Viability

Discussion in 'Crafting & Gathering' started by Vedrix, May 30, 2013.

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  1. Vedrix

    Vedrix Avatar

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    Crafting needs to be viable at all stages of the game. I loved how in UO you could be an adventurer, a crafter, or whatever. Crafting shouldn't be connected directly to combat or adventuring it should be its own path. Also crafting shouldn't cap at whatever "end game" is. Most games today crafting is useless for progression and PvP, once you max level or skill you find drops, not craft. I hated this and loved how in UO, crafting played a vital role in the game. If you wanted items repaired, you went to a crafter. If you didn't want to lose expensive gear, you used crafted (unless AoS trashed it).

    Crafting needs to be a viable path to take, and always be useful, regardless of what point of the game it is. Too many games put crafting as a small mini-game (if that) rather than part of the game as a whole. Time for a crafting comeback :D
     
  2. Alayth

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    @Vedrix - It's kind of unclear what you're proposing, can you be more specific about what you would like to see?

    LB has already said he wants the most powerful in-game equipment to come from crafting, so I don't think there's any danger of it becoming useless at end-game.
     
  3. Bohica

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    That is basically what he is saying. Most games treat crafting as an afterthought and focus on combat. At end game levels there is no use for most crafting other then consumables.
     
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  4. G Din

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    @Gracekain : Agree.

    The only way crafted weapons and armor will be completely viable is if they are never outdone by loot drops. So, crafted gear will have to keep pace with new content as its released.

    Options?

    You could cap the weapons and armor (GM as example). What would crafters do ? Repair, Change the Skins. Not much to be honest.

    or

    Make the gear moddable so as new content is released, new components are found and used to stay on Par with loot. Not saying the weapons have to scale in damage, but maybe the blade needs to be imbued with silver to be more effective vs undead (released in an expansion). Not exactly based on stats.

    or

    Lootable/Permanent Loss : Gear will have to be constantly replaced. (Almost considered a consumable)
     
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  5. PrimeRib

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    Why the loot escalation at all? A sword is a sword.
     
  6. Mishri

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    Never outdone by loot drops? I'd prefer rarely.. as in a rare drop from a rare monster turned into a rare npc makes a better weapon than anything crafted.. but you'll spend a full year working on that because it's so difficult to obtain and maybe it's cursed and it wont leave your person...

    Right now (or atleast last time I played) UO has crafters making the best gear in the game... and that lead to gear stagnation, more high end gear around than people know what to do with.

    So it's always a delicate balance between how gear is handled.. crafting vs finding vs rarity. Top end gear should always be difficult and time consuming to get or the market gets flooded. or, in the event a game lasts for 10 years and there is just tons of gear floating around and no new things come out to make the old gear bad..

    so yes, there needs to be either escalation or gear destruction.. and the easier it is to get gear the easier it needs to be to destroy it so that you constantly fight an uphill battle, or else there wont be anything left to do.
     
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  7. G Din

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    Now you could leave weapons and armor out of looting all together. So what then are you exploring dungeons for?

    Magic: amulets, rings, cloaks, boots, bags (Basically Accessories)

    Gold, Jewels, Gems

    There has to be something to get most people out of bed. "The Carrot"

    You could limit the types of loot. If your not looting magical weapons and armor, then Blacksmiths are gonna be very much in need. A lot of different ways to approach it.
     
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  8. Alayth

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    One approach might be that monsters mainly just drop crafting ingredients. So, kill a legendary demon, get a magical hilt of a once-powerful sword. Bring this to a blacksmith who can craft a weapon with it. The resulting weapon's stats are based on the crafting ingredients used as well as the skill of the crafter.
     
  9. Lukashka the Necromancer

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    I support the idea of crafting ingredients as drops- the other benefit to this is that such ingredients could be used for a large variety of items, so that they are useful to different skills. For example, a gem could be dropped that could be added to a sword pommel, a staff, an amulet, etc all with different uses.

    Gear as a carrot is a system I don't personally like, but treasure is fun and doesn't mess with immersion. The trick would be distribution- who gets what and how?
     
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