You should check out the forums in the SWG thing on this site, and check out the topics in Veterans refuge. Some topics are just people ranting, but others have some pretty good debates going. But the basics is that Sony Online Entertainment put a ton of patches since the release, i don't really know why, but some were good and others bad but nothing really changed everything too much. But then they implented a combat upgrade or CU system which completely revamped the combat, this ticked off alot of people, including me who like the original combat. ANd then later they did something with NGE i don't know alot about that though since i wasn't playing. But thats the background, actually, i don't know the site but i've heard that some guy actually has taken the precu SWG and put it on his own servers, they're pretty empty i think, but if ur interested in combat at all u should check it out.
Also, i forgot to mention, Second Life has a creation system, i wouldn't say crafting since it requires programming. But its pretty cool to see what people can do, but i would try teen second life, since the adult second life is filled with perverts in some areas just don't even bother with it.
I voted swg. Not sure how it is today, but in the original swg it was a very good system. Not only the crafting process itself, but also how it was visual backed up. That you could se a 3d-moel how the final item would look like and not just a picture of a item that have nothing to do with how it really will look like in the end.
EQ2 have a not so bad crafting process, but it lacks any customization to the item. You can just assamble the exact described components to generate a fixed item with varying success (normal items or differnt degrees of failure).
Originally posted by impulsebooks Originally posted by Caldrin orig SWG crafting system
gotta be one of the best
Does this mean current SWG system is bad, or only inferior to the old SWG system? Do you still like the current one and is it fun? There's been very few changes made to the overall crafting system since the game launched so this "original SWG crafting system" stuff is misleading. Weaponsmith is the only crafting profession that has had major changes made to it that renders it somewhat unused currently and replaced by loots/rewards. The good news is that WS is in the process of being revamped to hopefully bring it back to the forefront again
You can't group EQ1 and EQ2 as a single choice, they are completely different. Horizons is still the best and it's not on your list.
I've heard quite a few people say the same thing about Horizon's crafting system. I tried the demo to see for myself, but I quickly lost interest in the game.
I favor systems were you can make the same item in many different ways, imbue, enchant, expand or whatever, systems like EVE is way way down on that list because there is only one possible outcome of said item, higher skills will only make items cheaper and/or faster to create.
Hell, even a hull paint would pick eve up from the bottom in this regard, as far as I am concerned it is not even crafting, it is manufacturing, wich I suppose is how it should be.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think SWG had the best hands down while crafting in Horizons was also pretty in depth and interesting, and dare I say fun. Ok it wasn't that fun but still there were lots of options and I loved putting crafting skills to use to build houses, rebuild that elf city (Feladan?) and lugging out mats to the wilderness to build an entrance to portals to these islands to eventually unlock that race(Satyrs?). Also armor dyes were pretty neat.
I think its an oxymoron to say "best crafting system". All crafting stinks and should be written out of every game.
But realizing that some folks like it (for reasons that I can't even begin to understand) I would have to say that my favorite (if I had a favorite) would be EvE's just because it seems terribly relevant to the game world. (don't confuse relevance with fun).
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I have to say runescape has the best crafting system on any game that I have played (not saying it is THE best but it is the best i have seen). So i voted other.
I voted SWG too. However this poll is skewed, most people probably havent even played a 1/3 of your list, and If they have -they did not play them extensively enough to know. Either way I thought the crafting system was rather fun and unboring. With a player driven economy at the time, especially in the begining when people needed a good crafter for top weapons that werent available yet. This was by far better than the grind fest of EQ2 for me, or the mindless click of a button in WOW.
I would say Ultima Online. Why? Because you were free to do anything. You could chop a three, make a stool and sit on it. You clould mine some iron, and make a sword. And you were actualy able to sell those items (as people needed swords and furniture and so on...), not unlike, for example, in WoW, where crafters can make the best usable items only for themselves (almost all of 'em) so there's no way they can make any profit out of it. So, UO for me, there is.
Your statement regarding WoW is not entirely accurate. High lvl Armor sets, Jewelry and Pots that can be made and sold all via the AH, some for huge profit.
That's just 3 for example there are many more....
