For many players, having a robust crafting system is essential in their MMO. So what about The Secret World? What, if anything, do we know about crafting? Will it be "level-less" in a way similar to character progression? In today's TSW column, we speculate about some of those things and more. Check it out!

It may seem that with all the faction talk lately, that we’ve actually learned a lot about The Secret World in recent months. Which we have, truth told. But one area of the game that still remains a complete mystery in terms of its functionality is crafting. There hasn’t been but a hint of talk surrounding any sort of trade-skills and what, if any, form they’ll take in TSW. With that in mind, let’s briefly ponder the subject and see what kind of system might make sense in Funcom’s upcoming MMO.

Read more of Bill Murphy's The Secret World: The Shape of Crafting.

I would like to see more innovative crafting systems. I love crafting meself, and would like to see more effort put into this. or simply, a different style from the norm.

The idea having crafting that needs to be discovered looks cool.

Im open to new things if they work well

This looks promising.

My only question, are those pics in hi rez? :) sorry, it's funcom and they deserve some EA cross over poking.

I had a talk with one of the TSW developers regarding the crafting system and while he seemed happy with the game in general, he got sooo enthusiastic about the crafting system. He wasn't allowed to talk more about it at the time because it was considered inside information.

What he did say was that it was something they had thought through and that it was an integrated part of the game. He did mention a small game called "Minecraft", might they have gotten some inspiration from there?

I played AoC and dested the crafting there and it looks like the guy I talked to wanted something much better for TSW.

In general, I think AoC can be looked upon as the tech-demo for TSW, I think the difference in quality and design choices is going to be that big.

Isn't it a bit presumptuousto make an article on crafting for a game when you literally know nothing about the form it will take? 

Sounds interesting but those are just promises right now and we know how that goes.

they are not promises from Funcom its somthing MMORPG just made up.. but some a good ideas thats for sure..

Cant wait to get my hands on this game.

I'd like crafting to involve blogs that aren't just speculative and actually are objective and show facts about a game instead of just trying to get hits.

Loved the article, and I definitely agree. Although I hardly delve into most modern MMO's crafting nowadays, if the system is interesting, I like to work with it a bit. A player-driven economy is one of the most interesting concepts to be part of MMOs. Crafting systems like the ones in Ryzom, or Vanguard, were quite awesome.

Reading about the recipes, though, immediately made me thing of Anarchy Online =) I loved how the recipes weren't given to you, but you had to ask around, try and/or look it up in the internet. Even more so if they periodically add new gear with new recipes, to give players something to look for everytime. 

Originally posted by Jowen

The most important part to crafting for me is not really the process but if there is a market for what I can make, especially between newer and older players (new players should also be able to provide things older players are interested in buying). Further, there must continuously be a demand so items need to deteriorate and break.

It is important that items be useful.  I don't think you need a deep system for this to be true.  RIFT has very useful crafted items and their system is incredibly simple.  I do agree though that this is the foundation.  If items aren' t useful and sought after the rest of the system won't matter.

I like the idea of an open system, but I wonder about crafting progression.  You sort of hint at this when you say older players make useful items and newer players provide "things" older players need.  This is sort of how harvesting works in several themeparks where underskilled crafters (with few recipes) provide materials for established players, thus making good money.  In an open system those new players can just as easily make the same items established players can if they know the recipe(s).  With the internet being what it is today that information will be more readily available than ever.

I see the potential flaw with an open system being no sense of progression.  One thing that MMO players love is the feeling of progression.  Established crafters thrive on having special access to rare item creation.  How can an open system still provide that sense of progression and and reward crafters who have put in more time and effort into their trade?  Will everyone being a master crafter ruin the system for all?

No use in pondering about it, TSW mechanics all are set in stone and the general crafting discussions bin done a billion times.

Rather i will do a small prediction, crafting will be compleetly useless in TSW, its a subcription+Cash shop game were "looks"  are defined by the amound of cash you put into it. 

No mather how good this game and its mechanics will be, the double money grind will always overshadow the entire game.

"if I can do it in Skyrim, let me do it in an MMO."

You mean grinding iron daggers to raise blacksmithing to 100? :D We've got that in MMO's already! ;)

Or you mean the idiotic alchemy random ingredient grind? Heh.

Problem with the idea of "discovering" a recipe is that once it is discovered, it's posted on the internet on how to discover it, hence, killing the idea in its tracks. And anyone who doesn't look it up on the internet is in a huge hole compared to those who do, wasting all the time/money/ingredients trying to get something someone else got in 1 try after reading the spoiler.

"Aha! There's a way to defeat that!" you say? Make the recipes "random" aka, person X trying a mix of an iron bar, a butterfly wing, and a seed might learn how to make "Iron Butterfly Seeds" but person Y just gets "You've wasted a bunch of stuff and learned nothing!" message? Then you've just gone back to "random ingredient grinding".

And having no "levels" in crafting means Andy Newbie can craft just as well as Crafter Pro Joe? Not too keen on that if you want crafting to mean something.

the illuminati isn't going to let this game be released until after 2012.

Originally posted by Blackbrrd

I had a talk with one of the TSW developers regarding the crafting system and while he seemed happy with the game in general, he got sooo enthusiastic about the crafting system. He wasn't allowed to talk more about it at the time because it was considered inside information.

What he did say was that it was something they had thought through and that it was an integrated part of the game. He did mention a small game called "Minecraft", might they have gotten some inspiration from there?

I played AoC and dested the crafting there and it looks like the guy I talked to wanted something much better for TSW.

In general, I think AoC can be looked upon as the tech-demo for TSW, I think the difference in quality and design choices is going to be that big.

 

That would be something because i am vaguely familiar with minecraft's crafting. however, guides abound on the interwebs explaining all the puzzles behind learning to craft in minecraft. err too for i can't imagine people would not want desperately to ruin it for others the solutions to the crafting enigma's should they exist. Perhaps TSW will put forward a crafting system that brings the coveted SWG to shame! j/k. but i would certainly love something less boring that WoW's system of "make 50 till the skill finally randomly gets to the next arbitrary distance marker, rinse, repeat". EQ2's at least had a minigame that quickly got dull once you figured it out but you couldn't ignore so you were engaged (albeit grudgingly). so i want something in that vein but less of a chore, more of a pleasure!

+1.  By advancing game mechanics like this, games will give themselves not only the opportunity to stand apart and possibly revolutionize the industry (read: other companies finding it a necessity to take from due to their own lack of devices), but to also appeal less to those who want everything done the easy way.

@Szasz I am hoping they make it relatively easy to do the crafting, a bit like Diablo 2 with the Horadric Cube, the hard part there was getting the necessary stuff. This would let everybody do crafting and make trade more interesting. Better than an "elite" system where only a few people actually does the crafting because only they have the recipies.

I do agree that a system with "secret" recipies is kinda useless in an MMO.

I both hope and have a feeling crafting ties in with the secret war and controlling certain zones that gives your society resources needed for crafting. Since there are 3 factions there wont be 1 faction getting a big advantage in crafting. I can see this being a big part of the meta-game as the game gets bigger and more zones are introduced. Different zones giving different bonuses, sort of like Risk. Also gives you a good reason to be fighting other societies in the first place.