Professions

What generally makes any RPG different from other games is its depth of professions you can pursue. From gathering to crafting, a robust and deep profession system can go a long way to keeping players around.

I added my thoughts in this green text where relevant.

Paths for productive player profession progression - Say that five times fast!

Crafting and gathering, the building blocks of any RPG alongside loot and combat. I've admittedly gone back and forth on whether you have professions be account wide or character specific, so for now I've settled on a blend of both. The direction any individual game would take with Professions likely comes down to the design of other systems in the game (i.e. whether you have a focus on a single character, if your attention is more spread onto alts, or a blend of both). Regardless, the goals for Professions should be to provide the right incentives for players to engage with each other in a friendly and economic-healthy way, while providing choices to specialize your player-character in a field of your choosing.

Path of Survival //Each character will learn all Path of Survival Skills; Skill level is Account-Wide (shared across all characters)
- Fishing
  - Be able to fish in all the waters of the world
  - Synergy Skills: Cooking, Foraging
  - Tools Used: Fishing rod, bait
- Cooking
  - Prepare dishes from recipes that can be used to buff allies
  - Synergy Skills: Fishing, Foraging, Farming, Skinning
  - Tools Used: Flint and Wood, Pot, Pan
- Foraging
  - Gather plants, herbs, seeds, and bait from forests and land
  - Synergy Skills: Cooking, Farming, Fishing, Alchemy
  - Tools Used: N/a
Path of Gathering //Each character will learn one Path of Gathering Skill; Skill level is Account-Wide (shared across all characters)
- Farming
  - Planting seeds and harvesting crops and herbs
  - Synergy Skills: Cooking, Alchemy
  - Tools Used: Trowel, Rake, Bucket
- Mining
  - Mining different ores and minerals from nodes
  - Synergy Skills: Carpenter, Blacksmith, Metalworker, Enchanter
  - Tools Used: Pickaxe
- Logging
  - Cut down trees for lumber and other crafting materials
  - Synergy Skills: Carpenter, Farmer
  - Tools Used: Axe
- Skinning
  - Skin different animals and creatures for hides and other useful items
  - Synergy Skills: Fishing, Cooking, Carpenter, Outfitter, Blacksmith, Metalworker, Alchemy
  - Tools Used: Knife
Path of Crafting //Each character will learn one Path of Crafting General Skill, specializing in one of the two related Unique Skills; Skill level is Account-Wide (shared across all characters)
- Carpenter
  - Specialization options: Stonemason or Woodworker
  - Synergy Skills: Mining, Logging, Outfitter, Metalworker
  - Tools Used: Hammer, Saw
- Outfitter
  - Specialization options: Tailorer / Leatherworker
  - Synergy Skills: Skinning, Carpenter
  - Tools Used: Knife, Sewing Kit, Dye Kit
- Blacksmith
  - Specialization options: Weaponsmith / Armorsmith
  - Synergy Skills: Mining
  - Tools Used: Hammer, Anvil, Furnace
- Metalworker
  - Specialization options: Jewelcrafter / Engineer
  - Synergy Skills: Mining, Skinning
  - Tools Used: Hammer, Anvil, Needle, Grease
- Alchemy
  - Specialization options: Brewer / Chemist
  - Synergy Skills: Fishing, Cooking, Foraging, Skinning, Enchanter
  - Tools Used: Pot, Mortar and Pestle
- Enchanter
  - Specialization options: Augmenter / Runecrafter
  - Synergy Skills: Mining, Alchemy
  - Tools Used: Rod, Iris Focusing Glass

Construction and Housing - Home, sweet home

Homes have an unique place in MMO games. You have really interesting systems like Runescape that allow for intricate buildings and can house all sorts of rooms and equipment, but you need to balance that with keeping people from isolating themselves. I've always liked the concept of a "building" progression system (I love Cities: Skylines for this reason!), but it needs to be remembered that you're in a shared world! I do think you should be able to escape and work on your own stuff at times, but I don't want to sacrifice that idea of "we're all in this together". With any housing system, it should be predominately focused on cosmetic systems, building consumables, and creating your own "corner" in the world.

Crafting plans unlocked from associated professions
Types of Furniture
- Variety, from rugs and chairs, to beds and ceiling fans
Types of Rooms
- Predominately cosmetic focused, though you could argue to have crafting rooms be allowed?
- Is it an engineering limitation to have user created designs? Perhaps a creator system where people can use components to build the rooms within a specific area (Valheim comes to mind)