Player made vs Game made items idea? ? (Dev) Replied

Ever since UO I have been interested in the crafting aspects of MMO's. I want to feel like I can be a part of something bigger. I want to see people with my weapons, or eating my food, or wearing my armor, ect. However in most games, the fun and novelty of the crafting seem to ware off unless your making something like potions.

Most games, MMO's, have a LARGE item base, weapons and armors, that drop off Mobs and dungeon bosses, sit in chests, or found on vendors or what have you. And when you compare those items to the ones crafters make and work hard on, they don't compare therefore crafters really only make things to level up, sell their items to NPC vendors or break down their items into materials to keep skilling up, in hopes to make maybe ONE item someone or some people may actually need.

PLEASE, in SotA, let crafters be just that! Let crafters make the items, support one another, find skills to add the buffs or powers depending on special materials to acquire said power. Don't lets the crafters just die after people start finding things in dungeons.

On the same token, im not saying to take away cool things in dungeons, just make those more rare, not like a farming item so everyone can get it. Maybe instead adventurers can find these "special materials" to bring back to a crafter in town, and we can make the item with that particular power for them in it.

My main point, crafters want to craft and be useful, we want out wares to mean something and to sell. Let us be where people go to for their goods and needs.

Thank you!

 

I agree with all this. Overly generous loot not only makes player crafters useless, it leads to gear inflation. If you are going to have enchanted gear, it should be insanely rare, other wise soon everyone is walking around with uber gear, and all that standard gear may as well be turned into lamps.

 

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It's one thing to have a healthy selection of gear. It's another when there's SO much loot on the market that it's more convenient to use easily obtained looted gear than rely on crafters. While I think everyone should have a fair chance at finding something nice in loot, crafters are really where the real 'action' should be.

Easy loot is cheap loot, while crafted items remain harder to produce. It wouldn't matter as much if crafted gear was superior or more durable. If I can buy two looted swords for 100g each vs a crafted sword for 300g.. even though the crafted one might last a little longer it's more economical to go with the loot. This kind of situation can really ruin crafting.

Instances where loot is superior should be very rare even with thousands of people playing. Crafted items need to be the primary source of superior goods or else there's little point in having PC crafters.

 

Somehow the idea of wearing the armor of something you just hacked to pieces doesn't make any sense to me. It's going to be bloody, damaged, and has little chance of fitting. Weapons are another story, but still I don't see random monsters having high quality weapons unless they got them from someone else.

 

@PrimeRib,

That's all true, any armor could be salvageable by a blacksmith though, considering that armor and weapons will have durability in the game.

 

Although it's a separate topic I do love the idea of salvage. It brings more value to the crafter. Either they can repair something or break it down into useable materials. This also brings some value to chaff loot. You found yourself a broken sword? Sure bring it in, maybe I'll stick that blade on the end of a stick and we'll have ourselves a nice glaive. Or maybe I can use that crossguard or melt that broken breastplate down into ingots to use for something else.

How about that broken axe? The haft is really beat up? Let's just call that fire wood shall we? I need some more fire wood to fry up my eggs! There you go.

hmm do we have a good salvage discussion yet? I might have to start one otherwise.

 

Thank you all for backing this idea, and Bowen, YES! Salvage was a thought i had in this as well, i just didn't mention it because i thought my post was too long already haha. I would love to see people come to me with torn leather garmets or a damaged sword or breastplate, where i could use a few resources and make it whole again and even better, or break them down and put it towards what people want.

Even better yet, maybe the boss drops this broken armor peice, which was once a GREAT MAGICAL item, but since the battle it is now damaged and worthless. However bringing it back to the Blacksmith PC in town, if they have the proper skill and certain items they could restore it to its full glory, magic effects and all. That would still get people their loot from dungeons, but make them seek out a player, WHO HAS THE SKILL, to bring it to its full effect. Otherwise just a standard Smith might just make it a normal item. Another idea.

 

I think that better than repairing rare items, is learning how to make them... And there could be an specialization on which rare items you can make, depending on the stats the rare item gives...

To learn how to make one "vanquish" item, the blacksmith will need to have the item and in the process of learning, the item, can be brake.

To make a rare item, the blacksmith will need the item itself because magic items have rare materials that gives power to it... in that way blacksmith will need adventurers and vice-versa.

 

Nothing but rudimentary items, gear, stuff, should be dropped from within the world. Everything and anything worthwhile should be player-crafted.

 

Honestly the quality just needs to be swapped. Dropped/Looted items should just never be as good as one crafted. Someone had to have made that sword of vanquishing at some point (story wise), so it only makes sense that the one you find is old and not as good as the newly crafted item by your local friendly master smith / enchanter / what have you.

In comparison to something like potions however, consumable will always seem to be in higher demand, especially if weapons and armor can be fixed indefinitely, even if the price is high.

Add a chance for weapons and armor to break if someone lets them go too long between repairs. If armor/weapons become a consumable as opposed to a fixed item, they suddenly gain more value. And if the crafters are the people who make the best, then you know where you'll be spending your money.

