What I would like is if there were not that many recipes. Just a few. Beyond that, give me some tools, and some processes, and let me collect materials wherever I can find them, to combine at my discretion.
Then let me play with all that stuff. I add some dragons blood I got in a raid to 3 bars of bronze I have and put it in the fire for 10 minutes, and see what it makes? Maybe it makes nothing special, and maybe it makes a flaming +25 sword. If it does make a cool sword, then I have a family recipe that I can use and people will want swords that Amathe makes.
I would really like to feel like I can discover things - secret things - and not just grind out prefabricated crap.
Interesting post. #1 reason is that some of the things I've put into my game are what people like! So I'm not totally off track that there are others out there that want interesting, worthwhile crafting and less dependence on uber drops. I gotta stay hush about anything specific, don't want my ideas to be snatched up before I release - all I have now is a toon as a box on screen so can ya talk about another topic so that the big developers don't see what people really want lol
Interesting post. #1 reason is that some of the things I've put into my game are what people like! So I'm not totally off track that there are others out there that want interesting, worthwhile crafting and less dependence on uber drops. I gotta stay hush about anything specific, don't want my ideas to be snatched up before I release - all I have now is a toon as a box on screen so can ya talk about another topic so that the big developers don't see what people really want lol
It was a mixture of quite a few things that made SWG's crafting system so awesome. The resource system they used was innovative and never seen before. Also, its never been seen since. Housing and Vendors, along with Factories and Harvestors combined to make crafting in SWG a whole new way to play online, all without killing or fighting anything.
The grind to master was in itself a harrowing and painful experience, thats a fine example of Repetition if ever Ive seen it.
But after that, man was it ever sweet. I spent as much time jumping from planet to planet surveying for new resources (which ultimately was the secret to being a great crafter, not just a good one) as I did actually running my store.
I agree, SWG had the most amazing resource system, in-depth crafting and merchant system of any game I have played. The resources changed (spawned) at different times offering changing stat values. For many, mining and harvesting was a game in itself. Many recipes then would not only require particular resources, but the stats in the resourcse were important. There were item recipes that also had multiple experimentational lines to bump up, so decisions had to be made. Such as in a fire arm - more experimental points into durability? Speed? Damage? Range? Through rare enhancement loot drops that could be optionally be added to a recipe, an item could far exceed stat values of regularly crafted items - making it an uber, unique masterpiece of war. What was truly wonderful is that a player could be totally dedicated to crafting - and many were.
Sadly, the very aspect of the game SWG excelled at and set it far apart from other games was the one aspect was continually dumbed down and marginalized with every change to the game. While it is still the best system MMO-wise, it is a mere shadow of what it was. /sigh
I'm not much of a crafter; but I love resource gathering, and I love the social aspects of being the guy that the crafters go to when they need resources.
My favourite system thus far was early SWG. Finding and tracking down the epicentre of a sweet new resource and then selling it within the community. SWG was unique (amongst the games I've played) in a couple of ways .. all worthwhile gear was crafted and perishable, players had to choose their skillsets carefully (leading to very few dedicated crafters) 'cos of the restrictions on alts and character development, and the resources were always changing.
Those three elements made for a pretty awesome crafting system.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
Sorry, haven't exactly followed the way you wanted for ideas to be presented. I read the thread title and had to write what came into my head in the way it "appeared" and I'm out of time to format those ideas.
No not at all, I didn't have a format presented just a few things to think about, but I really enjoyed your post as you tackled some things I didn't really think of or mention and all your points seemed like good ideas to me, especially the two tier durability. I hadn't really thought of it that much but in order for there to be great crafting things need to be crafted and what you said will definately keep crafters in high demand. The game developers would really need to make crafting FUN with this system though otherwise people will feel they are being forced into doing something that is boring.
