On minigames

[Euphoric 48]

I've been thinking how to improve TFC in some way. I got an idea that some kind of minigame would be good. After searching, I found that many people suggest using minigames, but no one gets into what kind of minigame it should be. I would like to dedicate this thread to discussion and brainstorming of minigame, that could be used through TFC.

 

I think this specific minigame should have these properties:

• The difficulty should scale based on quality of tools and materials used compared to end product. Worse materials&tools = harder. Better materials&tools = easier.
• It should be possible to "master" the game.
• Every play should be different.
• It should be possible to adapt the game across different jobs. Eg. smithing, cooking, alchemy/chemistry, advanced crafting, etc..
• Mastery of the game should be rewarded, but not much.

I think if minigame had such properties, it would have interesting results on whole game. First, it would still limit access to "advanced" items. Because in the beginning of the game, quality of tools and materials would be low and making good items would be hard. But as game progresses, you get better tools and you can improve quality of the materials, thus making it easier to make better items. Even better if to make good tools, you need to get them through this minigame.

Next property this game would exhibit ties to mastery. If newbie starts playing TFC, they will spend lots of time in this minigame, making even basic items. But if someone who is experienced with it plays it, they can cut lots of time from crafting. This will reduce "monotonous" gameplay for returning players and increase the game time for new players. Which I believe is good thing.

 

If I had to use current smithing mechanics, it would not be good fit for this minigame. There is no difficulty scaling. But if, instead of "hard" constraint of having specific anvil, this would only cause difficulty change, it might be. Eg. you can craft steel tools on rock anvil, but all your tools would end up with 10% durability and you would loose 80% of your ingots. Even when you are master. But it could be manageable if you did steel tools on iron anvil. Because it is only 1 level worse than necessary. Same could be said about hammer. It seems weird to be able to smith steel with rock hammer. But experienced smith could make at least something usable with it. The smithing is also same every time you do it, so you can learn exact order of operations to always get perfect result. There is no place for skill, just memory. And it is easy to get this from wiki. To change this, the game should be randomized every time you try to make something.

 

And I really don't think there is need for different minigames. One for everything is good enough. Designing and coding even one would probably take lots of effort.

 

So, what are your ideas about this? What kind of minigame would be fitting for this?