Focus On Crafting
This is the first "focus on a feature" I am writing. I chose this topic as the first one to cover, because it was also one of the first conceived systems, and when originally implemented was the only thing in CDO that was game-like in any definition of the term. To get it out of the way, CDO will be somewhat of a crafting game. This doesn't mean that crafting is the only thing to do; it doesn't even mean that all players will be builders. However, crafting is a primary action.
For these posts, I will describe both the feature as it currently exists (either in our minds/design documents) as well as try and give a clear picture of what we are hoping to eventually achieve. I will also look at other games as contrast, just as I look at other games for ideas of what works and what doesn't.
What is crafting and why should I care?
Crafting is a concept that has played a part in online games since the worlds were rendered in beautiful ASCII characters. For those who aren't aware, crafting is generally a side portion of gameplay, where resources can be collected through various means, and then put together into new and useful items. It's something to do in game besides fight, and it helps to make the world seem a little more realistic and alive.
Crafting and CDO today...
The craft system as it exists is very bare-bones, but encompasses at least the basics of what a crafting system should have. The 3 most important elements to any crafting system, are resources, process, and produce. Resources are all of the items and things which you must put into any product. The process is the actual act of combining these resources.
Can you combine them anywhere, or do you have to use a facility? Are you guaranteed an item, or is there some chance of failure? How do skills influence what you end up with? And finally, the products are all of the things which can be made. In CDO on it's journey from alpha 3 to alpha 4, all of these elements exist.
Resources
Resources are the building blocks of the entire game. In general with games, there are not too many ways to gather resources. Some resources drop from mobs, sometimes you have to find a spot where the resource spawns and pick it up (often this "picking up" is a slow process that results in you being afk for long periods of time).CDO currently is no different from other games. You equip a tool, such as an axe, and use an item, such as a tree, resulting in some amount of resource dropping into your inventory. Random monster drops (why is that monster walking around carrying a gem?) will not be a part of CDO, although monsters will be a resource. Monster corpses will be able to be harvested for various parts, by those who know how to harvest them. More useful monster resources, rather than randomly spawning on any monster, will only be found on monsters that are not often seen. You will KNOW what you are getting.
Also planned for the future, are ways to make resource gathering more interesting. In alpha 3, the worms that were important for use as bait in the fishing system, were buried, hidden underground. To make it so players weren't just randomly digging around and getting frustrated, I implemented a system where it would tell you how "hot" or "cold" you were when digging. So you could keep at it and work out where the worms were buried. This concept and others like it will be expanded upon, to make resource gathering not a case of either: "stand in one spot for 10 minutes until you have enough stuff"; or "run around to known spawn points until you have enough stuff". In some cases the actual gathering process itself will require some player input to be successful. This will hopefully at least lessen the amount of botting/gold farming; as well as make resource gathering a fun part of the game. More on what this means when I know more!
Process
The process usually involves some crafting station, and known recipes. CDO uses a fairly typical known recipe system at the moment, with the station varying depending on recipe. For buildings, a recipe is used creating a project site, so that many materials (perhaps more than you can carry) can be loaded into the project site. Once all the resources are there, you can choose to finish the project, at which time the site transforms into what you are building. No chance, skills, or creativity is involved. Other recipes, such as tools, can be built right in your inventoy. Some recipes, such as melting metal in a nail mold to make nails, will require a forge.In the future, probably around alpha 5 or 6, the crafting system will be expanded to solve some problems seen in other games. First, players generally don't have enough creativity in what they make. To offset that, certain elements of recipes will accept generic resources. A recipe to make a chair may accept a certain quantity of wood as one of the resources, allowing players to try different kinds of wood, to make different kinds of chairs.
In addition to this, there will be a metacrafting mode called "tinkering" where recipes themselves can be altered or created. Tinkerers will be able to adjust the quantity of inputs and add or delete inputs from a recipe to discover new ones. There will be some chance involved in this (you put in the right amounts of everything, but couldnt figure out how they were supposed to go together), making good tinkerers in high demand. There will be some mechanism letting users know if they are getting close to a valid recipe.
I can't believe I spent !$@?@! hours getting all that together and failed, when I have 90% chance of success!!!!!
Another problem in games is the amount of chance involved. One of the primary guidelines in CDO is making things more dynamic, so that the game can evolve and change and stay fun, without getting boring. Rather than use many random numbers to create the dynamics, we prefer to use simulation wherever possible. Some of the core of the simulation will involve random numbers of course, but from a players perspective it should feel like things happen for a reason.
For the crafting system, there won't be a lot of % chance of getting an item; or % chance of getting a better item than you would have gotten, or a % chance of breaking your crafting tools. If you know a recipe, are able to get all of the resources to make that item (which for many items may take some work), and are not working with low quality tools, you will end up with basically what the recipe says you are getting. The quality of the item will be based on how good your character is at crafting it, how steady your characters hands are (using the same nutrient system the rest of the game will use), and the quality of the input materials. What item you end up with will generally be a product in every sense of the word - a product of everything that went into making it. All products will vary, but it won't be because of a random number.
Produce
The third tier of crafting are the products themselves. If there are other ways to get cool items without crafting, it can make crafting seem not so useful. If the products produced from crafting are better than anything else, then no one will care about getting items in other ways.
Currently in CDO, there really aren't other ways to get items besides crafting (or spawning them with the admin tool!) The main reason for this is we are just begining to add content to the game. Most of the work so far, and much of the work to come, is still producing the engine, getting graphics right, making sure all the systems work right, etc. So it is unknown at this time how well the crafting will fit into the rest of the world.
Our hope is that crafting will be integrated completely with the rest of the game. There will be many things that must be discovered, uncovered, fought for, won from contests, or earned from jobs or quests. Very few of these items should be accessible in other ways. Similarly, a very large bulk of items will be player or npc produced (npcs will be able to craft also), and not many of these items will be found in other ways.
It will be impossible for one or even a few players to produce all items available in the game, helping trade; and easier-to-produce items that can be made in the begining of a players career wont become useless as they progress. When making the Regal Miyatla, the largest ship ever to sail from Greenhorn to Camlop, you will still need to cut wood into boards, hammer nails into the steel frame of the boat, seal the wood after its assembled to prevent leaks (don't forget this or your maiden voyage won't last long), and of course make miles and miles of canvas for the sails.
Crafting is a huge part of CDO. I wouldn't call it the most important, but it is at least as important as other parts. No system exists on its own though, and much of what will make crafting interesting will come from the other elements in the game. Using the crafted items to accomplish things and help society grow will be a sight to see.
In another few weeks I will talk about nutrients, energy and food. See you then.
