Nothing even comes remotely close to even touching EVE. It has a crafting system so complex and deep that it's a statistical outlier for this poll. Anyone that thinks otherwise probably hasn't even scratched the surface or ever looked at the material and skill requirements for building something like a T2 command ship.
There are so many different material and skill requirements that most players only participate in one or two parts of the process and then sell their stuff to someone who can build something else with it.
Some players mine minerals, mine ice, harvest gas, drill moons, manage planets or run missions and then refine the materials, haul them to market and sell them. Other players buy these materials and make the basic building blocks of . Another player takes these Other players buy the basic building blocks, or base level ships, and then invent T2 ships from them.
It helps that overwhelming majority of objects that exists in the game are made by players.
Nothing even comes remotely close to even touching EVE. It has a crafting system so complex and deep that it's a statistical outlier for this poll. Anyone that thinks otherwise probably hasn't even scratched the surface or ever looked at the material and skill requirements for building something like a T2 command ship.
There are so many different material and skill requirements that most players only participate in one or two parts of the process and then sell their stuff to someone who can build something else with it.
Some players mine minerals, mine ice, harvest gas, drill moons, manage planets or run missions and then refine the materials, haul them to market and sell them. Other players buy these materials and make the basic building blocks of . Another player takes these Other players buy the basic building blocks, or base level ships, and then invent T2 ships from them.
It helps that overwhelming majority of objects that exists in the game are made by players.
And yet it still boils down to have the appropriate materials, have the appropriate skill, and hit the button to start the timer.
Even of the game's listed, Mortal Online is a step ahead because of how it challenges the recipe system. In MO you can choose what kind of metal you use in making that sword. What kind of blade, and what kind of hilt. Each with different and sometimes unknown properties. There's experimentation. EVE's recipes may be complex but the same recipe requires the same materials (other than slight quantity differences based on ME research) and puts out the same item, every single time. No room for experimentation.
You go acquire the materials, bring them back to base, plug in the BPO and then just wait for the output. That's a trading system, not a crafting system.
I would say SWG simply due to how you went about the scanning and sampling of areas to get the highest concentrated percentage of the material that you wanted to collect. And once you found the highest percentage you laid down a harvester. And the quality of the gathered resource determine the over all quality and durability of an item. Constructing an item was as simple as placing a schematic along with the material in a device ( which for the life of me I can't recall at the moment ). Another big aspect of the game was that not all the planets were safe to venture out by yourself if you were strictly an artisan class since you lacked any combat skills to defend yourself from attacks.
All the other games that I have played from WOW and ESO kind of make it fun to stand in of an anvil to craft while SWG allow for crafting anywhere in the game . And all of those games have a drawback at least for me and that is that I shouldn't have to go to a level 30 zone to craft items for a level 20 character. And in SWTOR case crafting is really for end game only since you currently ( or one could before I quit the game ) get really good gear as long as you were a sub to the game by running Heroics as you level up.
A Tale in the Desert. Its crafting system likely has more to do than all of the other games on your list added together.
Why is Guild Wars 2 on that list, though? Crafting there is purely of the "something stupid to grind levels in" that no one likes except for people who don't like crafting to begin with.
Well to be fair tho Quizzical , and i have played ATITD a couple times over the years , i agree the crafting is argubly second to none , but the game itself imo doesnt belong in the conversation(its a catergory alone) , Becasue thats all you do is craft ,Not combat ,no mobs ,no loot tables,no questing etc... its an EXTREME niche demographic, And if any other devs just up and decdied they wanted to make an ONLY CRFATING MMO im sure they could come up with an equally deep system , with not having to concern themselves with any of the other MMORPG activities..
This post is a little subjective thou, as best crafting not necessary point to the level of complexity or how much in depth they go, but depend on your personal taste. Some peoples like the economic aspects of crafting, some others the immersion, mini-game, it need to be simplistic or complex.
In my point of view there is three games were I truly enjoyed crafting. Eve Online is my personal favorite because I like the economy and level of complexity. When crafting is part of the actual world, 95% of items used by players is made by players, you cant get much more deep.
