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Crafting & Economy in Age of Conan Posted: - 01.02.2008 It's time to take a better look at the crafting system in Age of Conan, and how you can make a bit of money on something that does not involve killing people! Ask any adventurer journeying through the lands of Hyboria for advice on how to survive the brutal realities of the world, and they'll tell you to get a good sword as soon as possible. If it's not demons haunting you at night, clawing at your back ready to rip out your eyes, it's the treachery of man you must defend yourself from. Unarmed you will not get further in Hyboria than the nearest graveyard. For you, as the player, there are numerous ways in which you can acquire some currency. You can head out into the great unknown to perform quests for people in need. You can murder innocents and loot their bodies for valuables. Maybe you would prefer hunting for game and selling the skin? Either that or you can pick up a trade – a craft – using your hands to make something others want! Becoming a craftsman In the world of Hyboria there are certain locations where craftsmen (and women!) congregate to form societies where they can practice their trade. These are commonly called resource and gathering regions as they are areas with a special abundance of resources needed for crafting, and here you will also find many who are more than willing to learn others how to practice their trade. Upon reaching the required level needed to start crafting (which is currently set to level forty, but that might change during the beta process) you need to seek out a crafting trainer who can teach you his or her trade. This will be your mentor on the long road ahead, sending you out on various quests where you need to prove your worth as a crafter. The important thing to remember is that you can only have one crafting profession, so choose wisely before dedicating yourself to your mentor! Here are the different crafting professions in Age of Conan:
We have tried making it so that crafting is as intuitive as possible, while still maintaining the level of challenge that makes progression so entertaining. When you’re ready to start crafting something, all you do is bring up your recipe book and click on what you want to create. If you have the required resources in your inventory, the item will be created for you. There are certain exceptions to this, as some of the top tier recipes will require that your guild is in possession of certain types of structures within the guild city. Some of the top tier alchemy recipes will, for instance, require your guild to have an alchemist’s workshop constructed within the guild city. Once you have chosen a crafting profession you will start out small, with little knowledge of how to create anything at all, much less anything of real use! Now it’s time for you to prove your worth to your trainer, allowing you to craft more and more advanced items over time.
Collecting resources Integral to crafting is, of course, resources. It’s what you have to pour into anything you create, whether it is a basic sword or an entire tower structure for your guild city. In order to collect a specific type of resource you will need to learn how to master the resource gathering profession that is associated with that resource. Note that you can master all of these professions at the same time. Here are the different resource gathering professions you can master:
The alchemist doesn’t actually go out and gather resources for his potions. Instead the different ingredients required will drop from defeated enemies, just as with the gems used by the gemcutter. One of the reasons why we are doing this is to create a certain level of dependency between crafters and adventurers, making it a bit more interesting for everyone involved! Another way we’re creating dependencies between the two is making it so that only crafted items can have gems embedded, so the adventurers will be running back to the crafters with the gems they just picked up in some dark dungeon, asking the weaponsmith to make a weapon for them and the gemcutter to put the gems in! Using gems you can customize items, while dropped items can’t be customized. One central element of the resource gathering system is the rare resources. When gathering a resource there is a small chance that you may collect a rare version of it. Using rare resources when you are crafting will allow you to make a special version of an item. These items will have additional bonuses, such as allowing gemcutters to put more gems into them. This allows crafters to make some incredibly potent and unique items by using several special gems and rare resources! The primary reason for us allowing you to master all resource gathering professions is because of how important resources is to so many different aspects of the gameplay in Age of Conan. As an example you will need to pour resources into your guild city in order to pay for its upkeep! Progression In stark contrast to similar games out there, progression within your chosen craft is not done by simply producing items or gathering resources over and over again until your skill improves. In Age of Conan you do not have a numerical crafting skill listed somewhere – instead you progress through different quests whose rewards allows you to craft better items and gather more advanced resources. This means that progression is entirely tied up to quests that you do for your trainer. Progression is split up into tiers. You start with the first tier, involving basic items/resources, and you will have to be a certain level before you can move onto the next tier. Each tier consists of various quests that will reward you with new recipes for items to make, and resources to gather. As an example, when you first start out in the alchemy craft your trainer will teach you how to craft what we call crude remedies. One of the first quests requires you to make a set of crude remedies for