Crowfall

I assume they will also have some kind of funding option on their website after KS?

Like Star Citizen did and still makes a crap load per week.

Vandyn_sl said:

I have a feeling that the scope of the game is going to turn out (initially) much smaller than the average backer would hope for due to a variety of reasons (money being the primary one). That doesn't mean the game will not be fun but how much depth there is behind it may determine how long someone would play this.

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I think the depth of this game is on the players plate. Are people playing, are they being social or not? Are they pvping or crying when they get killed? It's all on the players. The base will be there.

A lot relies on how good their procedural generation algorithms are for the campaign maps. If they really let the map go wild and create truly strategic combat (like a fortress city blocked off by impenetrable mountain ranges from all directions but one) it could have a lot of replayability. My hope is it doesn't feel generic.

ArtCraft Entertainment, Inc. about 8 hours ago
We've got some surprises coming after the 12k achievement, we probably will post those in the AM. Have a great night everyone! On top of that, more cool info coming every day this week and next. Thanks for all your support!

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Dingle tingle

Update #13



Congratulations everyone! 12K Backers UNLOCKED! - Everyone will receive an exclusive statue of the All-father for their Personal Kingdom. Time for another backer reward: At the next goal of 13,000: all backers free month of VIP membership!

What's next? Well, the 1.3 million stretch Goal of Mounts and Caravans lingers ever closer, if and when we achieve this goal (fingers crossed!) you can bet we'll have more great ideas to follow!

But lets talk about Today! In this update we follow up on some more Crafting details in what we are calling "Crafting FAQ part 2" (original name, right?) and Todd sits down and answers some questions about ArtCraft Entertainment and the idea behind Crowfall.

Interview with Todd: Part 1
Crowfall - Todd Interview: Part 1 - YouTube

Crafting FAQ Part 2!
How do players get access to advanced crafting?
Our system is very freeform! Each of the Archetypes in Crowfall has an initial package of skills, and some of the Archetypes have specific crafting skills in their package. For example, the Forgemaster starting skill package has some initial blacksmithing skill and recipes. As the character progresses and engages in Campaigns they will discover Discipline Runestones such as Weaponsmith, or Armorsmith. As you pick up new Disciplines, that opens up new skills and new recipes.

I have to take a specific Archetype if I want to craft?!
Generally, no. Most of the crafting-oriented Discipline Runestones can be used by any Archetype, though each character is limited as to how many Disciplines they can use (we're currently planning on 3, max.) We see crafters as a full-time playstyle! They fill a valuable role as much as a tank or damage dealer does. In addition to being able to enjoy the "meta-game" of inter-World trading between Worlds, Crafters also have a specific niche role -- every faction/guild will need to recruit them to turn resources into valuable equipment within the Campaigns.

Won't this encourage a lot of people to make alternate characters for crafting (alts)?
Probably not -- we want to encourage players to only play a single character within a campaign, so we're putting design rules in place to encourage that. An upshot of this design is that the best "crafters" won't generally be alternate characters, because it's not a very effective strategy. Recruiting proficient and dedicated Crafters will be one key ingredient to waging a successful Campaign. The same can be said of those who choose to specialize in scouting, raiding or sieging. Players (and Guilds) will need to make smart strategic choices about skill specialization -- and even team composition -- before entering a campaign.
Is there interdependence between the crafting types?

Most recipes that create equipment require components from each of the crafting styles. Each guild should encourage their members to take a spread of crafting Disciplines, to cover all the component styles.

What does increasing a specific crafting skill do?

Every recipe requires a specific crafting skill (such as Blacksmithing for metal crafts, or Woodworking for wood crafts). Raising this skill will decrease the amount of crafting failures, and potentially increase the quality of the end piece of equipment. That said, we are trying to reduce the amount of randomness (RNG) in the system, so finding the right balance here will require some iteration.

The crafting skill also acts as a soft gate rather than a hard gate normally seen in crafting systems. In most games, a crafter wouldn't see upper end recipes until they hit a certain skill amount, grinding out thousands of needless items to get to that point. In Crowfall, each crafter starts with the same set of key recipes -- the challenge is going to be getting their hands on upper-end resources they can craft with them. If they can get these resources, they CAN craft the item -- but the chances of success are very low. Based on their skill, it becomes a judgment call for the crafter as to when they should start attempting to craft more difficult items.
How do you plan to prevent "I only want the best!" Syndrome?