Yeah, I agree here with you... but these are mostly small things, like you said, pots, jewels... aye, a good armor can be craftable (mostly for cloth users) but for me as a plate user, I need a Blacksmith skill to use all of it's bonuses (silly), and look at the weapons that Blacksmiths are able to do for themselves. They're awsome. Lots of people would want that, I bet. And look at the special enchants that Jewelcrafters can make, again, only for themselves. And that includes Alchemists, that can make a lot of thing for, yes, you guessed, themselves. I really see no point in here. I have Engineering and Mining for about two years now, and if I would want that new enchants that only Jewelcrafter can make or that new weapons that are limited to Blacksmiths, I would have to teach myself a new profession all over again. And that's what I don't like. For example, every single item that I made in UO (at least four years ago or so) was usable by everyone and I was able to sell it to anyone. A small stool or a big dinning table. Or a wooden pony. Or... a fork. And that's what I miss in these "modern" games. We should be able to help each other. You know, I give you a pig, you give me a prosciutto.
Knock the world right off its feet and straight onto its head.
You can't group EQ1 and EQ2 as a single choice, they are completely different. Horizons is still the best and it's not on your list.
Agree on both accounts. EQ1 and EQ2 crafting are completely different. EQ1 crafting is a lot like the WoW crafting, very simplistic and you really don't ever make anything of significance. EQ2 is a bit more involved, and you actually make things people use and need.
I voted other, although SWG crafting is awesome.
Horizons has the best crafting system in any fantasy game, too bad everything else was lame, except character creation. SWG would be best non-fantasy, but they both were stellar.
Now, if I could have Horizons crafting, and EQ2 gameplay, I'd be set...
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
I think its an oxymoron to say "best crafting system". All crafting stinks and should be written out of every game.
But realizing that some folks like it (for reasons that I can't even begin to understand) I would have to say that my favorite (if I had a favorite) would be EvE's just because it seems terribly relevant to the game world. (don't confuse relevance with fun).
Back to slaying Dragons....
Maybe it's just me getting older but I find that I'm beginning to seek out non-violent alternatives to MMO gameplay. There's nothing wrong with slaying dragons, I just find it boring when that's the only thing you can do.
For a genre called MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER, I'm surprised at the limited amount of gameplay options developers offer.
Auto Assault- The cool thing about Auto Assault crafting system is that you can reverse engineer items that you find or buy. When you do that you deconstruct it into a blueprint. When you get that blueprint you can then alter parts to come up with new items. I thought it was a great crafting system.
You can't group EQ1 and EQ2 as a single choice, they are completely different. Horizons is still the best and it's not on your list.
I've heard quite a few people say the same thing about Horizon's crafting system. I tried the demo to see for myself, but I quickly lost interest in the game.
What's unique about it?
To have really appreciated the crafting system in Horizons, you would have had to play it from release. A large part of the world was destroyed initially and had to be rebuilt. Bridges that led to new lands, mines, farms, mills, mana generators etc. which were held in public trust and benefited all players, took a significant amount of time to rebuild and everyone could choose to contribute as much or as little as they wanted, but your skills increased in that particular field of crafting as you contributed. When the buildings were completed, they actually effected the environment and changed the surrounding landscape. Bridges obviously gave access to new lands and possible new settlements and personal plots, while mana generators and mines, mills etc, allowed players to adventure farthur while having access to goods and services. It was really unique in that regard, no other game I have played offered that aspect of crafting.
Then you have your personal plot that you develop and build various structures on including your house, estate and trade/crafting stations.
Then you have the standard crafting of items. Horizons was the first game I played that really portrayed a more accurate harvesting system and developed harvesting as it's own skillset. You actually used special tools for harvesting vs crafting, and the items you harvested were represented graphically accurate in the surrounding world. A lot of games just spawn generic glowing blobs to harvest but this was not the case in Horizons. The items you harvested were real, like trees and flax and ore etc., and when you harvested them, they would disappear as one would expect, and they might appear or grow back in another area but not in the same place right away. The sound effects for harvesting and crafting were unique for each different item and also added an element of fun.
Overall the realism and influence that harvesting, crafting and building offered in Horizons were a major design focus by the developers and it was a success. Too bad the game failed because of other issues.