Ultima Online, the economy was great also in that game, I loved the fact that grand master crafter was very hard to attaint and very rewarding as your name was put on the items you created and the majority of players were looking for that equipments to wear.
Economy is somewhat linked to pvp I believe as crafting can only achieved a high degree of complexity and use if peoples are always in need of your goods, they need to die and be looted to attains that level that is why Ultima and Eve are looked as the most complex Crafting systems.
I played SWG from release and last only 2 months... I didn't like the crafting in the game, but I also didn't like the game at all.
Wurm Online and 7 days to die is also worth mentioning, but I'm not sure if they are part of MMO.
FFXIV, but only recently, since you can now craft useful high end gear. I also like the crafting mini-game in FFXIV, it's not prefect but it's a million times better than pure RNG.
SWG you had crafters and resource suppliers who were literally the best in the universe. As a crafter I would fly to their planet and buy their supplies as they were that good. As a buyer I would do the same for well made weapons and armor. The community was great and people were proud of their professions.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
SWG felt like living in a world and doing a job that helped the world along. I was a Bio-Engineer for almost my whole time there. I would run my own expeditions to get DNA samples and return from rough planets all beat up. A stop by the hospital and then to the cantina to get everything all healed up and it was out to my home, factories, vendors. It felt like being a part of a world.
Not everyone was doing the SAME THING, we were all finding our own ways to have fun. It was a full time job being a BE and often times I never carried or used a weapon. Crafted for Tailors, Chefs, Creature Handlers and in turn I would buy excess medical supplies from a couple Doctors I knew. Also bought tons of meat and supplies from hunters I knew. There was good interdependence and reasons to interact with others in ways that weren't repetitive. Crafting aside the main thing that made SWG magical to me personally was feeling like we were all actually fairly unique. Had homes, vehicles, mounts and even our class made up how we wanted to be and we weren't all the "chosen one" out to save the damn universe.
Having played both SWG and EVE and experiencing the crafting system in both, I have to say SWG is the better of the 2 for one simple reason. Accessibility. It was easy to pick up and you didnt have to wait for skills to be learned as the necessary skills needed could take weeks or months depending on what you are going for in EVE, and that means excluding most of the combat skills necessary to actually survive the mining process. SWG you could scan and harvest things from extremely early and it didnt take nearly as much waiting, you were actively working on improving your skills and it made it feel personal. As others have mentioned the best crafters in the Galaxy were go-to's for many and their name was on the product, this made it all feel much more personal like "This is my product and my name is on it. I don't want it to be just some overlooked garbage on the market. I want it to be the best and have my name be spread as the best."
My vote goes to Darkfall. Everquest 2 a close second... EvE solid third.
Meaningful and physical. Such as housing place-ables, and items that are top notch in the games themselves. Crafting should be more meaningful in MMOs, Darkfall and EvE have proven that. Everquest 2 makes my list for its interactive crafting and housing items, and I'm not even a housing fan. Certainly the most "fun" crafting, but isn't the basis of the entire game like the others mentioned.
I feel I can't truly answer this without bias nonetheless. This would almost be the start of my own top ten list for MMO's in general.
Eve certainly had the depth to its system but it lacks the charm and accessibility of the the SWG system.
I started playing SWG at release with a friend from EQ1, I was so reved up for some star war action, I made my character and started grinding and killing stuff EQ one style. By curiosly my friend was always logged on and busy. After 3 days we talked on the phone and he revealed that he had been making and selling clothes all this time. "oh what bonuses does it give you statewise" i asked. "Oh none, but they are black, you know black tea shirts, combat pants, webbing etc". He then revealed he had made over a millions credits in 3 days selling them and had diversified into mining. My mind was blown.
