Good Crafting system

[Roachy]

I beleive crafting would be better if it went along the lines of a psudo-Spore system.

You can essentially just add things to things with the right equipment,

eg.

You start with a baseball bat, you can then add a knife you found, some nails, hell a flaming rag or a rock to add weight.

[LordLJ]

An important consideration is how realistic we want crafting. Personally, I would like the pendulum to swing more toward realism (For example, you can't craft power armor with just rocks in the middle of the desert).

So, coming from that standpoint, it wouldn't make sense to have all the crafting components on you personally, and you would need a shop or lab to build any kind of serious equipment.

What if you had to place requisition orders for crafting resources at Ranger Base? That way, the base takes care of getting you the heavy parts of the equipment, or materials that could only be manufactured, and you only need to worry about finding small parts you require for the item (You might carry around the batteries that fuel a power armor suit, but you would not lug around the gigantic frame). You would also need a suitable place to work, and you would only find those places in major towns, which makes Ranger Base dropping off materials there believable.

Just throwing out ideas here. Thoughts?

[suz]

There's lots of places to go with crafting, but I feel crafting weapons, armor and that kind of stuff in single player rpgs where you level up in - usually means the shiny suit you've spent 2 hours collecting mats for is getting replaced 10 mins after you leveled up from some random encounter and some loot dropped.

IMO "crafting" would be neat for relatively small but nifty and helpful stuff like weapon improvements - for example:
Sniping scopes from a binocular and duct tape you found.
Laser pointer from a (gasp)laser pointer and duct tape you found.
Silencer made out from a bottle of soda and some duct tape.
Doorway trap using a grenade with a string attached to it (and duct tape in strategic places, it always makes stuff better).
Ceramic plates inserted into armor to increase AC/DR/DT/? in exchange for added weight.

Also I'd hate to have one "crafter" character with a special snowflake skill which crafts all the goodies and everyone else watches him do it, since this is a party based game, someone with a (e.g.) science skill could help someone with explosives skill get a delayed bomb done, or defuse a bomb someone else planted etc.

PS. Just some random thought; An epitome of crafting where you stumble upon and have option to repair a robotic npc-companion, a remnant of the AI that you destroyed in Cochise who now understands the error of his ways ( or pretends to and in secret steals your shit, annoys you in general and waits for the right moment to exact revenge ) would be a neat gimmick also, even if it'd be handicapped I'd keep it in party just for kicks.

[Googolplexbyte]

I think crafting is an important part for a survivalist game.

It'd be nice to see crafting be combined with repair. breaking damaged stuff down to its parts and crafting a functional weapon or whatever from the parts in best shape.

[paultakeda]

I think crafting is an important part for a survivalist game.

What makes you think Wasteland is a survivalist game?

[Googolplexbyte]

I think crafting is an important part for a survivalist game.

What makes you think Wasteland is a survivalist game?

I was more refering to the fairly popular idea of having a hardcore survival mode (possibly as default but definitely toggleable) in Wasteland 2.

[Psyckosama]

All I'll say is crafting is hard to get right.

Fallout 3 did it poorly.

Arcanum did it reasonably well.

Don't do it poorly.

[TheEmissary]

Crafting is one of those things that can add lot of depth to the game or it can be tacked on feature. I have played some games like Dead Rising 2 where it was used for comical effect through creating silly and bizarre weapons. Games like World of Warcraft made crafting a simple yet boring chore with few deviations. It would be nice if you could create prototypes of certain weapon or armor without needing a recipe first.

You really have to watch getting too complex with crafting because it might end up becoming a minigame. Also if its too shallow or grindy people might end up ignoring it.

[Zeronet]

I favour crafting of the type already found in Wasteland 1 and in the Fallouts. Certain special items that require skills and items to fabricate or repair. Such as the toaster in Wasteland 1, the cloning, the power armor in Fallout 1 and the car in Fallout 2.

[krellen]

Toaster Repair was more anti-crafting than crafting.

[Ronin73]

I'd like to see some form of crafting or at the very least basic item modifications in Wasteland 2. Even something rather simplistic like adding a scope or silencer to a weapon, taping 2 magazines together to reduce reloading time or the ability to re-chamber a weapon to a different caliber if an ammunition type is scarce is better than nothing at all.

