I am building a settlement, again. I have just got the wood plough up, and some seeds to put in the ground soon. I paused to think. What is lacking in crafting at the moment is an expanded dimension. Crafting right now is, in general, an extremely boring process. There is a predefined set of tools that you can build, with no combinatorial characteristics at all. What would be far more interesting is if you had a far more arbitrary set of combinatorial "recipes". Jackard has been pushing for a system like that, and I think it is fairly cool. Also, it would allow for a far more varied resource base, with different types of wood, and more primitive ersatz for metal. I would also like to see crafting expanded over time, with more awesome projects available, artefact type items that could take days to craft. I would like to accomplish that by some sort of will/intellectual attribute, which can be expended for use in the crafting process, to regrow over time through sleep and whatnot. It could also tie in well with the wyrd project.
By the way, one of the coolest games I ever played was one called King of Dragon Pass, check it out.
In addition to this, I'm thinking that it would be cool to have actual research projects, that can then be maintained to give LP. Keeping the lore, so to speak. Also, skills. I picture these as existing beyond the already existing skill categories, that is. "Mining" "Fishing". It wouldn't be radical, but simply giving you more efficient means of doing things. Objects should have weight, so you could become a good hauler, for example. Projects could then be tied in with civilization, to either grow or reduce that. That could, in turn have the effect of ease of maintenance on the skills, and research projects. To represent an intellectual presence in the world, without necessarily joining a village. I could build runestones and stuff, to maintain the lore, and, again, tie it in with civilization. And with more localized variance in terms of pseudo cultures. Something we've discussed before, with slight variances on objects depending on what materials were used in their production.
Also, I think we could, that way, have far more of a minigame for more abstract character maintenance. Little buffs for being well trained, and stuff like that. That way we can get health a little game as well. Where you regrow your HP more by treating abstract damages. This could be a far more interesting development to replace LP, for that matter. In this scenario you would still have some sort of abstract learning rate, probably somehow modeled through points, but it would be on a far more learning by doing sort of basis. Food is really cool, and all, and I do think we're getting somewhere with hunger, but if the game is going to last beyond its initial appeal, it needs more good systems to play with, to extend the replayability and longevity of the experience. 10x was way over the top. 5x might be a little to heavy, but 3.5-4.5 might be just right. Did I mention wyrd?
Also, at the end of the day,
I need a horse.