The Crafty Dev Interview!

I have this nasty habit. I'm nosey!

But, being a reporter, it's served me well, my "nose for news", at times. Other times...we won't go there. But, since Mel, CK, Piro and I went to Sigil together, we've kinda kept close and all did a bit of nosing around. Seems Mel's made a friend!

I turned a corner in time to hear him talking about the crafting system with, no other than, Salim Grant, aka Silius, head crafty person for VSoH. Wanna hear what I heard??

GOOD!

Here it is:



Mel: First of all, I would like to thank you for taking some time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions for all of us at VanguardSpheres!

What MMOs have you played and or helped develop in the past?

Silius: Well the list is quite extensive, as far as the MMOs I have played for an extended amount of time.

EQ

DAOC

Ragnarok

FFXI

WOW

Lineage 2

COH

COV

Earth and Beyond

AO

EQ2

Games I have helped develop are:

SWG

EQ LDON

EQ GOD

Mel: Did you go to college and when did you decide to go to work in the video game industry?

Silius: No college for me; had ended up joining the military and becoming an electronics technician with a specialty in satellite/UHV/VHF/HF communications

Mel: Were you heavily involved in crafting in past MMOs and when did you start working on the crafting system for Vanguard?

Silius: I tend to craft a lot in all MMOs I play. I like being able to do all I can so between my wife and I we have multiple characters to do various trades and classes.

I started working on the crafting system about 4 months after I arrived at Sigil.

Mel: Crafting in the past has been sometimes termed "a click-fest". With Vanguard:SoH being a third generation MMO, how will Vanguard differ from MMOs in the past?

Silius: Hard to get around the term "click fest" when that is the primary way you interact with the game world. Whether it be through key presses or mouse clicking, we are not beyond that point just yet.

Our philosophy and goal on crafting, we hope, will be a refreshing change to people who tend to craft other MMOs like ours. Our focus is on the interaction of the spheres and how each sphere can advance independently, but working with other spheres is certainly a good idea.

We wanted to make the process of crafting a little bit more involved, make you feel like your decisions were important and how you set up your character and gear made a difference in what you could and could not make and how well you did.

Mel: Being in charge of an entire sphere in a 3rd generation MMO is a huge responsibility. There are tons of tables and data to manage, compile, and otherwise manage. What was been the biggest challenge going into creating a 3rd generation crafting system?

Silius: The sheer amount of items we allow you to produce. The variety is significant and implementing that variety is a rather large task for a group of people, let alone just one guy.

But considering the amount of work that is beyond just item creation, I am just a small piece of the whole that has gone into making a truly cool system with an immense amount of power to exploit as the system evolves.

The members of my team who are currently working on housing, harvesting, ships, recipe creation, factional advancement, and work orders are the true reasons behind the systems success. While I am the systems vision keeper, they are the ones who make it shine.

Mel: In the past, some MMOs have had excellent, and also complex, crafting systems only completely revamped after a considerable amount of time. Do you plan to keep crafting complex even if some people complain?

Silius: We have taken cues from testers, players of other games, and our own experiences in that department and we streamlined our level of complexity many times already. What we have now is what we feel will work just fine. Of course, most people never plan to have to completely revamp something.

Mel: Vanguard is unique in that there are truly "rare" items that cannot be created every time. Moreover, not everyone will be able to craft let alone purchase "The Ultimate Sword of Gnome Slaying +6 V2.76". How will you keep rare crafted items rare?

Silius: Heh! I don’t think we are having trouble in that department. Currently rarity of items in handled in the frequency of resources and other components required to make such items.

Mel: What has been the biggest surprise while working on Vanguard? Both pleasant and not so pleasant please.

Silius: I would say the popularity of crafting has been the biggest surprise.

Mel: How will crafted items compare to items obtained in dungeons and on raids? Will there be ways for crafters to create items that are comparable?

Silius: Crafters can make items on par with everything that is dropped. It is just a question of effort required that needs to be balanced out.

Mel: Crafters are always looking for better gear as it helps them craft. In addition to making armor for adventures, will crafters be able to make items that help with harvesting, diplomacy, and crafting?

Silius: Yes

Mel: Inevitably, and thankfully, SGO will release expansions for Vanguard. Naturally, we all have seen how easy it is to expand the "adventuring sphere"; however, crafting always seems to get new recipes but nothing really innovative. What is your hope for expanding crafting in Vanguard expansions?

Silius: Experimentation, Inspiration, Group Crafting, New trades and Speciality Perks

Many things are on the table to be added with an expansion and as a part of normal content. When I sat down to design this system, I knew everything would not get in but I designed it anyway. What I listed above is just a few things that have been designed or talked about in the past as something we will definitely do.

Mel: Again, thank you for your time Silius and we look forward to talking with you soon!

*and with that, I backed around the corner and kinda....disappeared! Thanks, Silius and Mel. Can't wait!*