"Time is not money, it is much more; For I would give my very last dollar just to have one more moment on this Earth; But I can't, for time does not accept payoffs, only lives"
It was a mixture of quite a few things that made SWG's crafting system so awesome. The resource system they used was innovative and never seen before. Also, its never been seen since. Housing and Vendors, along with Factories and Harvestors combined to make crafting in SWG a whole new way to play online, all without killing or fighting anything.
The grind to master was in itself a harrowing and painful experience, thats a fine example of Repetition if ever Ive seen it.
But after that, man was it ever sweet. I spent as much time jumping from planet to planet surveying for new resources (which ultimately was the secret to being a great crafter, not just a good one) as I did actually running my store.
I agree, SWG had the most amazing resource system, in-depth crafting and merchant system of any game I have played. The resources changed (spawned) at different times offering changing stat values. For many, mining and harvesting was a game in itself. Many recipes then would not only require particular resources, but the stats in the resourcse were important. There were item recipes that also had multiple experimentational lines to bump up, so decisions had to be made. Such as in a fire arm - more experimental points into durability? Speed? Damage? Range? Through rare enhancement loot drops that could be optionally be added to a recipe, an item could far exceed stat values of regularly crafted items - making it an uber, unique masterpiece of war. What was truly wonderful is that a player could be totally dedicated to crafting - and many were.
Sadly, the very aspect of the game SWG excelled at and set it far apart from other games was the one aspect was continually dumbed down and marginalized with every change to the game. While it is still the best system MMO-wise, it is a mere shadow of what it was. /sigh
Being totally dedicated to my profession, exactly. An average log in session involved firstly scouting and sampling every planet for new resources. A resource could shift overnight, and you didnt want to be the only crafter not to get some if it was extremely good.
Id then visit my harvester farm (36 harvesters thanks to cross server trading) and set any possible harvetsr to the resources I needed. Maintenance on said harvesters was next, almost 2.4million credits every couple of weeks, as well as several hundred thousand units of power.
In-game emails were next. Special orders came through on a regular basis. Folks with Krayt tissue samples, or Geonosian cores wanting custom made jobs. I once had a job for 20 or so FWG5's, they guy had a whole bag of Krayt samples, Id never seen such a collection. He'd been farming them for months. During this time the private tells would start, and try as hard as I could to ignore them, eventually the sender would just turn up on my door step.
Vendors were next. Factories that were set the night before were emptied, sorted and brought in for placing onto vendors. Of which I had...5 ot 6...from memory. I only did firearms, my business partner (Soar, I miss you) did melee. As a joint effort we also ran a vendor or two just for the add-on damage modifiers.
Next Id run an inventory check on resources. I had a separate house solely for my resources, I had so many. Anyone that was a crafter in the first 12-18 months of SWG new all about resource stats and how they were used. You couldnt afford not to have some of something. The best crafters had resource stores that would last them months.
At this point, Ive probably been in game for atleast 2, maybe even three hours, and you wanna know what the best part was (for me anyway)? I hadnt killed a single thing. Whether it was an NPC mob, or another player, the Scout Blaster I carried on my hip, simply because it looked good, wasnt fired once.
It was quite simply awesome.
Another very important thing to remember was Permanent Decay. Items could be repaired, but repairing items lowered the current maximum durability every time, so eventually, even those 20 custom made Krayt tissue enhanced FWG5's would break and be gone completely from the economy, thus requiring more to be made. I truely beileve that any crafting system without Permanent Decay is pointless.
SWG also had no BoE/BoA, which meant everything could be handed down, or sold on. Another thing to remember.
It was a mixture of quite a few things that made SWG's crafting system so awesome. The resource system they used was innovative and never seen before. Also, its never been seen since. Housing and Vendors, along with Factories and Harvestors combined to make crafting in SWG a whole new way to play online, all without killing or fighting anything.
The grind to master was in itself a harrowing and painful experience, thats a fine example of Repetition if ever Ive seen it.
