Comments on: Best Crafting Ever!

By: silverx10

silverx10 — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:06:10 +0000

EQ2 when it was first launched had, by far, the best crafting system of any MMO I’ve played to date. Granted, EQ2 was the first MMO that I’d ever played at that point, it was still an incredible system, and one that I wished I’d gotten into much sooner. I never progressed far enough into the system to see just how interdependent it may have been, but at least on the Isle of Refuge, I was the crafting lord, giving out pristine backpacks and weapons to all those that needed them. What’s more, I had a ton of fun with it. Even though I never left the Isle, I didn’t feel I had to to enjoy the game. I went out and killed wolves for hours, got tons of leather, mined ore, and so on. I even got a few “Killer of” titles. Good fun, to be sure.

World of Warcraft’s crafting system is pathetically simplistic. And, though I get a small amount of joy from simply seeing my skill maxed out (hey, I’m human; and as such, numbers govern my life), that was essentially all I had to show for it.

So now I’m trying EVE Online. And so far, it seems like a pretty neat system. It gives me a chance to play a game without sinking too much time in it, as I can’t just learn skills right on the spot.

I think I may go back and see what EQ2 has been reduced to, but I have a feeling that I’m not gonna like what I find.

By: RickR

RickR — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:43:42 +0000

SWG has the best crafting system I’ve seen in an MMO, if you disregard the one biggest problem with it: Items made by a less-than-master crafter are pretty much worthless. This, though, is at least acknowledged by the game, which gives you the option to craft in “practice mode” ie. use up the resources but not actually create the item, in exchange for a 5% crafting XP bonus.

By: Tobold

Tobold — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:04:50 +0000

I’d like to mention Puzzle Pirates, which has an interesting crafting system too. You open a shop, and provide the materials, queuing up work orders. Other players can come and work for you, by doing puzzles in your shop. Hard to make items require some people to be rather good at the puzzles they do for you. You compete for good puzzlers by offering higher wages.

By: Talyn

Talyn — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:36:03 +0000

Ya know, I was always curious about Horizons but was too involved with other games and changes at my job to get into it, plus it’s had so many problems. It seems a new group made up of most of the original devs have now re-acquired Horizons and are already pushing out new patches and content. Might check into it now after all…

By: Slyfox

Slyfox — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:16:27 +0000

I just wanted to say thanks for all the mentions of ATITD–I looked through it’s wiki at http://wiki.atitd.net/tale3/Home and it is interesting enough that I’ll probably give it a few months of play. I also loved the possibilities of Horizons, and used to dream of being a major crafter in Eve.

By: Talyn

Talyn — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:48:00 +0000

@Stuart: Players do end up crafting the best stuff (so far) in LOTRO, unlike WoW which was truly nothing but a time (and gold) sink. Not sure what will happen when more raids get introduced, if Turbine will keep the crafters on top of the gear totem pole or if they’ll be eclipsed by gear drops. Prior to level 20 though, yeah drops are vastly superior to crafted items.

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:54:06 +0000

I haven’t played SWG or ATITD, both of which sounds like they have great crafting systems.

My personal favorite would be Neocron. My character was a constructor and I made a pretty good living constructing other players’ items. It didn’t require any kind of skill, but making a 5-slot weapon was very rewarding.

By: Cybercat

Cybercat — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:22:10 +0000

SWG also had the ability for crafted items to be better than anything you could find (unless you were a Jedi). 99% of other similar MMOs are a waste of time since all your crafting skills aren’t worth jack once players start getting rare or uber items. In these games especially, I don’t understand why they level limit your item creation especially since by the time you can create better items, you’re 5-20 levels too high for that item being useful.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:57:32 +0000

I loved the Ultima Online crafting, it was simple, lots of different types and you created practical and wanted items.

While it was hard to work out SWG had the best crafting system as there was so many options with resources so as a gamer who loves crafting it was fun.

I’ve played WoW and currently playing LOTRO and have found the crafting in those games a waste of time and effort unless you are crafting something that you cannot buy from a vendor (eg potions). To craft some armor or weapons in those games that someone would want is a waste as you can find better from a monster drop.

By: Talyn

Talyn — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:30:15 +0000

I can go either way on this one.

On the one hand, more complicated crafting ala SWG or VG can (I guess?) give the player the feeling he’s accomplished something after getting through the “mini-game” of it all.

On the other hand, isn’t my character the one with the crafting skills being leveled up, not me, the player? In that respect, the easier WoW or LOTRO style crafting makes more sense. It’s also more convenient knowing I can just run to a station, queue up, click craft and then go do stuff while my character does his thing.

I may change my mind in ten minutes, but right my take is:

For the adventurers who also craft here and there, the “easy mode” is the way to go.

If a game ever gets made again like SWG where you could strictly create a crafting character who never had to adventure, for those professions have the crafting be a compelling and fun game unto itself as well as letting those players craft items far beyond the scope and level anything the adventurers could ever hope to craft.