Part of the reason that other games suffer from this is because items are largely permanent - once you gain a particular weapon, you usually don't give it up (or lose it) until you find a better weapon. This cycle could take months, or years. Crowfall's design means that items will turn-over much more frequently. Decay and item loss will factor heavily into Crowfall's economy, so gear that isn't "the best" might be acceptable for a night where the player expects multiple deaths storming the castle. We also see this as a way for the crafters to gain a reputation as one who only sells a certain quality of item. The crafter who really wants to be known for their crafts might craft the same item multiple times and only sell those which they are proud of - and salvage those which don't meet the quality mark.

What do the crafters do with all their rejects?

Since there is no vendor with an endless supply of coins to buy items, crafters can salvage any items they don't want to get some of the resources back.
How fast does equipment decay?

Equipment will take small amounts decay from use in combat and large amounts of decay when the player is killed in combat. Crafters will be able to repair equipment which will lower its max durability each time it is repaired.

Is there any way to mass produce items?

Some games (most notably Star Wars: Galaxies) provided the ability for crafters to essentially turn a crafted item into a blueprint that will consume it but allow the crafter to produce a limited amount of copies of that item. We're considering a similar system, where players can craft a particular item to use a "template" and then order their Thrall Blacksmiths to manufacture that item in larger quantities.

How do I sell items to other players? Is there an auction house?

Currently, we don't plan on offering an auction house. Instead, we are going to have "shopkeeper" Thralls that can be slotted into buildings to sell items. These thralls can be set up within certain structures, both in Campaign Worlds (to service a guild or faction) and in Kingdoms (to foster trade for use in the Eternal Kingdoms, or Campaigns with less strict import restrictions. We also expect that some players will open up their personal Kingdoms as "marketplaces" for other players to come and sell their goods, and take a cut out of every transaction that occurs.

Tuco_sl said:

Nice goal, but how are you going to do it?

Their statement makes it sound like they're either going to allow one character per account in a campaign or are going to have some cap on the number of people in a guild in some way. Either way we can work around that bullshit limitation by throwing money or time at it.

Or they'll make crafting so time consuming that it takes someone 5-10 minutes to make a sword, lol.

If they want dedicated crafters to work they need to add gameplay to crafting. A progress bar based crafting system + one character per account on a server just means I'm paying an extra $15 a month to have a second account running all the time shitting out bricks for buildings or whatever.

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Is there any way to mass produce items?

Some games (most notably Star Wars: Galaxies) provided the ability for crafters to essentially turn a crafted item into a blueprint that will consume it but allow the crafter to produce a limited amount of copies of that item. We're considering a similar system, where players can craft a particular item to use a "template" and then order their Thrall Blacksmiths to manufacture that item in larger quantities.

---- Looks like they'll have npc's that craft for you if you give them a template for an item you made yourself possibly

Do people play these types of games to craft and nothing else? If a campaign is say 3 months long and you choose to make a crafter, it sounds like you are gimped in anything else for that 3 months else you buy another account.

Ep 3: Lords of the dead talk about pvp and rock paper scissors.

Rerolled Interview gets mentioned at 21:00

It's time to reveal more details about Character progression! Introducing: The lifetime of a character:

Character Progression FAQ

How does character progression work?

Character progression happens in a few different ways.
At character creation, the player selects an Archetype, and a series of Advantages and Disadvantages.
This is done on a point system; each character (or avatar) has a set number of points that can be spent to improve the character. Additional points can be gained by taking Disadvantages. There is a limit to the number of Advantage and Disadvantage runes that can be added to each character.

After creating the character and advancing your base skills to a level of competency through gameplay, each Archetype has the option to promote to another Class or occupation. We are planning for multiple promotion classes for each base Archetype.

The promotion classes enable the player to skew their character in a specific direction. Want to be a Knight who does more damage? Promote to Swordsman! Want to be a Knight who has even more defensive skills? Promote to Crusader! Want to be a Knight who has a ranged weapon and skills? Promote to Sentinel!

Can I change my Promotion Class later?

No. There are a few changes that are permanent, and this is one of them. Choose carefully.
What does a promotion class grant?