But after that, man was it ever sweet. I spent as much time jumping from planet to planet surveying for new resources (which ultimately was the secret to being a great crafter, not just a good one) as I did actually running my store.
I agree, SWG had the most amazing resource system, in-depth crafting and merchant system of any game I have played. The resources changed (spawned) at different times offering changing stat values. For many, mining and harvesting was a game in itself. Many recipes then would not only require particular resources, but the stats in the resourcse were important. There were item recipes that also had multiple experimentational lines to bump up, so decisions had to be made. Such as in a fire arm - more experimental points into durability? Speed? Damage? Range? Through rare enhancement loot drops that could be optionally be added to a recipe, an item could far exceed stat values of regularly crafted items - making it an uber, unique masterpiece of war. What was truly wonderful is that a player could be totally dedicated to crafting - and many were.
Sadly, the very aspect of the game SWG excelled at and set it far apart from other games was the one aspect was continually dumbed down and marginalized with every change to the game. While it is still the best system MMO-wise, it is a mere shadow of what it was. /sigh
Being totally dedicated to my profession, exactly. An average log in session involved firstly scouting and sampling every planet for new resources. A resource could shift overnight, and you didnt want to be the only crafter not to get some if it was extremely good.
Id then visit my harvester farm (36 harvesters thanks to cross server trading) and set any possible harvetsr to the resources I needed. Maintenance on said harvesters was next, almost 2.4million credits every couple of weeks, as well as several hundred thousand units of power.
In-game emails were next. Special orders came through on a regular basis. Folks with Krayt tissue samples, or Geonosian cores wanting custom made jobs. I once had a job for 20 or so FWG5's, they guy had a whole bag of Krayt samples, Id never seen such a collection. He'd been farming them for months. During this time the private tells would start, and try as hard as I could to ignore them, eventually the sender would just turn up on my door step.
Vendors were next. Factories that were set the night before were emptied, sorted and brought in for placing onto vendors. Of which I had...5 ot 6...from memory. I only did firearms, my business partner (Soar, I miss you) did melee. As a joint effort we also ran a vendor or two just for the add-on damage modifiers.
Next Id run an inventory check on resources. I had a separate house solely for my resources, I had so many. Anyone that was a crafter in the first 12-18 months of SWG new all about resource stats and how they were used. You couldnt afford not to have some of something. The best crafters had resource stores that would last them months.
At this point, Ive probably been in game for atleast 2, maybe even three hours, and you wanna know what the best part was (for me anyway)? I hadnt killed a single thing. Whether it was an NPC mob, or another player, the Scout Blaster I carried on my hip, simply because it looked good, wasnt fired once.
It was quite simply awesome.
Another very important thing to remember was Permanent Decay. Items could be repaired, but repairing items lowered the current maximum durability every time, so eventually, even those 20 custom made Krayt tissue enhanced FWG5's would break and be gone completely from the economy, thus requiring more to be made. I truely beileve that any crafting system without Permanent Decay is pointless.
SWG also had no BoE/BoA, which meant everything could be handed down, or sold on. Another thing to remember.
I don't know if I'm happy that I didn't go through the NGE/CU only to lose such an amazing setup or that I'm sad I never experienced the game in it's original form.
What you described sounds like my ideal form of crafting and play style in any MMO setting, Star Wars or otherwise.
Even describing it as best I can I simply cant do it the justice it deserves. Not that it was all good. There was a couple months of hard-core constant exp grind to get to Master Weaponsmith, which is a stupid mechanic in any game. But after that, its all cream.
Ive got screenshots somewhere at home on an old hardrive, I'll try and find them and get them up here.
The Saga of Ryzom pretty much sums it up. I don't think many ppl have played this game :P. highly underrated and the crafting system is beyond that, because it really is that F***** good. Coming up with an "extra special" recipe in this game for gear is something like a journey. It takes care and devotion to what your doing. You must give it love hehe and you will if you like to craft. It deserves mention and rivals SWG in many ways. Actually it's better, straight up. Just cuz not lots o ppl play Ryzom, bahawhatever.
