So no crafting armor and weapon [French interview]

[Hogrok]

Ok so a major french videogame website (gamekult.com) published an interview with Kate Flack and Josh Dresher, and among various things mentioned, Josh said (or the translator is claiming he said) that there will be "no crafting of weapon or anything like that". Apparently the system will revolve around potion, buff.

Ok now a part of me say it's kind of a good thing, considering I can't remember a game where crafting armor and weapon didn't made me want to end myself. And the website is a huge entity (think IGN but for french speaking reader).

Another part of me say it's too bad you can't get your armor crafted to your specification ala DAOC and that people enjoy creating stuff (even in DAOC). But on the other hand, Gamekult can be sometimes unreliable...

So, what do you think? And if a member of Mythic drop by, can he confirm the news?

[Yatz]

I think its a good idea that Weapons/Armor are not crafted. That opens up more crazy things that can be crafted.

Really it saves them a headache. " So if we make the armor they can craft too powerfull the PvE and RvR'ers will because they have to "work" for their reward, If we make it too weak the people who have spent so much time leveling their profession will feel cheated"

I think this will be better. Take out armor and weapons. Let us craft siege weapons and trophy's and mix dyes and potions and make saddles for our mounts and just other fun things.

[Marcellius]

Crafting in any game has always been a very long and involved process. To get the "best" stuff you have to do a lot of farming, pay a lot of money, and spend a lot of time that I personally would rather spend out on a good WAAAAAAAAGH!

If there is no armor or weapon crafting, I may be a little disappointed that I won't be able to make my own customized axes or upgrade my own armor, but in the same token, I think that RvR and PvE will reward players enough so that they are never in a position where they need crafted items. Besides, the best loot will likely come from the RvR and PvE content, so crafting your own would just put one more delay on you getting straight into the action.

[Elleranda]

While I'm disappointed that I won't be hammering away at steel in front of a scorching forge, I can see the advantages to it. He could have just heard it wrong, though, since english isn't his first language.

[Hogrok]

If there is no armor or weapon crafting, I may be a little disappointed that I won't be able to make my own customized axes or upgrade my own armor, but in the same token, I think that RvR and PvE will reward players enough so that they are never in a position where they need crafted items. Besides, the best loot will likely come from the RvR and PvE content, so crafting your own would just put one more delay on you getting straight into the action.

Well he said in the same interview you will be able upgrade existing pieces of gear.

[Jandau]

It's better this way.

Crafting weapons and armor sounds fine and dandy, but what it actually does is create another balancing nightmare. How powerful should the crafted gear be? Should it be soulbound or tradeable? How steep should the material cost be? How rare should it be? The list goes on and on.

I'd preffer if the various item types in the game were simply divided between the craftable and uncraftable. To elaborate, let's say none of the weapons and armor are craftable. Fine, no problem. But then all the potions, item buffs, grenades and such ARE craftable and only available from crafting.

Instead of having to balance drop progression with crafting progression inside the same item type (which will end up with crafting taking too much work or being too easy), you simply ensure that no such compettition exists by keeping the crafting and drop item types separate.

EDIT: Also, by focusing crafting around consumeables, you help ensure a healthy market without random jumps in demand when enough people get the latest tradeable epixxx or whatnot...

[ant]

I think theres way to much room for error.
Maybe crafting armour/weapons wont be in at launch or maybe he siad the best items wont be crafted.
And the whole itmes can be updraged post could mean any thing. I mean you cant say " no armour/weapon" crafting but then say sure you can have a skill that lets you upgrade items. I think its more of a tier based amour set thing hes talking about.

[Sockerbit]

Right now there is no real system on things you get from crafting, it's just take four things and mixing them in a horadric cube-thingy and then there is a potion made that has properties based on the things you used in the mix.