If they are looking at putting in a serious effort to make crafting viable I liked the schematic system in Arcanum. I also like what Fallout New Vegas did with ammunition so maybe a mish mash of the 2 is a possibility?

[krellen]

I'll note this thread is in the "what to avoid" forum - and I agree with that. I'm not interested in crafting. It's mostly just a hassle and largely worthless, and really isn't worth investment.

[GodComplex]

I'll throw my hat on the anti-crafting hook. Sure nuka-grenades are fun to play with, but you end up filling your pack with junk to store for a later date, so you just end up spending more time scavenging than exploring. I'm sure it could add something but most of the crafting in games comes down to 'collect x, y, z and smash together for profit.' I don't even want to get into the 'farm X to get 1% drop rate item so you can do a necessary upgrade.' That's worthy of a cock punch.

Now if it got to the point where it was overly complex and a game in and of itself, I'd be fine with it cause I'm a nerd and I like puzzles. Something like golem crafting in Legend of Mana.

[Shady314]

Ceramic plates inserted into armor to increase AC/DR/DT/? in exchange for added weight.

Nah use Duct tape to attach actual ceramic PLATES to your armor.

I don't even want to get into the 'farm X to get 1% drop rate item so you can do a necessary upgrade.' That's worthy of a cock punch.

Agreed so much. I have a fantasy inspired by the hitchhiker's books. I get a list of the developer/publishers/etc./whoever that came up with things like random drop rates, DLC etc. and using my special time traveling spaceship, I find them wherever they are and punch them in the face. The time traveling is so I can pro-actively visit the ones that come up with the BS we haven't encountered yet.

[KILLTHIS]

I'm not so much into crafting. If I was a ranger in the middle of nowhere or on (or about to take on) a serious task, I wouldn't just stop by that bench and start making some armor or something. Maybe I'd take the time to duct tape my stuff back together, but I really don't like to sit around the whole day and put pieces together.
Yet I see some point in doing it in a safe zone. Maybe I'll got some neat flashlight for my shotgun which helps me inside of dark locations and need to mount it on my weapon. That's okay and it's nice, too, but aside from mostly fixing and just improving stuff, I don't see much of a point in scraping some stuff together in order to "just make it happen" like a miracle.

For example: If I was just screwing parts together and never hold a welder in my hands, how the heck am I supposed to now how to weld something properly together? I think even there should be some advice needed in order to learn that as well.

So, to sum up: There should be a crafting option, but there shouldn't be a heavy focus on that. In the end you're a Ranger, and not a craftsman.

[GodComplex]

So, to sum up: There should be a crafting option, but there shouldn't be a heavy focus on that. In the end you're a Ranger, and not a craftsman.

i think this is where crafting goes into the 'meh' stage. Why include something just to include it? If you're going to work it out make it a focus.

[KILLTHIS]

So, to sum up: There should be a crafting option, but there shouldn't be a heavy focus on that. In the end you're a Ranger, and not a craftsman.

i think this is where crafting goes into the 'meh' stage. Why include something just to include it? If you're going to work it out make it a focus.

I was talking of a thing that's a feature to fix up your stuff and maybe improve it a bit, not the whole "Get 50 XYZ to build this power armor"-stuff. I just don't like to run around and carry a whole bunch of things with me just in order to build something that might be overpowered or completely obsolete in the end.

[Lucius]

I agree with the do it right or don't do it at all. Definitely don't tack on some crafting system to make 12 people happy and then say oh it's just optional. I'd much rather see them do weapon and armor improvements like adding scopes etc than a full out crafting system. So many games do it wrong and I don't think it's all that necessary.

[ffordesoon]

I'm actually on the "improving/customizing/fixing weapons and items" camp's side, upon further reflection. I like crafting, but I can't see it being anything but superfluous in Wasteland 2.

[aaronjg77]

I vote for Crafting. I'm a big crafting fan. I just hope it is done good. Some games have a really crappy crafting system and some are really good. I'd like to see something original.