The plots they are hatching

Alright! Let's get this started, yeah?

The Great Player Wipe of 2014 devoured bits, bags, stats, mats - the accumulated detritus of a thousand journeys. As the universe rebooted itself, some things were carried forward

You'll never pwipe Christof

Some things took seed and regrew differently

Break it up, clans

And some things were lost forever

Crafting.


Version 2.0 of crafting (which was disabled after the wipe - version 1.0 was a well-received trial run with a very different item set many, many years ago) was balanced around a different era. With the universal reboot came the perfect opportunity to revisit this game-defining system and improve it.

I've spent the past several months doing design work, starting from scratch conceptually to create the crafting system that I'd like to see today. The first two crafting systems were designed from a mechanical viewpoint - that is, I took a look at the tools I had and thought, "how can I use these tools to put together a cool crafting system?" For crafting 3.0, I'm trying a slightly different approach.

This time around, I have a long history of player behavior and feedback to work from. I can now take advantage of the numerous AI and system improvements which have been implemented over the years. I have the basic crafting infrastructure as a starting platform, and much more design experience than when I first unleashed the salvage gnomes onto Aur-Vindi.

Will 3.0 be any good? Who knows, it's a coin-toss. It's exciting as hell to try, though!

I began the design process in August by drafting a statement of purpose. Without any specific mechanics in mind, I looked back at Nodeka's crafting history, revisited various crafting systems throughout other games, daydreamed a little (a lot), and came up with a set of goals for 3.0. I won't be dumping my whole set of design notes here - allure relies on mystery! - but a few of the goals and lessons I ended up with were:

+ Experimentation is key: modular construction of items via diversity of inputs (decisions)

+ Trash: things should be crafted because they are needed; avoid "skill-up trash"

+ The grind: I prefer the focus to be on "skilling up" the item, rather than grinding a player skill

+ Stat inflation: no

+ Lifetimes: too many negative game implications; shift focus to permanent gear

+ The crafter should matter: investment + decisions = unique output, potential for economy

These goals (and a number of others) guided the design process. Coming up with a good solution is not as easy as writing up some rules and following them - there are limitations on scope, coding considerations, contradictory goals - but bridging that give and take with your singular overpowered tool (your imagination) is the fun part of making a game system stew.

Blah blah blah my MotD is still empty

I've decided to post this Sixth Sense entry now because the end of the design process is in sight. There were several false starts and do-overs, but I think I have the outline of a system which fits the framework I was aiming for, and which is also possible for me to implement. It will take another week or so to finalize some details, and then I can start the actual implementation (scripting, resource creation, and coding).

In the meantime, while I'm doing the wrap-up work, I wanted to open up the boards to chat about what you think about crafting. I think most of us have encountered crafting systems throughout our gaming histories. Which systems did you like the most, and what did you like about them? What would your vision be for bringing the salvage gnomes out of unemployment?

Let me know in the comments, and thanks for playing!