So you get pretty much mix anything and create a lot of things. If you'd do the same with long lasting items they would either be like the items in Diablo, you take a belt, jewel, and a gem and then shake the cube and an item with randomly produced properites based on your level is. Or you have the other type which is like blacksmithing with magic. You take a sword and then enchant it with some scroll to make a better sword of the same type. Both systems are simply boring and it would either only work for the very best players who can afford rolling the same item over and over and the last would favor the one who can buy the best scroll or it would only work on some items and thus don't work on the high level and thus be a third leg kinda feature that is only used on low level items for just a small period of time, it would also favor hand-downs from high level players to give their members insanely good gear on low levels making casual players a lot less interested in the game.

[Phiphler]

I think making crafting complementary to the PvE and RvR rewards is the most intelligent way to implement it in fact.

Let us craft potions, armor patches, fireworks, repairkits etc. Leave the big permanent rewards to the actual content.

[ant]

http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/...nds-On-Preview (http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/...nds-On-Preview)
In this article he says he was able to demenstrate a small part of crafting and refers to armour/weapon. i dont think he saw these but he had no reason to believe that they were out.

[mongoose]

not too fond of this because nothing screams "war effort" like an Armorer or Smith. :(

In fact I would have thought those would have been the two first crafting professions. They didnt really have a problem doing it in DAoC so why not in WAR :confused:

[Tarion]

not too fond of this because nothing screams "war effort" like an Armorer or Smith. :(You're right, nothing screams "war effort" as much as every single soldier in the army being able to create their own weapons :p

OK, slight exaggeration, but I for one am absolutely fine with the idea that we get the best weapons from dedicated traders/smiths/armourers etc. If there's "Only War" the PC's shouldn't be the be all and end all of crafters.

[Hoodwink]

Personally I would rather take crafting out entirely, but that's probably not a very popular opinion. :P

I consider this a step in the right direction I guess.

[KGBmarinac]

First: No need to start a new thread about this, there is another one, which is quite easy to find?

Second: Yeah, it sucks they will remove blacksmithing, it really is part of the war-effort, creating armor, guns, axes, you name it. But we WILL be able to plant little seeds and watch them grow..?

[Rhianni]

We may not be able to craft entire items but that doesnt mean we cant modify them.
Perhaps a WoW enchanting system spread around different crafting classes.
An armorer could add on armor plating for more armor or more hit points. A weapon smith could add spike onto a weapon for more damage or a bonus to hit.
No idea if they have items needing repair and losing effectiveness like they had in DAOC but crafters could do that... and in the field saving time.

So while we dont have crafting of full armor and weapons that doesn necessarily mean we wont have those professions.

[Manji]

I'm on a yes and no on this matter. In wow and lotro, I always find it a pain in the arse when it comes down to finding the ore, the hides, the pots, the gems, the gold, so on and so forth. However, I did like crafting items. Not, spending hours on to find stuff to craft one item. In other words, I like crafting as long as I don't spend too much time in finding the stuff.

[Morge]

What I would foresee in place of the weapon creation and armor creation would be two professions that are similar to the armor buff / weapon buff professions, but more in depth.

Think SWG crafting with a mix of wow gem crafting/enchanting with the EQ2 quality system but the quality is based on the items and not your can you spam this fast enough skills.

Armor Tinkerer

Certain pieces of armor have different upgrade slots. For armor to keep it even with weapon tinker would maybe have 1-2 slots per piece. Larger pieces like breastplate and legs might have 2 where bracers and helmets might just have one upgrade slot. Some upgrades may take more then slot to keep people from doing things like spam the same upgrade on different pieces. Then again there could be requirements on what piece something goes on, but that limits you more.

Upgrades aren't necesarily a stat boost because that makes the upgrades a must. There might be some stat boosts, but they might be small boost or higher in the profession and require more slots. Maybe something like reinforce to help with damage type resists like flame resistant cloth to keep those pesky bright wizards from roasting you alive.

Already in game conflict:
It could conflict with tactics since they are also able to do things like that so it could cause a balance issue, but with stat caps it would just make it easier to hit the cap.


