Crafting and Physicalized stations: A proposal by Phaneronic.

Dastardly

Dastardly

Member
May 29, 2020
50
67
18
Lately there has been some discussion on the discord about mini games and crafting. Someone said mini games are always a UI and boring. I don’t believe this has to be the case. We could do so much just using the simple 3d models already present. Timers are simply not an engaging game mechanic. Instead of being presented with a simple timer why not be presented with a completion bar and a quality bar? We can use the 3d models and some basic particle animations with a clickable prop. This prop will control the particular crafting station.

So I put this small game scene together to show it doesn't have to be a dull timer, it can be immersive and simple fun to help pass the time. For this example we have a small forge. We can pretend we are cooking ore (i don't have a model for a refining oven on hand). During this process we are monitoring the heat. The “mini game” here is monitoring the heat without an explicit text value displayed. You judge the temperature based on the Brightness of the light, the size of the flame and the sounds created.

Tldr:

  • Stats in the experiment are made up for the sake of this presentation
  • Crafting doesn’t have to be a timer
  • Made an example of a physicalized workbench.
  • Clicking the bellows would increase the temperature of the oven.
  • Keeping that temperature in the sweet spot along with combining the proper ingredients in the workbench will determine the refining speed.
  • This concept of physicalized workbenches could be extended out to most of the other crafting stations. For instance the grinding wheel could be kept at the proper speed.
  • Making things physicalized like this will make macros a bit more difficult.
  • It will give the crafter something to do instead of waiting on a timer.
  • I didn't animate the bellows as this is a just a rough example.
  • You can physicalize the equipment and makes it like you are using a tool to do your job and not just waiting on a timer.
  • Less likely to get macros as it's not a 2d UI. (yes i know you can macro anything with enough effort)

Necessary game assets
  • Minor adjustments to crafting stations
  • Animations for crafting stations
  • sounds

Anyway hope this sparks some positive and creative discussion regarding crafting.

Thanks for your time
<3 Phaneronic
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Zomic, Speznat, Farligbonde and 6 others
ZVNII

ZVNII

Member
Jun 17, 2021
48
85
18
We talked about this system in the guild and having a simple system such as this as an optional means of speeding up extraction or mining would be amazing.


This leaves us the option of afk activites, whiles rewarding active game play in a way taht does not make me feel bad for losing out on material gains.


My man Phaneronic developed the above in a few hours with assets from the epic store that are already being used in the game. I cannot think of single reason something like this should not be added as soon as possible. Currently being an extractor and waiting hours to extract a few stacks of granum is torture and often leads to tabing out and not playing the game. No one can defend this game design.


In addition i would advocate for crafting weapons, armors etc to be more engaging with potentially having a skill based angle. That way players who are pve focused and pride themselves with being the best crafters can actually show off their skill. Make crafting competitive and not just a means to an end to enable pvp.


Several times i have had players approach me claiming their armor was teh best in the game. i assume ironically since all armor is teh same when crafted with the same blueprint. In the current system it wont take long for meta recipes to be discovered and crafting become a mundane activity. If via a mini game based on physicality we can push the stats of an item, break an item on failiure, have special cosmetic effects on an item etc. pure pve crafting would draw a much greater audience to teh game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom