Blarg-a-rant!
Let's not mince words: I love games that have crafting systems. Going out and finding stuff, then bringing it back to base to make your own special shinies just doesn't get old. It has also sparked something of a real life interest in how stuff like swords and armor are made, what ores and techniques are involved, and how to alloy, temper and otherwise alter things.
In light of all this, I've done a bit of IRL research into stuff, and compared my finding to how various "craft-heavy" games I've played relate to it. Some of it is actually pretty close along, some of it not so much. In any case, I'd to talk about a few things I've found and/or inferred along the way.
T
ES V: Skyrim
Let's bring a big name right out of the gate. This open-world masterpiece manages to benefit from a whole ton of both RL research and both in-house and in-universe traditions. Put very simply, what you can smith, brew, or magically enhance is directly related to how good your character is at these respective tasks. While somewhat inefficient compared to getting paid instruction, the act of crafting improves your abilities, with the improvement directly related to the value of the final product i.e. make costlier products to get more experience. Some of the more interesting things here is that we have iron and steel as separate things in game (with steel as an alloy of corundum and iron), where I've notices plenty of games that treat them as identical or near-identical in properties and strength. We also have analogues to several "traditional" materials as well: Corundum for copper, quicksilver for mithril, and Dwarven metal for orichalcum. While there is an orichalcum named as such in the game, Dwarven metal actually fits much closer to the classical definition, being a brazen or golden colored metal with special properties and associated with an advanced, long-extinct civilization
al a Atlantis.
Of interest is that, in-game, alchemy and metallurgy are treated as very separate disciplines, with few connections beyond skill enhancement potions. The closest in-game connection is a minor "radiant" quest involving bringing an unusual ore sample to a nearby alchemist. Amusingly enough, your character identifies the mystery sample immediately, but there's no way to just tell the guy instead of ferrying the thing to the shop. Interestingly, this is the same town (Riften) where fetching alchemical agents for specific purposes is a commonplace thing. Maybe the local "expert" is the lazy idiot he seems, since people actually know a thing or two themselves here.
Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song
I'm deliberately contrasting here. This game is very much an opposite to Skyrim. It's a tragically flawed JRPG for the PS2. I won't go into details about the game as a whole (I plan on doing a Wreckonomics article at some point), but one of the more interesting points is the smithing system it has. The gist is that you 'temper' equipment with various materials ranging from ores to monster parts to special patented alloys available at certain guild-affiated shops. While in most RPGs you just get straight stat boosts (and the odd penalty) right off the bat, you actually have some immediate changes (usually in durability), while the full effect of the alteration only coming into play after using the weapon, with the change coming faster the harder you are on it. It's quite possible to
break a weapon and then re-temper it before the full effect appears. To add a bit of depth, most weapons have 'harmonious' materials that when used and broken in result in stronger versions (+X) that end with a final, 'named' weapon at the end of the chain. This is usually worth doing, by the way.
The very interesting part, is that the ores in this game are, to date, the closest to real life i have encountered in a video game. There's plenty of fantastic ores, monster parts, and such-like, but real life ores and terms are present. Notable ones include marcasite (iron ore, related to pyrite), meteoric iron (besides the traditional mystical significance, the best way to get nickel-iron alloy in pre-industrial times), native silver (native as in found in a mostly pure, not compounded state), electrum (despite the traditional disdain among some older D&D fans, this stuff was very real), and finally, mullocks (a term for waste ores.) You are quite welcome to run a search on this stuff, in fact. Also of note is vermillion (a red pigment, containing mercury); I believe that this was a mistranslation of the mercury ore cinnabar, but I have no real proof.
One final note is that, as mentioned above, this game has two 'patent' alloys, Vernie and Garal. Two separate guilds hold the patents on these and jealously guard it, to the point that while the player can have these alloys tempered to equipment, they will never find any out in the field. Both have very separate properties (Vernie for light gear, Garal for heavy stuff), and are the trademark specialty of the patent holders, much like how various alloy blends are patented and guarded by real life organizations.
Quite a level of depth for a game that expects to race your way through it.
Well, I have plenty more to say, and a few more games to talk about, which I'll be covering in a future article. Stay tuned, and keep smacking them monsters!
