Crafting, building, farming, fishing …

When I was a lil boy I read lot of mythological stories and that leads to fantasy like LOTR, Conan etc. In all these stories, the characters go on epic adventures, kill bad ass villains , explores strange new worlds, overcome challenges and make sexy time with “pretty princess”. Nowhere do they craft, build shite, farm or fish or crap like this. So why the fuck do we have this kind of crap in RPGs?

PS: I am actually big fan of crafting, building etc but I prefer to play strategy games for that and don’t really like to see them in RPG…

PSS: This post is supposed to be sort of tongue and cheek and not be to taken too seriously…

I see what you mean, it belongs more in strategy games compared to RPG's or maybe MMORPG's, or RPG-Strategy hybrids.

But I think developers are looking for things to add to RPG's that are not combat, and it is very hard to do that. So they come up with all sorts of stuffs. What is suffering in many cases is the world building / sense of adventure and writing. A lot of resources are spent on building simulation games inside the RPG's which doesn't contribute to that.

There are books and there are games.
You definetly didn't solve puzzles like crazy in books.

I'm not a big fan of weapon/armor crafting.
In past it was more like gather resources or parts, find schematics then go to a blacksmith because you're F/M/T/C singleclass or combo not ment for bending hot iron. Sadly, modern singleplayer RPGs took horrible MMO designs and now it doesn't work like that but now everyone is a masterblacksmith.

Building? Like in Sims? There is no such RPG yet. FO4 is a great step in that direction, but sadly it's underused and not thought out well. In FO4 building is basically sidecontent instead of being a fully developed skillbased system that brings fruits.

Farming or plantgathering I found always acceptable because it worked, always, as a part of healing and alchemy. While blacksmith was tough to logically explain, I mean you're a mule carrying tons of iron, plants and herbs don't weight that much and besides with a proper recipe any person who never touched a stove can cook a meal (or mix a potion).

Fishing is something I would love to see more frequent and better designed (Fable system was crap for example).

Why do we have something in RPGs is because designers decided to put it in.
Sadly, in many cases, it's made as essential as it gives OP stuff or it's irrelevant because you get better stuff without it.

joxer said:

There are books and there are games.
You definetly didn't solve puzzles like crazy in books.

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Well the idea of solving puzzles and riddles were very much ingrained in fantasy stories. This was the way for our hero or heroine to demonstrate their metal powers. So I don't see this as out of place in fantasy RPGs.

I like crafting and such in MMOs but not much in single player games. I'm just not looking for a timesink in a SPG but do not mind some nontimesink crafting in there that isn't to powerful.

Another thing I do not like is that a crafted item will be superior to anything that may randomly drop in the world. I like having the possibility of something awesome and useful dropping. I couldn't stand the legendary weapons and such in LoTRO as they made all drops of that type useless to you.

Toff said:

I like crafting and such in MMOs but not much in single player games. I'm just not looking for a timesink in a SPG but do not mind some nontimesink crafting in there that isn't to powerful.

Another thing I do not like is that a crafted item will be superior to anything that may randomly drop in the world. I like having the possibility of something awesome and useful dropping. I couldn't stand the legendary weapons and such in LoTRO as they made all drops of that type useless to you.

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This is the reason why I hate crafting, since it always the case that best weapons are the ones which are crafted, otherwise why have them...

I used to be a grognard about crafting, and I still really don't care much for something like Minecraft (which to me is somewhat pointless).

But give me a good crafting system now, I really enjoy it. Stardew Valley is a beautiful game, and I look forward to playing Balrum eventually.

Crafting is just another fun way to explore the world you're in. I really liked how it was done in Divinity: Original Sin and I would say that is the game that put crafting on my radar.

Actually, going back a little farther, I was a crafter in Lord of the Rings: Online, and that was fun as well. It's just another little system to experiment and toy around with in an RPG for me.

I love the world interaction of picking plants and stuff like that, too. I could spend hours just picking flowers in a game like Oblivion. We each like different activities and it's just another activity that some people love and other's don't.

I'm not a fan of building, fishing and farming in a single player RPG game. Crafting really depends on the implementation.

