Forums » Crafting and Gathering

Crafter's Roundtable: QoL Features for Crafting

    • 1785 posts
    October 9, 2018 8:24 AM PDT

    For this week's crafter's roundtable, let's talk about the things that can help make crafting easier to do - Quality of Life (QoL) features! Some games give us separate inventory space to hold our supplies, or recipe books that help us remember what we need to make things.


    For Pantheon, what QoL features do you think are appropriate to support crafting, and why?

     

    Each week, Pantheon Crafters posts a discussion topic for the crafting community to talk about.  We call these Crafter's Roundtables and we post them both on our site's forums as well as here on the Pantheon forums, so feel free to join the discussion in both places if you'd like.  Also, for an easy directory to all of them, click here.


    This post was edited by Nephele at October 9, 2018 9:02 AM PDT
    • 416 posts
    October 9, 2018 8:53 AM PDT

    Separate inventory space for crafting supplies is definitely one of the biggest QoL features I'm hoping for since crafting is separate from adventuring it makes sense to have a separate space to store crafting materials.

    • 2419 posts
    October 9, 2018 10:31 AM PDT

    Nephele said:

    For Pantheon, what QoL features do you think are appropriate to support crafting, and why?

    First and foremost:  Bags/containers/boxes which can be labeled.  If VR sticks with the non-global banking system and if each bank has, say, 10 slots available, you easily have many dozens of bags for storage. I always hated having to open all my bags just to see where I kept something, but if I could name each bag that would mean I can go directly to the bag I want.  Oh sure, you can just click one button to open all your bags and while I love that option I also want the option of being able to just go right to that one bag.

    Creation of bank-only storage that is larger than player carried storage.  Whereas the player can carry a 10-slot bag, for example, why can't my bank hold a 25 slot storage crate?  This would be strictly purchased item sold by the bank itself.  This storage crate would be too heavy for a player to carry which is why the bank sells them.

    Using in-game currency to buy extra bank slots.  In combination with faction standings with the Merchants of and a sizeable cost, players can purchase extra bank slots.  Each subsequent slot requires a higher faction standing and an ever increasing cost.  So your first extra slot could just require Indifferent and, say, 50pp.  Your next extra slot could require Friendly and 150pp, followed by Amiable and 600pp then Ally at 1200pp.  Raising faction would require specific actions/activities just for Merchants of which is not just simply earned through normal adventuring.

    Auto-Sort, Auto-Stack.  If we assume that the max stack of something is 20 (I'll argue later that it should be far far higher), and I already have 12 of something in a bag when I just drop in 10 more.  The bag should first complete the stack to 20 then start another stack of the remaining 2.  Also, I'd like to have the option to sort by several criteria:  Quantity ascending/descending or alphabetical ascending/decending.

    Stack Sizes.  Stack sizes should be quite large.  I'm thinking 100 items in a stack.  But there is one caveat.  When you want to buy multiple quantities of things, one easy method in EQ1 was buying a whole stack by holding down Shift (I think it was Shift) which would buy you 20.  There could be various hotkey combinations for buying 10, 20, 50 or 100 of something.  Or a simple window pops up where I can enter a number.

    Auto-Populate of crafting machines.  Lets say I'm cooking some food and I have a recipe that needs Dwarf Meat, Cheese, Bread, Tomato, Lettuce.  I have the Oven open and my bag opened. I go through my list of recipes and select Dwarf Sandwich.  I get a ghost image of the items needed in the Oven and by clicking a button it auto-moves all the items from my open inventory into the oven.  No need for me to move them individually or by stacks.

    • 168 posts
    October 9, 2018 11:55 AM PDT

    It has already been mentioned, but, crafting bag space is a huge problem in other games. Sure you want to create tension in a game and force players to make selective choices that have real repercussions, but a game design can easily bring that way over the top if the designers are ambivalant to crafting. Crafting and its supplies really should be made an exception to the rule because of the sheer quantities of raw materials required to level up. I am completely fine with specialized crafters bags as well as key-rings and quest type items special non-bag space.

    Now for one that may be someone elses QoL but it certainly is not mine; The ability to auto-craft stacks of an item with a single button push. Let's use Breadboards as an example. I am leveling up my woodworking skills, push a button and have the possibility of a successful creation. Now imagine entering the number 50 in a box and pushing that same 1 button and you do 50 attempts at creating a bunch of breadboards while you decide to AFK to watch a tv show. That is not a feature I wish to see.

    I've mentioned before my concern with Encumberance in relation to gathering raw materials for the crafting. If a Crafters Bag is in the game, it would be easy enough to make it magical weight reduction bag. Maybe it can even allow stacks of 50 or 100 instead of stacks of 20. An encumberance based game almost forces a crafter-player to role a large bodied toon for the STR that comes with that toon instead of the race and class the player may wish to actually play. What can a Halfling or Gnome really carry in comparison to an Ogre? With no concideration for crafting; I would be just fine with the halfling carrying maybe 1/4 of an Ogre's encumberance limits. But if no special conditions are created to accomodate gathering, nobody will be able to gather on that halfling or gnome and they will roll a GatherBot that is in the same vein as a BankBot. I feel this is an unfortunate situation to be forced to play a race you do not want to play.

    It's mostly standard in games, but a recipe book to remember successful combinations and maybe the unsuccessful ones as well (if the crafting system makes it necessary to recall that stuff). I'd just rather the game not have any functions that leverage a players IRL memory capacity or ability. Have in-game notes at the very least.

