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This question is for the whole system of gathering/getting resources, getting/improving crafting skills, the crafting process , and what you can use your craft for eg what benefit gives it to you or how good is the market.
Mostly for mmo-s where you can trade what you make, but single player games examples are fine too.

So far for me Eve online has the best , common resources are everywhere and easy to get and they differ a little region by region. More advanced resources need different jobs or go into more dangerous territories.

Items are used up so there is always a constant demand for even the most basic stuff especially as advanced items require more basic items.

The crafting is gather resources in one place and get a crafting slot put resources there and the blueprint(require skills)
and it will passively produce the items over time , and when rdy you just take the finished items out. Not interactive

What the system miss is item rarity, where a small part of your craft is above average in quality. Probably because it would have made the market/game balancing way too complex.
A Tale in the Desert. (I'm amazed that the game still exists after so many years). A 100% crafting mmo where you start from scratch, gathering grass, mud, clay etc. Back in the day, the game wasn't particularly user friendly but I'm sure things have changed a lot with the newer version.

EQ2 (another mmo of course) had a very interesting crafting system, and gathering resources was a lot of fun.
Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul had a pretty good system.
Very underrated game, IMO.
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Cambrey: A Tale in the Desert. (I'm amazed that the game still exists after so many years). A 100% crafting mmo where you start from scratch, gathering grass, mud, clay etc. Back in the day, the game wasn't particularly user friendly but I'm sure things have changed a lot with the newer version.

EQ2 (another mmo of course) had a very interesting crafting system, and gathering resources was a lot of fun.
what is its crafting system like?
The best crafting system is the one that's practically non-existent.

Beyond that, it's one that just uses alternate currencies to buy things from vendors and calls it crafting.

The worst crafting systems are those that require ingredient mixing/combination experimentation, where "harvesting resources" is a task itself (rather than, say, combat drops). And the icing on the shitty crafting system cake are those that require time rather rather than just happening (some games having all three great time-wasters of "place ingredients" [whether with physics in the main game, or just filling slots in a menu], "crafting takes time" [long animation of it happening or, worse, progress bar, or worse-worse, interaction required], and "crafting results are presented as a reward" [showing a post completion animation, fanfare, or complex confirmation]. Many games also take a "one at a time" approach to make it even worse. And, oy vey, then some games make your RESULT random (whether quality, or chance of success, or even what you get) so you have to repeat it even more. *spits defensively*

"Crafting systems" are one of the things that have really made games worse when they're present, and I hope they've finished running their course and will start going away from games. MMOs and TES games are largely to blame for this (or at least the ones I noticed having crap before it tainted other games), and these games do it precisely because it's padding to make the game feel like there's something there.

Example rubbish games:

Awful crafting is another reason on the pile of reasons why Breath of the Wild is a terrible game (and why I continue to refer to it without "Zelda in the title; because it's not Zelda.) It does pretty much everything wrong regarding crafting (and really everything in the game overall outside crafting too).

Crafting made late game Dragon Quest Heroes (both 1 and 2) a bore and made me just speed up ending the game. Ingredients were rare and hard to come by, with little to no control over getting them. While you could just pick what you wanted from a menu, there was an obnoxious animation and sound while it happened, and then it would do a spoils/rewards gained after.

Graveyard Keeper is a fine game, even pleasant, until you reach the points of needing to interact with its alchemy. It's practically impossible to progress that crap even following a guide, without it becoming a full-time job replacement. ingredient placement ✔, takes time ✔, random experimentation ✔, multiple layers of refining ✔, ingredients hard to come by with low control over them ✔. I really want to play more of and progress the game, but every time I've tried, I've gotten stuck when I had to start working with that bullshit.

I hated everything I've seen about crafting in WoW (I briefly tried it on a private server to see how it worked, see if the lore was worth it [it wasn't]), the Final Fantasy MMOs, and others. They often go way overboard on the materials acquisition as a task itself route, and usually have obscene amounts of time required for crafting.

Some counter-examples that come to mind while making this post:


Horizon Zero Dawn. Menu-based, common shared ingredients that you can target-farm, no waiting or animations or confirmation. It's just alternate currency. The main reason for it is to encourage you to fight more than a couple Thunderjaws or Stormbirds. It kind of broke with the northern area expansion with the powders stuff, but they did it to encourage exploration rather than combat up there. It could probably be streamlined a bit, but it's already pretty tight.

