No you're not wrong at all. The crafting system on board the Strike Cruiser would be where players would house the ammo and supplies they'd need immediately. It's probably a given that basic ammo is near limitless anyway. However, the Strike Cruiser is where they'd outfit themselves before battle and call in for additional support. Manufactoriums could give huge bonus's to players, like making specialized weapon's, ammunition, and gear for players that is then stored in the Strike Crusier. If the Manufactorium isn't producing the materials directly, then capturing it could offer greatly discounted prices for these weapons and gear made available on the Strike Cruiser and further upgraded by the NPC Techmarine.
Sorry, this thread is also about the Art Value of crafting which I forgot to mention. I wanted to put special emphasis on because of how removed crafting is from the concept of fighting (destruction vs. creation) it should be kept simple, but remain just as visceral as the rest of the game. It should be fast paced and scream a sort of Frankenstien's industrialization. I don't want to have to wait for my Techmarine to create 1,000 rounds of ammunition, I want to be struck in awe of the process. If I'm properly prepared before the battle, I also wont have to rush an order and be frustrated by the wait time (although some situations may require a que to be cleared for an emergency order) The way I can see this happening is emphasis of the art team to create a really well done home inside the Strike Cruiser for this process where a player who's waiting for combat may just get lost in the hundreds of little miracles going on around them. This is echoed in the crafting request page. Its interface should be unique to each race. Simple to navigate production lines tell players what's on line, and they can switch what's being crafted for them depending on it's urgency. Some items, like tanks, dreadnoughts, and complicated gear take a long time to build and players may want as many as possible on the que, awaiting the resources to build. In this que, players can ask a Techmarine to strip apart their gear in a digital, pyschic, warp, or an Orkish realm; each section able to be scrutinized, upgraded, customized, or replaced at the command of the player. I personally would love to see a tank "exploded" into as many parts as the art team would like to allow much in the same way as Iron Man's holofield; each bit able to be seen and compartmentalized, then reassembled and allowed into the care of the Techmarine who faithfully fulfills the command delivering the final product to players. TL: DR Having command in creating something is always better than being the grunt who has to put it together mindlessly. Allowing players that creativity alongside the talent of the Art Team would make the experience of crafting in EC infinitely better.
I concur. Mostly I see everything through the prizm of the Space Marine (Dark Angels! \m/), so forgive my 'humie' bent.. In the mythos of WH40K, I have to assume that a SM/CM/Eldar who is very old and a veteran of countless battles has learned a thing or two about how to maintain gear. Even Orks love to fiddle. What Warboss isn't covered in a bizarre array of junk? Personally I'd like to see something akin to recipes/specs/plans/whatever that can be found that offer the ability to change/upgrade equipment based on play style. Even if its simply the ability to make badges/tokens/whatever that affix to certain parts of armor/gear to boost stats. Possibly a gear system that includes an increasing number of 'affix-points' as one levels up and discovers better gear. Coupled with an increasing quality of badges, this could offer a highly configurable gear set without a huge amount of backend work for the devs.
I could see a techmarine (or crazed ork inventor) making you the first set of gear and after wearing it for a campaign or 2 you realize , or after ALOT of practice, how to repair and maintain it.
Musings: Crafting typically means materials Mats typically means grinding/farming. Crafting also means the ability to sell/auction items. Buying/Selling means some sort of money-based-economy.
Interesting idea. How it could potentially be limited and balanced, would be that your orbital "home" can only hold a certain amount of manufacturing stations, meaning you will have to plan which things you want to make generally. For example, if the limit is five, you could have three special ammunition producers, and a tank production one (Which could cost two spaces?). Futhermore, it would obviously take time for the Techmarine (Or other race equivalent) to produce whatever it is you require, so after the order, there will be a waiting time, once whatever you requested is done, the techmarine might confirm your location with you, and then fire off the package, which would take a while to arrive, forcing the people there to protect the location or potentially losing the package to the enemy, which would be quite a blow to the person requesting the package, as it cuts into how many things he can produce in a game. I also read the idea of stockpiling, with this again, if you give the player only a limited amount of space, then they can only prepare so much for each battle, and with stockpiles, you dont quite know what you might need for the next mission/battle, so it would generally be more generalistic. What these limitation allow to do, is both balance the game, but they also prevent people from being jack of all trades, potentially making people help out other people by doing a supply drop which their whole team can use because nobody else in the team can produce that thing because they didnt place it in their "home".
While crafting is fully supported by the 40k mythos, it would follow a hybrid Eve/Planetside 2 system. While earning resources would allow you to craft anything on a SDT that you've discovered (special rounds, bolters, power armor, rhinos, etc) over a period of time, you could not craft everything. Terminator armor, for example, is strictly off limits. Nobody in the galaxy is capable of creating a suit of terminator armor anymore, and so you would be forced to unlock it from the chapter armory by playing the game. However, that doesn't mean you can't mix it slightly, perhaps by finding enough broken TDA parts, and spending a ton of resources, you could put an ancient and nifty looking suit back into service and wear it. This would give players an incentive to ignore attack orders, where currently there is no real downside to following them. Clearing out an area could allow you to claim a piece of a relic but you obviously don't get the bonus following orders. One question that's often brought up about crafting in games is "why wouldn't you already know this stuff"? Especially when it comes to sci-fi games. Well, in 40k mythos, technology is jealously guarded. So jealously that senior memebers of the adeptus mechanicus kill each other over access to blueprints. Designs like the vanquisher tank are lost forever when a single factory is destroyed. Orks and Eldar are similarly at odds with each other. Chaos tends to just use whatever the warp poops out . Thus, each player should be required to level their craft independently. This does not preclude a joint effort though. Certain things, such as titans, should require an enormous construction effort to assemble on a planet, even if the parts are already constructed. This means each player would need access to certain technologies, and the entire group (guild) would need to research specific items at great cost.
Crafting would be cool in the form of upgrades. I read that there wont be levels but there will be progress in the form of new moves and gear. So , the ability to tweek your armor into making it more withstanding or flexible , to upgrade your gear or have a demon posses it to make it more efficient etc would be great.
What I've been thinking. For player Techmarines that go down with the company, I think they should also be able to salvage materials from corpses and be able to do on-site repairs on vehicles. Would help get materials without being forced to buy them that way and also makes sure that Techmarines don't become a deskjob.
