Although much isn't known about the crafting system, I’d like to suggest a possible feature, Named weapons and Armour. A system that in my opinion can bridge that gap between Looted gear and the crafted, while giving players a sense of excitement.
Every weapon has its history, how many orcs its slain, or how many oaths were honored using it. What if that history could play a part in the crafting process.
Say a crafter takes a sword that was used to kill 3000 orcs, and uses it to as an ingredient during the crafting of a new weapon thus giving the new weapon bonuses against orcs.
Imagine taking this a step further and requiring several stats to be true of the used weapon to make a named weapon, The Orc Slayer of Burning Lust. To further enhance the challenge, those stats could be hidden from view, making the recipe a mystery,
Food for thought.
Absolutely love the idea of growth items and salvaging multiple growth items to create a new and even better growth items.
There is an issue though of game performance and database management with growth items. Your character will not be able to have sword 00432 equipped and the appropriate stats added to your character stats for simple game math. Instead you will have item 3fg45ae39cb75bh9 (that’s double hex right you programmer nerds?) equipped which will have its own “character” page with lots of data tracked. The effect of the item character page will need to be calculated then passed to your character page. That can end up being pretty server intensive when you consider you have more than a dozen items equipped and 1000s of players playing at a time. The extra database size can add up as well.
The best way I can think of doing it is every time an item enters your inventory it gains a unique slot on your character sheet. That item slot counts up any time a specific set of events occur. Once one or more of the event counters reach a certain threshold the base item is exchanged for a different base item and keeps counting. If the item leaves your inventory then all accrued growth since the last time the base item was upgraded is lost. For purposes of growth items your inventory would include your bank and housing. Maybe even progeny characters would be able to continually grow items started by their parents without whipping out the history. What if an item required to be held while you gained enough EXP to level 1-50 4 times. One character could grind at max level for a long time or you could pass it onto 3 progeny as they level up.
The downside of any system that gives significant benefits tied to a particular weapon (as distinct from a title or minor benefits like plus one against orcs) is that it can lock you in to that weapon and remove the challenge/fun of keeping an eye out for new weapons. I am thinking especially of any system to let the weapon "grow with you" as in LOTRO's reasonable sounding legendary weapons system that has turned into a millstone around the necks of many players - a source of endless grinding.
dorotea said:The downside of any system that gives significant benefits tied to a particular weapon (as distinct from a title or minor benefits like plus one against orcs) is that it can lock you in to that weapon and remove the challenge/fun of keeping an eye out for new weapons. I am thinking especially of any system to let the weapon "grow with you" as in LOTRO's reasonable sounding legendary weapons system that has turned into a millstone around the necks of many players - a source of endless grinding.
Ideally the number of kills (or any other stat(s) IE Heals ect) needed to successfully craft a new weapon with bonuses would be unknown to the crafter or player. Using an old sword as a ingredient to make a new one should be desirable for the positive outcome, but risky at the same time, who knows maybe you lose ingredients, or the forge will explode :).
HemlockReaper said:Although much isn't known about the crafting system, I’d like to suggest a possible feature, Named weapons and Armour. A system that in my opinion can bridge that gap between Looted gear and the crafted, while giving players a sense of excitement.
Every weapon has its history, how many orcs its slain, or how many oaths were honored using it. What if that history could play a part in the crafting process.
Say a crafter takes a sword that was used to kill 3000 orcs, and uses it to as an ingredient during the crafting of a new weapon thus giving the new weapon bonuses against orcs.
Imagine taking this a step further and requiring several stats to be true of the used weapon to make a named weapon, The Orc Slayer of Burning Lust. To further enhance the challenge, those stats could be hidden from view, making the recipe a mystery,
Food for thought.
Yes - I wasn't saying it was a bad idea or that I didn't agree - just cautioning about where things could go if not done with enough consideration of long-term consequences. Many years ago DAOC also had gear that "grew with you" - I believe the much hated Trials of Atlantis expansion is what introduced them.