The latest Fractured Online feature spotlight takes a deep dive into the intricate layers of the game’s crafting system.
Since crafting is a standard MMORPG feature, the team decided that if they were going to build it in, it would need to be interesting in addition to practical, especially in a player-driven sandbox.
There are several different types and layers of crafting that you can learn. The first is what the team is calling inventory crafting. Open up your inventory and make simple things like a bandage or a torch. But the next steps get more complex and with various reasons to pursue, and brings you into the wider world too.
One thing the team has talked about is crafting stations and other features within cities. Crafting stations are only found within cities, making it an advantage to hold that city or have alliances. Crafting benches in the cities will also vary from each other.
Each city has its own tech tree, based on what its citizens invest into. So your city might specialize in Tech points and another city might specialize in weapons. In order to craft items, you will have to find the recipes and learn them, but you'll also have to find all the required materials, and a crafting station in a city that will let you create the item you want.
The importance of citizenship for cities is also relevant here, because tax rates might be variable so someone who isn't a citizen but wants to craft at a certain city that has the right station might pay heavily for the privilege. If your city has some rare and top quality items and is the only one to have them, you might charge top price for non-citizens. At least until you get some competition. But the players will sort out the economy because of course, this is a sandbox.
This means exploring the world, but it could also mean sharing information with your guild or the community in other ways. Dynamight is also looking into a possible location tool showing what research a city has completed.
Once you’ve got the items you want, there’s also a system to imbue them with enhancements. That’s a separate, but related system, with its own intricacies, including rare ingredients, skills, and other processes.
Read the full deep dive into crafting over at Fractured Online.