I voted for SWG, mainly because they had so many crafting professions (classes) that all worked together to be apart of the universe. Classes were Architect, Armor smith, Shipwright, Chef, Droid Engineer, Merchant (1 profession that opens up their own vendor to sell products), Tailor and Weaponsmith. There were other professions that had crafting in them too such as Jedi, Bio Engineer, Doctor, Combat Medic and Ranger. All of these professions were needed for everything in SWG, you needed to buy certain things from other crafters so you could gather resources or finish one of your own crafted items. The crafting system itself was the best i've seen and probably too indepth for me to explain here so i'll leave that up to google .
I picked EQ2. Not only can you make your entire game experience about crafting, but you choose skills while crafting, to combat overheating, underheating, spicing food, etc. to counteract imperfections in the process.
MMO games played or tested: EQ, DAoC, Archlord, Auto Assault, CoH, CoV, EQ2, EVE, Guild Wars, Hellgate: London, Linneage II, LOTRO, MxO, Planetside, SWG, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard, WWIIOL, WOW, Age of Conan
Lineage 2 because it is a challenge to get the materials and crafting makes a profit. In other games I have played crafting will only make you lose money.
really surprised that Ultima Online wasnt on this list.... cause i think over the years they have had the best and most comprehensive crafting system for a fantasy game...
I would have to also say SWG. I can't say anything about it post NG as I stopped playing when they put in the Jedi Village. I think alot of people are saying Pre-NG or pre-CU because that is when they quit. I tried a free trial of SWG recently but the place was a literal ghost galaxy. Maybe everyone was off in higher level areas but if the game doesn't support the lower areas to the point of population, it really isn't worth it.
I tried Ryzom but for some reason, I couldn't get into it. I don't know if it was the harvesting of the materials or just the confusion of starting off. I should note that I played this in Beta just before release so my impression is old.
Horizons had potential but the lack of people around had me stop trying way before I got too involved in the crafting. What good is crafting if there is no one around to buy it?
A Tale In The Desert is a great crafting game, but it is more about personal crafting and building and not so much about buying and selling - important parts in crafting items, IMO.
World of Warcraft - It is a very simple system but you do have those gems of items that people are willing to pay out the nose for so you can have some fun. When Jewelcrafting came out, those that enjoyed the crafting got up and were in high demand. But again, when the raid items beat out the crafted items, once you reach max level, you're more or less unwanted.
Everquest II - Again, I stopped playing a few months after launch because it felt as if nothing you did mattered in the world. Crafting was quite involved, and working wiht others and specialization was important. However, I felt that the 'skill' section of the crafting to stop mishaps was useless. It seemed that there was no difference to randomly mashing keys as it was to use the proper 'repsonse' key. I have heard it has changed though so who knows.
Vanguard - welcome to Everquest 2.5. The only difference is that you don't burn resources while leveling - they supply you with crap to level your crafting. You still stay in some dark hole though.
Lord of the Rings - Welcome to Everquest 2 with hobbits. System is different but overall it feels the same.
Eve Online - I have just started playing this but it looks like it has alot of potential. And with people around in this game and the player driven economy, I might be able to go the distance and see what there is to do.
The things that make crafting in a game fun (IMO) are:
1) Resource gathering being more than rush to a node and click. SWG did an excellent job at coming up with a new gathering system.
2) Items are on par or better than loot drops. This keeps the crafter in demand and the dedicated crafter all but worshipped.
3) Player based economy. Somewhat tied to #2, it is useless to build something if a player can just go kill something or buy it off of a vendor.
4) Item experimentation. You want a weapon that does alot of damage but might snap or do you want one that does less damage but won't break? Up to the crafter - and thereby all items are different depending upon who crafted them and what they wanted.
5) Specialized crafting areas. The more the better - that way, you don't just have the top 3 weaponsmiths but have the top 3 fletchers, the top 3 boyers, the top 3 blade crafters, the top 3 mace crafters, the top 3 hilt desingers (affecting the overall quality of the weapon) etc. Granted, you'll still have an 'elitist' group but with #3, cheaper but less UBR items will always be in demand.
SWG met all of the above requirements (well maybe not quite #5 but the wide range of #4, linked to specific resource requirements all but made #5 even amongst the 8 or so crafting areas).
Comments
A tale in the desert gets my vote, disguised as other...
