Crafting ideas for the Agency

[BigJonno]

I've always wanted to see a crafting system like Ultima Online's, but taken further. In UO, if you can make a sword, you can make a sword. The upgrades came in the form of making swords out of better materials. This seems perfectly logical and right to me. One basic leather breastplate is the same as another in terms of design. If you want a better one, you make it out of dragonhide. If I was making a crafting system, I'd make it just like this, except that I'd have each item made from several components and add rare items into the mix.

So for the Agency, it'd work something like this:

Thor wants a new pistol, so he goes to Q to see what he can put together. A pistol is made up of four basic parts, a frame, a barrel, a grip and a trigger. After chatting to Thor about his preferences and looking at what he can make, Q comes up with the following design.

Frame: Heavy semi-automatic pistol. The frame simply sets the type of pistol. It could have been a light machine pistol, or a heavy revolver, stuff like that.

Barrel: .50 long. Larger calibres mean more damage and more recoil. Long barrels are more accurate, but aren't as concealable as short ones.

Trigger: Hair trigger. Allows a faster rate of fire, but will have lessened accuracy as a result.

Grip: Palm ID scanner with explosive charge. If anyone other than Thor picks this baby up, they're going to lose an arm.

That covers the essential parts of the pistol, but Q adds a couple of extras.

Extended magazine: Increases capacity, lowers concealability.

Underslung shotgun barrel: One shot, close range, 10-gauge destruction.

x4 scope: Doubtful that Thor will use it, but he'll appreciate how cool it looks.

Although this is a system that is a lot more complex than X+Y=Z, it'll make things easier for the devs in the long run. If they create four pistols for the game, they've got four pistols. If they design four sets of modular pistol parts, they've got 256 pistols.

[Leoghan]

I like the system. I also like the idea that materials make all the difference in quality.

[JonnyG]

I like the idea of having several Q's that have access to different resources, devices, and/or plans that you can use to mix and match. Cool stuff.

[Dekun]

sounds a lot like SWG's crafting system which I loved very much. I would like to see something similar in depth, but the overall complexity of the resources should be dumbed down to allow for greater access to the masses. Resources with 7 different stats to determine quality is overkill in my opinion.

[JonnyG]

As long as you have some easy way to evaluate them, more options are good. Perhaps if they showed possible stats for the new item based upon what resources you were putting into it. And an easy way to find out what resource qualities would increase the stats of the new item.

Also, it would be kind of cool to see some kind of risk factor involved, ie. you could try using nitro to replace gunpower in the recipe, but it would cause the recipe to fail xx% of the time. But if it worked you'd get a super item. Perhaps depending on how badly it failed it could damage your operative too.

[Leoghan]

The problem with SWG was also the resource rotation rate. I mean you had to take the time to move and re-place any extraction equipment at least once a week. While this may not seem to bad, with all the possible planets to move it to and all the possible resource stats it made trying to get the best resources very time consuming and some what of a waste because someone always had a better mix.

I'm fine with lots of stats for a crafting system, but I think in the case of this game it will be easier to manage as it appears operatives are your crafters so you only have to invest time in managing them.

This brings to mind another question about crafting. Should the best equipment be crafted or looted?

What I'd like to see is the best loot is high level equipment parts that I can then take back to my operative and have made into an uber item.

[Finn MacCool]

Should the best equipment be crafted or looted?



in my opinion, it should be crafted AND looted
if other people are able to kidnap your operatives, then why should they leave all the good stuff?

[Leoghan]

in my opinion, it should be crafted AND looted
if other people are able to kidnap your operatives, then why should they leave all the good stuff?

True in a PvP sense. I was thinking more PvE, but you're right why not break into another HQ and steal some ops and goodies?

[Dekun]

This brings to mind another question about crafting. Should the best equipment be crafted or looted?

Seeing as this is a FPS, I'm kinda hoping that there is no best weapon. I think the weapons/gunplay will be the biggest factor in creating a fun experience and there should be a lot of options in this area. I like the idea of a fully modified starter weapon being just as effective as the other weapons in the hands of a player who has invested time and recourses into it. Just as long as nothing becomes obsolete, I hate seeing weapons available to use, but no one ever using them, its sad, and a waste of time - Uber weapons lead to nerfs and min/max elitism. I would like to see weapon choice come down to situation and preference really.

On that note, I think the best mods should come from players working together with specific operatives.

I guess we will have to wait and see of the systems actually work. I can see how 1 Ak47 would be better than another if a socket like system was in place and AK47 1 had more sockets for mods.

/shrug - I could go on forever about this stuff, but I'm hungry and I don't want to get my hopes up.

[Leoghan]

I actually agree when it comes down to weapon style. I think that it should be the mods and resources applied to the style of weapon that make it better or worse. Thus you still get uber weapons, but it comes from higher levels and higher access to mods/resources.

If I recall Bond's weapon of choice was the PPK, so there is clearly some precedent for being able to stick to one style.

I do want a lot of selection in guns though. For example...

http://world.guns.ru/assault/tavor-tar.jpg

http://world.guns.ru/assault/tavor-2.jpg

http://world.guns.ru/assault/tavor-civ.jpg

All Tavor's but all different styles.

Seeing as this is a FPS, I'm kinda hoping that there is no best weapon. I think the weapons/gunplay will be the biggest factor in creating a fun experience and there should be a lot of options in this area. I like the idea of a fully modified starter weapon being just as effective as the other weapons in the hands of a player who has invested time and recourses into it. Just as long as nothing becomes obsolete, I hate seeing weapons available to use, but no one ever using them, its sad, and a waste of time - Uber weapons lead to nerfs and min/max elitism. I would like to see weapon choice come down to situation and preference really.

On that note, I think the best mods should come from players working together with specific operatives.

I guess we will have to wait and see of the systems actually work. I can see how 1 Ak47 would be better than another if a socket like system was in place and AK47 1 had more sockets for mods.

/shrug - I could go on forever about this stuff, but I'm hungry and I don't want to get my hopes up.

[JonnyG]

I think that they could combine the cool loot with cool resources, a little like WoW. You find the uber item, but if you don't like it you can break it down to it's component parts for crafting.

[Finn MacCool]

you can do that in WoW?
thought this was a GW feature

[Dekun]

In WoW you can disenchant an item which turns it into a resource typically known as a shard. The purpose of disenchanting items is to enchanting other items. Many of the resources needed for enchanting only come from disenchanting, and the better the item, the greater the shard you receive, and therefore giving you the option of using uber enchants.

[JonnyG]

Take that to the next level with operatives being able to take apart items and put them back together into new better objects. Lots of flexibility.

[esion]

In WoW you can disenchant an item which turns it into a resource typically known as a shard. The purpose of disenchanting items is to enchanting other items. Many of the resources needed for enchanting only come from disenchanting, and the better the item, the greater the shard you receive, and therefore giving you the option of using uber enchants.
Disenchanting was a great aspect of WoW...there are many magical items I get in VG that I just sell to vendors...but in WoW I would always disenchant the items I got...I would love to see something like this implemented.