Player Crafting & Mining

[Amphiprion]

Hello,

I'am a Xbox player since the beginning, and i love the game. But as i'm not a fighter, i found there is a limit in the gameplay for non-fighting players. Here my proposal to add activities to those kind of players.

I think it could be a good addition to allow players to be crafters and it will add a new dimension to the mining activities. I will try to explain what i have in mind:

1) Mining
To have a crafting system that stay interresting allow the time, it should not be based on fixed blueprint, but the final item statistics must depend on resources caracteristics. So the idea could be to add several caracteristics to resources (gold, copper, bertrandite, ...)

For exemple, each resource could have 2 or more characteristic (durability, stability, energy, ....) and each characteristic have value included in a range from 0 to 1000 for example. And the more important the characteristic value must not be always the same for a specific element.
When you collect Gold from asteroid, the characteristic shoud not be static, but for example could follow on of those rules:
- purely random each time a chunk of Gold is extracted (pro: random, cons: too random, not realistic)
- fixed by mining zone, but different between zone (pro:realistic, cons: everyone will mine the same location, and so, we loose the not predictable quality of resources)
- mixed mode (my prefered): fixed by mining zone but only during for a dedicated period, after this period, the resources statistic are randomized again. (pro: realistic and not determinist, cons: more complexe for the develpment team)

My idea:
Gold:
durability: [400-700]
stability: [750 - 1000]
weight: [550-800]
Palladium:
durability: [800-1000]
stability: [300 - 650]
weight: [100 - 250]
...

i go a planet ring to try to extract gold, and i found
Gold:
durability: 523
stability: 878
weight: 553
If i go to another location (another part of the rings (???) or in a ring of another planet) i will find another statistics for Gold. And if i stay here, i will find new Gold statistics values only after some days (1 week for exemple -> simulating the end of a given golden thread and the start of a new one)



2) Crafting
Now, how to use those collected resources using mining capabilities
The idea could be to define craftable blueprint and each blueprint have requirement and formula to create the final item

For exemple:
Bluepring : 5A Frame Shift Drive
Requirement:
15 Gold
8 Palladium
40 Bertrandite
Result:
Mass: 20 * (average statistic WEIGHT) / 600 -> or a more complex formula allowing the developer to force the result to be limitated between 18 and 22 for exemple
Power draw: 0.6 * (1/3 average stat DURABILITY + 2/3 average stat Energy) / 500

NOTE: its just an illustration and not a tuned example

A bluepring could be also less restrictive, for example:
Bluepring : 5A Frame Shift Drive
Requirement:
15 Metal/Gold
8 Metal/Palladium
40 Mineral
Result:
Mass: 20 * (average statistic WEIGHT) / 600 -> or a more complex formula allowing the developer to force the result to be limitated between 18 and 22 for exemple
Power draw: 0.6 * (1/3 average stat DURABILITY + 2/3 average stat Energy) / 500

NOTE: in this case we can use any kind of mineral (Bertrandite, Coltan, ....) and so we can use our best fitted resource for this blueprint


3) Market

As we can buy resource from the market, the resource should have also statistics (could be randomized or have fixed stat, that are in the middle of the range for each statistics)
To enhance profesions like miners, a "player" market should be available, allowing miners to sell their good like bazar in MMORPG - So when a miner find a high quality resource (and if the static will be randomized in few days), it will mine it as much as it can and sell it for crafters (or use it if he is also a crafter)

So, Crafters that are not miners could buy resource and sell the final products.

Very important: If we want the crafting system works on the lifetime of the game, the crafted resource should decay, so players must rebuy items after some times (based on usage, damage, ...) -> so the crafter will have continuously some demand, and miners will have continuoulsly crafter for their goods, etc...

I stop here, in case the idea has no resonance in the community, but i will be pleased to continue to work with this idea and the implications if it is loved and of course i will love to have your feedback, critics and ideas

Thank you

 

[space voyager]

Crafting is an idea that keeps coming back, I too would love to find something worthwhile in the black. It could be modded modules, mods to be added to your modules, whatever.

 

[Yure]

I too would like similar features. Mainly I'd like ability to combine random resources to make something else that is beneficial or interacts with the outside world.

Two examples I would like you to take a look at is the old Android game called chemistry, where players start with the 4 basic elements and start combing things to make cool stuff.

The other is the game called Star Trader RPG. It's a simple game phone but has incredibly detailed game at to include politics factions etc. But one aspect I liked was that if you carried things in your cargo it gave you different effects. Like if you carried weapons, it gave you a boost to repelling boarders. Or if you carried alien artifacts it increased your chances to be interdicted by aliens. You also had crew members that boosted your ships stats... Like one would drop prices by 10% ... Cool stuff like that would push elite dangerous over the top!

 

[coca_fr]

There should be some money cost at engineer to assemble all of that. Otherwise modules will be too cheap.

But it can add some other cheaper ways to get modules by working on mining fields.

+Nice idea.

 

[Lestat]

Remember the Weight thing is all about 1 ton. It could be feather to gold.

But being able to make stuff I all for it.

 

[coca_fr]

There were also an idea to salvage modules from Uknown Sign Source (USS) to recover their raw materials or the module completly.

Your idea and the one abovee above could be mixed.

You bring X materials + damaged modules at Y engineer and he repaired it for you.

That would be an incredible idea !

 

[Shalien]

+1.

Synthesis already provide a good kickstart for a fullcraft system.