Crafting is one of those things I love about MMOs. Being able to gather stuff in the game world and make items from them always makes me smile. It doesn’t even matter if they’re useful or not as long as they do something – anything.
The only thing that gnaws at me is that crafting always seems to be a little limited. From Warcraft to Minecraft there are specific schematics that stipulate the stuff that’s required to make the item. You never get a chance to go off schema.
At least not normally…
I don’t know how I made the connection, but it all started back on an episode of GroupQuest. We were talking about Fandral Staghelm transforming into a flaming cat as one of his phases, and how he also dropped loot that would allow any druid to become a flaming cat too. Of course I had to take it a step too far.
My first thought was about the buttered cat paradox – the theory that because a cat always lands on it’s feed but toast always lands butter side down, a buttered cat would rotate on the spot. But what could you use a spinning, flaming cat for? Answer: A Flaming Kitty Copter!
Of course, you wouldn’t be able to use just any butter as it’d just evaporate into nothingness. What you’d need is Volatile Butter infused with high quantities of pure elements and magical power. You’d need cows that grazed on arcane-infused grass, possibly a side-effect of some major thaumatic event.
For every madcap invention there’s also a practical side. The Kitty Copter would mean that those people who wouldn’t normally be able to show off a flaming kitty can do so in a practical yet unique way. The mana-flinger would provide a way for people who can’t use wands with a way to augment their guns and bows to fire magical bolts instead. The Mount Transmogrifer would change someone on a mammoth on top of a questgiver to a tiny passenger on one of those tiny steam tonk toys.
What would you build if you could make anything you want? Something so awesomely terrible that the mere mention of it would strike fear into the hearts of your enemies? Or something that’s guaranteed to make even the most stonefaced guildmate break into a smile?
What would be really cool would be having discoveries in Engineering just as Alchemists do. Preferably the table of potential discoveries, the contents and the number available, would be kept secret by Blizzard. It’s kind of boring to know everything from the get go.
Indelible neon pink paint bombs… hurl at those damn Hordie rogues, pew pew at one’s pleasure.
(paint could of course be replaced with Volatile Butter, but horrible horrible burns may result… o.0)
I don’t know what to make of this. Though it sure brought a chuckle to my life XD
Definitely needs to go on the official blizzard suggestion forums!
KITTY COPTER OF DOOOOOOOOOM?!
– Jamin
Gaz, you are too much.
I completely agree with your point about wanting to make more. I understand why their crafting system is so limited – they don’t want to give too much of an advantage, I assume, but I’d still really like to be able to make wacky and wonderful stuff. When I leveled engineer – although it was a nightmare – I really enjoyed the strange diversity of things I could put together. I want more of that. I want more Gnomish Shrink Rays. Why not a leatherworking pattern for a whip? It could function exactly like a bow – it could even be a skin for a bow or something with the coming patch.
Fallen Earth was very good about crafting; you could craft like 90% of the items in the game. That’s what I want. More.