Diablo 2 (edit: may not be an mmo, so what, its an rpg, with a loot/craft system, i think we can use it here ) The horadric cube was very addictive, but so was killling Baal or Skin a thousand times. risk vs reward is actually a good system. Why spend time harvesting mats and things when you could buy them from a designated npc harvester merchant and enemies. Really no reason for people to spend their time with harvest/craft except for the fact that making a viable "money" system for items and materials is hard in a game without making everything worthless. Making a viable resource based economy is easier because it's "real" ulike our current governments fiat money system and every other gov around the world has the same thing, tied to the same fake a** money. It's not like their is some facist government taking handfulls off the top to balance out the economy in a video game hehe. Maybe a couple games .
I wonder is Mr. Koster, since he frequents these boards, could tell us who made that crafting system and let us know who they are working for today. With as much praise as it has gotten to being the best crafting/resource system ever put into an MMO you'd think someone would have tried to emulate it by now.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Crafting must most importantly create a completely seperate path through the game. If I chose to be a chef then i will need to go foraging and fishing, these should be as fun as combat. I shouldn't have to start grinding mobs to get the gold required to buy my next mats or training. Everything I produce should have a resale value. You can appreciate that lvl 1s might not know about lvl 1 food until level 5 when they need lvl 5 food but for the majority - if i make lvl 5 food then there should be demand for my food at a profit to levle 5 players on the broker.
What is essential is a massive range of recipes and as much specialisation as possible.
Instead of 'vehicle' crafter - make me a large amphibious vehicle crafter. So everyones like 'Oh hey do you know a large amphibious vehicle crafter?' 'oh yeah I know of ONE'. There should be like 100 different tradeskill professions to end up as. On games like WoW there are 3 talent trees to 10 classes with hybrid combinations - say 50 possible builds yet there are 8 professions and you need to combat grind to pay for the most of the professions.
Also keep the SWG idea of stamping a creator on items (in the items name) so that people appreciate the crafter and feel obliged to return to them for the same quality of goods. The other SWG ideas were good too like the best items were generally crafted but there were so many variables like a final randomness plus the quality of all the materials used etc.
Really cool things should be craftable - essential things i.e. all houses, mounts, ships etc. SWG was great when everyone that wanted a mount had to buy one from another player - you could sell them to guilds in bulk etc.
-- Note: PlayNC will refuse to allow you access to your account if you forget your password and can't provide a scanned image of the product key for the first product you purchased..... LOL
world would be completely playershapeable as in wurm - you can not only dig through the mountains, cut down or plant the trees, but also dig up the dirt and move it to somewhere else, artificially e.g. creating new island etc.
power of crafted vs dropped items:
there would be more or less no drops - everything would be player craftable. if you would like to have also loot eq which matter, just make some types of equippable items uncraftable - e.g. all armor pieces would be craftable, while weapons/ring/necklace/earrings/trinkets would be drop loot
material acquired:
you would be able to get all the material out of combat way - cut down trees, mine ore in mines, plant herbs, hunt noncombat animals ("critters"), make your own cloth .... Sure, in some cases it would be quicker for you to get material in combat (e.g. killing dragon would yield A LOT of leather ) but you still would have option to get materials without fighting if you choose so. Why the hell should have to be crafters also fighters?
another way to get material would be salvaging crafted (or looted if there are some) items.
way of selling items:
there would be board with functionality more or less like auction, but instead of "Buy" or "Bid" buttons there would be button "Track", which would just note you, when seller of that particular item will come online and you would have to meet him in person.
durability/repairing:
both crafters and npcs would be able to repair items, but:
original crafter repairing it = -1 max durability
other crafter repairing it = -2 or -3 max durability
NPC repairing it = -5 max durability
death = -10 max durability
player design:
you would be able to design your own look of the crafted item. this one is actually more utopic than others, since players would e.g. for armor get some really powerfull 3D designing tool so it could be designed for ingame use. also it would have to be checked and approved by some GM, so you would not make items saying "f..k you" or "i hate black people" etc.
crafting process itself:
1. there would not be any cap on skilllevel - only "soft cap" given by best available recipe, because even tho you could level your skill with even the most basic one recipe only, the bigger difference between your skill and skill of the recipe, the slower it would go up.
