Shipwright Archive

---

Buka_Starwalker wrote:

Ok, as it stands crafters can't participate inmost (if any)of these new (or old)quests because our combat ability is so poor. My CL is at 7 and can't get any higher due to SW and merchent skills I MUST have to run my business. Since crafters can't participate directly in these quests we CAN participate on the back end. You bring us that shiny new schematic you just looted and Voila! instant MMORG. You MUST involve crafters more in these quests and you do it by handing in your schems to us so we can then take over and get you a KICK-ASS new widget you have been salivating over since you started this quest.

---

The problem is that even if you required NO resources for the item being crafted, you'd see (at least some) crafters charging horrendous amounts to essentially click the button once or twice.

Ok since this post has taken a turn to crafting vs lootI'd like to share something I posted in our correspondent forum.

This thread is starting to really make me think about this issue.

Crafting can be really fun. I was quite suprised at how robust and interesting the crafting system is. When success hit, I understood what the powergame of crafting was. It became as exciting and fun as going out into the wilds to hunt! The entire game slipped into a spend money to make money game. A few months went by and I realized the only reason I left my shop was to hit the harvestors, and get new clothes. Everyone came to the shop to buy items, deliever resources. Because of this I was able to spend a long time with customers, and keep a steady supply of items. One day I walked outside and looked down at the mining outpost, then up at the fading light of the day, and wondered if there was anything up there for me. [ cue music ]

Crafting had become my entire game experience. As it is now, crafting is all about making credits. I like to call it the credit grind.

Just like a jedi that fears the loss of experience, as a crafter I fear the loss of potential credits. When I hear of a piece of loot that will take the place of an item that I currently craft as the top of the line for that item, it feels like a loss.A crafter wants to feel that they are able to make the best item in the game, just as a combat player wants to have the best item and deal the best damage. It is hard to see something better than you can craft be at the top ofa player'swish list of replacements for your items.

That said, where do we go from here?

I have a lot of items in my house that are rewards/loot. I bought several from other players. I am a NUT for rare items. Started way back in UO and has only gotten worse in this world. Decorations aside for a moment though, let's talk about items that have a tangible use in the world.

There will always be items that could logically come into exsistence without being player crafted. Your walking around down an alley,a mantries to mug you, but you get the drop on him, and knock him out. Maybe you like his sun glasses. You take em, that's loot no? Turns out they were crazy heat signature viewing mega shades. Who knew? But they are yours now. That's fun!

Now, what if we say instead of the whole pair of glasses, it changes into a schematic when you pick it up. That's not quite as fun.

What if it was setup like this:

The reason I was able to take thatnpc muggerout so quick was I hadthe best player crafted items.I didn't get the loot because I had the best looted replacements for player crafted items.

The key to this is, future loot would have to shift toward complimentary items rather than flagship items. The flagship items crafters produce from "schematics learned" during quests. The quests almost always involve the assistance of other professions who at the same time receive new skills,attacks, or just theability to use the new itemthe crafter can now build. These quests are for the new and old crafter, the new and old combat pro, not just for the high end market.Now where you have been in the world makes the difference, not where others have been.

This could also work the other way around. During the quest, a combat player loots a fantastic weapon, and the crafter learns how it is made. From then on they can make that item. The weapon/armor or what not, is the same the crafter can make, but at 100% as if made from top notch resources. When it decays, thecombat prowould then be able to replace it by buying a new one from the crafter. If the combat player didn't want the item, they could still sell it for a good price. The more expensive and rare items would be the ones with the most difficult and complicated quests, and require exotic resources to make. If for some reason you didn't want to go on the quest you could still buy it from a crafter that has done the quest. In some ways this is already part of the game.

If the goal is to focus on continuing to encourage each person in a profession to strive to be the best and work together, I think this would be a good step.

---

What do you think ?

Message Edited by IIscandar on 05-10-2005 02:49 PM

---

Thunderheart wrote:

I think the important thing to underscore is that the great RoW items are quest-loot, not loot drops. It important to have quest rewards that are satisfying and RoW is a very quest oriented expansion.

---

Yet the DE-10 pistol, arguably one of the most difficult weapons to obtain in the game, has been nerfed to all heck.