Weapon Tinkerererererer

Similar to armor, but with weapons. Maybe have it where you could add bludgeoning to your pole arm. Weapons would have 5-6 upgrade slots and the upgrades could take anywhere from 1-4 upgrade slots.

Other Aspects to the crafts

Allow them to customize the look more then just dying. This could cause MAJOR problems though and not be worth the trouble because you would have more and more people saying oh that looks cool and have 9000 people with the same weapon in the same battle.

[Loekii]

I am glad they are not going to allow crafting armor and weapons, and thus not making crafting an 'economic' venture. I always hated the idea of 'crafting mules' and other ways to jimmy the game to create faucet for wealth. And that also goes with what the devs said in one of the recent videos about how money will be easy to get and thus not really have much importance in the game -- and that crafting items will not compete with PQ/Renown/Quest rewards.

It also stops the 'Make Crafted weapons the Best' arguments.

Instead, I like the idea of Crafting being a supplement to the existing Renown/Reward system.

[Hogrok]

First: No need to start a new thread about this, there is another one, which is quite easy to find?

Second: Yeah, it sucks they will remove blacksmithing, it really is part of the war-effort, creating armor, guns, axes, you name it. But we WILL be able to plant little seeds and watch them grow..?

Oops sorry I was tired and didn't remembered the crafting section, merge it with the other thread ^^

[Slogo]

I think this is a much better way to do crafting.

If you have (as people have said) weaponsmiths and armorers create things more geared towards augmenting to boosting existing items then you allow for a system that compliments the other means of getting gear rather than undermining it. In WoW anyone you pretty much see people grinding up professions simply to create the end-game bind only stuff then barely use their trade skills other than that. Combine that with the fact that the stuff that tends to make the most money are the small items (armor patches and what not) and it's just an odd setup (how do you balance the gear with the money making initiative to make trade skills worthwhile but not mandatory).

Anyways if you can't make weapons/armor there's still plenty to craft including:

-Potions (as we know)
-Weapon enchantments (both magical in nature and physical)
-Possibly ranged ammunition (if in game)
-Armor enchantments (again both magical and physical)
-Other usable items (Grenades, banners, who knows what else)
-Other buff items (Food/Drink)
-Dyes
-Some trophies (I wouldn't count on this other than trophies you get for being a specific trade skill)


And that'd just be the creator trade skills, you also have all the gathering ones.

I'd expect the list of tradeskills to look like:

-Armorer
-Weaponsmith
-Alchemist
-Weaver
-Enchanter
-Leather worker
-Bowyer/Gunsmith (if ranged ammunition is in game)
-Chef
-Scavenger
-Butcher
-Miner
-Cultivator

[Snuggans]

we (well i do, for sure) would like some confirmation from a mythic dev!

although it does seem true seeing as how they are only now pulling off the curtains on crafting, and artisan/manufacturing crafting takes a pretty long time to develop.

[Valdren]

I was under the impression that there will be armor/weapon crafting, since the gathering proffession scavenging is being put into the game, in which you get useful materials from sentient corpses. I think he meant that the best items (from city raids, the high end pve he mentioned) will not be craftable.

[Valdren]

I think this is a much better way to do crafting.

If you have (as people have said) weaponsmiths and armorers create things more geared towards augmenting to boosting existing items then you allow for a system that compliments the other means of getting gear rather than undermining it. In WoW anyone you pretty much see people grinding up professions simply to create the end-game bind only stuff then barely use their trade skills other than that. Combine that with the fact that the stuff that tends to make the most money are the small items (armor patches and what not) and it's just an odd setup (how do you balance the gear with the money making initiative to make trade skills worthwhile but not mandatory).

Anyways if you can't make weapons/armor there's still plenty to craft including:

-Potions (as we know)
-Weapon enchantments (both magical in nature and physical)
-Possibly ranged ammunition (if in game)
-Armor enchantments (again both magical and physical)
-Other usable items (Grenades, banners, who knows what else)
-Other buff items (Food/Drink)
-Dyes
-Some trophies (I wouldn't count on this other than trophies you get for being a specific trade skill)


And that'd just be the creator trade skills, you also have all the gathering ones.