your trainer, and in return he will show you how to make common remedies. Within the first tier, currently starting at level forty, you will learn how to make crude and common potions. As you reach level fifty you will be eligible for tier two quests, rewarding you with refined potion recipes. It’s the same with resource gathering: the stonecutter will start gathering sandstone while he’s in tier one, but will quickly move up to adamant and basalt when he complete quests in higher tiers. One of the reasons why we have chosen to make progression quest-based is to eliminate the feel of going through a grind. Instead of producing one hundred basic potions just to learn how you make something a bit more interesting, you will actually progress through a storyline that will also reward you with a healthy amount of experience points which will count towards your next level! Hard work pays off Sooner or later once you have started to master a crafting profession (and/or resource gathering profession) you will want to get paid for the hard work. There are several ways to flog your items (and resources collected). You can stand in front of Conan’s castle in Tarantia, screaming your lungs out for someone to please buy your wooden crossbow – or you can seek out the tradepost. Tradeposts are Age of Conan’s equivalent to the auction house that you find in most other games of this genre. Tradeposts can be found in cities and player cities, and using them brings up an interface that combines your bank, your mail and a marketplace where you can buy and sell items. To sell something you have crafted you simply put it on your bank and tag it for sale with the appropriate price. Someone in need of it will eventually come along and buy it from you. One important aspect of the tradepost is actually that it is not an auction house. There is no auctioning, there are no bids. You put something up for sale with a set price and either someone purchase it or not. It certainly makes things interesting and the market much more fast and furious! At the end of the day you can finally head home with a few gold pieces in your pocket, proud of the fact that you once again managed to make a solid living – without cutting off someone’s head! |
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Where was this posted originally? |
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_Kyle_
 Novice Member
Joined: 12/14/03
IGNs: Krileon, Xellia, Neeshka, Xavier, Krayven, Sinolian |
Story driven crafting.. that really sounds cool.. I'd deff enjoy that after grinding out crafters in eq2.. that game nearly took my fingers.. thank god for macro crafting overnight -_^
Necro Alchemist.. that's me.. hell yeah! [ Played ] 2Moons, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Everquest II, Guild Wars, HellGate: London, Lord of the Rings Online, Rappelz, RF Online, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Last Chaos, Earth & Beyond, EVE Online, Holic, Seal Online, Dream Of Mirror Online, Age of Conan [ Playing ] NONE [ Waiting ] Huxley, Stargate Worlds, Earthrise |
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Necro Alchy sounds awesome! I haven't decided what I want to try first... so hard to choose lol |
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_Kyle_
Novice Member
Joined: 12/14/03
IGNs: Krileon, Xellia, Neeshka, Xavier, Krayven, Sinolian |
Originally posted by MordriaI've decided on 2 characters right off the bat: Necro Alchemist Demon Gemcutter
I'm going to have more to use all my IGNs, but not sure yet.. I'll probably have a healer as well.. so hard to decide heh. [ Played ] 2Moons, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Everquest II, Guild Wars, HellGate: London, Lord of the Rings Online, Rappelz, RF Online, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Last Chaos, Earth & Beyond, EVE Online, Holic, Seal Online, Dream Of Mirror Online, Age of Conan [ Playing ] NONE [ Waiting ] Huxley, Stargate Worlds, Earthrise |
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awesome, thank you for this! |
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thanks Mordria, i hadn't read this. |
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there is some question as to the accuracy of this however. There have been some reports that you can take two tradeskills, not just one, but it was also said that it may not make it into the game too... |
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Shannia
Novice Member
Joined: 11/06/05
"World of WarCraft is held alive solely by the mediocrity of competing products." RendRegen |
Originally posted by Raston Problem is, they had prestige classes. There, each prestige class had two crafting skills associated with it. Then Funcom dropped the prestige classes because supposedly the beta testers didn't like prestige classes. Considering on of the devs was quoted as that crafting as "mechanically functional" in October of last year, I'm of the conclusion that prestige classes had not even been introduced to the game and dumping the prestige classes was the first nerf to the crafting system. To show how much of an after thought crafting was to Funcom, their first question to the community with regards to crafting came in March with their "this or that" crafting poll. It was too late for anything else regards to crafting. This why I'm on edge about AoC and I have a gut feeling crafting is going to be a major let down with regards to AoC. As of last August, crafting was suppose to be the ONLY place where PvPers got their gear. Then from August until now, pvp gear has changed from not only dropped gear but better than crafted gear so, like I said, I'm on edge about. However, I am willing to at least take a look at the crafting system and see if it is going to be worth while to.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware "Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product." |
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Awesome!
