The new Korea MMORPG Black Desert excites our author Schuhmann because it is so different. Especially the crafting and trading have caught his attention.
Last year, there wasn’t much going on in MMORPGs. Now in 2016, two have come out in the first months. While I quickly felt at home in Blade and Soul, Black Desert remained oddly foreign to me during the beta dates.
Now I have spent some hours in the game like many of you, I’ve slowly gotten used to the unfamiliar mechanics, and I must say: It’s wonderful to discover something new. And I’ve realized how tired I have become of the same old ritual of “accepting quests, killing mobs, turning in quests”.
The economy and crafting system in Black Desert
In Black Desert, I am primarily fascinated by the economy and crafting system. Because there are various ways to play the game.
If you only aim to reach level 50 as quickly as possible, you can basically ignore everything, just kill mobs, move on to the next spot, and you will reach level 50 after about 15 hours and can continue from there, engaging in PvP and similar activities.
That’s not really what interests me, even though the combat system flows so well that I have no issues slaughtering the same mobs for 30 minutes.
But I am fascinated by the alternative. It is possible to build your own trade empire in Black Desert – with employees, outposts, production cycles, the full program. And that’s my passion, I always enjoyed playing simulation games alongside MMOs. My attempt to play WoW as an economic simulation, didn’t go super well and ended with a ban by Blizzard (those party poopers!), but in Black Desert my trading empire should finally become virtual reality!
Contribution points drive me at the moment
For this, “contribution points” are important. You earn them by completing various types of quests, often involving crafting quests. With these contribution points, you can unlock “nodes” or buy a building to set up a warehouse, a residence for workers, or numerous production facilities.
The contribution points essentially determine the “size” of your network.
The idea is to connect the individual farms, quarries, and other points to build a “trade network”. In the city itself, which is the center of the network, you can then set up your warehouse. Arrange houses for your workers and even do a bit of crafting in your own “house”. Because your character can refine raw materials or naturally harvest some resources.
The workers you have in your possession can be sent to work at the farms or in the quarries or forests that you have in your network. They then pack the raw materials into the warehouse. From there, you can either sell them directly or process them into certain items (like weapons) or into trade goods that you can then sell to merchants, provided they are connected to the network.
The first production cycle
Workers need regular food to stay strong. A typical “first” production cycle is to have a worker grow “potatoes”. And then brew beer in your own house with these potatoes and three items that you can buy from the innkeeper (water, sugar, and fermenting agent). You can then give the beer to the employee to keep him working.
It all sounds not so exciting, but somehow I really enjoy it. The workers can level up, have small bonuses with level ups that predispose them for a certain job. Driving around with a donkey to sell trade goods on the other side of the continent, thinking about how to get a cart to transport even more items and further refine the production cycles, really excites me.
Of course, I could acquire knowledge from clever guides about which items bring the most money, how to craft the super weapons for which grinders will pay a lot. Normally, I would do this without a second thought, but somehow the allure of the new in Black Desert is so strong that I prefer to discover it myself.
Finally having fun before reaching level 50
In the game, I feel pretty slow, it’s necessary to do new quests and inevitably level up to access other resources or to unlock further production sites.
My actual “level” doesn’t matter to me at all. I rather focus on the different “skill levels” in crafting skills since they unlock new recipes.
While playing, I have noticed how relaxing it is to finally do something different than “the same old” in MMORPGs. And being able to do something even before reaching the maximum level is truly a nice thing for me.
