This series takes the Developers Journals and gives you all the information in easy to manage parts… sound familiar well that is because while the last DJ hit the shelves on Monday they are already back with new news! If you want discussion then you are going to have to wait for the Journal Discussed which will hit this weekend and covering both of this weeks journals.

We know there are a wide range of skills, but it is time to take a dive into the Crafting skills. How you get started, how player skill as well as character skill is involved and all sorts of other bits thrown in. Spoiler, crafting recipes is my favourite part of this one! We also learn more about the resources in the game. If you want to read it all head over to the MMORPG.com article or get all the key facts below.

Crafting and Professions

You do not pick professions as in many other MMOs. The skills you choose to develop are the ones that determine the profession you have. There are numerous different paths to choose from, leading to different specialisations.

The example given was if you are skilled at making weapon blades, but also chose to increase your carpentry and possibly filigree skills, then you could choose to call yourself a Swordsmith.

Getting Started with Crafting

• You can start crafting without the need to go out into the world to gain money or resources, you will not be forced into combat.

• Apprenticeships will be available offered by experts in a crafting skill to help you learn. They benefit from the free labour you provide. You benefit from education and the cost of your supplies covered.

• If you raise your crafting skill high enough, to Journeyman, you may become a paid apprentice.

• Raising your skill even higher, to Expert, and NPC loan agents will offer you money to start up your own business. This does require collateral.

• It is also possible to get a loan from another player, using the contracts system, so you can start your business before reaching Expert level.

Skill Challenges

• All skills require both player and character skill.

• Combat skills rely on player skills, possibly including timing, reflexes and aim, but take into account your characters damage and reflex modifiers.

• Non-combat skills rely on skill challenges which will test player skill and will be made easier or more difficult based on your character skill.

• The example given is the Stencil Challenge where the player has to use their mouse to follow the marked line in order to cut the shape of the item they want out of the material. The players accuracy is taken into account, however their margin for error and time limit are determined by their characters skill.

• The more complex an item the more difficult the skill challenge is.

• A skill challenge might be used across similar profession. The Stencil Challenge will be used in blacksmithing, leather-working and tailoring.

• There are numerous, approximately a dozen, different skill challenges planned for different shared skill sets. Some examples are ‘Guitar-Hero’ style challenges for music, a challenge to find an item for Tracking, ‘whack-a mole’ for smithing and for first-aid… well that has to be ‘Operation’.

Item Specialisation and Research

• Specialisation means you can focus on one area of a skill. For instance sword blades rather than all forms of smithing.

• You can spend your time making only the things you want and not forced to ‘level’ through other items.

• Chronicles of Elyria will feature technology and research, so more advanced forms of a craft may be discovered as the game progresses. We have been promised more on this in a later DJ!

• You can specialise in these items straight away (once you know how, see below) and do not need to level up through old outdated technology.

Crafting Recipes

• You can share knowledge of crafting skills through recipes.

• If you have a recipe, in a language you know, you will gain the ability to try crafting that item. If you have sufficient skill you might even succeed!

• Players who have high enough skill as a Scribe (located in the Bardic Skill line) can also write recipes for items they know.

Component-based Crafting

• Items are made up of various parts. For example instead of crafting a sword you would craft the blade and the hilt, with the hilt needing a handle, cross-guard and a pommel, and the itself handle requiring the handle element and binding.

• This encourages both collaboration between users and specialisation to only make particular types of items.

• One you are putting together the final item you can choose to exchange parts for higher or lower quality components or even change the component type. The example give was changing fro a straight to a curved blade.

• You can change the type of item you are creating as you assemble which can lead to the discovery of a new recipe.

Progressive Construction

• Any item, either assembled or not, can still improved by adding to it.

• You can lighten a blade with a blood groove. Other examples given were adding filigree, etching or even serration.

Resource Management

• Virtually everything we will encounter in the world is craftable, and can be used as a resource for crafting.

• Resources come in two main groups inorganic and organic. Organic materials are further divided into those from plants and those from animals.

• Inorganic materials include metals, stone, gems & minerals, sand, chalk and clay.

• Plant organic materials include fruit, leaves/petals/buds, stalks/reeds, bark, roots, wood and saps/oils.

• Animal organic materials include skin/hide, meat, bone and organs.

• All raw materials are processed by a Gathering skill in order to turn them in to consumables used to craft. The example given was miners can smelt metal into ingots or cut gems into jewels for jewellers.

Deconstruction

• The majority of items that were assembled can also later be disassembled.

• This allows you to improve elements, or simply change them to suit you better. The example given was upgrading your jilt or changing the inlaid ruby to a sapphire instead.

• Items also suffer from durability. Blades can be sharpened however, this only works for so long. Elements will need to be replaced over time.

Recycling

• Chronicles of Elyria has finite resources. This includes materials such as metals and gems.

• You can re use materials that have previously been in a crafted item to turn them back into their original consumable. For example your sword blade can return to ingots. It can then be reused in something else.

• You can there for reuse the same material to keep practising your skill and reforging, then recycling to recoup most of the original resource.

Another Journal comes to an end but with two this week the Developers are really spoiling us. Not only does this give us so much new information to feast on it also gives us the links between the new old, and possibly unannounced. Contracts, languages, all subtly slipped in because they just belong, the systems all interconnect. It is almost like they thought this game through!