06-01-2009, 10:22 AM
I actually think SWG got the gathering/crafting the most correct of all the MMOs I've played.
Gathering
You didn't personally do the mining, you bought mining machines that were completely automated. You just had to visit them to collect the results every few days and move it to your storage. If you REALLY wanted to, you could go stand somewhere and dig in the dirt with your hands for some extra immediate resources, but the volume you could dig up yourself paled in comparison to what your mining stations could collect.
Crafting
You could make the items completely by yourself if you really wanted. Or, you could just make a blueprint, which was then loaded into a crafting station which would spit out crates of finished goods over time. You just had to make sure the station was stocked with the right resources.
Rewarding "The Crafter" vs non-crafter minded players
Each material had different stats - some metals had high conductivity but low melting point. Others would be extremely durable with high melting points, but had very low maleability. Different components of what you made would need high conductivity for electronics, or high durability for armoring or would need a high insulation rating.
In this way, the system still rewarded those that paid attention to their gathering. Someone like me could keep an eye on what I was mining so that I would always have the top of the line materials for making lenses for laser rifles, copper coils for power converters, etc. Someone like Grizzle could drop his mining machines anywhere and then just ignore them and still be contributing to the good of the "Team" (whether that's individual, guild, faction, etc). SWG even allowed you to assign other people access to your equipment, so Grizzle could let me take care of moving his material to storage for him.
Keeping 'em Employed
All items had durability and would eventually comepletely break. This is 100% necessary in any game with a player economy IMO. Items need to leave the game in order for crafters to have a reason to keep making more.
Gathering
You didn't personally do the mining, you bought mining machines that were completely automated. You just had to visit them to collect the results every few days and move it to your storage. If you REALLY wanted to, you could go stand somewhere and dig in the dirt with your hands for some extra immediate resources, but the volume you could dig up yourself paled in comparison to what your mining stations could collect.
Crafting
You could make the items completely by yourself if you really wanted. Or, you could just make a blueprint, which was then loaded into a crafting station which would spit out crates of finished goods over time. You just had to make sure the station was stocked with the right resources.
Rewarding "The Crafter" vs non-crafter minded players
Each material had different stats - some metals had high conductivity but low melting point. Others would be extremely durable with high melting points, but had very low maleability. Different components of what you made would need high conductivity for electronics, or high durability for armoring or would need a high insulation rating.
In this way, the system still rewarded those that paid attention to their gathering. Someone like me could keep an eye on what I was mining so that I would always have the top of the line materials for making lenses for laser rifles, copper coils for power converters, etc. Someone like Grizzle could drop his mining machines anywhere and then just ignore them and still be contributing to the good of the "Team" (whether that's individual, guild, faction, etc). SWG even allowed you to assign other people access to your equipment, so Grizzle could let me take care of moving his material to storage for him.
Keeping 'em Employed
All items had durability and would eventually comepletely break. This is 100% necessary in any game with a player economy IMO. Items need to leave the game in order for crafters to have a reason to keep making more.