Depth of the Crafting system

[Ziegler]

How varied and indepth will the crafting system be or is aimed at being.

To clarify, will we be crafting everything in game from tools, to materials to items in game.
From what was said in the other thread, crafters will be highly sought after, yet most production will be in factories.

I am envisioing a system, where....I go out and gather a bunch of iron and get a generic value of that iron I can use to get a iron sword from a factory outlet store. OR...I can take the same iron instead to a individual crafters store, and he can make a "better" iron sword for me at his own named price.

Going off of the above...why go to the crafter instead of the store. Well, some reasons I can think of, would be..crafters can choose different looks of the sword, greater durability..avoiding the whole stat increase. Maybe a better base dmg of the weapon or lower reqs to use the weapon.

Would like to hear some of the ideas the dev team is thinking about concerning the crafting system. I am assuming it will be skill based, in that the more you make swords, the better at making swords you will get.

Some other questions for crafting:
number of tiers? (stone/copper/bronze/iron/stee/titanium)
total items that can be crafted? (tools, weapons, clothes, armor, transportation, housing, landscaping, internal furnishings.)
How will knowledge be gained? Repetition(grinding items to make it to next tier)/questing for new recipes/ feat purchase with leveling


just some thoughts about crafting and how involved it will be in the Kaos.

[a chewy rock]

As far as the knowledge part goes, i think that the crafter should be able to pick up any material, whether it be stone, iron, or bronze, etc., and work with it. Just because your new at crafting shouldn't mean that you can only take some bronze and make the smallest and weakest weapon the game has to offer. I think that if you take a hunk of any type of metal and melt it down that you could form it into whatever piece of armor/weapon you wanted.
If your crafting level affects anything it should be the quality and not the type of item. When you start out your items may not be of high quality, but you should be able to make whatever you wish to use or whatever your friend would like you to make. You shouldn't, at level 1 in crafting, only be able to make a dagger.
If your out fighting creatures and things to get loot and you come across some rare type of metal you should be able to take that rare metal and throw it in a furnace and shape it into whatever you wish. Why would your crafting level affect how the furnace can melt down metals? You should be able to melt down any type of metal and produce any type of weapon/armor with variable quality depending on your crafting level.
I think that player crafters should be able to produce better products than the big manufacturers in the game. The big manufacturers just put out lots of items so there's a constant supply of them. They don't worry about making it the perfect sword, but they make lots of standard quality ones available. On the other hand, a player crafter could give another player what they want at a better quality for a higher price, or an item with similar quality to one that an NPC sells at a lower price to get costumers.

Ok, now I have some questions too.
1. Would you be able to take a weapon that no longer has any use and melt it down to use in the crafting of another?
2. Will NPC prices compete with the street prices?
3. Do all types of crafting fall into one crafting category, or will there be weapon crafting, armor crafting, miscelaneous items crafting, jewelry, etc.?
4. Can your craft babies?..... This would require the cooperation of two players unless the Al'gar and Deva reproduce differently than humans. (THIS QUESTION IS A JOKE)

[Ziegler]

Just as there are different ages of man outlining when they mastered making another metal, same with a crafter, they have to learn to work different types of metals. The better skilled you are with metalsmithing, the better materials you can work with.

The intracacy of the item should make a difference as well, it is easier to make a knife from a piece of metal than it is to make a claymore.

From what they about the supply and demand of resources determining the price and quantity of items available, I think this will also act to keep the crafters in place as well. Though they can offer something unique, such as looks or durability, they cant overprice, cause you can buy the plain version off of a vendor.

you should be able to melt down broken weapons for raw materials at a loss of course. 10 bars to make....3 bars back.

[a chewy rock]

Even at a low level, though, you should be able to make that claymore if you wnat instead of the knife. It would just be crappy quality.

And when you melt something old down some would be lost so you wont get what was put into making it.

