Forums » Crafting and Gathering

Crafting Mastery

    • 3 posts
    May 27, 2019 10:40 AM PDT

    I was having a converstation with mg gf about picking a craft and how it should progress. We came upon a real simple idea and was wondering what others thought. What if crafting started out very broad. You can learn and train in all crafts to start (this gives everyone a very good idea of what each craft is about as well and if it feels like their route).  Then as you get higher in level in a few crafts, others become locked, until you start to focus in on one and then that is the craft you are trying to master, while others fall to the background.  It would be very much like how it would happen in RL. You can definately learn how to do alot very basically, but to attain greater knowledge and get better in one you have to put more time into it and less into others.  

    • 1785 posts
    May 27, 2019 12:00 PM PDT

    VR has said before (although it could change) that they're planning on limiting everyone to one crafting profession per character.  Those crafting professions will have specialties somewhere along the way as well.  For example, you'll start off as a Blacksmith, and then at some point have to choose between Armorsmith and Weaponsmith (for that character).

     

    Conversely however, characters will be able to learn and use all gathering professions.

    Leaving that aside, I like your idea in principle but I find in practice one of two things would occur.

    - If it was easy to change your specialization, people would just figure out a way to be as independent of others as possible, defeating the purpose of specializing.

    - If it wasn't easy to change your specialization, once players learned the system, the vast majority of characters would simply specialize right off the bat, ignoring everything else.

    • 1785 posts
    May 27, 2019 12:02 PM PDT

    Also, totally unrelated but since you used the word mastery, I have a mini-rant about the concept of "mastery" posted here:  https://www.pantheoncrafters.com/threads/what-defines-mastery.183/ :)

    • 1860 posts
    May 27, 2019 12:08 PM PDT
    You basically just described the eq crafting system.
    • 3 posts
    May 27, 2019 3:45 PM PDT

    I really enjoyed that article Neph.  I never thought about the idea behind the meaning of mastery beyond reaching the pinnacle of your craft.  Thank you. 

    As for the EQ crafting system. I never went very far in more than one area. Blacksmithing I advanced the furthest but never decided to timesink into it when I was playing Live. I was under the impression you could level them all up but time and materials would dictate what took your priority. Im glad to know there was much more depth to it then.   I wish I put more time into it when I played Live now.

     

     

     

    • 372 posts
    May 27, 2019 3:55 PM PDT

    Gotta be glad we have Nephele.  Yeah that was good.  I am also very pumped about the plans VR have explained thus far.  I have a love of steel but can't afford to weld IRL so I'll be BSing in game, too.  Welcome to the forums OGGR!

    • 193 posts
    May 29, 2019 8:26 AM PDT

    Nephele said:

    Also, totally unrelated but since you used the word mastery, I have a mini-rant about the concept of "mastery" posted here:  https://www.pantheoncrafters.com/threads/what-defines-mastery.183/ :)

    Thanks for the link, was a great read. I'd like to add a thing or two regarding mastery. The best teachers are very often the best students and are always seeking knowledge related to their craft, directly and indirectly. Someone that I'd consider a master isn't afraid to fail, because they still learn something from it. A master also isn't afraid to step outside the normal 'box' and apply what they know in non-standard situations. An armorsmith, for example, might have a plating technique for vambraces that could be adapted to modify a longbow, giving it increased damage, faster arrows, more durability, any number of things.

    A master is always pushing the envelope and challenging conventional thinking. Masters are the ones who will try to fit a square peg in a round hole and make it work. They're always looking for a better, more efficient, more reliable way. They know how much time and steam are required to bend the wood to make that longbow. They know how far different kinds of leather can be stretched and tooled. They know that inlaying silver in a druid's staff helps them turn the lightning faster - little details that make a big difference because someone knows their craft so well it's second nature.

    As far as quantifying all of this for Pantheon, not sure. Should you have to discover a certain number of recipes or modifications? Should you have to craft so many items? Should there even be a numerical requirement? Could mastery be measured by one's contribution to their field or crafting in general? Lots of questions.

    • 372 posts
    May 29, 2019 11:45 AM PDT

    I like this line of thought...  you remind me of a movie I watched called Jiro Dreams of Sushi ...about this guy (Jiro Ono) who has worked selling Sushi in a Subway for basically ever. He is by far the greatest sushi chef in the world yet when he explains what he does he mentions that he's just trying to make todays sushi better than yesterdays. So...  yeah that is what you made me think of.  Discoveries, improvements, contributions; yes to all of it.