SWG was i think, the first game to really get behind the whole player driven economy thing, but the best thing of all was the shear complexity of the crafting, its not that crafting was difficult to understand, or to master, but that there was so much to it, and that you could make 5 cdef pistols, using the same materials, but still manage to produce items that differed from each other, the challenge was always to create that 'masterpiece' that was better than all the other weapon makers, or you could do what i did, which was make the 'cheerfully affordable' ones, that were still pretty good. I don't think i've enjoyed crafting in any game since SWG, half as much as i did when playing that game, the walls of my 'shop' in SWG were covered with weapons that i'd made that for various reasons, either because they exceeded my usual quality, or just because they looked so amazing that i couldn't bear to sell them without keeping one, SWG was imo without doubt, a crafters paradise, and its the game i usually judge the crafting in other games by, sort of a 'gold standard', which for me, it was.
All time best crafting was SWG and the reason is simple, someone who had been doing it longer and had collected better resources over time could always make a better item. There were lots of master crafters but only a handful could make the best items. You could also make unique items like adding a scope to a pistol. There was so much that went into making a weapon and several options to change its stats. No game has ever come close to that one in terms of crafting.
Eve is a close second. In Eve, you can sit in a station and never leave while having a career in crafting and trading. It is very addicting, I get so wrapped up in crafting when I play it that I had to stop due to the large amount of time I was wasting in a video game.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
the SWG system sounds alot like the daoc system to me. only that daoc was befoe it i think :pleased:
anyway, surely wasn't the first either, no idea how it was handled in EQ.
even eve is just a multiplicated version of that, more recources, more clicks. but in the end? have recources, click button, wait for result.
in daoc i actually have been killed once by a friend trying to build me a weapon, i stood next to him, waiting, and he (critically) failed and went nuclear.
no prob for him, but the explosion sure was a prob for my lowbie :>
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
I haven't played all the games listed, but of all MMOs that I have, including MMOs not in there, I have to say that FFXIV is by far my fav.
FFXIV crafting has its own endgame. The "mini-game" of balancing Synthesis/Quality/Durability is so well thought in my opinion. My crafters have two/three hotbars full of crafting skills and I use almost all of them to craft endgame recipes. Although there is a well known "rotation" that most crafters uses, different players have their own preferences regarding some skills or "cross-class" skills and you still have to pay attention and react accordingly or you can botch your craft and lose millions of Gil.
I know some players that don't like to raid and play XIV exclusively for its crafting system. The economy is also pretty good in my opinion, my crafted accesories are pretty much BiS for my healer, endgame food and potions are always in demand aswell.
I just got done playing tree of savior and i think the system of like setting up a camp and placing items out in the field and crafting was like really refreshing lol and cute!
Black Desert Online. Only mmo I have ever played where I could spend literally all day on crafting with a smile on my face. BDO comes up short in many areas, but does crafting like a boss.
The degrade to nothing over time and drop items on death aspects of Darkfall created a constant demand for gear, and the lack of and auction house combined with this made crafters a focal point of a guild's ability to keep their members geared.
So while the overall experience of being a crafter in Darkfall was fairly rewarding, I can't point to any reasons derived from the crafting experience itself. It was more the game's environment that made it that way. I think a better crafting system in the same environment would be even more enjoyable.
Comments
There are so many different material and skill requirements that most players only participate in one or two parts of the process and then sell their stuff to someone who can build something else with it.
Some players mine minerals, mine ice, harvest gas, drill moons, manage planets or run missions and then refine the materials, haul them to market and sell them. Other players buy these materials and make the basic building blocks of . Another player takes these Other players buy the basic building blocks, or base level ships, and then invent T2 ships from them.
It helps that overwhelming majority of objects that exists in the game are made by players.
Even of the game's listed, Mortal Online is a step ahead because of how it challenges the recipe system. In MO you can choose what kind of metal you use in making that sword. What kind of blade, and what kind of hilt. Each with different and sometimes unknown properties. There's experimentation. EVE's recipes may be complex but the same recipe requires the same materials (other than slight quantity differences based on ME research) and puts out the same item, every single time. No room for experimentation.
You go acquire the materials, bring them back to base, plug in the BPO and then just wait for the output. That's a trading system, not a crafting system.
