What if Crafting were actually hard?

[Misteyes]

Crafting seems to be a hot topic, and this is something I've had sitting in the back of my head for a while.

What if crafting were actually hard? I don't mean a higher chance of failure, I mean replacing the synthesis minigame entirely with something in which success or failure depends (almost) entirely on the skill of the player and the stats of the character, rather than a series of random numbers?

Randomness undermines skill. If, for a given synthesis, I have a 40% chance of success if I just spam enter, but a 50% chance if I play carefully, (by using Wait, Preserve, etc), then the difference in output between me (a player) and your average "wobblybird on the keyboard" is only 25%.

Compare that to combat. A wobblybird on the keyboard even if presented with an endless supply of one-on-one encounters, will not be able to even compare to a human player in a grind party.

Every singleplayer FF title has had a host of minigames to go with it. I would like to see a puzzle-based minigame for crafting.

[Wynn]

Unfortunately, it would be fun for the first few days. Then it would become extremely, extremely annoying.

[Estellios]

Less people wouldn't mind crafting if 1) it was more interesting like you suggested and 2) The XP rate wasn't relatively abysmal later on.

[Nayt]

if crafting didn't require leveling, I could see that as a viable option, but really not for grinding

[Misteyes]

Unfortunately, it would be fun for the first few days. Then it would become extremely, extremely annoying.

Not if it has any depth. The quickest source of game burnout is total mastery. Once a player has no further room to improve, they'll very quickly abandon the game.

On the other hand, puzzle games like Hexagon Conundrum or Popcap's Alchemy remain fun for a very long time, even without extra progression (synthesis abilities), or reward (items) that would have to be present.

Less people wouldn't mind crafting if 1) it was more interesting like you suggested and 2) The XP rate wasn't relatively abysmal later on.

if crafting didn't require leveling, I could see that as a viable option, but really not for grinding

I also think that the EXP rate is terrible and needs to be improved, but that's a separate issue entirely, and already has its own thread. The minigame would also need to cap the benefits of outleveling a recipe so that doing a recipe 30 levels below you doesn't guarantee HQ (and also have HQ be possible for a player of the appropriate level if they are skillful, and maybe a little lucky).

[Wolfie]

Find a way to make crafting hard yet fun, and I'm on board with this.

But it's almost impossible to make crafting fun.

[Estellios]

I've always thought that higher quality should substantially boost XP, since it's probably the best way to make the system more meaningful but allow the "tune out" option. Getting higher quality is quite difficult but of course it would need to be a bit less luck based.

[Misteyes]

I've always thought that higher quality should substantially boost XP, since it's probably the best way to make the system more meaningful but allow the "tune out" option. Getting higher quality is quite difficult but of course it would need to be a bit less luck based.

I would agree with this if "playing the game" rather than tuning it out actually increased likelihood of HQ. I haven't really noticed any difference between spamming enter vs. carefully playing on HQ. I'm probably improving my HQ chance from 2% to 2.2% or something, but it's not enough to notice.

The whole system needs to be replaced before there can really be any significant difference between tuning it out or playing.

I don't think tuning it out is healthy for the game at all. A game is something we play to have fun - if the game is so boring that we do things like watch TV to distract ourselves from what's going on in the game, something is seriously wrong.

[meekriot]

Actually, I totally agree with the minigame idea.

I hate crafting. I can't stand it... but DoL.. I love it. The minigames keep me interested.

Totally agree man.

[Rau]

Turn crafting into a spin off game of tetris