Hello all,
I wanted to open up a place where we can brainstorm a 'new' or 'different' type of crafting. I was personally interested in maybe a gathering type skill only usable in specific area affects. This includes spells which target ground, enemy abilities which you need to be hit by, or the ever popular 'atmosphere system'. On the first stream there was a zone which slowed the players down and made them take damage over time which was HUGE. I think using the atmosphere system or area's with different colors of mana can be used for crafting. It would be wonderful to see a jewelry maker need to join a group to get close enough to a rare area-affect damage spell a mighty boss uses in order to make a significant piece of jewelry. The best items in the game don't always need to come FROM the boss, they can be crafted using things you get from the boss. On the same note that same group gets close to a very rare atmosphere effect. Crafting within the effect could kill you, but if your quick you may be able to craft something powerful. Is it worth your life?
I also thought it would be very interesting if there was enough atmosphere affects within the game you could build an entire crafting system based on it. Imagine players navigating towards special atmospheres to 'harvest' them. The 'essence' you could gather from these nodes could be used for a lot of things.
Food for thought,
-Todd
Would be really cool if you needed to get near (over?) a volcano to craft a certain 'ring of power'?
Or maybe a sheet of ice to craft a frost sword. The 'Staff of Watery Summonings'... should only be crafted in the ocean.
Elven mail could only be crafted in the elven city.
So on, and so on... great idea imo.
Does bring up an interesting question of materials that may be different in areas effected by climate. Special materials you can only get during electrical storms or when it is snowing. Just thoughts here but it would be very cool. As a crafter this would be very intersting.
Good post!
Ox
JDNight said:
Elven mail could only be crafted in the elven city.
So on, and so on... great idea imo.
Oh yes :)
Reminds me cultural smithing in EQ ! It was very badly implemented because it was too expensive, needed rare drops and had stats far below what one could easily get by just killing a few mobs .
But the idea was very good - special cultural craft that could be only done by a given race and only in his city .
It gave a reason to often return to one's city and reminded an elf (or an Ogre) who they were and where they came from .
Quality idea Todd! I love it. +1 Brilliant brilliant!
I do like ideas of this nature. It could have far-reaching implications,
Eg : Raid content not just about 'raid drops'. Crafters would have a need of assistance from raiders to keep them safe in a raid zone while they crafted 'good quality' gear (perhaps equivalent to rarer drops).
Eg : Some of these could be part of a long (possibly Epic) Quest. Need to be *at* the raid to do your quest bit ... NOT hope for RNG to let you get a piece drop. Removes one more 'pointless time sink fight vs RNG' in favour of 'skill in a specific area without getting killed time sink'. Much better, more dependent on your ability than roll of the dice.
I would not mind some environmental type crafting/harvesting situations in the right conditions.
As far as I am concerned, the more involved the crafting the better.
Making use of the atmospheres to imbue effects on an item is a great idea. This could be tied into the perception system, so when you are skilled enough in lore/technical ability/awareness then you could be given a suggestion that the area would be good to craft a type of item. So when entering a specific cold atmosphere then you might get a thought presented to you "I wonder if I could produce chilled weapons here?" or some such.
You would only get this suggestion if your all of your perception skills, trade skills, (etc.) were high enough. Tie atmospheres like this with craft recipes drops, cultural recipes, faction recipies, time of day, weather conditions, environments, beliefs etc and you could easily have a mega system for crafting. Each seperate element in creating an item would end up tweeking it in small ways that would make the final product much better than it would otherwise have been.
So, create a dagger in a standard smithy, perform some ritual in a far out of the way place to imbue some effect, take it to a cultural smith to inscribe further effects, etc etc. Each step taking the crafter into dangerous environments, requiring working with others. At each stage, the item could be sold in its current state, or kept and improved in some other manner. This would make each noteable item have their own seperate adventure before even being sold. Each step in a recipe improves the item in some manner. Having effects applied in far off places would slow the availability of items.
I would love to see a really involved, high end crafting system that used the world at large. This would naturally split the crafters into standard crafters who never ventured passed their craft rooms and adventure crafters that could produce greater items, given time and opportunity.
I definitely like this idea. I would also add that I think it would be cool if some ingredients are very rare in some parts of the world while they may be relatively common in other parts. For example, there may be a particular type of mushroom that is basically nonexistant in and around the area where the gnomes live, while they may be quite plentiful where the ogres live. It would be so cool if the market for such items fluctuates and varies across the world. That mushroom would be cheap in the ogre economy, while a gnome may have to pay a lot to get that same mushroom because someone at some point would have had to make the dangerous journey across the world.
Harvesting atmosphere is bad. If we take too much it gets harder to breath. If we harvest from a gas giant elsewhere in the system that goes from high fantasy to science fiction. Poor idea. Or maybe I misunderstood the idea ((blushes))
Bazgrim said:I definitely like this idea. I would also add that I think it would be cool if some ingredients are very rare in some parts of the world while they may be relatively common in other parts. For example, there may be a particular type of mushroom that is basically nonexistant in and around the area where the gnomes live, while they may be quite plentiful where the ogres live. It would be so cool if the market for such items fluctuates and varies across the world. That mushroom would be cheap in the ogre economy, while a gnome may have to pay a lot to get that same mushroom because someone at some point would have had to make the dangerous journey across the world.
Something like this gets very tricky with teleporting classes who can bind where it is cheap, and just teleport to where it is expensive. Rince/repeat all day long = economic instability.
I've been using the search function to suggest something that I believe might have a postive impact on the economy;
Atmosphere impacting harvest seasons. With a good harvest there could be big tomatoes, other years smaller ones.
There might be some effects that cause trees to become weaker or stronger,influencing the harvested wood quality.
In some cases players would be able to influence or prevent quality reduction of materials and supplies.
Better quality leads to better economy, so the players need to get involved and accept the challenges the environment throws at them if they want to sell quality