2. crafting would be more or less a minigame
3. you would be able to actually improve recipe (upgrade them) with random stats
4. there would be also other way to improve crafted items, like socketing (with "jewel" stats being only server wide and jewel combinations (like runewords in diablo 2) being only player wide), runes (which would give effects like +haste, chance to cast protective spells etc. and server wide runes would have to be discovered) .... etc.
as for how would the crafting minigame look like, check this:
Comments
likes it I do.
Interesting post. #1 reason is that some of the things I've put into my game are what people like! So I'm not totally off track that there are others out there that want interesting, worthwhile crafting and less dependence on uber drops. I gotta stay hush about anything specific, don't want my ideas to be snatched up before I release - all I have now is a toon as a box on screen so can ya talk about another topic so that the big developers don't see what people really want lol
lol, but wait...
I agree, SWG had the most amazing resource system, in-depth crafting and merchant system of any game I have played. The resources changed (spawned) at different times offering changing stat values. For many, mining and harvesting was a game in itself. Many recipes then would not only require particular resources, but the stats in the resourcse were important. There were item recipes that also had multiple experimentational lines to bump up, so decisions had to be made. Such as in a fire arm - more experimental points into durability? Speed? Damage? Range? Through rare enhancement loot drops that could be optionally be added to a recipe, an item could far exceed stat values of regularly crafted items - making it an uber, unique masterpiece of war. What was truly wonderful is that a player could be totally dedicated to crafting - and many were.
Sadly, the very aspect of the game SWG excelled at and set it far apart from other games was the one aspect was continually dumbed down and marginalized with every change to the game. While it is still the best system MMO-wise, it is a mere shadow of what it was. /sigh
I'm not much of a crafter; but I love resource gathering, and I love the social aspects of being the guy that the crafters go to when they need resources.
My favourite system thus far was early SWG. Finding and tracking down the epicentre of a sweet new resource and then selling it within the community. SWG was unique (amongst the games I've played) in a couple of ways .. all worthwhile gear was crafted and perishable, players had to choose their skillsets carefully (leading to very few dedicated crafters) 'cos of the restrictions on alts and character development, and the resources were always changing.
Those three elements made for a pretty awesome crafting system.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
No not at all, I didn't have a format presented just a few things to think about, but I really enjoyed your post as you tackled some things I didn't really think of or mention and all your points seemed like good ideas to me, especially the two tier durability. I hadn't really thought of it that much but in order for there to be great crafting things need to be crafted and what you said will definately keep crafters in high demand. The game developers would really need to make crafting FUN with this system though otherwise people will feel they are being forced into doing something that is boring.
"Time is not money, it is much more;
For I would give my very last dollar just to have one more moment on this Earth;
But I can't, for time does not accept payoffs, only lives"
Being totally dedicated to my profession, exactly. An average log in session involved firstly scouting and sampling every planet for new resources. A resource could shift overnight, and you didnt want to be the only crafter not to get some if it was extremely good.
Id then visit my harvester farm (36 harvesters thanks to cross server trading) and set any possible harvetsr to the resources I needed. Maintenance on said harvesters was next, almost 2.4million credits every couple of weeks, as well as several hundred thousand units of power.
In-game emails were next. Special orders came through on a regular basis. Folks with Krayt tissue samples, or Geonosian cores wanting custom made jobs. I once had a job for 20 or so FWG5's, they guy had a whole bag of Krayt samples, Id never seen such a collection. He'd been farming them for months. During this time the private tells would start, and try as hard as I could to ignore them, eventually the sender would just turn up on my door step.
