Crafting in Lord of the Rings Online

Finally! I know I promised this sooner, but other issues seemed more pressing.

Overview:
The crafting system in Lord of the Rings Online is a tiered system with a 'mastery path' added allowing craftsmen to specialize in one field. The crafting is set up in different professions that require you interact with other craftsmen (sometimes through the auction house) to create your crafted items. Requiring players to take time to interact with other players is a no-brainer for the developers. The crafting system gives developers a break from providing quest and roleplaying content. The crafts also include a gathering skill to allow the craftsman to procure some of their needed supplies on their own.

The professions are:
Armourer the craft skills of the Armourer are, Prospector, Metalsmith, Tailor.

Armsman the craft skills of the Armsman are, Prospector, Weaponsmith, Woodworker.

Explorer the craft skills of the Explorer are, Prospector, Forester, Tailor.

Historian the craft skills of the Historian are, Farmer, scholar, Weaponsmith.

Tinker the craft skills of the Tinker are, Jeweler, Cook, Prospector.

Woodsman the craft skills of a Woodsman are, Farmer, Forester, Woodworker.

Yeoman the craft skills of the Yeoman are, Cook, Farmer, Tailor.

A prospector mines the various ores, gems, and mineral byproducts found in Middle Earth and refines that ore into various metals. A Forester gathers wood and processes the hides and 'branches' of wood found in Middle Earth. These are the gathering skills.

The processing skills take place at a 'workbench'. Workbench is a generic term for any processing facility from an actual workbench for a jeweler, woodworker, forester to a forge for Weaponsmith or Metalsmith, or even a farm field for a farmer. Some processing skills are paired hand in hand with their main professions. Like the Explorer processing hides into leather and then turning them into light and medium armor with the Tailor skill. Other Professions need help acquiring the raw materials such as an Armsman needing a forester to gather and process wood for the woodworker skill. Each processing skills comes with 'recipes' that allow the craftsman to make finished products.

The system is a 'tiered' system with the worker required to reach a level of proficiency in the current level before they can gather materials, process materials, or learn the recipes of the next tier. After learning the new tier, the craftsman then must 'master' that tier before he can master any higher tiers. The tiers originally were Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, and Master. After a serious nerf¹ of the system they added the 'Supreme Master' tier. This was an effort to add end game activity and to encourage players who had already spent endless hours mastering their craft an incentive to get back to crafting which requires very little work on the part of the developers.

O.K. so now that we have an idea of how the crafting system works in Lord of the Rings online, we will proceed to where they went wrong and how to fix it.

First the system is simply generic. It makes a few small nods to the background lore by having the best workbenches for metalsmithing and weaponsmithing be in the Dwarven and Elven areas and the best farmland in the Shire etc. but it does not address the richness and diversity of materials and abilities found in the books. The system starts out with the same material for items crafted at the same tier in the same area that roughly corresponds to the character's level². The beginning materials are copper and tin which make bronze for weapons and armor or rowan wood for woodworker items, light hide for tailoring etc. The game never does explain why characters cannot use 'higher level' items. It is only logical that somebody might not be able to produce an item that requires greater craftsmanship than they currently possess. It makes no sense to say that they cannot use an item that is better constructed.

Using one material for all items at every tier begs the question, why would one material make items of the same tier for the every type of use? Why would rowan wood make the lowest level of material for virtually everything? Mightn't rowan make good instruments for music or a decent wood for a javelin? Yew is certainly superior to ash wood for bows but it is certainly inferior to ash for for spears, javelins, or clubs. Bronze does not make as fine an armor or weapon as steel but bronze or copper pots are preferred cooking vessels to the finest steel. Cast iron makes a better frying pan than steel for that matter.

The second part to this is the location. Rowan, copper, and tin are found in one area, Ash, 'barrow iron', and silver found in the next leveling area etc. How does this make any sense at all? Did all the high level monsters get together and decide, 'hey, let's hang out where the Ancient Iron ore is found and let's plant 'Black Ash' trees here'. Now actually that makes more sense than the game does because you don't harvest Black Ash trees you harvest black ash branches. Worse, you find yew branches in the middle of the Lone Lands a high desert environment with sparse foliage. Yew trees require moisture and start off as undergrowth in Fir or Pine forests. Again this makes no sense.

