[MUD-Dev] Are crafts fun?

[Bobby Martin]

> From: "Michelle" <michelf at silverspoonandpaperplate.com> 

> I also just joined the list.


Hello there! :)

>>  On Fri, 21 Dec 2001, Bobby Martin wrote:

>>  Is there a MUD or similar game now in which crafting is fun?
>>  That's an honest question, not a troll.

> Well, I very much enjoyed fishing and tailoring during down time
> in EQ. ("I once caught a rusty knife THIS big...")  But part of
> that was, I used them as something to do during down time, which
> is more

Hmm, that's a good point, we do need 'idle' activities.  We need to
think some on that.  We will support fishing, and you can queue up
crafting activities (make all the decisions online and put it in
your to-do list, then when you're offline the list can be
processed).

>>  I have yet to see one in which crafting is more than clicking a
>>  button/entering a command.  Gathering materials is fun, finding
>>  out how to craft new items is fun, selling items is fun,
>>  building a reputation is fun, getting increased skill is fun,

> But doing all those other things are also nothing more then
> clicking a button or entering a command... The MMO community is
> made up of
...
> probably complain that your tradeskills are "more complicated"
> then those of other games...  So what can be done?

Well, what we plan to do is make it simple to make an item, then you
can do more complicated stuff to make a better item.  But the actual
crafting (as opposed to making decisions about how to craft) still
takes way too long for most people to want to do it while online.

>>  I want to move the not-fun part offline and leave the fun part
>>  online.

> So if I want to make something I have to log off?  That's an
> interesting idea...  It might cut down on powerleveling of skills.
> Which most people do even if you implement an vaguely interesting
> and profitable system with which to level your skill up.

Nope, we don't make you log off.  We allow any action to be taken
either online or offline, it's just that some actions really make
more sense to be done offline and we will put in special support to
make doing them offline easier and more fun.  You would typically
want to make all the decisions while online (in fact, you're
queueing up instructions for your character's offline activities),
then your character does the lengthy stuff after you log off,
following the instructions you left for him.

> Like the "consignments" on DAoC.  (FYI, If you don't play DAoC)
> The Trade Master tells you that a certain NPC within the city
> wants a certain item.  So you make the item, find the NPC (the
> city guards will point you to them), and they give you money for
> it.

> I really liked it, I pretty much know my way around the capital
> city now and I'm almost to the point that I know where most of the
> NPCs are.  And you'd think, with a system like that, that the city
> would be crawling with people running around on consignments...
> Nope.  They're mostly all huddled around the various trade
> implements and merchants, powerleveling.

Yup, DAOC did a great job of building quests that let you be
entertained while learning something useful, in the consignments.  I
think there's still a lot to be desired for longer range quests,
though.  It's no fun going from town to town looking for some guy.
I've also had several quests give me completely different info in
the quest log than in the original description.

> Working on crafts automatically while logged out or during
> downtime would help to alleviate that problem I think.  And it's a
> pretty nifty idea, but I would certainly hope that the ability to
> craft an item in-game wouldn't disappear entirely.  Because that
> is the fun in having a Tradeskill....  You're in the city, the
> person contacts you and says that they want an item made, you
> haggle, you obtain the materials (either from the client or
> whatever), and then . . . What?  Then you have to log off?  The
> person who commissions an item from you usually wants it from you
> simply because you are there.  (In the case of games where
> crafting an item takes a relatively short time.)

We predict that people will set up more of an economy where some
people play crafters who know how to make stuff, some people play
local merchants who know their customer's general desires and ask
the crafters for items ahead of time, some people who play tradesmen
taking things from an area where it's cheap to an area where it's
more expensive, and some people taking part in ways we can't
imagine.  I also expect consignments, but they will be more rare due
to the wait.

Bobby
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