    • 1315 posts
    October 9, 2018 12:03 PM PDT

    Two things:

    1: Crafting process that takes mob kill amount of interactive time and fewer resources per skill up with high exp per crafting rather than a rapid combine button, a mountain of consumed resources per skill up, and a low amount of exp per crafting.

    2: Volume and mass based limitless slot inventories rather than slot based inventories with 100% wt reduction.

    • 510 posts
    October 11, 2018 8:06 AM PDT

    Something similar I suppose...

    I would like to see a the need for crafters to purchase warehouses in cities.  Think of it as specific crafter/harvester storage locations.  I have always hated the "magic banking system" where an item you store in Qeynos is magically available in Freeport.  Perhaps set up a delivery service from warehouse to warehouse that costs time and money to transfer if you decide not to carry it yourself.  Do you have WAY too much stuff in your warehouse?  Buy a bigger warehouse.

    SOme folks might be able to tell that I am really interested in city-life for an MMO.  I have a lot of ideas..

    Crafting nodes/objects:  Once a crafter reaches a certain level, let him create a crafting node.  Example:  Bob becomes a Tier three Armorer.  He completes a crafting quest series that allows him to create his own forge.  He buys a plot in a city and drops a Tier 1/Tier 2 forge.  Any crafter can use his forge to create tier 1/tier 2 items at his forge.  Bob gets a little bit of cash for each use.  Eventually Bob is going to quest and craft the ultimate forge - it can be used for any forge using craft.  It won't be easy.  It will take epic level quests and materials.  It might even cost users a bit more money to use and Bob will get more cash per use from other crafters.  Maybe Bob is WAY ahead of the curve and is able to drop the super-forge in more than one city.  Or maybe Bob is more concerned with his guild and only drops the forge in his guild hall - where guild funds pays for the crafting fee.  Maybe the uber forge is "programmable" in that with every item created therein, there is a small buff attached to it.  I think there are a lot of things we could do with this.

    Message boards/sales.  Sometimes a guy wants 1000 oak planks but just doesn't want to spend the time to harvest/craft it.  There should be a way to offer for .  I know there's a word for this, but honestly, I am sitting here waiting on the coffee to brew...  brain not werk right...

    Publishing.  While I may agree that it may not warrant it's own crafting tools etc., allow us a method to create a newspaper.  Player created content that is printed on whatever it is we print on that we can sell/give to other players.  Allow us to place ads for other players (crafting and adventurers).  I had a guided tour service in EQ2 that was only word of mouth.  It would have been nice to pay a player to place an ad in their weekly paper.

    Trade caravans.  Let's say we go out into the deep woods and harvest wood for a while.  Now we know that we can only carry so much wood.  But we also know that a trade caravan comes near this area on Tuesdays at 8AM.  So we stay out, harvest till we are blue in the face, and drag all that lumber to the road so that when the tradfe caravan coems by we can sell to a merchant there.  Do NOT give full price for what we were harvesting.  The trade-off is that we can harvest more, and carry less all the way back to the city.  Also, do not make these caravans too many or too often.

    Hirelings.  There are plenty of folks against this as the design for them that exists today.  Let's rework it.  Insteasd of hirelings that go out and harvest for us (thus multiplying supply and decreasing demand), let's have different hirelings.  Suppose we add a mini-game to wharehouses.  You need to hire guards for your warehouse or some naughty player decides to rob you.  Maybe we can hire someone to help us with our crafting giving us a % boost to completing time/quality.  Of course there should be better and better hirelings out there - it is up to the crafter to find and pay them accordingly.  If you don't pay enough or on time - another player can hire them away.

    Let's take our example with Bob again.  Bob now has a tier 5 Mithril Forge of Uberness and STA +3.  Since it is a tier 5 forge Bob can have (Tier - 1) hirelings working at the forge.  So Bob can have 4 hirelings working the forge.  Bon can choose to hire 4 guys that  increase his success by 2% each, or 8% total.  But maybe Bob isn't worried about success chance.  Maybe he hire 2 for success and has 2 for speed.  Or maybe Bob hires a cleric hireling that throws in a Cure proc.  Bob can pick and choose who he hires for different effects.  And since it is Bob's forge, players that want to use his forge have to pay extra for Bob's hirelings.  Bob is having a great time as a business owner.  Bob also has a warehouse. where he stores his crafting commodities and supplies.  But. Bob is a bit cheap on his hireling labor for the warhouse and doesn't provide for any guards.  One day, Bob shows up at the warehouse to find out that Sue got tired of his overpriced forge and helped herself to a max of 15% of the contents of his warehouse.  Bob hires some guards.  The next time Sue shows up, she better bring a medic. 

    Venues.  Let's provide a space for players to do what they want to do. Say, Phil is a bard.  He goes to the local tavern and pays X for the stage for an hour.  He gets on stage and plays his lute for an hour.  A random number of NPCs dance (each generating a random amount of cash).  If any players show up to dance, he makes even more.  The quality of Phils crafted lute determines just how succesful he is.  Meanwhile, across the street, Phylis is a crafter that makes fireworks.  She sets up a stand and pops off a few fireworks.  Each NPC that "oohs and aaahs" generates a little coin for her.  Hopefully this will help create a system where some craftables can still be used for coin gain instead of putting 4.8 million fireworks in the local auction house.