Vendors were next. Factories that were set the night before were emptied, sorted and brought in for placing onto vendors. Of which I had...5 ot 6...from memory. I only did firearms, my business partner (Soar, I miss you) did melee. As a joint effort we also ran a vendor or two just for the add-on damage modifiers.
Next Id run an inventory check on resources. I had a separate house solely for my resources, I had so many. Anyone that was a crafter in the first 12-18 months of SWG new all about resource stats and how they were used. You couldnt afford not to have some of something. The best crafters had resource stores that would last them months.
At this point, Ive probably been in game for atleast 2, maybe even three hours, and you wanna know what the best part was (for me anyway)? I hadnt killed a single thing. Whether it was an NPC mob, or another player, the Scout Blaster I carried on my hip, simply because it looked good, wasnt fired once.
It was quite simply awesome.
Another very important thing to remember was Permanent Decay. Items could be repaired, but repairing items lowered the current maximum durability every time, so eventually, even those 20 custom made Krayt tissue enhanced FWG5's would break and be gone completely from the economy, thus requiring more to be made. I truely beileve that any crafting system without Permanent Decay is pointless.
SWG also had no BoE/BoA, which meant everything could be handed down, or sold on. Another thing to remember.
PAST: UO-SWG-DAOC-WOW-DDO-VG-AOC-WAR-FE-DFO-LOTRO-RIFT-GW2
PRESENT: Nothing
FUTURE: ESO
I don't know if I'm happy that I didn't go through the NGE/CU only to lose such an amazing setup or that I'm sad I never experienced the game in it's original form.
What you described sounds like my ideal form of crafting and play style in any MMO setting, Star Wars or otherwise.
Even describing it as best I can I simply cant do it the justice it deserves. Not that it was all good. There was a couple months of hard-core constant exp grind to get to Master Weaponsmith, which is a stupid mechanic in any game. But after that, its all cream.
Ive got screenshots somewhere at home on an old hardrive, I'll try and find them and get them up here.
PAST: UO-SWG-DAOC-WOW-DDO-VG-AOC-WAR-FE-DFO-LOTRO-RIFT-GW2
PRESENT: Nothing
FUTURE: ESO
The Saga of Ryzom pretty much sums it up. I don't think many ppl have played this game :P. highly underrated and the crafting system is beyond that, because it really is that F***** good. Coming up with an "extra special" recipe in this game for gear is something like a journey. It takes care and devotion to what your doing. You must give it love
hehe and you will if you like to craft. It deserves mention and rivals SWG in many ways. Actually it's better, straight up. Just cuz not lots o ppl play Ryzom, bahawhatever.
Diablo 2 (edit: may not be an mmo, so what, its an rpg, with a loot/craft system, i think we can use it here
) The horadric cube was very addictive, but so was killling Baal or Skin a thousand times. risk vs reward is actually a good system. Why spend time harvesting mats and things when you could buy them from a designated npc harvester merchant and enemies. Really no reason for people to spend their time with harvest/craft except for the fact that making a viable "money" system for items and materials is hard in a game without making everything worthless. Making a viable resource based economy is easier because it's "real" ulike our current governments fiat money system and every other gov around the world has the same thing, tied to the same fake a** money. It's not like their is some facist government taking handfulls off the top to balance out the economy in a video game hehe. Maybe a couple games 
.
I wonder is Mr. Koster, since he frequents these boards, could tell us who made that crafting system and let us know who they are working for today. With as much praise as it has gotten to being the best crafting/resource system ever put into an MMO you'd think someone would have tried to emulate it by now.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Crafting must most importantly create a completely seperate path through the game. If I chose to be a chef then i will need to go foraging and fishing, these should be as fun as combat. I shouldn't have to start grinding mobs to get the gold required to buy my next mats or training. Everything I produce should have a resale value. You can appreciate that lvl 1s might not know about lvl 1 food until level 5 when they need lvl 5 food but for the majority - if i make lvl 5 food then there should be demand for my food at a profit to levle 5 players on the broker.
