So You Want to Learn to Craft...

Hi there, Lissilene/Lacosia here. As the Crafting Trainer for FORGE and STEEL, I'd like to give those interested in this path some advice on how to set up a city or two dedicated to creating the many specialized weapons and armors now available to our troops with the release of Trade V2. Get ready for it. You'll be here awhile.

I'll begin with a general synopsis of the major considerations you'll need to keep in mind before committing to this path; second will come a list of the buildings needed and the researches that allow you to unlock them; and finally, I'll let you in on a nice Wellspring of Knowledge I've discovered near Lissilene's tree (in academic circles, this would be called  The Works Cited or Reference Sheet).

Before you Choose THIS Path: 

Consideration 1: The Buidlings Lists. Understand that you will need ALL of these buildings present in your city at all times to be able to Craft, as the pairs of buildings are inter-dependant. That is, the Basic Production buildings supply the base weapon or armor that becomes the Crafted piece, and the Crafting Workshop must be present to allow you to research the specific recipes for each special weapon or armor.

Consideration 2: The Research. Pursuing  the Crafting portion of the Research Tree will often require us to research a Spear and a Sword before granting access to a Bow, and a Leather Armor and Chainmail are often required before a Platemail piece is available.

Consideration 3: Structuring your City. With the first two caveats in mind, one ultimately has only three options for city planning and development along this path:

1) Produce and Craft both weapons and armors in your city.

2) Produce and Craft weapons only in your city.

3) Produce and Craft armors only in your city.

If that’s clear enough (it’s in bold, so…), let’s move on to the buildings!

Basic Production Buildings

Spearmaker--Provides Spears. This is unlocked by researching Spearmaking. Note that you will need to research Craftsmanship before Spearmaking will become available. These researches and all those following can be found in the City portion of the Research Tree. Upgrading the Spearmaker or any other Production building will decrease the time needed to produce each weapon or armor by 4.5 percent per level (this amounts to a 90 percent reduction in production time at level 20).

Blacksmith--Provides Swords and Chainmail. This is unlocked by researching Smithing. Note that you will need to complete the Smelting research beforehand.

Fletcher--Provides Bows. This is unlocked by researching Fletching. Note that you will need to complete the Carpentry research beforehand.

Tannery---Provides Leather Armor. This is unlocked by researching Tanning.

Forge---Provides Platemail. This is unlocked by researching Forging. Note that you will need a level 10 Blacksmith before Forging will become available. Because Elven troops do not use Platemail at any time, the Forge for them is generally considered optional; however, you will want to remember that in some cases a research for a specific Platemail may be required before you will be given access to a certain Leather or Chain Armor.

From here, you can include a Saddlemaker, Bookbinder, Brewery and/or Siege Workshop according to your own preference. They produce Saddles, Books, Beer,  and Siege Blocks for your city, respectively, but are not directly involved in Crafting. In general, though, I feel that all Crafting Cities should also include a Barracks, Consulate, Mage Tower, Marketplace and Library, as well as a Flourmill and any of the resource boosting buildings for the plots that have fewer than 5 directly available on the square. An Architect’s Office can also be included for those that do not wish to use much Prestige when building. Now for the stars of this show—the Crafting Workshops!

Crafting Workshops

Spearsmith--Allows you to research and Craft various specialized spears in your Spearmaker. This is unlocked by researching Spearsmith. Upgrading the Spearsmith will decrease the time needed to produce each specialized spear by 2 percent per level (this amounts to a 40 percent reduction in production time at level 20). The same is true of all of the Workshops, and each one must be level one or more to unlock the relevant researches in the Crafting portion of the Research Tree. 

Swordsmith--- Allows you to research and Craft various specialized swords in your Blacksmith. This is unlocked by researching Swordsmith. Note that this research and that for the Chain Armourer become available after completing the Smithing research.

Chain Armourer---Allows you to research and Craft various specialized chainmail  in your Blacksmith. This is unlocked by researching Chain Armourer.

Plate Armourer---Allows you to research and Craft various specialized Platemail in your Forge. This is unlocked by researching Plate Armourer.

Leather Armourer—Allows you to research and Craft various specialized Leather Armors in your Tannery. This is unlocked by researching Leather Armourer.

Bowyer—Allows you to research and Craft various specialized Bows in your Fletcher. This is unlocked by researching Bowyer.

*Horse Trainer—Allows you to research and Craft various specialized Mounts in your Paddock. This is unlocked by researching Horse Training. Note that you will need to complete the Saddlemaking research beforehand. I place special emphasis on the Horse Trainer because it is the ONLY Crafting Workshop with researches entirely independent of those from other Workshops. Ergo, you can include a Horse Trainer in ANY city with a Paddock and be granted access to ALL of the Crafted Mounts, which,  I may say, are ALWAYS needed by your and others’ troops, and ALWAYS carry hefty buying and selling prices at Market. In addition, a special Mount unique to each Race can be obtained once any 20 Crafting Researches are completed in one Crafting city that also includes the Horse Trainer. I’m sure you understand. I shouted some of that, after all.  ;)

The Crafter’s Compendium

Other than the Buildings and Researches listed above, a Crafter must always have at hand a thorough knowledge of the Animals and their Parts, the Hides, Herbs, Minerals, and other Components needed to make each piece of Equipment, and of course, A Few Trade Secrets. ;) Lucky for us, the Illustrious Band of DEVS,  Quackers, Salararius, HonoredMule, and many others have done most of the work for us. As such, keep the information below near to your heart, or, at the very least, Bookmarked and very near to your Illyriad Tab. It goes without saying that this brief Guide would not be possible without the resources below. Thank you SO MUCH everyone!!!

The Crafting of Cities…

http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/11-crafting_topic4093.html

The Hunting and Slaughtering of Animals…

http://www.illyriad.co.uk/GameInformation/Bestiary

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AumwLJzwY-1pdDRZZUx3Z2pEeHlzTENZb1pTbWVjcGc&pli=1#gid=8  (A Comprehensive Spreadsheet listing every NPC animal and their Strengths and Weaknesses, amongst tons of other tips and tricks for city planning)

http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/5-combat_topic71.html

Gathering and the Cherished Components…

http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/10-gathering_topic4014.html

http://www.puzzleslogic.com/illy/illy_crafting.html

Crafting Secrets…

#/Player/Profile/66699 (If at any time this link does not work, please type Salararius into the Search Box)

http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/31aug2012-workshop-specialisation_topic4116.html