Developer Blog: Closer Look at Crew Skills IntroductionI’m Patrick Malott. I’ve worked as a Game Systems Designer on various
titles over the years, but what we’re working on here at BioWare Austin
is my dream project: Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. In my current role,
designing and building out the
Crew Skills system is one of the biggest projects I’m involved in. As a passionate
multiplayer online gamer myself, I know that crafting is a critical part
of the experience for many of you, and I’m dedicated to making sure you
enjoy the way it works in The Old Republic. In this blog, I want to
shed some light on the design decisions we’re making with Crew Skills…
and I might just drop a few new specifics on the Armstech crafting
skill.
The Design ApproachAs the System Design Team prepared to create the Crew Skills system, we
spent a lot of time examining crafting systems in other games, noting
the pros and cons of as many systems as we could find. Our primary goal
was to create a system that’s fun and rewarding, so we gathered
inspiration from the pros and scrapped the cons. During the process, we
also kept our minds on innovation, making note of crafting features we’d
always wanted to see. In the end, it took many long hours and lots of
careful consideration to decide exactly what features would make Crew
Skills into a truly exceptional crafting system.
The system has shaped up well, and we’re excited about the results. The
Crew Skills system offers crafting features that players expect along
with surprising innovations that make our crafting experience stand out.
For example, in The Old Republic there are multiple ways to gather
resources. Not only can you gather resources yourself, but companion
characters in the field can be ordered to take care of the task.
Companions stationed on your ship can also be sent on gathering
missions, freeing you and your active companion up for action. Gathering
missions will even continue while you’re offline – the ultimate in
efficiency! Allowing several gathering options enhances the crafting
experience by accommodating a variety of play styles, making crafting
interesting and useful for everyone.
Companions and CraftingCompanion characters are a key part of The Old Republic, so one of our
goals for Crew Skills is to fully incorporate them into the system.
Having companions perform crafting tasks and missions encapsulates the
approach we desired for crafting, and adds to the story and detail of
the game world.
Players can issue crafting orders to up to five companions at a time,
and each companion can add up to five crafting tasks to their queue. You
can cancel crafting progress from anywhere if you need to, and the
resources your companions were using will be returned to you. Your
crafting queues will even continue to progress if you have to go offline
– when you log back on, you’ll receive any items that were completed
while you were gone.
Your companions all have different skills and personalities, and their
strengths carry over into the Crew Skills system. Some companions are
better suited to particular Crew Skills than others. We revealed
recently that Vette is an excellent Treasure Hunter; that means she’ll
have a bonus when performing Treasure Hunting missions. Companion traits
in Crew Skills are designed to be story-appropriate and meaningful, but
the bonuses aren’t designed to be so extreme that you’ll feel you only
have one companion choice for a given task.
Companions are much more than just a block of stats to be ordered
around, of course. In true role-playing fashion, what your companions
think about you will affect how motivated they are to work for you.
Companions with high affection will have their ability to perform
crafting tasks greatly improved. For example, a companion with high
affection can craft items faster – this becomes really significant when
crafting tasks can take hours or even up to a day to complete!
Though companions are vital to The Old Republic and the Crew Skills
system, we do know that some players want to be the primary crafter for
all their crafted items, or for particularly special pieces of
equipment. It’s worth noting that players will definitely need to be
directly involved in the process when learning rare schematics, and that
Lightsabers aren’t acquired or assembled via the Crew Skills system.
We’ll have more details on this later.
ArmstechThe Old Republic offers a wide variety of crafting skills, and we’ve
already revealed three of the six. Today, I’d like to show you a bit
about a fourth: Armstech. Armstech is the ability to work with hard
metals, alloys, and synthetic materials to craft blasters.
When we designed the Armstech crafting skill, we envisioned what
materials make sense in The Old Republic. We spent hours reading online,
referencing books and novels, talking with colleagues, and utilizing
all the Star Wars™ resources we could find to help define the perfect
materials for Armstech. Once we laid out the materials, the rest of the
system fell comfortably into place.
Players who choose Armstech as their crafting skill will be able to
create a wide range of blaster pistols, blaster rifles, sniper rifles,
and assault cannons. To create these powerful weapons, you’ll need to
get your hands on the right materials. Scavenging, a gathering skill,
supplies the metals, alloys, and other materials you’ll need for
Armstech.
Entry-level Armstech schematics require only a gathered resource,
allowing crafters to enjoy the game system immediately. As schematic
complexity and item quality increases, the crafter will need other
ingredients, like vendor-purchased materials and even rare resources.
The higher the item quality, the more work you’ll need to put into
crafting.
There are three quality levels for crafted blasters:
Quality | Crafting Requirements |
Premium | Gathered resources and common items sold on vendors |
Prototype | Rare gathered resources and other valuable items |
Artifact | Rare resources (gathered or otherwise) and other valuable items – possibly acquired from other players |
Premium quality blasters are relatively easy for an Armstech to make.
They generally require only scavenged materials and vendor-purchased
fluxes. At lower levels, Premium quality blasters require relatively
inexpensive materials and take only minutes to construct. They’re on par
with (and sometimes slightly better than) items commonly acquired from
completing quests and defeating enemies. We expect that casual crafters
will pursue crafting blasters of this quality, and that they’ll get
excellent use out of them.
Discovering and mastering Prototype and Artifact quality blasters takes
considerably longer and requires much more player dedication. In The Old
Republic, we want the crafting of such items – especially at the end
game levels – to be a significant accomplishment. Our goal is for
players to want to seek out renowned crafters who have learned the
rarest schematics. Prototype and Artifact quality blasters will be
exceptional, and their appearance and effectiveness will speak to their
rarity and power.
Players progressing through The Old Republic will always desire better
quality items, and crafters certainly want to provide those items to
make a profit. 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. In
future updates, we’ll go further into detail about how we plan to
address crafted items in the economy!
ClosingThanks for taking the time to read this blog. We’re all very excited
about Crew Skills, and I’m happy to share these details about our goals
and design ideals with you. Keep in mind that we’re always reviewing and
testing our systems to ensure their quality and fun. And, of course, we
always appreciate you taking the time to provide us with feedback, so
keep it coming!
May the Force be with you!
Patrick Mallot
Systems Designer