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Hajo
Demon Hunter
Joined: 30 Sep 2003
Posts: 779
Location: Between chair and keyboard.
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 Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:53 pm Post subject: Item crafting, first steps |
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Hi,
a lot of small obstacles to overcome, but after three days I finally could craft my first item in my toy game project: made me a pair of leather boots from two medium hides, wheee :)
Basically the system currently works like this: you need a recipe/pattern/plan/design/schematic which gives you a list of components and states the results, then you put all needed components and the recipe into a magic box, push the magic button and ... you find the recipe and the results in the box when you open it again :)
It's not very thrilling, but it works. Collecting the components might be fun, maybe even thrilling if you must hunt dangerous animals, or go to dangerous places to get them.
Some things I have in mind for the future additions:
- allow for good and bad results of a crafting try
- allow player skills/stats to influence the chance of good results
- allow for optional ingredients to add special attributes to the resulting item
I'd like to ask you for your experience with item crafting systems. Are there pitfalls I should be aware of? Do you think my system lacks something that you consider a must have?
I'm in the very early steps here, so it's all open :) All suggestions and warnings are welcome.
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RampantCoyote
Demon Hunter
Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 546
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
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| Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 12:21 am Post subject: |
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Well, I can't say I'm a huge "crafter" in my RPGs. But I do love having the option.
The crafting system you describe really comes down to being a kind of implicit quest. Especially if the recipe is required (and consumed) every time. Which is fine for what it is... just make sure there's plenty of depth to it. Crafted items which require crafted items as materials get extra credit...
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz
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Nodtveidt
Demon Hunter
Joined: 11 Nov 2002
Posts: 786
Location: Camuy, PR
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| Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 4:13 am Post subject: |
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A couple of suggestions:
-If you implement character experience, do not ever tie the crafting ability of the character to the combat ability of the character. Way too many RPGs do this and it is completely unrealistic and foolish. They are separate classes of skills altogether and should be treated as such.
-It's alright to have certain items only obtainable from certain kills, but don't do this for everything; make sure there are some items that can be crafted entirely from materials that do not require combat.
Crafting is my favorite skilltype in modern RPGs, and all too often, it's done so incorrectly.
EDIT: Almost forgot one more major point...
-Materials for constructing items should make sense. Only MacGyver can create a plasma cutter out of two paperclips and a horseshoe.
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace
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Hajo
Demon Hunter
Joined: 30 Sep 2003
Posts: 779
Location: Between chair and keyboard.
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| Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 2:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Nodtveidt wrote: | A couple of suggestions:
Crafting is my favorite skilltype in modern RPGs, and all too often, it's done so incorrectly.
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I, too, think that crafting is a feature with high potential of done right. I'm still a bit uncertain about the "right", though.
I was thinking about professions and skill levels in the professions (novice tailor, apprentice tailor, journeyman tailor, expert, master ..) but I want to do it in a lenient way. Players who use a lot of recipes/patterns/designs that are assigned to the tailoring profession, will gain levels there, while they can as well gain levels in other professions. The idea is that a higher skill level in a profession creates better results in average and/or reduces the number of failures. I mean, a novice well can screw some pieces of leather when trying to make useable shoes, so maybe every 3rd of his attempts results in simple shoes, while an journeyman never fails, but mostly creates average shoes, and only a master will excel there.
I think to have the option for better results on some tries will keep people motivated to try crafting more than once, so it doesn't get too boring soon. Particularly if an item has more than only one aspect that is affected by luck in crafting, people will want to have all close to perfect, and keep going even longer.
I assume recipes/patterns/design themselves need some kind of difficulty level assigned, like 1 for "everyone will succeed at that" to 10 for "almost hopless to succeed at unless you are master". Or similar. This certainly needs a lot of balancing.
Combat skills and skill levels in a profession are for sure different.
About the "make sense" aspect. This is rather tricky. But I agree and will do my best to have sensible designs. At some point there will be the "this is a game, and not reality", where compromises must be made. This does not mean to make a plasmacutter from a horseshoe and two paperclips ... but making a sword from a steel ingot and two small hides is a stretch already. Still more complexity than that seems to be bad.
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