Cosmetic Templates & Player Economy
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:42 am
Item templates
One enjoyable feature I’ve encountered in other RPGs is the recent trend that allows you to take a target item and transfer the physical, “look” from another that serves as an image template. This enables the player to completely control their image, and potentially adds more value to player crafted items often overlooked because they are inferior to random enchanted drops in regard to stats. Each crafting tier could have formulae gained thru quests, further broken down by region and race.
In order for this to work the target item must be the same category as the cosmetic item used as a template. For example, a heavy chain hauberk can be altered by a suit of heavy dark steel chain hauberk but a half-plate breastplate could not be used in this case.
In front of the appropriate npc and both pieces of armor in the inventory the player could enter something like the following command which names target and template item:
Alter 1.haub 2.haub
Upon entering the command a confirmation string describing what the change is going to create would appear and ask the player if they wish to finalize the change with a yes or no. Upon answering yes, the target item retains the original statistics but takes on the long and short descriptions of the template item. Racial, class and or faith requirements would still apply when attempting to use special items as a transfer template. In other words, if you cannot normally use the item you cannot use it as a template to alter the target object.
Player Economy
There is value to fluff and people WILL pay good coin for gear with a gorgeous description that fits what they had in mind for their persona. In a world described with words as opposed to images this is probably an understatement. By thinking of player crafted gear in terms of image control use, you preserve the incentive for going out and adventuring for items in dungeons and quests. Still, there is something to be said for being able to craft viable gear for your level range to survive appropriate content.
A game either has a player run economy or it doesn’t. With an automated economy the best items in the game come from quests/dungeons with a certain level range in mind. In this case, player crafted gear acts as a filler between one dungeon level range and the next. I don’t “think” this is what FK is currently doing as the staff seems to want the rewards to come from adventuring, which is potentially a group activity. Nothing wrong with that in essence, until you regard the viability of player crafted wares short of the Grand Master items. After close to 400 hours between two characters I encountered one person who eluded to the fact that he was a crafter and he didn’t seem interested in making anything. In other games I would have encountered active crafters almost immediately, aggressively advertising their services.
In a player run economy the reverse is true in regard to automation. The best items in the game come from player crafters, with gaps occurring between level based tiers, level requirements to equip items and dungeon drops serving as fillers in-between the tier gaps. If anything, the dungeon drops possess unique qualities such as special verbs, glowing, or action procs such as moving on their own, emitting sound strings, random speech, etc. The player crafted items created in such a system remain useful from start to finish throughout the crafter's career. This can be quite a rewarding experience for the players, who will often be optimally geared for their level range and the crafters, who will enjoy the notoriety their useful skills quickly earn them.
Even in a high magic setting such as The Forgotten Realms, magical items are still supposed to be uncommon, the bulk being recovered from ruins of an age when magic was even stronger. The creation of magical items is supposed to be and incredibly difficult and draining experience for the crafter and only a handful of people are alive that can create things above a +1. The only way to do that in a multiplayer game is to apply restrictions that will dissuade all but the most dedicated from mastering the trade. In our pen and paper D&D campaign, the DM regulated player crafted magical items by:
A. Assigning an experience point cost based on the power/level of the item.
B. Limited the number of formulae that could be learned each level
C. Assigned a substantial but not ridiculous construction time for each item.
D. Assigned a material cost also based on level of the item.
In short, you would not stock up on materials and mass produce magical items to become the high fantasy equivalent of Walmart. It would cost you coin, construction time and experience to make these items. Thus, you would still have to get out there and adventure before becoming a temporary hermit and crafting. Do this enough and level loss would simulate physical atrophy and the loss of perishable skills.
Another thing you often see in player run economies is interdependence, where a crafter needs materials from other disciplines to assemble their goods. This isn’t a problem with highly populated worlds with very active crafters being common, but it would be dangerous in low populations for obvious reasons. I think it’s better for each craft to be self-sufficient and focused.