[Zaiwob]

well, you could make it 100 is max quality. When you melt it down you get 50% of the materials back at 100 quality. So you can craft and melt down just to level the smithing skill, but you lose materials. Then at some quality point you just dont get anything by melting it down because its to crappy.

And also, the selling price for a crafted item cant be higher than the buy price in shop if its the same item or the cost of all materials together in store.

Btw, will it be possible to craft magical weapons? i think it should but then maybe only the crafter may use them, or set required level higher than normal because its magical. I mean if a level 1 can use ironswords, and you craft a magical ironsword, the level 1 shouldn't be able to use it, either because of the required level or because crafted magical weapons get soulbound to the crafter.

[a chewy rock]

A crafted item should be able to be priced higher than the buying price because if a player needs it and is looking for it, they will pay for the convenience of it being available without goin to the NPC who sells it.

As for the enchanting part, I think you should be able to enchant items, but instead of it being your crafting skill that goes into the enchanting part, it should be your magic skill. Crafting and enchanting are two different things.

[Zaiwob]

A crafted item should be able to be priced higher than the buying price because if a player needs it and is looking for it, they will pay for the convenience of it being available without goin to the NPC who sells it.

As for the enchanting part, I think you should be able to enchant items, but instead of it being your crafting skill that goes into the enchanting part, it should be your magic skill. Crafting and enchanting are two different things.

Ah, yes i meant that with the weapon. Sure for the enchanting part, sounds good too.

Btw, will it be possible to craft shields? Played a game where you could craft anything but shields, was a bit strange :P

[z80]

I hope crafters will be able to make different colored versions of their items. Like say there is a "sword of wing clipping". Crafters could make one with a dark gray blade and a red handle or or one with a gold blade and blue handle etc. I like being able to have a choice of colors.

[a chewy rock]

Ya, being able to customize weapons and armor (colors at least) is something that I find makes a game more enjoyable. If I can I'm always messing around with the different colors and changing my armor and weapons to match and look unique and cool.

[Damon]

You will not be disappointed =)

[rynb1n]

Ahhh! I love it. The ideas are flowing, the devs are thinking, everything is coming together!
community and devs think alike!!

[Kaneda Muyo]

My opinion (And yes, like all opinions, it's wrong):

Materials: I agree that if I have a piece of titanium I should be able to produce a titanium dagger as well as if I had a piece of bronze I should be able to produce a bronze dagger. However the key to producing these is not so much skill as facilities. The main reason we have a copper age and an iron age is not so much skill but the ability to heat the metals hot enough to manipulate them.


Dagger vs. Claymore: Basically they're the same thing. One is just much bigger than the other. Naturally one would take more materials to make (and produce waste, but I'll get to that) but the basic design isn't that different. However to make a perfectly balanced dagger would be somewhat easier than making a perfectly balanced claymore. Now some other weapons will be harder, some easier, and features or enhancements will always add to the difficulty.

Resource consumption: The basic idea I have here is that a master smith can produce more with less. An apprentice could make say a generic short sword out of five pieces of material. Due to his lack of skill he would be more wasteful. A master would only need three pieces because he doesn't waste anything. Likewise an apprentice might get one piece of material back when breaking down an item. A master though might get back two. Perhaps prioritizing which components they want? For example a smith could focus on getting a gem out of a sword, but most of the other materials would be wasted because of it.

Price: I would think any PC could set their own price. Naturally they would want to make a profit so they wouldn't set their price lower than the material on the open market. Beyond that I would imagine the economy engine would take care of itself.

Crafting skills: Blacksmiths should be able to make an inferior blade. Naturally they wouldn't be able to make a master blade, but then again a weaponsmith likely doesn?t know the first thing about making a cart wheel. They may be able to fake it, but unless they have the appropriate skill they won't do a great job. The sky is the limit as to the number of crafts that can be made, it depends on how far the dev team wants to take it. I somehow doubt we will be seeing crafted signposts though.

Customization: Colors and appearance are great things to be able to change. I'd like to see some decisions about style, but even being able to choose between three different shapes would be nice.