You should check out the forums in the SWG thing on this site, and check out the topics in Veterans refuge. Some topics are just people ranting, but others have some pretty good debates going. But the basics is that Sony Online Entertainment put a ton of patches since the release, i don't really know why, but some were good and others bad but nothing really changed everything too much. But then they implented a combat upgrade or CU system which completely revamped the combat, this ticked off alot of people, including me who like the original combat. ANd then later they did something with NGE i don't know alot about that though since i wasn't playing. But thats the background, actually, i don't know the site but i've heard that some guy actually has taken the precu SWG and put it on his own servers, they're pretty empty i think, but if ur interested in combat at all u should check it out.
Also, i forgot to mention, Second Life has a creation system, i wouldn't say crafting since it requires programming. But its pretty cool to see what people can do, but i would try teen second life, since the adult second life is filled with perverts in some areas just don't even bother with it.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/Tabatron/Fading-SWGEMU.gif
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/Tabatron/Fading-SWGEMU.gif
I voted swg. Not sure how it is today, but in the original swg it was a very good system. Not only the crafting process itself, but also how it was visual backed up. That you could se a 3d-moel how the final item would look like and not just a picture of a item that have nothing to do with how it really will look like in the end.
EQ2 have a not so bad crafting process, but it lacks any customization to the item. You can just assamble the exact described components to generate a fixed item with varying success (normal items or differnt degrees of failure).
There's been very few changes made to the overall crafting system since the game launched so this "original SWG crafting system" stuff is misleading. Weaponsmith is the only crafting profession that has had major changes made to it that renders it somewhat unused currently and replaced by loots/rewards. The good news is that WS is in the process of being revamped to hopefully bring it back to the forefront again
SWG was best. Played as a crafter (architecht) for 1 year long and never bored.
"Hope is denial of reality."
Burakstlin Majere
I've heard quite a few people say the same thing about Horizon's crafting system. I tried the demo to see for myself, but I quickly lost interest in the game.
What's unique about it?
Other: Horizon
Followed by Neocron, least back when I played.
I favor systems were you can make the same item in many different ways, imbue, enchant, expand or whatever, systems like EVE is way way down on that list because there is only one possible outcome of said item, higher skills will only make items cheaper and/or faster to create.
Hell, even a hull paint would pick eve up from the bottom in this regard, as far as I am concerned it is not even crafting, it is manufacturing, wich I suppose is how it should be.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SWG then Horizons for me.
I think SWG had the best hands down while crafting in Horizons was also pretty in depth and interesting, and dare I say fun. Ok it wasn't that fun but still there were lots of options and I loved putting crafting skills to use to build houses, rebuild that elf city (Feladan?) and lugging out mats to the wilderness to build an entrance to portals to these islands to eventually unlock that race(Satyrs?). Also armor dyes were pretty neat.
Past: AC, AC2, DAoC, SWG, HZ, EVE, Ryzom, WoW, L2
Present: nothing
Future: Aion, AoC, PotBS
I think its an oxymoron to say "best crafting system". All crafting stinks and should be written out of every game.
But realizing that some folks like it (for reasons that I can't even begin to understand) I would have to say that my favorite (if I had a favorite) would be EvE's just because it seems terribly relevant to the game world. (don't confuse relevance with fun).
Back to slaying Dragons....
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I just got in from work and checked the poll. 99 votes in and SWG is the clear winner.
Thanks for taking part in the vote and posting.
______________
Mark E. Cooper
AKA Tohrment
Proud member of Damned Souls since 2007.
http://www.damnedsouls.eu
I have to say runescape has the best crafting system on any game that I have played (not saying it is THE best but it is the best i have seen). So i voted other.
I voted SWG too. However this poll is skewed, most people probably havent even played a 1/3 of your list, and If they have -they did not play them extensively enough to know. Either way I thought the crafting system was rather fun and unboring. With a player driven economy at the time, especially in the begining when people needed a good crafter for top weapons that werent available yet. This was by far better than the grind fest of EQ2 for me, or the mindless click of a button in WOW.
Your statement regarding WoW is not entirely accurate. High lvl Armor sets, Jewelry and Pots that can be made and sold all via the AH, some for huge profit.That's just 3 for example there are many more....
