Dev Blog

Greetings, Adventurers of Aethoria!

It's time for a much-awaited update on the progress over the last month. We've been busy forging the foundation of the immersive world revamp, including designing all the crafting and gathering profressions. Additionally as a status update aside, we have also been hard at work designing the new equipment and monster balancing system. This post will be focusing on professions, and I am thrilled to share some details with you!

A World of Professions Awaits

In Aether Story, you'll find yourself immersed in a world teeming with opportunities to master various professions. Whether you dream of forging mighty weapons as a blacksmith, concocting powerful potions as a Brewer, or deciphering ancient language as a skilled Scribe, there's a profession suited to your adventurous spirit.

The gathering professions being introduced to our indie MMORPG, Aether Story, include:

• Mining - Explore the vast caves and cliffs of the world mining rich ore veins. Unearth gems by sifting through mined stones and become an expert in excavation to mine through obstacles.
   
• Fishing - Dive into the depths of aquatic adventures, capturing fish from various water bodies. Hone your skills with advanced baits and even reel in monstrous titans.
   
• Botany - Discover the secrets of nature by gathering herbs and cultivating your crops. Unlock the ability to breed special resource-generating plants and reach new heights with vine climbing.
   

The crafting professions being introduced to our indie MMORPG, Aether Story, include:

• Brewing - Master the craft of concocting potions and poisons. Delve into transmutation to create potent variations. Buff yourself and allies with powerful flasks before challenging battles.
   
• Blacksmithing - Forge your path as a skilled blacksmith, crafting armor, weapons, and tools. Enhance your gear's effectiveness through tempering. Deconstruct unwanted armor to recover valuable components.
   
• Crystalogy - Master the art of crafting gems, jewelry, and magic shards. Combine gems to create even more powerful composite ones. Consume magic shards in battle to cast spells without spending mana.
   
• Cooking - Delight in the culinary arts, preparing savory dishes and mana-quenching drinks. Boost your allies' strength with bountiful feasts and potent buffing delights.
   
• Tinkering - Unleash your inventive side, crafting gadgets and bombs for both combat and utility. Creating toys, providing allies with portable crafting stations, elemental defenses, and revealing enemy health for tactical advantage.
   
• Scribe - Embrace the ancient language of the past, crafting potent scrolls and tomes. Capture monster souls in tomes, create treasure scrolls, and summon powerful allies.
   

Discover Your Path

The new crafting system in Aether Story is all about empowering players with choices and agency. As your journey unfolds, you'll have the freedom to spend points and shape your path towards mastering each profession. As you invest points in the skill tree, you'll unlock the necessary abilities to craft more complex and powerful recipes and items. What's exciting is that each profession offers multiple paths to the end, ensuring that no two players of the same profession will be exactly alike.

In the spirit of replayability and community-driven economy, players will have the opportunity to Master a limited number of professions. Mastering a profession grants access to the prestigious Master tier of skills and talents, unlocking the best items and powerful abilities related to that specific profession.

Let's explore an example:

• Everyone can level Blacksmithing between the levels (ranks) of 1 to 10.
• Lochlan leveled his Blacksmithing by following the armor crafting path, while Wobble leveled his by following the tool crafting path.
• Both Lochlan and Wobble at this point cannot level past rank 10 in Blacksmithing.
• Lochlan cannot craft tools or weapons, but instead can make great armor. Wobble can make tools and trade them with Lochlan and all others.
• Lochlan decides to use one of his limited specialization options to master Blacksmithing. His Blacksmithing may now be leveled to 20.
• Wobble decides to specialize in Crystalogy instead.
• Lochlan is able to max out Blacksmithing eventually and learn everything with the 20 points from all 20 ranks.
• Lochlan is able to now make weapons and tools, and temper his weapons to be even more powerful.

Specifics:

• All professions can be leveled to 10 by everyone. You gain experience by using the profession which then levels it.
• Only players who specialize in a profession may level it past level 10, to the new cap of 20.
• The best and most powerful profession skills require the specialization mastery.
• If you max out a profession to level 20 you will be able to learn every aspect of it.
• Players may only specialize and master a limited amount of professions per character.

Discovery and Exploration

The profession system lies at the very core of Aether Story's design. Not only are you encouraged to embark on adventurous quests that unlock the first point in each profession, but also to engage with NPCs and explore for hidden treasures to discover the coveted crafting recipes. In Aether Story, learning recipes isn't as simple as visiting a trainer; you must uncover them through your own explorations.

As you progress in each profession, you'll find yourself in constant need of a vast array of resources and materials. These can be acquired by exploring the world or engaging in trade with other players who possess the required items. Keep in mind that the rarest materials are often found in dangerous dens teeming with menacing monsters.

The revamped profession system introduces a new four-tier knowledge system applicable to all professions. By investing points in your profession's talent trees, you unlock further knowledge tiers, enabling you to craft or gather more advanced materials. These tiers include:

• Novice - All professions start with a novice tier, enabling you to gather or craft basic items within that profession. Engaging in these activities will help you level up the profession and progress to the next tier.
   
• Journeyman - Upon reaching rank 3 in a profession, you have the option to unlock the Journeyman tier. This grants you access to even more uncommon resources. Beyond this point, Novice tier activities will yield less experience, making Journeyman activities the ideal path for leveling.
   
• Expert - Reaching rank 9 of a profession allows you to optionally unlock the Expert tier. This opens up the opportunity to gather even rarer resources. At this stage, Novice activities no longer provide experience, while Journeyman activities offer less. Expert-tier endeavors become the preferred method for leveling.
   
• Master - Upon achieving rank 13 in a profession, you can unlock the coveted Master tier. It's essential to note that only players who specialize in a profession can advance it beyond rank 10. Novice and Journeyman activities cease to provide experience, and Expert activities offer diminishing returns. Master-tier activities become the optimal means to reach the profession's maximum rank of 20.

This new approach will simplify and ease the process of entering a profession, making it more accessible. However, fully immersing yourself in a profession and mastering every aspect of it will present a challenging yet ultimately rewarding journey with each step you take.

Conclusion

I am personally thrilled for everyone to experience this new design, which has been in the works for the past two months. Each material, recipe, and profession talent has been meticulously designed, resulting in nearly 1,000 data records to support this innovative system. As we progress, we will diligently enter and program them into the game, introducing one profession at a time during the Alpha Tests over the next three months.

However, it's essential to keep in mind that we may not release all professions at the launch of Early Access. We want to ensure that Tinkering receives the proper attention and care it deserves, even if it means postponing its release. Rest assured, we are committed to delivering the best possible gaming experience for all our players!

What's Next

Regarding professions, what's next? Well, the next steps involve programming the Talent Trees for the Professions into a preview website calculator and releasing that to Patreon supporters for an early access preview. This will enable us to gather feedback from them sooner rather than later. Additionally, I will be sharing notes on the specific items and recipes that can be crafted with each profession exclusively with our Patreon supporters.

During the Alpha phase, we will be revamping the existing professions already in the game, including Chef, Brewer, Botany, Blacksmithing, and Mining, to align them with the new system. These five professions will be the first to undergo the revamp. Following that, we will introduce the exciting new professions of Crystalogy and Fishing shortly after.

Stay tuned for updates, and thank you for all your support. Don't forget to join us on Discord to stay informed, share your insights, and connect with fellow Alpha testers and players of Aether Story!

Join us in the free Alpha, and be part of the incredible journey as Aether Story evolves. Your support fuels our passion to create something extraordinary. Together, we'll shape the future of Aether Story.

Thank you for being part of this legendary adventure!

Note: This post's banner image was generated with A.I. assistance.