Crafting in Eragard
I’ve been thinking about my MUD for the past few weeks, deciding how I want to approach the design of game mechanics. Do I want classes with pre-defined skills or a classless system with open-ended skill trees? Should skills gain power by training at an NPC or gradually increase in strength as you use them? Relatively quick leveling with remort or difficulty reaching the max level so that max level is something to be respected?
As I was contemplating my MUD’s mechanics, I took a break and came across Tobold’s MMORPG Blog, a popular blog where Tobold speaks his thoughts and opinions on various MMORPGs that he plays and the MMORPG genre in general. In one of his articles, he discusses how SWG’s tradeskills system is the most fun of all MMORPGs he’s played. This brought me to design a tradeskills system for Eragard that isn’t tedious and boring, but rather fun and enjoyable.
However, there is an obstacle that sets apart MUD crafting from MMORPG crafting: a GUI. Whereas in MMORPGs all you have to do is drag a few icons into a container and click “Combine” (EverQuest) or open up a crafting window, find a recipe and click “Make” (Lord of the Rings Online) or something similar, a MUD doesn’t have that kind of freedom. Instead, my lack of creative juices can come up with 2 methods for MUD crafting.
First, a long chain of “mix” commands where the item in the right hand and the item in the left hand are combined, resulting in a new item or component. The good thing about such a system is that this method is logical and intuitive. Hold a “steel ingot” in the right hand, a “blacksmith hammer” in the left hand, type “mix” and voila! A “beaten steel ingot” that can be mixed further with a “two-handed sword mold” to create a “steel two-handed sword” or some such. Creating new recipes for such a system would be simple and the possibilities are endless. The drawback is that once a recipe is discovered, it quickly descends into a macro-fest once a player retrieves the needed ingredients.
The other method of crafting is not that different from the first and is basically a textual representation of EverQuest’s crafting system. There would be various stations around the world (forge, kiln, oven, bench, etc) that players would venture to. They would then access these stations and input items. Stick a few “piece of worn leather” along with a “tailoring needle” and “sewing thread” and “tunic pattern” and issue the “tailor” command. Voila! You now have a “worn leather tunic” or some such. This method relieves the issue of constantly mixing and unpacking ingredients, but it does introduce the drawback of difficult recipe discovery. Two “piece of worn leather” instead of three? Too bad!
I’ll most likely go with the first method since the results are nearly similar, it’s easier on the players and they’re less likely to grow frustrated, and it’s simpler for me to code!
There is also the issue of inter-dependency of different tradeskill professions. Here are the tradeskills I have planned for Eragard:
Arcana: An ancient knowledge of the world’s elements allows those of a mystical nature to imbue permanent effects into worldly objects, including jewelry, scrolls, weapons and armor.
Blacksmithing: The art of metalworking allows skilled blacksmiths to beat metal ingots into various shapes, resulting in forged weapons and armor.
Herbalism: A keen sense of nature allows those of the outdoors to understand the different herbs and plants of Eragard, which they can manipulate to create powders and pastes.
Jeweling: The art of jeweling entails expert refinement of crude gemstones and the ability to set gemstones into jewelry in order to amplify them.
Mining: The skill of mining is an ability that allows for the extraction of valuable minerals and ores, which can be refined and used by others.
Poisoning: An ancient art of manipulating the flora and fauna of the world in order to brew powerful venom, which can be applied to weaponry for aid in combat.
Tailoring: The ability to sew different textures and materials together into ornate patterns, resulting in light but wonderful armor and decorations.
Woodworking: The ability to whittle down blocks of wood into useful tools, which can be utilized by others. Mostly used for creating bows and staves, but has other uses.
With these eight crafting professions, I am planning on limiting players to two of the professions per character. Based on the profession combination that a player chooses, I figure each character can be self-reliant and/or offer their abilities for others. For example, an herbalism/poisoning would be self-reliant, as one would use herbalism to find the herbs needed to make poisons.
Hopefully this tradeskill system will allow for character uniqueness between those of similar non-tradeskill abilities (because of unique tradeskill sets), as well as encourage player interaction (some tradeskills are symbiotic with others). And because new recipes will be simple to create, constant patches with new content should keep the players interested and occupied.