Yeah, I agree here with you... but these are mostly small things, like you said, pots, jewels... aye, a good armor can be craftable (mostly for cloth users) but for me as a plate user, I need a Blacksmith skill to use all of it's bonuses (silly), and look at the weapons that Blacksmiths are able to do for themselves. They're awsome. Lots of people would want that, I bet. And look at the special enchants that Jewelcrafters can make, again, only for themselves. And that includes Alchemists, that can make a lot of thing for, yes, you guessed, themselves. I really see no point in here. I have Engineering and Mining for about two years now, and if I would want that new enchants that only Jewelcrafter can make or that new weapons that are limited to Blacksmiths, I would have to teach myself a new profession all over again. And that's what I don't like. For example, every single item that I made in UO (at least four years ago or so) was usable by everyone and I was able to sell it to anyone. A small stool or a big dinning table. Or a wooden pony. Or... a fork. And that's what I miss in these "modern" games. We should be able to help each other. You know, I give you a pig, you give me a prosciutto.
Knock the world right off its feet and straight onto its head.
I voted other, although SWG crafting is awesome.
Horizons has the best crafting system in any fantasy game, too bad everything else was lame, except character creation. SWG would be best non-fantasy, but they both were stellar.
Now, if I could have Horizons crafting, and EQ2 gameplay, I'd be set...
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
For a genre called MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER, I'm surprised at the limited amount of gameplay options developers offer.
Auto Assault- The cool thing about Auto Assault crafting system is that you can reverse engineer items that you find or buy. When you do that you deconstruct it into a blueprint. When you get that blueprint you can then alter parts to come up with new items. I thought it was a great crafting system.
SWG Pre NGE in my opinion.
And rofl at everyone who voted for WoW.
I've heard quite a few people say the same thing about Horizon's crafting system. I tried the demo to see for myself, but I quickly lost interest in the game.
What's unique about it?
To have really appreciated the crafting system in Horizons, you would have had to play it from release. A large part of the world was destroyed initially and had to be rebuilt. Bridges that led to new lands, mines, farms, mills, mana generators etc. which were held in public trust and benefited all players, took a significant amount of time to rebuild and everyone could choose to contribute as much or as little as they wanted, but your skills increased in that particular field of crafting as you contributed. When the buildings were completed, they actually effected the environment and changed the surrounding landscape. Bridges obviously gave access to new lands and possible new settlements and personal plots, while mana generators and mines, mills etc, allowed players to adventure farthur while having access to goods and services. It was really unique in that regard, no other game I have played offered that aspect of crafting.
Then you have your personal plot that you develop and build various structures on including your house, estate and trade/crafting stations.
Then you have the standard crafting of items. Horizons was the first game I played that really portrayed a more accurate harvesting system and developed harvesting as it's own skillset. You actually used special tools for harvesting vs crafting, and the items you harvested were represented graphically accurate in the surrounding world. A lot of games just spawn generic glowing blobs to harvest but this was not the case in Horizons. The items you harvested were real, like trees and flax and ore etc., and when you harvested them, they would disappear as one would expect, and they might appear or grow back in another area but not in the same place right away. The sound effects for harvesting and crafting were unique for each different item and also added an element of fun.
Overall the realism and influence that harvesting, crafting and building offered in Horizons were a major design focus by the developers and it was a success. Too bad the game failed because of other issues.
WoW, GW, CoH/V?
You gotta be kidding me......anyways
I voted for SWG, mainly because they had so many crafting professions (classes) that all worked together to be apart of the universe. Classes were Architect, Armor smith, Shipwright, Chef, Droid Engineer, Merchant (1 profession that opens up their own vendor to sell products), Tailor and Weaponsmith. There were other professions that had crafting in them too such as Jedi, Bio Engineer, Doctor, Combat Medic and Ranger. All of these professions were needed for everything in SWG, you needed to buy certain things from other crafters so you could gather resources or finish one of your own crafted items. The crafting system itself was the best i've seen and probably too indepth for me to explain here so i'll leave that up to google
.
