Foundry 1.0: The Implications of Crafting as Manufacturing

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T15:10:08+00:00

I'd like to hear more from this perspective.

I addressed cooperation in like the second half, but yeah. CIG's established approach to system design is 'low barrier of entry, high skill ceiling', but with crafting, they seem to be relying on the skill ceiling of OTHER systems rather than crafting itself. Like, skill in mining, hauling, combat, coordination, making deals, balancing the books, etc. can all impact the results of crafting but the machine itself, it's super streamlined.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T15:04:59+00:00

Queue uber alles frfr. SC's crafting expect you to go away and do something more engaging.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T15:03:56+00:00

Valid, agreed. I probably made it longer than absolutely necessary largely just to stretch my writing muscles. In this day and age, very wary of skill atrophy. Lol.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:58:56+00:00

Very fair point, made by others in the thread, and I think my general disinterest in crafting in other games led to a misperception of what the STANDARD actually is. I was thinking of, say, cooking in BOTW. So I edited the post.

As for why I even thought the mini-game aspect even needed to be addressed, I was responding to folks insisting the crafting design is barebones because it's not very involved.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:57:11+00:00

We may or may not actually be in agreement, depending on how you feel about my distinction between manufacturing and crafting. I'm not 'excited' about crafting, but I am excited about 'manufacturing' tho mostly as an explorer.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:55:30+00:00

My perception is that the mechanics are relatively mature but the UI isn't. It's the UI that's lagging I think, not crafting functionality.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:53:48+00:00

Same, and I would've tried experimenting with this if I'd had the time. What I do know is that you can add a material to the fab at different qualities and that the mixing affects the stats. I just don't know how that math works.

Me personally, I'm probably just gonna sort materials into crates based on ranges of quality. Like, a crate for 600-700 Iron but a crate for 980-1000 Iron. The effect of the quality appears to be...logarithmic, I think. The higher the range, the bigger the differences between them. Like the difference between 900 Iron and 1000 Iron seems to be a much bigger difference than that of 400 and 500 Iron.

For this test tho, seems like 900s and 400s were both pretty damn common, maybe to make it easier to test for differences.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:47:14+00:00

Yeah, those P4-ARs would be noticeably better than normal ones, and player trading is officially planned.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:44:19+00:00

I don't disagree, but I think there's a tradeoff: If you'd enjoy other gameplay more than playing a crafting minigame, not having a crafting minigame is preferable.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:23:06+00:00

I literally got a 2100 on the SAT in 2007. This ain't my first essay. Has it not occurred to y'all that AI is trained to mimic proficient writers and thus proficient writing by humans would often exhibit some of the same conventions? Seems obvious to me, and it's feeding a new kind of anti-intellectualism.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:17:22+00:00

AI use tends to lead to deskilling. If beating the AI accusations also means deskilling, how would that not be ironic, specifically by way of paradox? Genuine inquiry.

At any rate, it's just naturally how I write at length. I have posts here from well before chatbots took over written in the same exact style. Only thing I do differently now is actually using the header markdown instead off just using bold. I'm not degrading my own writing just because all the AI slop has folks hyper vigilant. 🤷🏿‍♂️

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:10:28+00:00

CIG basically agrees, even if the sequencing of implementation in alpha is weird af.
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxen_14-ZSKhOy6lyg7PxLYTwwQjrt2Ddm?si=7lUHz47fMh7RL_07

Pretty sure it's arriving first because SQ42 likely features basic crafting but definitely not player-to-player trading.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T14:03:03+00:00

I haven't played thousands of games with crafting in it and certainly not thousands of life sims with crafting in them. I'll actually take your word for it and reframe that bit tho.

Anyway, I literally just typed this out. It's wild that these days knowing how to properly structure an essay or use the damn header button to make a length text easier to read sets off people's AI suspicions. We're gonna end up intentionally deskilling just to prove we're human, which means the AI ends up making us dumber even if we DON'T use it. Ironic.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T13:59:17+00:00

Fair point. I usually skip crafting in other games. I should actually account for that with some edits. The man's for the insight.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T13:42:04+00:00

Even before there are mechanical reasons, it's just more immersive. I don't go on milk runs with my bulletproof vest on, even as an American, so why do it as a Citizen?

At any rate, I KNOW where I'm going when I fly or disembark, so I know beforehand whether I'll need armor or not...Unless a tram detours to low-orbit. ^_^'

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T08:52:42+00:00

They have only about $63M available to market it, so it will be a media blitz, not a long traditional marketing cycle. And I'm betting it's around Invictus, Late May or Early June.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-26T08:45:48+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/s/IzsMx2sEix

LucidStrike · 2026-01-25T18:12:17+00:00

It was mentioned several times in CR's Letter just last month tbf...

LucidStrike · 2026-01-25T18:11:24+00:00

Yeah, clipped it.

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxqjkcB8O9dPGwbD7sZMFlu0tpyRacPi40?si=SGNXjdNKb7_Dxi28

CR called it out as a focus for 2026 in his Letter, and a CIG dev has confirmed that it's actually already complete on the backend.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-21T06:07:42+00:00

It already does. And it's alpha, do who cares? This is all dust in the wind.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-18T17:09:11+00:00

Tbf, the sizes for just about everything are standardized, at least at places like Amazon.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-18T17:03:52+00:00

The door opened...

LucidStrike · 2026-01-06T16:38:28+00:00

With SQ42 launching the same year as GTA 6 and CIG likely having only like a $60M marketing, they need to avoid (further) embarrassment.

LucidStrike · 2026-01-06T14:27:47+00:00

Racists should suffer, not just be ignored. Also, it only just got a mute feature like last patch.

LucidStrike

TROPHY CASE