Forums » Crafting and Gathering

“Crafting and the Community” w/ Nephele

    • 259 posts
    April 30, 2019 8:40 AM PDT

    On this weeks “Crafting and the Community” we are spotlighting community member “ Nephele ”, a Brother in Arms when it comes to Crafting in Pantheon. A huge thank you from Old School Crafters to Nephele from Pantheon Crafters for taking the time to answer these few questions for us. Be sure to check out Nephele here:

    On Pantheon Crafters and on the Pantheon Crafting Forums

    Remember to check back each week as we spotlight a different community member.

    1) Do you enjoy crafting or are you more of the adventuring type?

    I’m about half and half, really.  A lot depends on the game.  In SWG, I was almost a pure crafter (as an example).  In old EQ, it was more like 80% adventuring.

    2) What was your first experience with crafting in an MMORPG?

    In Ultima Online – I was a blacksmith and made shields and armor for people.  Sadly, it didn’t last very long.  I got tired of getting ganked relentlessly when I would go to mine ore.

    3) Do you have a favorite type of crafting and if so why?

    There’s two answers to this:  In terms of the things I make, I’ve always tended towards making weapons and armor.  I’m not big into consumables, personally.  So for example in Vanguard, my main was a leatherworker by trade.  In EQ2, armorsmith (although I had alts doing everything else). 

    In terms of actual crafting systems and mechanics, I prefer systems where the act of crafting something is more complicated than simply pressing a button.  My favorite crafting systems to date have been SWG, Vanguard, and FFXIV.  I’ll caveat however that I believe that the vast majority of games have done something interesting that we can potentially learn from for Pantheon.

    4) Are you excited with development of the crafting and harvesting skills?

    Yes.  Very much yes.  I’ve probably written half a million words about crafting in Pantheon over the past couple of years, just to give an indication of how much 

    5) And lastly, how important of a role do you feel crafting should play in Pantheon?

    I go into this a lot in my post here, but in a nutshell:  I feel that the crafting and adventuring spheres should be equally important to Pantheon, and should support and enhance the entire game experience.  This isn’t just crafters making things for adventurers, or adventurers providing things for crafters to use.  It should also extend to NPC interactions, content, story and lore.  I’ve written a lot about how I feel that crafting can’t be just a thing that people sit in cities and do, but instead needs to be a type of gameplay where you travel, interact, and learn about the world, just like adventurers do.

    Be sure to check out " A Crafter's Journey ", a series that he posted some time ago on his website, this is a great read:

    A Crafter’s Journey, Part 1:  How it all started

    A Crafter’s Journey, Part 2:  What works for me today, and what doesn’t

    A Crafter’s Journey, Part 3:  What I’m hoping for in Pantheon


    This post was edited by Shyin at April 30, 2019 8:42 AM PDT
    • 1785 posts
    April 30, 2019 8:53 AM PDT

    Yay!  Thanks Shyin!  Just a clarification to avoid any misconceptions:  Pantheon Crafters isn't my website - it's a community-driven website that I help to administer, alongside a lot of other awesome people from our community :)  We would love to have more people participating there, so everyone should feel free to stop by!

    You can also follow @PantheonCrafter on twitter to get notified about new Crafter's Roundtables that we post, or if you're really nuts, you can follow me:  @NepheleVG