I’ve never focused on crafting as a priority in any game I’ve played, though I do consider it a vital part of any well-rounded MMO. In the past 4 years of gaming, I’ve only ever gotten one character to max crafting level (an 80 tailor in EQ2), though I’ve dabbled frequently. Age of Conan is no different for me; I’ve decided to explore the crafting aspect in a more casual fashion. Already I’ve spotted pluses and minuses.
On the plus side, I like that AoC allows you to choose two professions instead of limiting the player to only one. You can choose to be an armorer, alchemist, weaponsmith, gemcutter or architect. The least useful of these (in my opinion) is the architect, although that profession is vital if you are building a guild city. Armorsmith and weaponsmith are self-explanatory. Gemcutters produce gems that can adorn both armor and weapons that provide stats bonuses of various types. Alchemists produce food, drink and potions that increase health, mana and stamina. I chose alchemist and weaponsmith for my two professions.
One large positive that I have found is that the items produced by the crafters are by and large better than common quest rewards or loot drops. For example, an armorsmith can produce a set of armor that a player actually would want to wear as opposed to a commonly dropped armor item. This gives players a reason to purchase crafted goods, and keeps crafting relevant to the game. It is feasble for a crafter to make a small profit on most items he or she makes, again keeping the incentive to craft there.
As an alchemist, I produce consumable items: food, drink and potions. There seems to be a good demand for these items, as they are always needing to be replaced. It costs me approximately 25-50 copper to craft a stack of 100 stamina potions (my biggest seller), and I can sell that same stack for 4 silver–a tidy profit. The biggest expense for me has been purchasing the appropriate components from the crafting merchant, as well as purchasing the “dropped” components off the trader. The common ones aren’t overly expensive, but the demand for them provides another nice market for the economy of the game.
I like that I can craft anywhere in the world as long as I have the components with me. However, not requiring a crafting station of some sort does take away from the “mini-game” feel for me. In EQ2, you had to go to a tradeskill instance to craft; in that instance there were crafting quests that you could do that earned you tradeskill experience. Although there are crafting quests in AoC, they are received at the start of learning a new tier of crafting, and you can only do them once; ie, craft one of everything and return it to me. I was able to earn a nice chunk of experience for these quests, but again–you can only do them once, and there is no independent crafting level.
This brings me to one of the biggest drawbacks of the crafting system in AoC. Crafting is irrevocably tied to adventure level in this game. You must be level 20 before you can learn to harvest materials. You must be level 40 to learn your first crafting recipes, and then you don’t learn new recipes unless you hit the next tier–50, 60, and so on. I would much prefer a system where I could craft independently from my adventure level; I would enjoy being able to have a character whose sole purpose was crafting. Of course, the crafting system in AoC is not in-depth enough at this time to support an independent crafting “game.”
Another drawback for me is the previously-mentioned lack of depth to the crafting. As a weaponsmith, I believe I have somewhere around 10 recipes for my level 40 tier. That’s it. Once I’ve done these recipes, there’s nothing for me to look forward to until I hit 50, and receive another 10 or so recipes. EQ2’s system spread the recipes out over each crafting level. You would purchase a new recipe book for each level, and each book had a certain number of recipes in it. Some of the books were rarer to come by than others. There was more immediate gratification in crafting, knowing I’d receive new recipes each level, rather than doing it all at 40 then having to adventure up to 50 before I can take the next step.
Although I like that AoC provides a choice of professions, I wish that there were even more. I would love to see things like carpentry (furniture) and tailoring (for cloth armor, appearance clothing). If FunCom puts in some of the “fluff” like player housing, appearance slots, etc, there would be a great opportunity to enhance crafting as well.
It’s my understanding that crafting will be getting some love in the near future. I’m eager to see what comes of it.