One enjoyable feature I’ve encountered in other RPGs is the recent trend that allows you to take a target item and transfer the physical, “look” from another that serves as an image template. This enables the player to completely control their image, and potentially adds more value to player crafted items often overlooked because they are inferior to random enchanted drops in regard to stats. Each crafting tier could have formulae gained thru quests, further broken down by region and race.
In order for this to work the target item must be the same category as the cosmetic item used as a template. For example, a heavy chain hauberk can be altered by a suit of heavy dark steel chain hauberk but a half-plate breastplate could not be used in this case.
In front of the appropriate npc and both pieces of armor in the inventory the player could enter something like the following command which names target and template item:
Alter 1.haub 2.haub
Upon entering the command a confirmation string describing what the change is going to create would appear and ask the player if they wish to finalize the change with a yes or no. Upon answering yes, the target item retains the original statistics but takes on the long and short descriptions of the template item. Racial, class and or faith requirements would still apply when attempting to use special items as a transfer template. In other words, if you cannot normally use the item you cannot use it as a template to alter the target object.
Player Economy
There is value to fluff and people WILL pay good coin for gear with a gorgeous description that fits what they had in mind for their persona. In a world described with words as opposed to images this is probably an understatement. By thinking of player crafted gear in terms of image control use, you preserve the incentive for going out and adventuring for items in dungeons and quests. Still, there is something to be said for being able to craft viable gear for your level range to survive appropriate content.
A game either has a player run economy or it doesn’t. With an automated economy the best items in the game come from quests/dungeons with a certain level range in mind. In this case, player crafted gear acts as a filler between one dungeon level range and the next. I don’t “think” this is what FK is currently doing as the staff seems to want the rewards to come from adventuring, which is potentially a group activity. Nothing wrong with that in essence, until you regard the viability of player crafted wares short of the Grand Master items. After close to 400 hours between two characters I encountered one person who eluded to the fact that he was a crafter and he didn’t seem interested in making anything. In other games I would have encountered active crafters almost immediately, aggressively advertising their services.
In a player run economy the reverse is true in regard to automation. The best items in the game come from player crafters, with gaps occurring between level based tiers, level requirements to equip items and dungeon drops serving as fillers in-between the tier gaps. If anything, the dungeon drops possess unique qualities such as special verbs, glowing, or action procs such as moving on their own, emitting sound strings, random speech, etc. The player crafted items created in such a system remain useful from start to finish throughout the crafter's career. This can be quite a rewarding experience for the players, who will often be optimally geared for their level range and the crafters, who will enjoy the notoriety their useful skills quickly earn them.
Even in a high magic setting such as The Forgotten Realms, magical items are still supposed to be uncommon, the bulk being recovered from ruins of an age when magic was even stronger. The creation of magical items is supposed to be and incredibly difficult and draining experience for the crafter and only a handful of people are alive that can create things above a +1. The only way to do that in a multiplayer game is to apply restrictions that will dissuade all but the most dedicated from mastering the trade. In our pen and paper D&D campaign, the DM regulated player crafted magical items by:
A. Assigning an experience point cost based on the power/level of the item.
B. Limited the number of formulae that could be learned each level
C. Assigned a substantial but not ridiculous construction time for each item.
D. Assigned a material cost also based on level of the item.
In short, you would not stock up on materials and mass produce magical items to become the high fantasy equivalent of Walmart. It would cost you coin, construction time and experience to make these items. Thus, you would still have to get out there and adventure before becoming a temporary hermit and crafting. Do this enough and level loss would simulate physical atrophy and the loss of perishable skills.
Another thing you often see in player run economies is interdependence, where a crafter needs materials from other disciplines to assemble their goods. This isn’t a problem with highly populated worlds with very active crafters being common, but it would be dangerous in low populations for obvious reasons. I think it’s better for each craft to be self-sufficient and focused.