The recipes have great potential but deliver nothing except style differences. A Dwarf Make Iron Armor offers the same benefits as an Elf Make Iron Armor. While I enjoy the looks of the Elven and Dwarven armor and materials nothing makes them different. They also did not extend the styling of armor and clothes to the other items like the weapons and tools. There are no 'Elvish make' Yew bows or Dwarven Axes.

So here I will offer some improvements to the system. First, acknowledge that different materials make different items. Yew makes better bows that Ash, Bronze makes better cookware than 'barrow iron' etc. Also, these materials simply do not get found in the same areas together. Or if it is necessary for 'balance' to do this then locate the raw materials in areas where they would naturally be found.

Second, look to actual use for the design of items and the material used. Bows could be long, short, recurve, reflex-deflex, composite, self etc. and made from Yew, Osage orange, Lemonwood, steel. Composite bows would require horn, sinew, different types of wood, while self bows would require longer pieces of higher quality wood but would be easier to craft.

For instance, the lowest tier of bow making would be self bows, within that tier would be long bows and short bows of human or Hobbit manufacturing and design. A superior level would be bows of better pieces of wood or crafted with particular care. Perhaps bows of a better type of wood or made with a superior grip etc. The next tier of bow making would be would bows of reflex-deflex design of human or hobbit design and manufacturing. The bows might be made with yew limbs and an oak riser with a shelf for the arrow etc. A superior bow might have some of the same quality differences or a better tip, reflex angle, etc.

The next tier of bows might represent the Elvish simpler self bows like Legolas' short bow that he takes from Mirkwood made from high quality yew with horn tips and a good recurve or a dwarvish bow made with a laminate of superior woods, minerals, sinews, etc and laminated to protect it from all weather or perhaps a steel bow of Gondor. Superior bows of this tier could be well made composites of human or dwarvish design.

The next tier would be the best bows of human design whether it be a laminate of wood, horn, and sinew or a reflex-deflex wood bow made with the finest of skill, care, and materials. A superior bow might be made with outright magical materials or simply with an understanding of the Songs of the Valar that makes the sum greater than the parts.

The best bows would be elven bows made by the master craftsmen of the Elves. Bows made with the finest of woods including lebethron wood. The designs would be elegant, graceful, and enduring. Since the game assumes an endlessly full quiver, perhaps at every tier the finest arrows would represent an improvement to the damage. These Elven bows would be the pinnacle of bows and could be crafted by the best of bowyers.

Each type of bow would have a different design and look and a different feel with differing damage types, ranges, speeds, and ease of use. A knowledgeable player would be able to recognize at a glance the more common types of bows and if the bow was an unusual or unknown type. The same type of system could apply to swords, axes, armor etc.

As to not being able to use a weapon because of the character's level, that is an easy fix. Simply allow the character to 'grow into' the weapon only giving the weapon the best bonuses of the player's level. This would allow characters to use any weapon without it 'unbalancing' the game. Game designers spend endless hours simply trying to do something the game does not need. 'Balance' is artificial in the world. The games are trying to recreate the feeling of being in a Tolkien novel or at worst the movies. There is no need to continually balance the game if you don't make it a competition between players. Let the game balance itself. Let it find its own equilibrium. Except for people who only intend to ruin the enjoyment of others, most game players try their best to simply play the kind of character they enjoy and not worry about which is more effective.

That's it for now.

nerf In computer games a 'nerf' is a change to the game that makes the element less effective and or sought after by the players. It often happens in games like Lord of the Rings online because the developers are constantly searching for 'balance'.

level Many roleplaying games feature a 'level' system whereby the character's progress and abilities are advanced via 'levels'. In most 'leveling' systems items also have 'levels' assigned to them. The levels sometimes have titles assigned to them but usually it is a numeric system. In Lord of the Rings online the current maximum level is 60 however, developers have indicated that they will 'expand' to 65.