Ashes of Creation isn’t only an FFA PvP sandbox; it also has some crafting and gathering to do (likely designed to create sheep for PvP wolves to feast on). That activity – the pastoral one, not the ganking – is the focus of the most recent footage from Alpha Two, where the devs work together in order to get the materials needed to craft a sword.
The actual mechanics aren’t exactly going to blow genre veteran minds here: Players can find recipes, right-click on them to learn, and then use different gathering tools in order to get the mats needed. Most recipes will be immediately saved to a recipe book and kept there indefinitely, though there are some recipes that have “charge counters” that limit the number of times an item can be crafted.
The video also confirms a couple of additional important points for the crafty MMO player, like the need to gather materials at specific times, the dependency needed among multiple players to source certain materials, and information about progression by way of certification level milestones, which in turn open up additional tool slots and profession tree nodes. It also notes that while public crafting tables can be accessed by anyone (with multiple crafting queues available), tables at personal houses or freeholds can be accessed by only one person at a time.
There are a couple of unique mechanics specific to AOC, like profession-specific resource bags that let allow for greater stacks of associated materials (versus normal inventory storage) as well as a surveying skill that will help players track down materials that gets bolstered with other players’ help. The full footage can be seen below the break.