In almost all cases the promotion class increases your skill maximums on all relevant skills. This enables the player to train their skills deeper into a chosen path, becoming a master at what they do.
Most of the time promotion also grants new powers to use in combat and extends the awesomeness of existing powers.

Sometimes promotion will grant a new weapon that can be used along with skills and powers that accompany it. Such as a melee class gaining the ability to use a bow and the skills that accompany bow usage.
Promotion also offers the character a final chance to alter any of their advantages and disadvantages. At this point we think the player fully understands what would be useful to their character as a permanent choice.
What are the requirements to promote?

We are still working on the exact mechanics that will allow a character to promote to their promotion class but are pretty sure it will have something to do with skill points. Either earn a specific total amount of skill points or train some specific skills to a required amount. It might even be a combination of both.

After I select a Promotion Classes, am I done with customization?

No. In addition to promotion classes, characters can also take Disciplines, which are a type of "sub-class" to further customize your character.

Disciplines are applied by collecting Runestones in the game, and applying them to your character. Not every Discipline will be available to every Archetype - but every Archetype will have access to many, many Disciplines.
Disciplines allow you to further customize your characters skills and powers. Want to focus that Knight on more sword damage? Or increasing his Strength attribute? Or turning into a Werebear? These are the types of customization effects that can be added by using Disciplines.

Discipline runes can increase your skill max will certain skills, grant access to new skills and powers, grant you new crafting recipes, or give you the ability to master weapon types that are normally restricted.
The skills, powers and recipes granted by Disciplines are typically very thematic. For example, we wouldn't have a generic "Weapon Master" discipline that gives you a bonus to swords, spears and shields - but we might have a "Gladiator" discipline that does exactly that, because it makes sense that a Gladiator might have that particular collection of skills.

Discipline Examples:

Alchemist Runestone

"Wine from Water, Lead from Gold"

Grants Potion Recipes
Grants Alchemy Skill
Grants Inventory Bag (Potions) - Potions placed in Potion bag will not explode when hit

Werewolf Runestone
"For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack"
Grants Limited Time Transformation Power - Grants Werewolf combat powers while in Werewolf form
Grants Bonus Damage Vampyre Stat
Increases Movement speed Stat
Grants equipment slot: Jorts

Can my Disciplines be changed?

Yes, you can overwrite existing Discipline Runestones with new ones. Doing so will remove or reduce the benefits granted by the previous Discipline, and destroy the old one in the process.
Do Disciplines have restrictions?

Some of them do, usually in any case where an animation set is required for that weapon which that archetype may not have. For example the Cavalier Discipline (which grants shield mastery and block powers) would not be usable by Duelist archetype, because they do have the necessary skill pre-requirements (shields) or animation sets.

Can you give me some examples of other Disciplines?
Sure. Here are a few examples.

Standard Bearer
Rune Caster
Collector
Lapidary
Beastmaster
Ratcatcher
Blood of the Ancients
Berserker
Swashbuckler
Stonecutter
Commander

Where do Disciplines Runestones come from?
Disciplines are found by participating in Campaigns.

The exact method varies: they can be scavenged (meaning they will spawn in ruins, or uncovered as buried treasure when tunneling in the ground), some can be crafted (using additives and resources found in the Campaign worlds) some can be granted as a special Campaign reward.

Can Discipline Runes be traded?

Yes, but since they can't be removed (only destroyed), you can only use them if they have not yet been applied to a character.
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Falconry Wallpaper
If you like the Falconry Discipline Illustration above, you may like this wallpaper...

Vitality_sl said:

Grants Inventory Bag (Potions) - Potions placed in Potion bag will not explode when hit

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That one line is enough to get me to pledge to the kickstarter.

Wage_sl said:

That one line is enough to get me to pledge to the kickstarter.

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Time to be a Guinea Werewolf

Also:

Posted Today, 06:49 PM


This does illustrate one of the cooler things about our equipment system is dynamically adding or removing equipment slots and many of our Discipline do this with extra rings and necklaces. No Mr.T disciplines planned though!

Arawulf and M0rdred like this Like This
Thomas Blair

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Guinea Bard named Jamiroquai - Slim Thug Discipline

Whats everyone's opinions on the pledges, which gives you the most back for your money?

How much do you value early access? Once you can answer that question, then you know what package to pick.

$30 obviously

Tearofsoul_sl said:

$30 obviously

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Yep, obviously.