Which MMO has the best crafting?

[Morreion]

The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the best crafting? (Massively)

For you crafters in the Massively audience, which MMO would you say has the best crafting -- and what makes it so special? Is it the number of recipes or the randomness of the results? Have you found a game that hits that sweet spot of crafting perfection that made you stand up and cheer to the embarrassment of everyone else in the room?

I was impressed by Vanguard's crafting system, it was quite involved & detailed (though it took some clicks, that's for sure). There's something to be said for a crafting system like WoW's, sure its one of the easier ones (even I maxxed it out!) but I'd guess hardcore crafters would think it was pretty lightweight LOTRO's system is actually pretty good...I liked classic SWG's system too. Personalizing stuff you make is a cool feature.

[Loendal]

Of the ones I've played with, Horizons.

It was simple:
Click Icon, Make Goodie.

You still had to do SOME work, which kept it interactive:
You have to gather your resources and smelt into usable bars. You also had to go and find your resources in various places on the map.

It was skill based:
To make the good stuff, you had to have worked your way up to them. While this is true of all crafting trees, as you got more skilled in Horizons, it took less resources to make things. Instead of needing 5 units of ore to make 1 bar, you would eventually get to a direct 1:1 conversion.

It was also flexible:
By default, you would never fail at making something, but if you wanted to risk some potential failure, you could try to use less resources to make the items.

I used it as a pattern for my own designing.

[Regolyth]

Hands down, the best crafting system ever... Ultima Online. Not only was crafting fun (it was realistic, with having to gather your own materials and components that went into the items you made), but it was... *gasps* ... useful! I could create the best items in the game with my crafting skills maxed.

I also enjoyed how WoW's worked, although it was pointless since I could do a simple quest and get a much better item.

DAoC's was also one I enjoyed, but only for it's usefulness. It was imperative that you use crafted items in your final templates on the battleground, however you either worked your butt off to create them, or payed out the butt to buy them. LGMing was a pain, is an understatement.