Yes, threadcromancy time.
This is because some more information has come to light regarding muds with different activities, and I thought it might be interesting to revive the discussion, me having recently gone on something of a mud binge.
It would be great if Mirage was able to update the great list she's got in the first post and maybe make a full scale guide for the articles room, though manifestly that all comes down to time.
Even if not though, perhaps some more posts and iformation on this topic would be worth while.
First, unfortunately wayfar1444 isn't around anymore, which is a dam shame as there was no other game like it from what I know.
However I do have a couple of new games to report that feature crafting.
Frandum
frandom.fr port 2001.
Website is www.Frandom.fr as you might expect Their page related to crafting is here
Oh, and the audiogames.net database entry is here
Frandom has carpentry, weaving, knitting, skinning, tanning and leather working, smithing, forging, brewing, and their working on cooking, all of which you can start off right at the beginning, indeed in Frandom since you learn by doing (although teaching is available from some npcs), you can begin crafting whenever you want, and do whatever crafts you want at any time, though of course they'll get better with practice, (just as do all the skills in Frandom).
What is unique in Frandom however, is that rather than crafting involving gathering a pre existing set of resources to turn into crafted objects, you can literally pick up anything and try to make something of it.
For example, if you walk into an inn and find a bed with a colourful woolen blanket, you can get out your knitting needles and knit it into a colourful woolen scarf.
Can't think of anything to do with that old stick you just took off a goblin? Why not try sawing it into a drinking cup.
As well as getting some experience and earning you a quest whenever you try out a new craft, one major advantage to crafting in Frandum (aside from the direct bennifits of say potions you brew or cloathes and armour you make), is making cash.
The more you craft, the better items you create and the more you can sell them for, and since as I said Frandom is one game where you can't just slay your way to solvancy, this is a major bennifit. While it doesn't have a huge player base, people tend to be very friendly, including the staff, indeed one nice thing in Frandom is that the staff will help you enough to discover quests and new crafts and such, but not do them for you, since the game is all about exploring. Frandom is probably the only mud I know that does not directly award you for killing creatures in combat (all advancement is by quests, puzzles, examining things, trying things out , and exploring the world), exploratory crafting goes right along with this too, indeed while Frandom does have combat and weapons and such, it's probably the least combat heavy mud I've seen and absolutely perfect if your sick of constant kill and grind fests.
Cosmic rage
Cosmicrage.nathantech.net port 7777.
Website is here and the audiogames.net page is here.
As people who've been on the forums will know, this is a fairly new science fiction mud started by NAthantech. It however has some quite considerable differences from various other space muds. These include a huge range of activities, many of which don't involve combat such as volcano harvesting or pollution recovery, and of course crafting.
There are two major types of crafting in the game, low level crafting and high level crafting.
Low level crafting involves fairly simple gather resources, do some actions to build something, and then write a description. Craftables include quilt making, sculpting, spear making, building houses, tanning and building clothes and making armour. You can also smoke meat when you hunt animals too, hunting being an activity in the game.
The only issue I have with some of these lower level crafts is that at the moment there isn't really any concrete bennifit to them besides having some pretty items to rp with, though as the game is being developed fairly rapidly it's likely this might change in the future.
There is then higher level crafting, This involves first getting to level 200, second building a factory, after which you can start acquiring resources and blueprints. These can be used to expand your factory or indeed your ship's cargo hold and make various items from ship components to extra rooms for your factory.
This style of crafting is far more involved as it uses various resources gained in the gamees' many space based activities, which range from asteroid harvesting and hauling to taking out the cores of stars, indeed most of the activities in the game involve resource collection in some way.
Even the bog standard debris salvaging which pretty much every space mud has is more important here as the salvaged items can be used in your factory to make various things which are of bdirect bennifit in the game.
I also suspect this is one area which will be expanded in the future as well, indeed it's already getting regular expantions.
3 Kingdoms/ 3 scapes
3k.org port 3000, 3scapes.org 3200.
I've only just started on this one so haven't looked things over as extensively as I might've done so far.
The games are pretty involved in a lot of areas and fairly obscure, from their guilds to their combat, however both involve a pretty extensive crafting system which includes cooking, farming, mining, chaos rangling (aka making gems out of the energy of monsters), and of course smithing.
All of these sound like quite involved crafts, indeed farming is apparently quite a puzzler.
For more info see This page on the wiki
Sorry this description is a bit lackin, as I said this is a fairly involved game and one I'm just getting into.
4dimensions
4Dimensions.org port 6000.
Okay, this one I suspect Mirage knows about since she mentioned it earlier, but as I'm just trying it myself here is what I know.
While not quite as profoundly quest orientated as Frandom, 4dimensions is very heavy on doing quests, looking at objects, finding things. As such there are several professions and occupations you can try as a crafter.
These include various ways of acquiring resources such as fruite, wood, meat, skins, gems, etc and turning them into finished items. What is unique in 4dimensions as opposed to other games, is that the crafting actually rewards you with different things like trade points, indeed judging by several updates to the game it seems that this is an aspect of things the admins are trying to promote further, (textile working, which includes crafts as diverse as sale and rope making, tailoring and weaving has just been added).
Lastly,
Alteraeon
alteraeon.com port 310.
website here and audiogames.net db page here
But why alteraeon I here you all cry. We know alteraeon, it's all about the combat and the questing, where is there any crafting?
The answer is, well firstly what do you mean by crafting?
Lots of games have item enchanting it is true, but many of alteraeon's abilities are going way beyond your usual rpg style "just cast enchant armour to get a few extra armour class on an item" type of affairs that one would expect.
These include rune crafting, various cprotective spells, staff making, and my personal favourite the by now very extensive amount of brewable items, which range from the druids salves and protective tinctures, to the rather mad alchemist style mage potion brewing, and the dastardly world of poisons.
though these are combat abilities, they do involve a lot of gathering, and indeed knowing what to gather as well as recipes and carrying ingredients.
there are then a host of options for mnaking your own weapons and armour, and while we don't have smithing yet, the ability to grab a branche and carve it into something good certainly is around for several classes.
More recently, some very basic, class free crafting options have been added. These include leather working, the chance to make armour through the skins of vanquished foes, stone tool knapping, and cooking is in the works.
yes, all of these abilities relate to combat, however when your spendiing as much of your time and attention making your staves or gathering herbs to put in potions, or poisoning your weaponry, I don't know what else to call it but! crafting.
As a final note, I did observe that star conquest has crafting, but I've not enough experience in that game to really say much about it.
Erion also has potion brewing, though in that case I don't know if the options to brew is extensive enough to count as actual crafting as opposed to just an interesting way to generate combat buffs.
Hopefully people found this update to this interesting thread a useful one, and I'll be interested myself to see what others come up with, or indeed if Mirage fancies reviving her own guide project.
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)