Alignment, friendship, and commissions

I think commissions could be an excellent method to encourage player and world interaction. The alignment of the crafter and commissioner could have significant impact on the quality and stats of the finished item. The Mastersmith priest accepting a commission from the murdering lawye...err dreadlord would always yield a legendary piece of useless junk. The mastersmith priest accepting a commission from a righteous paladin could yield a legendary item with significant bonuses against evil. I see two types of commission jobs.

1. It is normal for a craftsperson to put special effort into making something for a friend. Therefore it would be cool to be able to make a "special" sword for a friend. There would be a time increase in crafting the item and it would have a small bonus only when used by the friend for whom it was crafted. To craft an item for a friend they must have been a friend with a similar alignment to the crafter for a significant real world time at least a month.

2. Master crafters can accept commissions to create special/legendary/epic items. These commissions begin a very involved quest series. The commissioner will have to acquire specific materials for the item they commissioned in a specified time period. The level of item they choose to commission will determine the number and difficulty of quests that must be completed. The most powerful of items will require the crafter to complete some quests to receive blessings or enchantments necessary to craft the item. The time to craft a commissioned item is always greater than a regular construction and increases tremendously with the level of the commissioned item. Crafting a legendary item may require the crafter to "craft" for multiple real life hours. During this crafting time they have to add the quest items at the appropriate time. This type of commissioned item is no fail. The crafting is guaranteed to be successful, of course if your alignments differ greatly you may end up with an powerful sword that does the same amount of damage to the wielder as it does to the target or armor that affords you great protection but heals your attacker every time they hit you.

Commissions require payment upfront that is held in escrow until completion of the commission. A minimum fee is determined by the item commissioned but crafters can demand a higher fee. If a commissioner fails to collect the required items by the specified time the commission is cancelled and he forfeits the entire fee. Once the commissioner has gathered all his items it becomes the crafter's responsibility to complete his quests/crafting. If the crafter fails to complete his portion by the specified time the fee reverts back to the commissioner and the crafter loses one full crafting level. Completed commissions are auto delivered upon completion.

Hostile actions between commissioner/crafter result in the attacker failing their part of the commission. This applies to anyone on either friends list. If a friend of the commissioner attacks the crafter it counts as if the commissioner himself attacked the crafter.

A siege suspends the commission. Once the siege is lifted the commissioner/crafter can agree to continue the commission and the clock restarts or either can choose to cancel the commission and the fee reverts back to the commissioner but there is no penalty to the crafter.

 

I like the some of the concept of commissions that you have put out there. I don't think it needs to be something as "deep" as getting alignments and such, for lore it might be kinda nice, but if you are really RPing would you ever accept a commission from an enemy?

I think commissions could be a way for people to stay in touch with their favorite crafters and have repeat business with them. Obviously with a house it would be easier to have some post or something at their house they could check out all the postings, but similar to a job board but at craft sites could work. Player offers $x for y items. Crafters could then fulfill this job for them and collect the reward or just choose to ignore it.

I think master crafters should always have the choice to spend a lot of time working on getting an item made as a way to have a very high quality end result. The process should occur in broken up chunks so if player A has 30 minutes everyday he can complete it just like player B who only has 3 hrs / week to play. After all, how many things are ever created in a single go? It shouldn't just be a time sink though, and although an active/reactive craft method similar to EQ2 would be a welcome, there should be a SotA twist on it.

 

Like both your ideas 1 and 2.