As a trade off to add some value to dropped items, make them a necessary part of being able to craft a magic item of their type, or they add a bonus if you have the item put into the crafting process. This allows for used and ready to replace items to have a final purpose as well as give a reason to give them up.

A side idea, I'd love to be able to buy replica weapons for decorating a house. Or just the ability to use the real thing.

 

pretty much perfect, well said !!!

 

This has my support. I'll be in the dev forums advocating this and very similar ideas.

Crafting only works when there is a functional economy behind it. First the devs will have to work out how to keep gold and wealth going in and out of the economy in order to make crafted goods valuable.

 

The guildwars2 system was smiler. Pretty much everything you did was getting stuff to salvage for crafting mats and all the best gear was craftable. The only caution I'd add was this basically mean there was no reason to do any of the story / quests instance runs. Basically all if the "game content" was only really there for explorer types as anyone else just optimized out of it.

Does killing some dragon give access to something valuable? Does taking some castle at some key choke point allow you to control an area that somehow gives you a better forge or access to unobtainium, which you need to make slightly better stuff?

It's not necessary bad that you can farm some ore, kill a few wolves and have the best gear in game. But then you do want to make sure you haven't trivialized the rest of the game. (GW2 was an otherwise great game, but people maxed it out in a weekend and there was no reason to play anymore.)

 

I have nothing to add this topic, I'm only writing just to make sure that devs can see that lots of people agreeing with this idea. Nice thinking...

Not everything has to be broken and if I might add one more thing, about repairing. I think when an item being repaired, its max durability should decrease. I think NPC smiths should have max of.. let's say 85 out of 100 smithing skill. So that the game could have more sandbox effect. It can encaurage single players to come down, meet and hang out with new people.

 

I too really like the idea of Salvage! Our current thinking of the framework is as follows:
Equipment can be crafted.
Crafting nominally can "imbue" special attributes into a piece of gear (buffs and other individualization).
The most every item could be more unique, and uniquely suited to you and your other equipment.
Use of a piece of equipment implies you get more familiar with its use, its weight and that comfort breeds "affinity".
We think items should have a condition which encourages you to maintain (repair) it.
Older equipment becomes more costly to repair as it gets older and older.
Thus you can always decide, do I like this item enough to continue to maintain it?
When is the right time to retire it and hang it on the wall (except for some special occasions)?
When should I just recycle / salvage it.
I like the idea of salvage, as it likely has both good "memories" as well as cool abilities you could get back!

Keep the great ideas coming!
- Richard "Lord British" Garriott

 

Oh, I also like the idea that dropped loot, is usually far more "basic": than crafted items, which gives value to a crafter!

 

Now I'm wondering what "memories" could mean. Sounds like a fun incentive to salvage stuff.

 

So the idea being that you get comfortable with weapons and break in armor and such, and that attribute gives you a bonus?

Very interesting idea, I dont think I have seen that in any other game.

As far as the downside of the repairs, I am fine with a system where I pay more gold per point of durability to repair an item as it ages and gets use. I dislike systems where the overall durability of an item is lowered as it is used, causing you to repair it more and more often (to the point where a sword will break after a few swings)

I myself am a big believer in crafted items having the potential of being on par if not better than dropped loot. That is one of the things I dislike about most MMOs crafting systems these days. Trade skills are often pointless as the crafted pieces are only used as "filler" until the big bad drops the piece you want that week

 

@LB you get our point exactly, let us be the crafters. We can make the items for the players, they can bring us look which could be materials or artifacts that we can use to salvage or make something special for the player, as long as we have that skill level. And i like your ideas of retiring the weapon depending how you feel about it. I might keep the first sword i ever make with my Makers Mark as a monumental item and put it on my wall, or if im short on materials to make something special, i could always break it down. Very cool!

Thank you everyone for getting this post recognized. I think for crafters alike, this would make us more beneficial than previous games.

Being able to craft for the player base or sale our wares on a vendor would change the way we all play and focus on a real time economy. I am excited to see where this could go. But salvaging as well as repairing. All the above has been said and expanded upon greatly. Thanks again.

Now LB has heard us, lets see where it goes. At the same time, if more ideas come to mind, don't hesitate to share!

 

One thing I'd hope for (that probably gives the programmers nightmares!) is that objects, crafted or salvaged, have individual elements you can take and adapt..... for example

Standard chair looks one way - back, legs, seat and arms have a basic design. Chairs from other areas look different, still the same function but different shaped back, legs, seat and arms. Now ideally I'd want two things - the ability to take the arms, say, from one design and bolt them on instead of the arms on a different core design, and in a perfect worlds have the tools for us to design unique components for our crafters to use and either build totally customised 'designer' items, or modify the standard things to make a more distinctive appearance.

Same should run for armour, weapons, anything ... if I like a particular component, I'd like to be able to break the original and re-use that piece in my own structure. Open up all sorts of options for crafters, consisten but varied themed designs for homes or player towns, truly identifying Guild kit rather than 'we just wear a red cloak', and so on.