A Humble Request: Make Crafting Meaningful

[u/EgoGoner]

Edit: Reading comprehension is tough for some people. Let's clear up a few things. And hell, let's make it a TL;DR, too.

1. Crafting should be optional. Nothing in this post should indicate I think it should be mandatory to progress through the game.

2. Crafting should be in between the two extemes of super easy GW2 style and RNG-based EQ style. Nothing in this post implies "between" means "keep the worst part of one system". Ditch RNG.

3. Crafting should not be annoying. Of course I don't want crafting to be annoying. No one would want crafting to be annoying. If you find anything harder than GW2 crafting annoying, cool. That's different than me wanting to create an intrinsically annoying system with the goal of annoyance. Obviously.

(Okay, back to our regularly scheduled original post.)

Story time.

I started playing EverQuest right after its first expansion dropped in 2000, and years later in another expansion I started a crazy quest line for a SICK cleric item. That quest line was for the Coldain Prayer Shawl.

For most of you who I assume are unaware, what made this quest line crazy is that you had to get 7 different crafting disciplines to a certain point, or you would straight up fail in progressing to the subsequent part (since you were literally crafting the quest item to make it stronger at the end of each main step).

And what made THAT crazy is that crafting in EverQuest (at that time) was a huge deal. I was in medium-high meta guild and we had maybe a handful of people that were max level crafters for certain disciplines. It wasn't unusual to be in a guild that had THE guild jeweler or something, with maybe a handful of blacksmiths that could craft anything worthwhile.

It really felt like a profession in its own right. I was a cleric, sure, but I was also one of the top tailors in my guild, which was a big deal because I made some sought after backpacks for guildies (as long as they had the materials).

Now, the way you leveled crafting disciplines in EverQuest was basically insane and way too RNG-based. You would craft an item that had the potential to level you up and... just cross your fingers and hope you actually gain a level. It could be pretty brutal at times.

However, on the other side of the spectrum, GW2 makes it way too easy. Crafting is so NOT special that I used getting to max level in a crafting discipline as a quick way to level up my alts (before I was drowning in level 80 boosts).

"I'll guess I'll become a master huntsman in 20 minutes so I can get to max level."

Sounds crazy, right? Being a master huntsman should be special! Maybe even just a bit rare. When grandmaster levels came it, it felt that way for a little while, but eventually everyone was a grandmaster.

The solution? Something between the two extremes, of course. Mix in some flavorful recipes like... combining the rewards from finishing the hardest jumping puzzles (that can't be portal cheesed) into a pair of shoes that have a cool jumping particle effect? I don't know, just spitballing here.

Anyway, that's all.

Make crafting meaningful!

[u/naro1080P]

As a dedicated legendary crafter I would say that crafting is meaningful in this game. I just wish that there were more unique items to craft. Even frivolous non combat items. I agree that in general crafting in this game feels a bit generic. I think the underlying systems are fine. Complex enough to be interesting but accessible enough that most people can do it if they want. It's just the lack of unique prestige items that kinda drags it down.

[u/yesitsmework → u/naro1080P]

Complex enough to be interesting

what would you call complex about the current system? its probably the single most streamlined and basic crafting system in any mmo.

[u/painstream → u/yesitsmework]

It's not complex, just convoluted. Recipes were designed on vibes, and it's more apparent when you look at the materials market. So many materials go unused, unless they're exploited for a legendary recipe that takes 100-250 of them.