New Professions: Workshops (Part 3)

In my series about a new profession system, we already talked about how to cut down on professions and implement cool mini-games for them. Today we give the new system the finishing touch with something that I call “Workshops”.

Busy Little Workers

I think mini-games are a fantastic idea, but not everyone likes to do them all the time. In come Workshops, basically a similar system like the old profession with some changes and adjustments.

Opening a Workshop for a specific profession costs a small fee of gold. You can then pick a task that it is going to perform for you. These tasks unlock as you level up professions and come with a specific interval (15/30/45/60 minutes).

For example: You are a blacksmith and tired of constantly producing simple iron bars for swords. So you create a Workshop by paying the fee and hire some workers. The interval for the task is 15 minutes (a really basic item). Your workers start and produce an iron bar every 15 minutes.

Here’s your profession bot

This is basically the “profession bot” many have asked for. Workers continue to craft even if you are offline. They constantly do so until they run out of required materials or Gold. That’s right Gold, your workers want a payment. So you really need to be careful not to have an active Workshop while doing vacation or something. It could eat up all your hard earned Gold.

Each Workshop can only produce three items at once, and the maximum of nine overall slots remain. Leadership has no Workshop, but sending troops count towards the maximum slots as well. I personally would exclude certain Masterwork items from the Workshop system. Raw materials should be craftable from the Workshop but the finished product like Rings and Armors always come from the players themselves (and it would be cool if they added a small little note in the tooltip with the name of the crafter).

We’re Done!

That’s basically it guys. As extension to directly creating items through the mini-games, your little workers help you by constantly producing materials while offline. Also within the Workshops you will find Black Ice Shaping and the Event Professions. Recipes simply unlock through the campaign or during the event days.

How does the monetization work for Cryptic/PWE?

When talking new systems we always have to look at the business side of things. It’s not very hard here fortunately. All the old craftsmen and tools stay in the game for the Workshop system. For the mini-games they could even sell a set of new assets that makes stuff a bit easier (similar to the fishing rod in SoMI). You could also require a Workstation for mini-games (similar to the Salvage Anvil), that would be included in a VIP subscription. In that case Strongholds could also be included in the system by providing better Workstations which allow players to progress a bit faster/easier within certain professions (like Masterwork) or even only certain recipes.

I hope you guys liked my proposal for a new profession system! Do you like it or would you rather stay with the current system? Is it even feasible to do? Share your thought in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

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