14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Obsidian has completed the first vertical slice for its Project Eternity and the studio is currently turning its attention to some of the other core mechanics of the role-playing game that need to be fleshed out.
Tim Cain, a senior programmer and designer, writes on the official forums about the crafting mechanics, which will cover both items and consumables for the party.
Each type of resource is linked to a crafting location and players will need to find forges, labs and hearths in order to create the objects they need.
Once the appropriate space is occupied by the player party, an interface is used to show all the recipes that a group has access to, including all the requirements that need to be met.
Cain states, “Some recipes will have additional prerequisites, including requiring you or a companion to have a certain talent or ability or even skill at an appropriate level. Higher level recipes have more prerequisites and need rarer ingredients.”
Gamers will be able to learn how to make items by simply leveling up their specific skill and they can also be bought from vendors, found in the game world and earned as quest rewards for the most rare ones.
Crafting in Project Eternity is instantaneous and some ingredients can be reused.
The developer says that crafting is intimately linked in the role-playing game to the concept of durability.
Boots, rings, helmets, gloves, amulets, cloaks and belts will never degrade but weapons, shields, chest armor will get damaged after each fight.
Cain says, “When an item has reached 25% of its maximum durability, it will become ‘worn’ and appear that way in your inventory, but it will not behave any differently until the last unit of durability is lost. At that point, the item is ‘damaged’.”
In Project Eternity, items will never be destroyed by combat, although those affected by it will deliver less damage or offer less protection.
Crafting skill will also affect the rate of degradation.