Interview: Daniel Erickson on Crew Skills

Interview: Daniel Erickson on Crew Skills



We caught up with Star Wars: The Old Republic's Lead Writer Daniel Erickson after last week's EA Winter Showcase and asked him to explain in his own words what the Crew Skills system is. He was gracious enough to provide us with expanded insight regarding the unique crafting system that BioWare Austin's Lead System Designer, Damion Schubert, hinted at during our interview in October.

Update: Part 2 is now available.
Interview


The crafting system in Star Wars: The Old Republic we call Crew Skills is something we worked on literally for years trying to solve some of the big puzzles. There are a lot of us who are big crafting fans, including myself, but we really wanted to make sure we preserved some of the core concepts around SWTOR such as you play a hero of Star Wars. You are doing big, heroic, and exciting things. You are not sewing. You are not making shoes. You are not hanging out trying to get some thread together.

We went through a lot of versions of how we work with this, and one of the things we kept coming back to was companion characters. One of the issues with companion characters in past BioWare games has always been that you have a limited set of who you can bring in your party at one time. For most people, they pick the couple of companions they really like, and everybody else ends up back on the ship. These came together into a great kind of synergy for us and became the Crew Skills system, which is a combination of wanting crafting, but we don't want to make your character mundane and we need something for your crew to be doing. So alright, we have a perfect match.



The Crew Skills system is three sections. Gathering is going out and grabbing stuff from the environment and your typical harvesting skills, but with a Star Wars flavor. You're doing bio analysis, actually scanning things, getting DNA sequencing from things, etc. One of the interesting things when we talk about missions is that there are also missions for gathering. I can gather in three ways: I can be right there physically, and I can see something and pick it up. Or I can say, "Hey Vette -- you pick that up and I'm going to do something else" while I keep fighting.

One thing that is really fun is when you're in a combat area that is pretty dangerous, and you're able to distract someone. Let's say there is someone in the area that you couldn't normally kill; you could throw yourself into combat and fight with them to keep them off your companion character while they harvest something you wouldn't normally be able to get... and then run!

And the third way of gathering is... actually, every gathering skill comes with a mission skill for gathering. Let's say I don't have Vette and I have someone else with me; I can actually call back to my ship and say, "Hey Vette! Why don't you go find me some of this material? I don't care where you get it -- just go." So that is gathering. The second part of the Crew Skills is crafting and that is really the traditional crafting system. You have a crafting table which is on your ship. Up to five of your companions can work on it at once. You say to yourself, "I have all the components I need. I now want to make something. But I'm not going to make it -- my companions are going to make it."
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Comments

  • Nerf Herder
    Revanclaw's avatar
    • Posts: 3
    #123 Revanclaw Posted 11/14/2010 6:45:50 PM
    I wish they add 9 companions like in kotor1 and kotor2 but i be just as pimped whit just 6-7:D
    just think 9 crew members for evy 8 classes = 72 companions in game thats overflod=) plus it must be something like 5+ hours for evy companions story. so even though there isnt much grinding in this game i can see my self playing this the next 2 years
  • Dark Councilor
    Siros's avatar
    • Posts: 846
    #121 Siros Posted 11/14/2010 11:13:38 AM
    this is freaking great but... I see my "free-time" vanishing...
  • Niirohanso's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #120 Niirohanso Posted 11/14/2010 7:51:43 AM
    Badass!!!!
  • Nerf Herder
    frost1977's avatar
    • Posts: 14
    #119 frost1977 Posted 11/14/2010 12:16:09 AM
    i still want to be able to personally craft my own lightsaber. there are situations where the hero does build there own kit. and boba fett may not make his own blaster but i bet he knows how to field strip it, and make modifications to it.
  • Spice Runner
    Keegan-Vol's avatar
    • Posts: 123
    #116 Keegan-Vol Posted 11/13/2010 5:33:02 AM
    This is going to be absolutly amazing. Campanions, Crafting and Crew skills...Oh my!! And a hint at the affection rating. I am going to wait and see if any further info comes out before speculating on the affect of farmers or minmaxing uber crafters. In order to gain multiple companions ( i believe) you have to level multiple characters. I dont believe you start with say three right away. So this, perhaps, could slow the minmaxers/ farmers as they would have to level multiple characters simultaniously. Reguardless this is the direction I like to see from Bioware. Very epic feel to it. Love the guy in carbonite freezing ...just leaning against the wall. Awsome.
  • Spice Runner
    Eslates's avatar
    • Posts: 107
    #111 Eslates Posted 11/13/2010 1:30:18 AM
    THIS IS Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo GOOOD
  • Nerf Herder
    sleeky01's avatar
    • Posts: 17
    #109 sleeky01 Posted 11/13/2010 1:19:43 AM
    If everyone can have their companions "farm" for them both on and off line, does anyone else see the danger of inflation creeping into the game economy?
  • Dark Lord
    zechio's avatar
    • Posts: 391
    #112 zechio Posted 11/13/2010 2:09:29 AM
    Can't say because we don't know what a vendor would pay for the resources/items/etc. The missions cost credits, and as long as the vendor gives equal or less money then this specifically will not lead to inflation, and if it's less it can even help deflate it as a money sink.
  • Spice Runner
    Peterisjustok's avatar
    • Posts: 247
    #108 Peterisjustok Posted 11/12/2010 10:03:49 PM
    If people stop... and really, truly take a look at the finite details Bioware has hammered out with the crafting system, it should put the EA Louse thing to rest.

