Make crafting a puzzle game!

[HarveyMilk]

I saw someone griping about how boring cannith crafting is in another thread, and I sympathized. Personally, I never bothered to do it for longer than about a minute. It's just not for me in its current form.

And then it hit me.

Add a puzzle game alternative! Even make 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 puzzle matches, where the winner gets more crafting xp. DDO has always been about having to think and solve puzzles, rather than mind-numbing button mashing. Let's see that in the crafting!

A fun puzzle game is exactly what DDO needs. They could even leave the current system in place, nearly exactly as is, and add a puzzle game option, for more risk/reward, and I'd be all over it. Then people who don't like puzzles AT ALL are happy, and the rest of us would be happy too.

Doooo it! =D

From later in the thread:

Isn't crafting already a puzzle game?

......

But its already plenty puzzling without making it still more complicated.

No, my suggestion is not to scrap the entire thing and make it more complicated.

Here are the two real points I've sussed out of these posts.

1) Changing it would be too hard/time-consuming/distracting for developers.

This is a common argument against suggestions and not always true. In this case, because I'm not asking them to do anything but add a puzzle game alternative, no, I don't think it would be too hard. Yes, I demand fun in my games. And normally I wouldn't bother with suggestions, but there are too many things I like about DDO to stop playing.

2) A puzzle game doesn't fit

Puzzles DO fit in D&D, in fact, it's a defining characteristic. An MMORPG, by its very nature, can't recreate the true impromtu magic of D&D because there is no live DM to judge creative ideas as successes or failures with D20 rolls. So, instead, we have a combat system that breaks down at the 20th level (because of slavish adherence to D20, when 2D20 and 3D20 would REALLY help). And we have puzzles in quests, some required for completion, some required for bonus loot.

A puzzle game would certainly fit in with House C. A crafting house society game. This is how they have FUN. All work and no play... etc...

And, for the record, I have never ever played puzzle quest and never even heard of it until someone posted the name here in this thread.

More thoughtful responses and /signed pls

[brian14]

/signed

[Grenada]

Brilliant.
/signed

[Cam_Neely]

only if the puzzle was against other live opponents crafting. If not, people would just use a solver or trick, and it again would be mindless. Of course you would still get endless 'boo hoo, im not good at it, make it how it was so i can just grind away and not thing' posts.

[HarveyMilk]

only if the puzzle was against other live opponents crafting. If not, people would just use a solver or trick, and it again would be mindless. Of course you would still get endless 'boo hoo, im not good at it, make it how it was so i can just grind away and not thing' posts.

That's why I suggested they could leave the current system in place for people who hate puzzles. That would be just fine. I don't hate the current system, I just don't use it at all, and never will. Yes, I miss out on crafting leveling equipment, some DR breakers that are bound-only shards and whatever, but I could really care less. The game is about fun for me, not power.

And, I would LOVE to see 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 puzzle game options. God, would be freakin' fun.

It just boggles my mind how much dev time went into the current Cannith crafting without anyone saying, "wait gang... is this even fun?"

They came up with a rather sophisticated system with lots of creative names and lots of good stuff... and no one asked, "is it fun?" =D

[countfitz]

/signed

[Arkadios]

Sure
/signed

[Yarrrrr]

/signed

[countfitz]

/signed

[HarveyMilk]

I know lots of people who play DDO also play other puzzle games, yes, including bejeweled blitz (=D)

I'd love to puzzle in DDO instead! Heck, put ads in them, too! I wouldn't care!! =DD (VIP turns off ads??!!)

[Templarion]

Mini games are awesome.

Much like Thief game series had simple but satisfying "pick lock"-minigame and Oblivion had that "speaking"-minigame.

Yeah. I can always favor puzzles (even difficult ones!) over a boring grind. On the other hand, the puzzles should be really difficult and have many parts and something against "web solvers". It is easy to ruin the whole challenge of crafting without carefully planning the implementation of this.

[Ugumagre]

/signed

Nice idea!!

[Xionanx]

Normally I would dismiss such ideas as ridiculous... however, if you have ever played the game "Puzzle Quest" it has a magic item creation system in it that is exactly as you describe, a puzzle.

Basically is a bejeweled style setup, and in order to "Craft" your item you have to collect X number of a particular type of "Jewel" during the puzzle. So there is no way to "cheat" by having someone post the solution online, its just a matter of you being good enough to collect the gems.

However, as interesting as all this sounds, it doesn't fit with anything else in the DDO universe. As much as a find the current crafting system implementation to be a polished turd, I dont think were going to get anything better.

[HarveyMilk]

Normally I would dismiss such ideas as ridiculous... however, if you have ever played the game "Puzzle Quest" it has a magic item creation system in it that is exactly as you describe, a puzzle.

Basically is a bejeweled style setup, and in order to "Craft" your item you have to collect X number of a particular type of "Jewel" during the puzzle. So there is no way to "cheat" by having someone post the solution online, its just a matter of you being good enough to collect the gems.

However, as interesting as all this sounds, it doesn't fit with anything else in the DDO universe. As much as a find the current crafting system implementation to be a polished turd, I dont think were going to get anything better.

Yikes, that's a dismal outlook. And I think we absolutely can get something better. I also disagree, I think it would very much fit in the DDO universe. Yes, it would take some serious designing to implement and make fun. But that's the point of the game, to be fun, right? I would LOVE to tell people that DDO has the best crafting system in the MMO market.

Sadly, it does not. But it could! And there are already fun puzzle dynamics (I like the shroud-style puzzle a lot).

It really wouldn't be a stretch to make crafting engage your mind!! It would just make game time more enjoyable. More /signs pls

[Heklen]

/signed

[Bodic]

I would be all for this just as soon as DDO2 4D full game immersion happens. I just want full body control not to much to ask right.

I know gaming would become exercise. The 12+ hour grinds would make you tired as all get out, but the joys would be UBER.

ok so I just got done watching TRON sue me.

[EbbOnFire]

The MMO "Puzzle Pirates" did (does? haven't played it in a long while) a great job at this. Every task had its own little mini-game, and most of them were pretty enjoyable to play in their own right. You can easily have a wagering system - put in X number of essences (or whatever), and then based on how well you do at the puzzle you can get back X, 2X, 4X, etc. outputs. I don't do crafting, so I don't know exactly how this would translate into DDO.

[Devonian]

Isn't crafting already a puzzle game?

I mean you need to navagate a baroque list of options, moast of which will elevate the items minimum level far too much to be of use, to find out what shards you need, go to another device, serch another list that is only useful if you already know exactly what you want to find what you need, play inventory Tetris to get the stuff together, then retrace your steps making the shard, and finally item, before repeating the whole process again, looking for another dodad for the abitary, but unfiltered prefix/suffix split.

Ok so a game would involve some kind of fun... But its already plenty puzzling without making it still more complicated.

[Chauncey1]

Seriously?
A puzzle game? lol
That would make me never want to crafty anything ever.
Crafting is already too complex and tedious as it is. Making it a puzzle would just be too much.

[andbr22]

Ugh... It seems somoene played too much puzzle quest...

Honestly not signed and it never happen.
To much implementation (totaly difrent that they done before, bah totaly difrenf from a game)...
At somepoint you WILL want to just skip it...

And seriously "puzzle crafting PvP" is plain dumb... I think there are other games that have it. It just don't fit into climate of game...