I'd expect the list of tradeskills to look like:

-Armorer
-Weaponsmith
-Alchemist
-Weaver
-Enchanter
-Leather worker
-Bowyer/Gunsmith (if ranged ammunition is in game)
-Chef
-Scavenger
-Butcher
-Miner
-Cultivator

Read somewhere that there isn't ammunition in this game. Alchemist is Apothecary, and Mining isn't in the game, since that implies that you're running around looking for nodes, which they said they weren't doing.

[Vallen]

I gotta say Nay Nay to this. Its a bad idea to take out craftable weapons and armour. I don't mind that crafting takes longer then raids and has less gain but it always helped. I don't know what the drop rate will be in WAR but every other MMORPG has a crappy drop rate where I'm reduced to useing items 10 levels below me. Crafting fills that void, don't have good equipment then craft some halfdescant items.

I don't want to spend 20-60 minutes crafting potions and armour patches before I go level grinding.

Plus you get a good sense of pride and accomplisment after crafting actual items(ie weapons/armour and not potions/patches).

[Are'el]

As much as I like crafting, I have to admit that craftable gear has always undermined the looting of gear (as someone already stated). Then you get into a "which should be better" arguement.

Modding existing armor and weapons is a much better idea, as it compliments the looting. I go out, find a [Breastplate of Sturdiness], then use Iron Scraps (or whatever they plan to use, I don't know) I got from Scavenging to augment the defense rating. Or add elemental resistance, or increase Strength.

City Siege and Reknown Stores are going to have the best gear. If smithing is the ability to mod those items, then smithing will always be popular and in demand. It's like Enchanting in WoW, only not necessarily with magic powders and fairy dust. Just so long as they don't make it too powerful, and they don't allow highend mods to be applied to lower Tier gear.

[Jagatai]

Definite yes. We already know that the best gear comes from RvR anyway, so it would really be a waste of time. Good for RP maybe though... this does mean that you get to do what I think of as the "fun" profession--to use WoW as an example, that means Alchemy (which is in WAR, just about fifty times cooler this time) or Enchanting or this new one coming in WoTLK. I think they're fun anyway.

Hopefully this means that we get more interesting and fun professions...

but seriously. BUTCHERING and SCAVENGING. W. T. F. what... I mean, how do you level up SCAVENGING????!?!!?! I'm kinda weirded out.

[CaptainAwesome]

From what we know apothecary and them 3 gathering skills are all there is so far, EA Mythic wants to stamp down on RMT so therefore professions like weapon/armor/gem crafting which are usually expensive professions are a bad idea in WAR

[Raizen]

Well, this is certainly a long shot from " The equipment players craft should be able to compete with the highest level of gear obtainable out there. ".

I guess in a way it's nice that Mythic is open to change and doesn't lock themselves down to a single idea without possibility of something better.

But damn.

[Jegger]

I'm going with the "interviewer misunderstood" option on this one. I remember seeing some loot screens captured at an event not too long ago which showed a rusted old sword. The item's description stated in no uncertain terms that it could be fashioned into a usable stats weapon by a character with the proper skills. It's not exactly full fledged weapon forging but it's a far cry from no weapon crafting at all. I can't point to the source but I'm willing to bet, based on that screenshot and the revealed info about gathering skills that there will be some sort of weapons and armor salvage/enhancement crafting in game.

[TickTock]

I like the idea of a the crafting being more of an "Enchanting" type of deal. It gets rid of the headache of crafting and compliments the looted/rewarded items.

Looks good to me!

[nero0102]

I don't know.

I am going to wait for a newsletter on this subject.

At the Paris event it was stated that talking about crafting was off limits.

And I would believe Mythic and Mark Jacobs before the French. Especially coming from a translator (English is a VERY difficult language).

If it does come down to no crafting of armor and weapons, I could do without it. Few MMO's have ever struck any kind of balance in their drop economies vs. crafted items anyway.

