Like most rpg games I have a Blacksmith mini game that allows players to craft weapons and armour, the problem is within the mini game it self.

You start with a material (Iron), each material has deferent bonuses based on wat type of object it is used(1% damage, 1% defence).

You can use up to five materials (5* 1% = 5% Bonus) and rare materials have bigger bonuses(Platinum 5% *5 =25%).

I was thinking of making each object in separate parts: sword = Blade + Hilt , to improve the flexibility of the crafting system.

The problem with this step is that if I keep to using the bonus damage a sword could then improve damage by 50%, this combined with the skills will shift power to vastly.

Using defence for the hilt will again over power the balance of the player when combined with the stats of armour, I don't want to use float values for stats.

Any Ideas to fix this or to improve flexibility of the crafting system.

Details:

Player can only equip 1 weapon, a duel wielded weapon adds a extra attack at the cost of accuracy.

Player can only wear one armour and two accessories a accessory only adds a effect or small bonus(5% max).

Stats:

Str,Int,Dex --> Hp,Mp,Fp --> Damage,Magick,Speed--> Defence, Magic Defence,Accuracy.

Str+1 = Hp +5 --> Damage +2 --> Defence +1 etc.

Next is the way the mini game plays, for now it is a simple button bashing mini game.

You hit the action key to fill a bar that is harder to fill depending on what material you use, considering that a tester broke a keyboard I am looking for something more subtle.

I was thinking in the line of heat the material to a recommended point and clicking on deformations for the hammering part, but I have no idea how smiting really works or how to translate it to my mini game when I learn it.(Downloaded some pdf)

I don't think that counts as a mini-game quite yet... It has to actually be a fun activity to be a minigame.

Both Puzzle Pirates and A Tale In The Desert have decent blacksmithing mini-games, lemme see if youtube has videos of them. In most cases you will have to also find a non-video guide if you need to know the basics of how the game works.

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(this video is bad but it was the only relevant video)

This is a different atitd minigame, alloy-making, but this kind of activity could be adopted for a blacksmithing activity

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Similarly Puzzle Pirates Shipwright minigame could be adapted to a blacksmithing theme.

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don't think that counts as a mini-game quite yet... It has to actually be a fun activity to be a minigame.

I get what you are saying, after looking at those videos I can see that thy are all true mini games.

The problem with my game is that you play with a team of 6 players that you control and equip, so I need a mini game that is fast so that players don't get bored with the repetition, also team members will be swapped often.

I will keep the one from Puzzle Pirates in mind, the alloy making is a very interesting idea but I don't think it will match my game.

• Perhaps you could pick elements from IRL crafting and implement them:
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maybe something like this minecraft mod does?

http://terrafirmacraft.com/wiki/Anvil#Working (Direct link for the smithing minigame)

I'm reminded of the puzzle in the Discworld game where you had to choose wacky elements that a hero would have inorder to give him a million to one chance of defeating a dragon.

What if the mini game was like that?

You have slots on a crafting plan some optional other mandatory, and a range of different materials or objects that you can place in those slots. They all combine together to make the finished product. The mini game is figuring out what combinations give you what kind of weapon you're looking for. As well as finding new parts, items, and processes.

For instance lets say you have the plans for a long sword

it has 1 slot in forging, 1 in blade, 1 in hilt, and 1 in finishing.

One combination you might try is:

• Forged Under a full moon
• Blade of Meteoric Iron
• Hilt from the Sword of Usurper
• Finished in Virgin's Blood

That might create a wicked bastard sword of rightous slaying. With a bonus to good alignment and an attack of 50

Or you might try

• Blade of Meteoric Iron
• Hilt of Bamboo
• Finished in With a silk cloth

That creates a keen blade ignore 5 points of armor 10 attack +10 dexterity.

Perhaps you could pick elements from IRL crafting

Wow! Thanks for that link, I definitely want to use it.

maybe something like this minecraft mod does?

This was the kind of thing I was thinking about, I will have to simplify it, that looked like a lot to learn just to make a axe.

it has 1 slot in forging, 1 in blade, 1 in hilt, and 1 in finishing.
One combination you might try is:
Forged Under a full moon
Blade of Meteoric Iron
Hilt from the Sword of Usurper
Finished in Virgin's Blood
That might create a wicked bastard sword of rightous slaying. With a bonus to good alignment and an attack of 50

OK, nice idea but I already have over 40 official materials and a list of around 70 more that I want in the game.

So maybe craft each part on its own with the materials and then combined them in that order e.g.

Blade = Iron * 2 + meteor piece = Blade of Meteoric Iron

Hilt = Silver + Gold = Silver hilt with gold finish.

Blade of Meteoric Iron(Blade) + Silver hilt with gold finish (Hilt) + Virgin's Blood (catalyst) = Pure meteor sword.

Stats:

+5%Damage[rounded Iron bonus] +2%Speed +3%Accuracy + Holly damage= 2* damage vs undead

Blade Platinum * 3 = Platinum blade.

Hilt = Silver + Gold = Silver hilt with gold finish.

Platinum blade(Blade) + Silver hilt with gold finish (Hilt) + crafting kit (catalyst) = Beautiful Platinum Sword.

Stats:

+15%Damage +2%Speed +3%Accuracy + Value boost = This item is worth 10% more gold.

This also makes naming easy: (adjusted catalyst)+(Blade)+(Type).

You could give materials traits which are tied into the prefixes and suffixes. For instance for your if platinum has prestige, wealth, and lighting.

Beautiful might require 3 points of wealth to unlock while Legendary requires all materials and catalysts to have prestigious. You can also make certain affixes require a specific catalyst.

Then ranking the affixes so you always get the highest ranked one.

Then your naming formula is:

(prefix * X) + blade + type + (suffix * Y)

That could give things likes:

pure meteoric sword

meteoric sword of demon slaying

pure meteoric sword of demon slaying

Beautiful Platinum Sword

Legendary Beautiful Platinum Sword

Its the same sort of naming convention used by the Diablo games.

You could give materials traits which are tied into the prefixes and suffixes. For instance for your if platinum has prestige, wealth, and lighting.

Could you elaborate?

Reading this I had a strange vision of slot machines with sevens lining up.

Its the same sort of naming convention used by the Diablo games.

I don,t really like Diablo's naming items because like other games with suffix naming the items feel unimportant, all you want is the one that gives the most stats, hunting from item to item.

Personally I like Fable's(Not 3! only 1 and 2) and Elder Scroll's items more because you know that steel is stronger than Iron so you desire a steel sword while you run around with a iron one.

For my game I want a large collection of material type weapons where even weak weapons can still be useful.(Like the silver sword in oblivion)

Check out the flash game Jacksmith if you haven't already. It should give you some ideas. Do you intend to have your blades break or dull with use? I think having the material determine the weapons durability would be the most intuitive. Damage would likely be a function of how sharp or well balanced the weapon is (with that decreasing with use depending on durability). Perhaps you could add a way to re-forge broken or outdated weapons so players can stick with one "favorite weapon" and improve it over the course of the game. Or, they start with an iron sword, then can reforge it to steel, silver, adamantine, etc until they end up with their Infinity+1 blade at the end... but it's technicaly still the sword they started out with.