I play sp RPG to play one (or more) heroic adventurer(s), not for living the daily life of Dorothy (unlike all those people requesting the ability to have kids in their games...I just came back from reading a thread on the BioWare ME:A forum).

If the game is outstanding, I'll tolerate some crafting in it. On the whole, I certainly don't care for it, and usually don't go out of my way to do any of it, unless there is a clear in-game value for doing so, like making your own potions, upgrading gear, etc. I prefer a good dungeon crawl with a blacksmith buddy ready to sell me stuff not too far away.

I mean, yes, for epic RPGs it's out of place, if anything they should make you find legendary components for a blacksmith to do the crafting. But for non-epic RPGs (my favorite), crafting, building, etc. do have a place, as you're not "the chosen one who will single-handedly kill the evil Kazatrak". I do love crafting, like in the Atelier series, but they're fine there as you are playing as an alchemist, not 'the chosen one'.

The problem I find with most games is by the time you nearly done them is when you start finding the good crafting items. By this time most games give you so many items in combat or general searching crafting isn't needed.

As for building, I don't mind looking after my Keep and maintaining that but farming and fishing or hunting....I rather just buy those things if need in the game from shop keepers.

I like crafting in RPG's when there really is choice involved. I have to say it's one of the better done aspects of Pillars of Eternity IMO - a melee heavy party may invest more into upgrading weapons, while magic heavy parties might invest more into scrolls or potions.

Then again that's something that has been done in every Star Ocean already.

I'm not a fan of crafting. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but for me it takes away from the enjoyment of exploring - I like to know that the best gear in the game is to be found in some heavily guarded fortress, or at the bottom of a nice crypt. If I know I'd need to grind crafting to get the best stuff, that spoils the party for me.

For crafting, I'd be more than satisfied with just finding rare crafting recipes and finding a specialist to make them for me (at an ridiculous price). Having to, for example, hunt down 100 rare Nirnroots to create a useful concoction is just plain tedious.

lostforever said:

When I was a lil boy I read lot of mythological stories and that leads to fantasy like LOTR, Conan etc. In all these stories, the characters go on epic adventures, kill bad ass villains , explores strange new worlds, overcome challenges and make sexy time with “pretty princess”. Nowhere do they craft, build shite, farm or fish or crap like this. So why the fuck do we have this kind of crap in RPGs?

PS: I am actually big fan of crafting, building etc but I prefer to play strategy games for that and don’t really like to see them in RPG…

PSS: This post is supposed to be sort of tongue and cheek and not be to taken too seriously…

Click to expand...

Which mythological stories? Crafting, building, farming etc are essential parts in most mythological stories.

I like crafting but agree that it can take the reward out of exploration.

Actually Fallout 4 sort of combined the best of both worlds. Legendary items found during exploration can't be crafted from scratch but can be upgraded by crafting.

Oddly enough, on week nights ESO daily crafting quests (called writs) take a good amount of time. So much time, that I may not have time for questing on week nights. The exploration of survey reports / treasure maps for crafting materials (rewarded by completing writs), and harvesting along the way is a time sink.

I sell a lot of the high end materials I gather for quite a bit of gold.

Now fishing is an unexplainable grind with little to no reward beside a title and a pink dye and the occasional legendary ingredient to sell. But completing the fishing achievement has become a bit of an obsession for me.

It's a rather mindless activity, that makes me think twice, though.

I love crafting, and I wish it was more in RPGs, actually.

But not every RPG fits into this. Action-RPGs most certainly don't, in my opinion.
However, it was Blizzard with their Action-RPGs who basically invented crafting for RPGs.

Personally, I just don't see / can't understand why crafting should be exclusive to MMOs ? "If you wanna craft, play an MMO" ? Forcing people to play a kind of game they don't like, IF they want to have any crafting at all ?
I do know that my example is a bit extreme, but I often use extreme examples almost like caricatures, because caricatures are so much better spot-on ...

I rarely ever bother with crafting, especially when you have to run around to find all kinds of rare ingredients for minimal payoff. A lot of implementations just make it feel like too much of a chore for me.

NWN2 crafitng is pretty fantastic too. The best items in the game are had that way.

Similarly some of the best gear in ESO is only available through crafting.

Same thing for Fallout 4.

So yeah, it matters for those games.