Alloying/Laminating/Tanning Skills

[Felurial]

Hi there! So I have been playing around with the various crafting systems (Weapon/Bow/Armor, Alchemy, Cooking, Extraction/Refining) and I have taken note of a stark contrast in complexity between some of the disciplines. Alchemy is by far one of the most uniquely engaging and mysterious professions I have ever experienced in any video game EVER! Cooking is not far behind it in this regard. Both of these systems have deeply complex creativity based mechanics that allow for true freedom of creation when utilizing the skill. Bow/Weapon/Armor crafting, on the other hand, are simplistic and very limiting of player choice, creativity, and freedom of creation. My suggestion here in this post has to do with a big improvement to those systems via an expansion of the extraction and refining skills to allow for more creative options for armor and weapon materials and bring a similar experience when crafting to that of alchemy and cooking.


Alloying would be very much what it’s name implies: The ability to create or tweak metals to create unique alloys for use in weapons and armor. This would involve the Refining apparatus at its core. For example, one could add a base metal like iron or cuprum to the crafting interface and then proceed to add two other materials or metals to the oven in varying ratios to alter the durability, weight/density, damage profile, and various other statistical effects to their liking. This would bring secret recipes and unique crafting opportunities to the game and even make some of the alloys currently available have various forms and recipes for them. It would diversify the extraction profession and allow for true master craftsmen to have some level of secrecy and proprietary knowledge of their craft that would increase the value of their weapons over another craftsmen’s. Bring more competition to those fields of the market and make for more engaging and interesting ways to interact with the crafting systems in the game currently.

Laminating/Tanning would work similarly to alloying but for animal materials and botany based materials similar to the sliders for composite bow crafting. This would let you do two separate things though. Laminating would take two kinds of hide or material and create a composite of the two through the use of resin or other chemicals to bond them together in varying degrees. Tanning on the other hand would let you treat hides and leathers with chemicals and alchemical reagents to create unique variations of them with different properties from their base counterparts.

Together these systems would bring a huge boost in variation and creativity to the professions that are currently lacking it to some degree by comparison to the other systems in the game and I believe would make for some of the most incredible profession based crafting systems in any MMO or game available on the market.

 

[StreamerLord]

At one point in MO1 you had the freedom to combine just about any weapon head and handle. Most of it was junk but a few strange combos were pretty nasty. You were also free to use just about any material in any slot you wanted.

 

[KermyWormy]

I like ideas which can expand and add to the crafting systems, but I also see extraction of materials/smelting off alloys as a separate profession from any trade which creates something from those materials, and extraction is already a very large spread of primary skills split between 3 levels of extraction, appliances and material lores. So a change such as this would need to be added only to the crafting side which is what you described a weapon or armor smith doing to tweak their outcome.

Besides the primary skill point issue in the extraction side I also don't think you want to start multiplying all these different variations of all materials and these new "alloys" as individual items in their database, so again it would need to be added during the crafting phase specifically, but I think it sounds cool, being able to further control and manipulate the outcomes of weapons and armor.

 

[Felurial]

I like ideas which can expand and add to the crafting systems, but I also see extraction of materials/smelting off alloys as a separate profession from any trade which creates something from those materials, and extraction is already a very large spread of primary skills split between 3 levels of extraction, appliances and material lores. So a change such as this would need to be added only to the crafting side which is what you described a weapon or armor smith doing to tweak their outcome.

Besides the primary skill point issue in the extraction side I also don't think you want to start multiplying all these different variations of all materials and these new "alloys" as individual items in their database, so again it would need to be added during the crafting phase specifically, but I think it sounds cool, being able to further control and manipulate the outcomes of weapons and armor.

I can agree with it likely needing to be in the crafting interface itself but I disagree with the need for large amounts of database entries. You could have an entry for each base and that would cover an extremely wide variety of cases and simply have them carry the stats within the object rather than a unique database entry for all possibilities. Alchemy potions and cooking recipes are already like this. It realistically could be done from the refining side without too much overhead. Tanning would require some other form of crafting bench akin to refining but that’s not all too difficult either but it would have some more work involved in making it happen.

I also have to point out that aside from relevant lores (which almost all crafting skills require anyway) refining only requires 100 primary points to be proficient in. If advanced alloying was another 100 then it would allow for further specialization while not limiting players who don’t want to fully specialize in the crafting of custom alloys. It would also be alleviated by the mastery skill level being lowered to 70 when that happens and grandmaster skill levels are implemented.

 

[KermyWormy]

I honestly don't know how much that system would add to the database, my gut just told SV would struggle with it.

I don't think refining will fall under the 70 skill mastery thing either, or any extraction skills, because their is no added durability or name applying possible for them which are the bonuses described by henrik for master crafters.

But regardless, a system like you described I think could be cool.

 

[Felurial]

I honestly don't know how much that system would add to the database, my gut just told SV would struggle with it.

I don't think refining will fall under the 70 skill mastery thing either, or any extraction skills, because their is no added durability or name applying possible for them which are the bonuses described by henrik for master crafters.

But regardless, a system like you described I think could be cool.

Possibly... but I for sure won’t limit my suggestions based on what would be difficult or easy.

I don’t think it will either but other skills will and that will free up a lot of points for people to play around with in other areas. Indirectly making it easier to spec into something like this without losing too much elsewhere if it was added. That was my point in mentioning the 70 skill mastery cap bit.

Thank you! I think so too. It may be a tall order but I think it would add a LOT of meaningful customization and diversity of choice to the game and would make the other crafting professions quite a bit more unique and filled with secrets that can be found with some effort and testing, like alchemy and cooking have right now.