Guild Wars. I mean, most everything about this game was done right (except for the forcing it to be an MMO part, which later devolved into microtx). There are a limited number of crafting ingredients reused regularly, and the game even gives you special storage for them. Gear in the game quickly tops out and the crafting is just cosmetic appearances. And even with that, it's vendors exchanging target-farmable items for what you want. There are a few too many materials in the game, and a couple of them were used more than others and/or were harder to acquire than others, but that was part of them forcing it to MMO economy to use traders.

Stardew Valley. Pick from a menu. Happens instantaneously. Can bulk-craft. Most recipes use common ingredients. Everything is target-acquirable with considerable control over getting it. Recipes are learned automatically and common rewards acquired from the rest of the game's systems. One could argue the whole game is a crafting ingredient acquisition system, but it works here. It could be improved with a better UI/organization of the crafting menu though, of course.

And here's an example middle of the road game:


The crafting system in Grim Dawn is mostly good. Pick from a vendor menu, using mostly-commonly-available ingredients. Get blueprints as you progress in the game and as random loot drops to unlock new recipes. No time taken, or rewards animations. Where it falls apart: Dependency trees. Some items require other items, so you're often back and forth checking the original item, then making its components, and back, and sometimes those components use other components that you already crafted so you have to go back and make more of those. And, of course, the typical "some ingredients are bottlenecks". Chthonic Seals of Binding is the big one for me much of the time, but a few others (Ugdenblooms, etc) are always in short-supply. And they're theoretically target farmable to a degree, they're really hard to come by in quantities that you need. Even aether crystals (which the game also uses for its respecing) run low once you really get into it. You seem to have giant stacks of them and a neverending supply for the longest time, and the you run out. You can easily target farm them, but they get consumed so quickly and by everything (they're practically this game's "Gold 2.0") that you'll run out once you reach late game with more than a couple characters.

Fishing:
And while "fishing minigames" predate crafting systems generally, we cannot deny how tightly they are often intertwined. And, really, F fishing minigames.

EDIT: I think Ghost of Tsushima fit into the "OK" category. I have to think back to it more though.
Post edited November 24, 2021 by mqstout
I agree with the previous post. There really any such a thing as “crafting” in games, simply another description of buying or acquiring items. In most cases it’s highly annoying and only there as filler. An example is (though not crafting but collecting) shadows of war/Mordor where you have to collect flowers (n a hack and slash!) not once, but twice over!!
Sometimes it adds a small part to the game, like tomb raider 2013 where you can upgrade weapons, that’s ok as it actually adds options to the game rather than just being a reworded skill system.
Oh, I don’t play MMO as I don’t like other people, so none of that interests me. Perhaps it adds a layer or trading or something?
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mqstout: "Crafting systems" are one of the things that have really made games worse when they're present, and I hope they've finished running their course and will start going away from games. MMOs and TES games are largely to blame for this (or at least the ones I noticed having crap before it tainted other games), and these games do it precisely because it's padding to make the game feel like there's something there.
In TES games, crafting in the usual sense is only needed for alchemy, a skill you can ignore if you want (and can break Morrowind with, if you choose to go that route).

On the other hand, I really like being able to enchant my own equipment, especially in Morrowind. (Oblivion's enchanting is also decent, but I wish I could enchant staves to cast custom spells of my choosing instead of being stuck with the ones Bethesda put in the game.)


Another interesting example of a crafting-like system is Etrian Odyssey. In this game, and its sequels:
* Enemies drop things like body parts when defeated.
* You can also find materials at certain points in dungeons, and can farm a limited number (depending on skills) per trip. (In EO3, the class that excels at this is called the "Farmer"; worth noting that this class, while not good in battle, has a skill to disable random encounters.)
* If you sell these items to the shop, new items (like equipment and consumables) may be unlocked for purchase.

It occurred to me that, while typing this post, that Grandia Xtreme also has the whole "sell items to unlock new items" thing, but in a much smaller scale. (This game, while not first-person, has some similarities to DRPGs.)
Post edited November 24, 2021 by dtgreene
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mqstout: Fishing:
And while "fishing minigames" predate crafting systems generally, we cannot deny how tightly they are often intertwined. And, really, F fishing minigames.
I think Breath of Fire 1's approach was decent, where you just use a fishing rod at a spot, and the game then gives you an item. I could see that approach being more RPG-like if they added a fishing skill and had that affect whether you get a bite when you use the rod.