[nero0102]

I was under the impression that there will be armor/weapon crafting, since the gathering proffession scavenging is being put into the game, in which you get useful materials from sentient corpses. I think he meant that the best items (from city raids, the high end pve he mentioned) will not be craftable.

I agree, I wish I wasn't drunk before I posted.

Wake me up when there is info on crafting from someone at Mythic 8-)

[Vadimer]

Sweet Im hopeing i can make a decombobulater ray or a world shrinking potion

[ZeppelinJ0]

I really hope there is some kind of Weapon and Armor crafting.

With the emphasis that people have been putting on the importance of "gear" and WAR's obvious attempts to keep people addicted by creating a subtle "gear grind" then the only way to compete is to get items, and the only way to get items would be to gear grind. No thanks.

Hopefully I'm wrong on this and it's not a "gear"-centric game... Just the word "gear" makes me shudder, that's why I put quotes on it :P Just see a lot of posts with people concerned about how many epixxxx they will be getting and how accessible they are...

[Gunter]

I really hope there is some kind of Weapon and Armor crafting.

With the emphasis that people have been putting on the importance of "gear" and WAR's obvious attempts to keep people addicted by creating a subtle "gear grind" then the only way to compete is to get items, and the only way to get items would be to gear grind. No thanks.

Hopefully I'm wrong on this and it's not a "gear"-centric game... Just the word "gear" makes me shudder, that's why I put quotes on it :P Just see a lot of posts with people concerned about how many epixxxx they will be getting and how accessible they are...

From what I have seen there will be Armor Upgrade Crafting and Weapon Upgade Crafting but not Armor Crafting and Weapon Crafting. Thats really a good thing because then the devs d not have to worry about an economy or having the arguement about crafted items v dropped items v quest items.

They canhave items and yo customize them to your likeing.

[Norfrit]

I like this idea, decreases stupid way in which many MMO's work (WoW including) - having gazzilion gear aka neverending grind for better pieces. Upgrading gear is ok.

[NaiHasu]

I like the idea of a the crafting being more of an "Enchanting" type of deal. It gets rid of the headache of crafting and compliments the looted/rewarded items.

Looks good to me!

I hope that they continue with the Horadric Cube idea, like all the way.
"Crafted Items" are a base item put in the "cube" with "these" other items, press the magic button, and PRESTO new modifiers completely random based upon what you put in with it!
that way they have the possibility of having been a complete waste of money or an incredible investment! ... although i can see immediate problems with that... itd make me happy since i cant actually forge... ^^

[Gunter]

I hope that they continue with the Horadric Cube idea, like all the way.
"Crafted Items" are a base item put in the "cube" with "these" other items, press the magic button, and PRESTO new modifiers completely random based upon what you put in with it!
that way they have the possibility of having been a complete waste of money or an incredible investment! ... although i can see immediate problems with that... itd make me happy since i cant actually forge... ^^

Thats sounds like what they are doing but with the potion example given it is not random. Certan things give certian changes.

[CaptainAwesome]

In summary from what has revealed the apothecary and building of siege weapons is pretty much more that you would ever want since EA Mythic wants you to earn your weapons and armor through RvR and PvE. Adding weapon/armor/jewel crafting will just add more emphasis to RMT when they are tryinh to encourage you to fight more on the battle ground instead of making stuff at a blacksmith

[Tom_Hobbes]

First: No need to start a new thread about this, there is another one, which is quite easy to find?

Second: Yeah, it sucks they will remove blacksmithing, it really is part of the war-effort, creating armor, guns, axes, you name it. But we WILL be able to plant little seeds and watch them grow..?

Your character is a warrior. The craft has to be something he could conceivably have the time and resources to do in between killing people, from a story consistency perspective. You're not going to be able to learn to smith while also training to be a soldier and tactician, nor does the army have the resources to waste teaching you. Sorry, kid, grow your little bonsai tree or carve runes on your existing armour or something.