Crafting has been something of an afterthought in many of the MMORPGs released over the past half decade. Bucking that trend is BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic, which recently made waves with the reveal of its crew skills system. Today the TOR team brings us a closer look at the mechanics via a new dev diary. Systems Designer Patrick Mallot is our host on this particular tour, and though he spends a good portion of it rehashing things we already know (like NPC companions performing your gathering tasks), there are some interesting nuggets relating to armstech near the end.
Armstech is a crafting discipline that allows players to create blasters, rifles, and assault cannons. The scavenging skill provides the raw materials, and basic alloys and metals will let you get your feet wet immediately. Progression takes the form of both schematic complexity and item quality increases, and eventually vendor-bought materials and rare resources will come into play. Armstech features three quality levels (premium, prototype, and artifact), and Mallot hints at crafters playing an important role in The Old Republic's economy.
"We've worked hard to ensure that crafted items have an important place in The Old Republic's economy, and that crafters will be well-rewarded for the effort they put into the crew skills system," he says. Check out all the details at the official TOR website.
In other TOR news, BioWare also announced that the Jedi Wizard has been officially christened the Jedi Sage via popular fan vote.
Reader Comments (6)
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 1:00PM Stuxatte said
This is kind of reminding me of crafting in EVE, in the sense that you'll ultimately be managing five "factory slots" which can support five jobs each.
So that's a max of 25 active jobs. I presume it's so you can make a ton of components at once to then later assemble into a big end-game item.
And since you can make so many components at once, they'll increase the time it takes to make them, but soften that up by allowing jobs to continue while you're offline, as they say in the blog post.
I wonder what the actual crafting process is like though, if you decide to do it yourself?
So that's a max of 25 active jobs. I presume it's so you can make a ton of components at once to then later assemble into a big end-game item.
And since you can make so many components at once, they'll increase the time it takes to make them, but soften that up by allowing jobs to continue while you're offline, as they say in the blog post.
I wonder what the actual crafting process is like though, if you decide to do it yourself?
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 1:20PM JediPagan said
Game just looks better and better in every sense. Launch already!
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 3:31PM Lateris said
I am really stoked on this crafting system. I also like the fact that rare recipes will give you a sense of individuality. And the fact that players will seek out player crafted items.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 12:46AM SwobyJ said
I hope crafting is really good in TOR. Game should succeed if only to add true competition in the industry.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 8:52AM Decanus said
wonder if we can have a all droid crew, or all human or what ever race floats your boat would be cool if crew works some what like star trek online in terms of customization of equipment/uniform and face
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 1:37PM Valdamar said
I really love the fact that you assign crafting to crewmates and that it continues offline (because I hate crafting grinds and refuse to do them), but I'm also really REALLY glad that lightsaber crafting won't be a part of this and that you can craft your own - hopefully they'll build on KOTOR's lightsaber crafting system and let us mix & match different crystals.