The Pokemon games I used were also like that; use a fishing rod, and a Pokemon will bite and attack, at which point you can catch it. (I believe it's one way to get Magikarp, a rather famous Pokemon that's weak until it evolves.)
low rated
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nightcraw1er.488: I agree with the previous post. There really any such a thing as “crafting” in games, simply another description of buying or acquiring items. In most cases it’s highly annoying and only there as filler. An example is (though not crafting but collecting) shadows of war/Mordor where you have to collect flowers (n a hack and slash!) not once, but twice over!!
Sometimes it adds a small part to the game, like tomb raider 2013 where you can upgrade weapons, that’s ok as it actually adds options to the game rather than just being a reworded skill system.
Oh, I don’t play MMO as I don’t like other people, so none of that interests me. Perhaps it adds a layer or trading or something?
you should try them out , it adds a lot to enjoyment or takes :P
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dtgreene: * If you sell these items to the shop, new items (like equipment and consumables) may be unlocked for purchase.

It occurred to me that, while typing this post, that Grandia Xtreme also has the whole "sell items to unlock new items" thing, but in a much smaller scale. (This game, while not first-person, has some similarities to DRPGs.)
This alternate to crafting is in a few games, and it usually works out better than Crafting. Of course, it's vulnerable to the same overbearing crap of too much rarity, excessive farming of things for it, etc.
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dtgreene: I think Breath of Fire 1's approach was decent, where you just use a fishing rod at a spot, and the game then gives you an item. I could see that approach being more RPG-like if they added a fishing skill and had that affect whether you get a bite when you use the rod.
Resource collection (including fishing) is less of a problem when it doesn't involve a mini-game, but I'd usually prefer it be more massaged away further. But for some reason, fishing's always the first crap turned into a [never fun] minigame where you have to do something to catch the fish.
Post edited November 24, 2021 by mqstout
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dtgreene: * If you sell these items to the shop, new items (like equipment and consumables) may be unlocked for purchase.

It occurred to me that, while typing this post, that Grandia Xtreme also has the whole "sell items to unlock new items" thing, but in a much smaller scale. (This game, while not first-person, has some similarities to DRPGs.)
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mqstout: This alternate to crafting is in a few games, and it usually works out better than Crafting. Of course, it's vulnerable to the same overbearing crap of too much rarity, excessive farming of things for it, etc.
It also has the advantage that it ensures that money doesn't become pointless later on.

(There are a lot of games where, once you reach a certain point, there's nothing worthwhile left to spend your money on, yet you keep getting more money, and as a result, end up with money you can't realistically spend. The first two Final Fantasy games are like that (though later FF2 remakes at least changed the inventory system so you can spend it all on Elixirs, like you can in FF4 and FF5).)
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nightcraw1er.488: Oh, I don’t play MMO as I don’t like other people, so none of that interests me. Perhaps it adds a layer or trading or something?
That's for the best MMOs are the peak of trash game design. They go out of their way to design badly just to keep people playing. There's no surprise that crap like "engagement" and "dailies" and "experience boosters" and, mictotransactions, and, topic of this thread, obtuse time-wasting crafting systems, are big in them. And yes, abyssmal drop rates for things so you're forced to "participate in the economy". And the constant loot and level treadmills. And then end-game content that requires coordination with a small city's worth of people even to begin (and most of the people are going to be obnoxious anyway). Plus the rage directed at you if you're anything less than perfect (and sometimes even if you are).

Yes, it's best to avoid MMOs for many reasons. They're subtractive to gaming.
Real life. :P

Just kidding.

I haven't played many games with crafting system recently, but Imo Terraria system works really well and it's not too annoying to grind for resources.

(Real life crafting system is awesome though.)
I like Terraria, Minecraft and Subnautica's crafting system, all simple except Minecrafts
I hate crafting systems, and mqstout already covered most of why. It's just another pointless collect-'em-all to justify random garbage drops and random garbage lying around the game world. Many games I like have crafting systems, but I like those games in spite of crafting, not because of it. Even games with crafting as their primary focus, such as the Summon Night and Atelier Iris series. If I were to pick a "best" crafting system, I'd probably pick something like Arx Fatalis, where at least the combinations made sense, and my inventory didn't end up being full of useless crafting ingredients (I think; I only vaguely remember the game). Still hated the crafting, though.
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dtgreene: Grandia Xtreme ... (This game, while not first-person, has some similarities to DRPGs.)
Such as? I mean, other than being RPGs? I guess you could also say "turn-based", but I don't use the term "DRPG" and don't know if it is limited to turn-based games. It's been many, many years since I've played it, so maybe I'm misremembering things.

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dtgreene: there's nothing worthwhile left to spend your money on, yet you keep getting more money
Xenosaga 2 had a side quest to take care of this: pay back the ship captain's staggering debt. It was (nearly?) impossible to complete on the first playthrough without farming certain expensive items (steal from a near-final boss, flee, repeat). It's one of the two side quests I never completed in that game (the other being the "finish all other side quests first" one, so basically the same thing).