    Not-so-NewsFlash: Bioware is making an MMO. It will be at the caliber of all other Bioware games, if not better. They care greatly, and probably won't disappoint.

    Stoked.
  • Dark Lord
    zechio's avatar
    • Posts: 391
    #113 zechio Posted 11/13/2010 2:14:35 AM
    <looks around a bit> I don't think anyone EVER listened to EA Louse as far as TOR goes. He specifically claimed he worked at Mythic in the Art department. His knowledge of TOR is probably less than many peoples on here. Sure, I wouldn't be surprised if he had played it a bit...but I would imagine his time/resources would have gone to WAR, and the people he interacted with worked on WAR as well. Finally, his entire point about TOR was that Bioware was most proud of the game being fully voiced. So? What's wrong with that?:)

    And all of that is assuming that he really did work for Mythic ( though honestly, going by a few of the responses in various places from people at Mythic, he did. )

    I do agree though...this is an awesome system, and sounds great. This is something they should definitely be proud of, from what I've seen so far!
  • Nerf Herder
    Darthwars's avatar
    • Posts: 15
    #106 Darthwars Posted 11/12/2010 10:01:32 PM
    Looks like the Bounty Hunters have an imprisonment chamber on there ship, Possibly player bounty or story involvement.:)
  • Jeanpaul's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #124 Jeanpaul Posted 11/16/2010 3:37:22 AM
    I would hope all ships have a brig or holding cell...
  • Dark Lord
    DarthShnooky's avatar
    • Posts: 345
    #104 DarthShnooky Posted 11/12/2010 9:53:17 PM
    This sounds so unbelievably awesome! Looks like Bioware really nailed it with the crafting system in this game. Just have to hope the crafted stuff can compete with drops to make the whole system actually serve a purpose.
  • Nerf Herder
    taupeto's avatar
    • Posts: 16
    #100 taupeto Posted 11/12/2010 9:50:55 PM
    Guess we know for sure which one is the Bounty Hunter ship. Also the guy in carbonite gets me thinking about all the trophies I'm gonna be collecting in my travels.

    Secondly, what in the name of heaven was that big jawed companion. I've never seen him before. Or anything like him before.

    Next, that interface looks smooth. I really liked how it showed up on both sides of your toon instead of blocking your character from view. Very nice. Having the toon look towards it was a pretty nice touch as well.

    Double gathering? Did I see that right? Holy circle runs Batman!! If you didn't like pet classes before it looks like BioWare is gonna fix that for you right soon.
  • Dark Councilor
    abner_ford's avatar
    • Posts: 662
    #103 abner_ford Posted 11/12/2010 9:53:10 PM
    Yeah, you gather while your companion fights, then he/she rests while gathering and YOU fight. That's efficiency right there, my friend.
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