one where you didnt have to fight to get every single item in a recipe, you could actually farm resources, set out harvesters, survey resources, then each piece required its own ingredients, then u could put the pieces together to make a whole, I like the idea of having a system where not everyone has to be a combatent. I enjoyed being a builder  

[wandrew]

I immediately thought of crafting in MMO's, because I usually ignore it in single-player RPG's. MMO crafting gives me a whole different set of priorities. In WOW I found it extremely tedious as an armoursmith to grind crazy amounts of mithril and thorium - in a competitive landscape, no less - to join the wacky guilds that are much easier to join now, but I got an immense sense of achievement when I did. Membership didn't really amount to much, however. Competitive collection was an evern bigger problem in AOC because there were designated crafting material collection areas, so everyone who was there wanted ore, or pelts or whatever.

There's also the thing about buying all the recipes just for completeness (or because you don't want to think about whether or not you need it at the time of buying), which clogs up your list with useless stuff you'll never need or, worse, you might use just to level your skill. Then you flood the auction house with it and disrupt the local economy. On top of all this, I'm not much of a PVP'er and, as a 30-something without a whole lot of time, I'm mostly a solo player and don't access a lot of endgame content, so a lot of the high-end but juicy WOW recipes were useless for me. So much of the mid-range stuff just looks awful and, when the crap you loot mostly looks awful and makes your armour piecemeal, crafting should be a solution to this. Armour dyes are something we're starting to see more of, fortunately, but it's been a long time coming. The more limited availability of armour sets in single-player RPG's limits this problem, as there are fewer levels so you don't need to upgrade your sets anywhere near as often.

My favourite, recent innovation in MMO crafting is TOR's companion crafting. That could only have been better with the rumoured mobile app to control them. As I said, these are all considerations for an MMO although, not having played Diablo 3 yet, I understand some of these have been opened to single-player RPG's now.

EDIT: Oh, and while I haven't experience the legendary weapons of LOTRO, they sounded pretty cool. Giving your own weapon a name and upgrading it along the way. That's the way levelling weapons should be.

As far as standard RPG crafting, I actually quite liked the merchant crafters in DA2. In other games, it might make sense that my hulking warrior can mend his own armour or make new blades, but the idea of him enchanting or mixing alchemical potions stretches my RP'ing. Sending me to SandaI for enchantment was a good idea. I also liked the epic crafting of Master Wade in DA:O and DA:A.

Modifié par wandrew, 27 août 2012 - 11:26 .

[Firky]

Like Baldur's Gate 2. Win the important parts of combination artifacts, through exploration and really difficult battles, pay the price and get a rare and extremely valuable weapon/item/armour.

To my mind, a story driven RPG can't be everything, and finding those artifacts was more consistent with BG (and DA) than you'd find in an open world RPG, or whatever. And the items were so special, I could probably list where you'd find all the components.

Eg. Trivia Question. What was found in a chicken, and what did it do?

Modifié par Firky, 27 août 2012 - 11:22 .

[viperboomanzzz]

Finding rare weapons from hard bosses. Then being able to add runes and enchantments that had to be crafted but with lots of options. Also being able to make slight chances to appearance but keeping its general starting appearance but a little bit customized the way you like. Having to find all crafting materials to make something is important, giving a hard quest for super rare ingredients would work well. Also being able to make custom pieces with starting stats like vigilance from awakening, and choosing the entire look of the item (for later game items). Just not like DA 2's ordering system make it a challenge to get the good stuff. Also don't make it so you can simply buy everything you need finding a good item every now and then is nice but not all the time especially for crafting items.

[hoorayforicecream]

For a more compelling crafting system, I would like to see it turned it into a mini game. If I play the game well, I get a better quality item (or more plentiful items) than I would normally. Fail the game and I lose my materials. Do a normal job and I get an ordinary item.  Make it a more interesting choice by giving players a chance to take an optional risk when crafting.

One of the things I liked from the FF14 crafting system (one of the few things I enjoyed) was the means by which you crafted. You started with a set amount of durability, and a 0% completion rate. You had three options:

1. Craft fast. Get high completion rate, moderate cost in durability, low amount of quality added.
2. Craft for quality. Get a low completion rate, moderate cost in durability, high amount of quality added.
3. Craft safely. Get a medium completion rate, a low cost in durability, and a low amount of quality added.

Each of these choices also had a random chance of success and failure, based on crafting skill. However, you make several choices over the course of crafting a specific item (allowing the player to course correct while doing so). It makes crafting high end items much more compelling, because I have to decide whether I want to try to craft the highest quality item possible, or to just go the safe route and make a normal quality item.

Also, make sure there is an option for skipping it and getting a normal quality result, in case the player doesn't want to do so (for crafting poultices/potions/bulk/etc.).

Mix a little randomness and allow skill to compensate by intelligent decision making, and it will be a much more interesting system.

[viperboomanzzz]

A good example of making slight changes to already existing armour is making them look more like a complete set that matches including how heavy of a piece it is (look wise, is it tank looking, or lighter) and colour of the item. Also maybe every now and then a companion can make a good-ish (not top level but useful) item and give it to you or even equip an item they made them self when you were "at camp" so it feels like there helping and living also, and not just sitting and waiting for your every command.

[ElitePinecone]

I liked Origins' unique weapons and armour sets that were only available by crafting quests. These should coexist to a certain extent with regular crafting.

The ability to tailor things visually to some extent would be a plus, but I'd be most interested by the sense of creating unique and/or powerful individual weapons/armour, with their own history, stats, crafting process and modifiers/bonuses.

Level/class crafting restrictions shouldn't exist, except in the sense of created items having required attributes to use. As in, if we can find the base items/'recipe'/method/means/chance to create a super-powerful item early in the game, we should be able to make it - even if that item isn't for our class or we can't use/wear it yet because it needs 342834 strength.

Also, where possible when crafting super-unique items (the meteor sword from Origins, say) we should have the ability to make a variety of weapon types (one-handed sword, two-handed sword, dagger pair, staff, possibly bow etc), but only one actual item - it allows for different playstyles while still granting the player one powerful item for them or a party member.

Thanks for the chance to give feedback.

[Maria Caliban]

Jessica Merizan wrote...

What are some of the best things you've seen in crafting systems before?

Dragon Age 2 had a great crafting system. It rewarded discovery without making me constantly haul stuff around in the hope that it would someday be useful.

[j the wolf]

One of my favourite crafting abilities comes from Two Worlds 2. In it you could break down weapons/armour etc. into components (say a big wooden hammer gives you x amount of wood and a steel sword gives you x amounts of steel or some iron). These destroyed the item of course (as opposed to selling it or just junking it) and you could buff your favourite weapon/armour etc. with the components depending on your skill in a perk like armourer.