I'll be poking around Rping either a weapon/armorsmith or an architect. Ima have a blast! :D The speed of the mole and the power of steel is my weapon |
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eh, I'll still be a crafter regardless. If I could make it to 80 as an armorer in EQ2, I can survive any crafting system. |
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Originally posted by Kerebo You're very welcome :) |
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Originally posted by ravenglade You're welcome! I hadn't either until I saw it poster on the community web site last night. It's good stuff! |
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Originally posted by _Kyle_ What do you mean? If I would like to have something crafted I will have a list of tales that will get me hours to zip through? Surely there must be more interaction in crafting then that? I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention. |
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I personally prefer games where crafting level is completely independent of adventure level especially when they offer a complex crafting system (i personally liked the crafting system in Vanguard, only the grind was a bit too much. SWG crafting was also nice, but there the resource system was a bit too much of a pain sometimes) . While quests in crafting are nice to have and add some more playability for crafters, a game where you have to reach lvl 40 to start crafting (and higher levels to get better recipes) is definitely no game that caters to the crafter population. But it was clear from start that crafting system will be some kind of stepchild in AoC when you read early interviews.
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//\\//\\oo
 Apprentice Member
Joined: 4/17/04
"The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity." -The Lord of Darkness from Legend |
The only question left unanswered is: Will it be a grindfest, or WoW crafting (ez)? Since I'm not a big fan of crafting, I'd prefer the latter.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed. |
Originally posted by Orphes I believe he's referring to the story driven training which I'm sure is made just for the tutorial for the crafting process that is mentioned in the article: "Upon reaching the required level needed to start crafting (which is currently set to level forty, but that might change during the beta process) you need to seek out a crafting trainer who can teach you his or her trade. This will be your mentor on the long road ahead, sending you out on various quests where you need to prove your worth as a crafter." |
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Why can't we choose all of them, I hate it where you have to choose i want to dabble in all of them. Not just one. Oh well sounds like a good idea, though I don't see how stroy crafting would work, it might tell you t ocreat a dragon sword but you actually want a Barbarian Axe. |
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Originally posted by Mordria While I really don't want it to as it is in Vanguard, for me that would be to much to do again. But others may want it that way, I acknowledge that. I don't want it to be to quick either. If we put casterbars in left end and grinding in right end. I think 70-80% towards the right is somewhat close, well it is relative, but that's my "picture". And for me personally it is great if it differs it is different games with different ideas. The idea as it sounds from the text you copied it sounds like a good idea, I assume it is the same text as on the official page. Read that one awhile ago and swiftly eyed through yours, in general they looked to be same anyway. But anyway, how is the crafting done in the end when one actually creates stuff? I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention. |
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Originally posted by OrphesUmm... does this answer your question? www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/191/view/videos/play/1216 It's the only thing I know as far as the actual crafting process. |
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Originally posted by Mordria "Hammering at workbenches" may sound promising enough. I'll wait and see don't read ahead to much into details on things, it is fun enough to discover and learn down the road. Well I read the general stuff atleast. I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention. |
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I like the system. It is scary whenever devs have to revamp a system to any degree, but at the same time it is comforting that they were listening to the CB testers and molding the game based on the feedback. I definitely like that you don't just stand around and craft 50 of an item to get to your next level. I remember going to a friend's house one night and he wanted me to wait a few minutes while he crafted in WoW. He spent some ridiculous amount of gold to buy supplies based on a guide. He bought exactly what it said, and then queued up X amount of items to be created then walked away for a bit. Went back and queued up X amount of new items to be created. Voila 9 minutes later he had gone up in crafting and could now make something new in which he repeated the process. This is basically how all MMO's crafting works in some variation. Believe me, I welcome any variation on this. I hope they keep up the creativity and try to give us something different then every other game out there. |
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Originally posted by ProfRed Yeah, I like what I see so far too! |
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I'm not a huge fan of level requirements for crafting but I can live with it. Other than that I like this system. I'm thinking "Gemcutting Assassin" for my main. :D |
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