What is essential is a massive range of recipes and as much specialisation as possible.
Instead of 'vehicle' crafter - make me a large amphibious vehicle crafter. So everyones like 'Oh hey do you know a large amphibious vehicle crafter?' 'oh yeah I know of ONE'. There should be like 100 different tradeskill professions to end up as. On games like WoW there are 3 talent trees to 10 classes with hybrid combinations - say 50 possible builds yet there are 8 professions and you need to combat grind to pay for the most of the professions.
Also keep the SWG idea of stamping a creator on items (in the items name) so that people appreciate the crafter and feel obliged to return to them for the same quality of goods. The other SWG ideas were good too like the best items were generally crafted but there were so many variables like a final randomness plus the quality of all the materials used etc.
Really cool things should be craftable - essential things i.e. all houses, mounts, ships etc. SWG was great when everyone that wanted a mount had to buy one from another player - you could sell them to guilds in bulk etc.
--
Note: PlayNC will refuse to allow you access to your account if you forget your password and can't provide a scanned image of the product key for the first product you purchased..... LOL
well, my utopian system is this:
world:
world would be completely playershapeable as in wurm - you can not only dig through the mountains, cut down or plant the trees, but also dig up the dirt and move it to somewhere else, artificially e.g. creating new island etc.
power of crafted vs dropped items:
there would be more or less no drops - everything would be player craftable. if you would like to have also loot eq which matter, just make some types of equippable items uncraftable - e.g. all armor pieces would be craftable, while weapons/ring/necklace/earrings/trinkets would be drop loot
material acquired:
you would be able to get all the material out of combat way - cut down trees, mine ore in mines, plant herbs, hunt noncombat animals ("critters"), make your own cloth .... Sure, in some cases it would be quicker for you to get material in combat (e.g. killing dragon would yield A LOT of leather
) but you still would have option to get materials without fighting if you choose so. Why the hell should have to be crafters also fighters?
another way to get material would be salvaging crafted (or looted if there are some) items.
way of selling items:
there would be board with functionality more or less like auction, but instead of "Buy" or "Bid" buttons there would be button "Track", which would just note you, when seller of that particular item will come online and you would have to meet him in person.
durability/repairing:
both crafters and npcs would be able to repair items, but:
original crafter repairing it = -1 max durability
other crafter repairing it = -2 or -3 max durability
NPC repairing it = -5 max durability
death = -10 max durability
player design:
you would be able to design your own look of the crafted item. this one is actually more utopic than others, since players would e.g. for armor get some really powerfull 3D designing tool so it could be designed for ingame use. also it would have to be checked and approved by some GM, so you would not make items saying "f..k you" or "i hate black people" etc.
crafting process itself:
1. there would not be any cap on skilllevel - only "soft cap" given by best available recipe, because even tho you could level your skill with even the most basic one recipe only, the bigger difference between your skill and skill of the recipe, the slower it would go up.
2. crafting would be more or less a minigame
3. you would be able to actually improve recipe (upgrade them) with random stats
4. there would be also other way to improve crafted items, like socketing (with "jewel" stats being only server wide and jewel combinations (like runewords in diablo 2) being only player wide), runes (which would give effects like +haste, chance to cast protective spells etc. and server wide runes would have to be discovered) .... etc.
as for how would the crafting minigame look like, check this:
http://rapidshare.com/files/364608683/craftingv2Askill1.xls
only LW is working (and only T1 and one T2 recipes are put in)
if you think there it to low number of options, try to increase LW skilllevel on 1. tab (Skill tab)
btw, does anyone know any mmorpg with crafting process similar to vg or eq2?