Horizons was the first mmo I ever played, and I started near its release. Its crafting system was by far the most fun
I've ever been involved with, and probably one of the most realistic. EQII was enjoyable also, but Horizons by far made you feel like you
was making a differance in the world by doing it. WOW's crafting system is a joke. The game
is more about getting uber gear from your dungeon raids than it is about crafting anything of value .
Jewel , alchemy and enchanting would probaly be the only 3 exceptions; though you could still get by with out either of them. I just think
they help out more people than any other craft WOW has to offer. IMHO its not only one of the more useless craft
systems, but the most boring also. Most of the things you can craft on WOW, you can get cheaper or better items from
AH, Mob drops, quest rewards, BG's or rep grinding.
I picked EQ2. Not only can you make your entire game experience about crafting, but you choose skills while crafting, to combat overheating, underheating, spicing food, etc. to counteract imperfections in the process.
MMO games played or tested: EQ, DAoC, Archlord, Auto Assault, CoH, CoV, EQ2, EVE, Guild Wars, Hellgate: London, Linneage II, LOTRO, MxO, Planetside, SWG, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard, WWIIOL, WOW, Age of Conan
Lineage 2 because it is a challenge to get the materials and crafting makes a profit. In other games I have played crafting will only make you lose money.
really surprised that Ultima Online wasnt on this list.... cause i think over the years they have had the best and most comprehensive crafting system for a fantasy game...
I would have to also say SWG. I can't say anything about it post NG as I stopped playing when they put in the Jedi Village. I think alot of people are saying Pre-NG or pre-CU because that is when they quit. I tried a free trial of SWG recently but the place was a literal ghost galaxy. Maybe everyone was off in higher level areas but if the game doesn't support the lower areas to the point of population, it really isn't worth it.
I tried Ryzom but for some reason, I couldn't get into it. I don't know if it was the harvesting of the materials or just the confusion of starting off. I should note that I played this in Beta just before release so my impression is old.
Horizons had potential but the lack of people around had me stop trying way before I got too involved in the crafting. What good is crafting if there is no one around to buy it?
A Tale In The Desert is a great crafting game, but it is more about personal crafting and building and not so much about buying and selling - important parts in crafting items, IMO.
World of Warcraft - It is a very simple system but you do have those gems of items that people are willing to pay out the nose for so you can have some fun. When Jewelcrafting came out, those that enjoyed the crafting got up and were in high demand. But again, when the raid items beat out the crafted items, once you reach max level, you're more or less unwanted.
Everquest II - Again, I stopped playing a few months after launch because it felt as if nothing you did mattered in the world. Crafting was quite involved, and working wiht others and specialization was important. However, I felt that the 'skill' section of the crafting to stop mishaps was useless. It seemed that there was no difference to randomly mashing keys as it was to use the proper 'repsonse' key. I have heard it has changed though so who knows.
Vanguard - welcome to Everquest 2.5. The only difference is that you don't burn resources while leveling - they supply you with crap to level your crafting. You still stay in some dark hole though.
Lord of the Rings - Welcome to Everquest 2 with hobbits. System is different but overall it feels the same.
Eve Online - I have just started playing this but it looks like it has alot of potential. And with people around in this game and the player driven economy, I might be able to go the distance and see what there is to do.
The things that make crafting in a game fun (IMO) are:
1) Resource gathering being more than rush to a node and click. SWG did an excellent job at coming up with a new gathering system.
2) Items are on par or better than loot drops. This keeps the crafter in demand and the dedicated crafter all but worshipped.
3) Player based economy. Somewhat tied to #2, it is useless to build something if a player can just go kill something or buy it off of a vendor.
4) Item experimentation. You want a weapon that does alot of damage but might snap or do you want one that does less damage but won't break? Up to the crafter - and thereby all items are different depending upon who crafted them and what they wanted.
5) Specialized crafting areas. The more the better - that way, you don't just have the top 3 weaponsmiths but have the top 3 fletchers, the top 3 boyers, the top 3 blade crafters, the top 3 mace crafters, the top 3 hilt desingers (affecting the overall quality of the weapon) etc. Granted, you'll still have an 'elitist' group but with #3, cheaper but less UBR items will always be in demand.
SWG met all of the above requirements (well maybe not quite #5 but the wide range of #4, linked to specific resource requirements all but made #5 even amongst the 8 or so crafting areas).
Post Count +1, Ditto