All the other games that I have played from WOW and ESO kind of make it fun to stand in of an anvil to craft while SWG allow for crafting anywhere in the game . And all of those games have a drawback at least for me and that is that I shouldn't have to go to a level 30 zone to craft items for a level 20 character. And in SWTOR case crafting is really for end game only since you currently ( or one could before I quit the game ) get really good gear as long as you were a sub to the game by running Heroics as you level up.
And i whole heartdley agree on your GW2 take
In my point of view there is three games were I truly enjoyed crafting. Eve Online is my personal favorite because I like the economy and level of complexity. When crafting is part of the actual world, 95% of items used by players is made by players, you cant get much more deep.
Ultima Online, the economy was great also in that game, I loved the fact that grand master crafter was very hard to attaint and very rewarding as your name was put on the items you created and the majority of players were looking for that equipments to wear.
Economy is somewhat linked to pvp I believe as crafting can only achieved a high degree of complexity and use if peoples are always in need of your goods, they need to die and be looted to attains that level that is why Ultima and Eve are looked as the most complex Crafting systems.
I played SWG from release and last only 2 months... I didn't like the crafting in the game, but I also didn't like the game at all.
Wurm Online and 7 days to die is also worth mentioning, but I'm not sure if they are part of MMO.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Not everyone was doing the SAME THING, we were all finding our own ways to have fun. It was a full time job being a BE and often times I never carried or used a weapon. Crafted for Tailors, Chefs, Creature Handlers and in turn I would buy excess medical supplies from a couple Doctors I knew. Also bought tons of meat and supplies from hunters I knew. There was good interdependence and reasons to interact with others in ways that weren't repetitive. Crafting aside the main thing that made SWG magical to me personally was feeling like we were all actually fairly unique. Had homes, vehicles, mounts and even our class made up how we wanted to be and we weren't all the "chosen one" out to save the damn universe.
Meaningful and physical. Such as housing place-ables, and items that are top notch in the games themselves. Crafting should be more meaningful in MMOs, Darkfall and EvE have proven that. Everquest 2 makes my list for its interactive crafting and housing items, and I'm not even a housing fan. Certainly the most "fun" crafting, but isn't the basis of the entire game like the others mentioned.
I feel I can't truly answer this without bias nonetheless. This would almost be the start of my own top ten list for MMO's in general.
I started playing SWG at release with a friend from EQ1, I was so reved up for some star war action, I made my character and started grinding and killing stuff EQ one style. By curiosly my friend was always logged on and busy. After 3 days we talked on the phone and he revealed that he had been making and selling clothes all this time. "oh what bonuses does it give you statewise" i asked. "Oh none, but they are black, you know black tea shirts, combat pants, webbing etc". He then revealed he had made over a millions credits in 3 days selling them and had diversified into mining. My mind was blown.
Eve is a close second. In Eve, you can sit in a station and never leave while having a career in crafting and trading. It is very addicting, I get so wrapped up in crafting when I play it that I had to stop due to the large amount of time I was wasting in a video game.
only that daoc was befoe it i think :pleased:
anyway, surely wasn't the first either, no idea how it was handled in EQ.
even eve is just a multiplicated version of that, more recources, more clicks.
but in the end? have recources, click button, wait for result.
in daoc i actually have been killed once by a friend trying to build me a weapon,
i stood next to him, waiting, and he (critically) failed and went nuclear.
no prob for him, but the explosion sure was a prob for my lowbie :>
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
FFXIV crafting has its own endgame. The "mini-game" of balancing Synthesis/Quality/Durability is so well thought in my opinion. My crafters have two/three hotbars full of crafting skills and I use almost all of them to craft endgame recipes. Although there is a well known "rotation" that most crafters uses, different players have their own preferences regarding some skills or "cross-class" skills and you still have to pay attention and react accordingly or you can botch your craft and lose millions of Gil.
I know some players that don't like to raid and play XIV exclusively for its crafting system. The economy is also pretty good in my opinion, my crafted accesories are pretty much BiS for my healer, endgame food and potions are always in demand aswell.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
So while the overall experience of being a crafter in Darkfall was fairly rewarding, I can't point to any reasons derived from the crafting experience itself. It was more the game's environment that made it that way. I think a better crafting system in the same environment would be even more enjoyable.