WarMongerian
Refugee
Hi all, just another thread about wanting a more involved crafting system.
Three levels to this hypothetical system.
1) Unlock by book/magazine.
2) Improve by doing/crafting.
3) Perfect by using.
So, under this kind of a system, we would initially be able to unlock things just like now, by reading a book or a magazine. This would allow us to start crafting whatever it was we unlocked, but unlike now, we would only be able to start crafting inferior versions of the thing. I'm not talking about tier 1 items of gear as opposed to higher tier items of gear, but tier one items of gear that would not even be as good as a 'Bog standard' 'run-of-the-mill' tier one item, because the player is a novice at crafting stuff, and their initial items should be worse than those items made by someone competent.
This concept is about give and take, we take away from the initial crafting of items, but then we give a progression system that allows a player to "Get Good" at crafting things that are better than the standard things.
For food/consumables, say we had penalties for the very first of a given meal/drink/medicine, and these very first things would have a "-4" applied to them {let us leave what these minuses are for later, right now, we just need to know they are there}, so the very first "Bacon and Eggs" meal would have the '-4', then the 2nd and third Bacon & Eggs meals would only have a '-3' applied to them, the next three, a '-2', and finally the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th meals would just get a '-1', and all later Bacon and Eggs meals would be normal (or potentially, better) than the norm.
For all gear, I would apply this system:
First crude prototype, -4.
Second and third items, better than the first, but still worse than standard, so -3.
Fourth thru sixth items, improved skills, so just a -2.
Seventh through tenth items, almost there, -1.
Eleventh and above, good as any, no penalties.
First crude prototype of any given type of thing, say any Axe, a '-4', but for later on and better materials, I would reduce the penalties by one for Iron axes, by two for steel axes, and a legendary part an additional reduction of penalties. In other words, even if a player only ever crafted just the one initial stone axe, and their very next crafted axe was going to be the tier 6 steel axe, which would normally still have a -3 penalty, this would make it possible to avoid the negatives altogether but at a cost.
Now that we have talked about the "Take" part, let us talk now about the "Give" part.
In the case of gear personally crafted & used by the player, they start gaining skill/experience to unlocking the ability to make better gear, above and beyond the standard gear. Think in terms of items with a bonus, rather than a tier 7 item. Allow for room for an open ended progression, with increasingly harder and harder to get to improvements, and we can get end game gear that is better than anything that can be had without crafting it yourself.
I would say that such a system should include all three elements, so extra books/magazines, plus more crafting, followed by more use of the gear by the crafter, to keep unlocking better and better bonuses.
This might look something like this;
Tier 6 gear item, 100% components, + 100% additional components, +10 books, equals a roll (at a 10% chance) to gain a bonus trait.
Personal use of such an item, for however long is deemed needed to try for better, allows for unlocking this;
Tier 6 item, 100% components, + 200% additional components, + 30 books, equals a roll (at a 30% chance) for one bonus trait, and a second roll (at 10% chance) for a possible 2nd additional bonus trait.
After personal use for a time;
Tier 6 item, 100% components, + 300% additional components, + 60 books, equals a roll (at a 60% chance) for one bonus trait, a second roll (at 30% chance) for a 2nd additional bonus trait, and a third roll (at a 10% chance) for a 3rd additional bonus trait.
After still more time of personal use;
Tier 6 item, 100% components, + 400% additional components, +100 books, equals a 100% chance for one bonus trait, a second roll (at 60% chance) for a 2nd additional bonus trait, a third roll (at a 30% chance) for a 3rd additional bonus trait, and a fourth additional roll (at a 10% chance) for a 4th additional bonus trait.
After all this, unlock an additional chance to craft the above, on a one time basis, for a second such item, repeat endlessly, for as long a folks keep playing that character and keep using suce items.
Three levels to this hypothetical system.
1) Unlock by book/magazine.
2) Improve by doing/crafting.
3) Perfect by using.
So, under this kind of a system, we would initially be able to unlock things just like now, by reading a book or a magazine. This would allow us to start crafting whatever it was we unlocked, but unlike now, we would only be able to start crafting inferior versions of the thing. I'm not talking about tier 1 items of gear as opposed to higher tier items of gear, but tier one items of gear that would not even be as good as a 'Bog standard' 'run-of-the-mill' tier one item, because the player is a novice at crafting stuff, and their initial items should be worse than those items made by someone competent.
This concept is about give and take, we take away from the initial crafting of items, but then we give a progression system that allows a player to "Get Good" at crafting things that are better than the standard things.
For food/consumables, say we had penalties for the very first of a given meal/drink/medicine, and these very first things would have a "-4" applied to them {let us leave what these minuses are for later, right now, we just need to know they are there}, so the very first "Bacon and Eggs" meal would have the '-4', then the 2nd and third Bacon & Eggs meals would only have a '-3' applied to them, the next three, a '-2', and finally the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th meals would just get a '-1', and all later Bacon and Eggs meals would be normal (or potentially, better) than the norm.
For all gear, I would apply this system:
First crude prototype, -4.
Second and third items, better than the first, but still worse than standard, so -3.
Fourth thru sixth items, improved skills, so just a -2.
Seventh through tenth items, almost there, -1.
Eleventh and above, good as any, no penalties.
First crude prototype of any given type of thing, say any Axe, a '-4', but for later on and better materials, I would reduce the penalties by one for Iron axes, by two for steel axes, and a legendary part an additional reduction of penalties. In other words, even if a player only ever crafted just the one initial stone axe, and their very next crafted axe was going to be the tier 6 steel axe, which would normally still have a -3 penalty, this would make it possible to avoid the negatives altogether but at a cost.
Now that we have talked about the "Take" part, let us talk now about the "Give" part.
In the case of gear personally crafted & used by the player, they start gaining skill/experience to unlocking the ability to make better gear, above and beyond the standard gear. Think in terms of items with a bonus, rather than a tier 7 item. Allow for room for an open ended progression, with increasingly harder and harder to get to improvements, and we can get end game gear that is better than anything that can be had without crafting it yourself.
I would say that such a system should include all three elements, so extra books/magazines, plus more crafting, followed by more use of the gear by the crafter, to keep unlocking better and better bonuses.
This might look something like this;
Tier 6 gear item, 100% components, + 100% additional components, +10 books, equals a roll (at a 10% chance) to gain a bonus trait.
Personal use of such an item, for however long is deemed needed to try for better, allows for unlocking this;
Tier 6 item, 100% components, + 200% additional components, + 30 books, equals a roll (at a 30% chance) for one bonus trait, and a second roll (at 10% chance) for a possible 2nd additional bonus trait.
After personal use for a time;
Tier 6 item, 100% components, + 300% additional components, + 60 books, equals a roll (at a 60% chance) for one bonus trait, a second roll (at 30% chance) for a 2nd additional bonus trait, and a third roll (at a 10% chance) for a 3rd additional bonus trait.
After still more time of personal use;
Tier 6 item, 100% components, + 400% additional components, +100 books, equals a 100% chance for one bonus trait, a second roll (at 60% chance) for a 2nd additional bonus trait, a third roll (at a 30% chance) for a 3rd additional bonus trait, and a fourth additional roll (at a 10% chance) for a 4th additional bonus trait.
After all this, unlock an additional chance to craft the above, on a one time basis, for a second such item, repeat endlessly, for as long a folks keep playing that character and keep using suce items.