A Possible Way to Fix the Equipment Buff Issue(s)

[Sacre]

Introduction to the system

Alright, so the issue with clothing and other equipment currently is the fact that if the developers add certain stats to certain items, everyone will most likely be wearing the same set of garments. However, if no stats are added, all clothing is essentially "the same". So I came up with an idea:

Add a new item category called "Badges", found and crafted under the Clothes, Equipment & Weapons tab in it's own neat subcategory, or found and foraged through various actions. These can be added to a piece of equipment, increasing the player's stats according to what the badge gives, much like runes and gems worked in the Diablo series. Each item has one socket for placing a badge in, and pants, jackets, shirts and so on each have a unique set of badges tied to them, to ensure one doesn't just use the same badge in every piece of equipment available.

An alternative way to do this is to only allow one of each badge to be worn by the player at the same time. I will leave this up to the readers to discuss and suggest what they find the best idea, but for now I will use the first system I suggested.

The differences between foraged, found and crafted badges

Foraged & Found Badges

While giving much larger buffs, foraged and found badges only last for a limited time. The timer for the item is started once you tie it to a piece of equipment. The timer does not stop while offline, and it the badge will break if one removes it from the equipment it is tied to. This is to ensure people do not just log in on an alt farmer account (or their main account) and uses minimal time online to use the smallest amount of time on the time-limited badge. This will hopefully make people actually save the high-boosting, time-limited badges for special occasions, rather than using them all the time because they're superior to crafted badges, because...

Crafted Badges

While giving much smaller buffs than the foraged and found badges, the crafted badges last forever. They can be crafted from various materials once you have the required skills to make them. Unlike foraged badges, crafted badges can be removed from their slot and placed in there again as many times as you'd like. Both types of badges can (hopefully needless to say) be traded freely between players, maybe the stalls at Boston could even sell some unique ones?

Explanation on what buffs badges give

Badges buff your proficiencies, but cannot be used to directly increase your proficiencies to buy skills you do not currently have the requirements to learn. Thus, because not all proficiencies actually have a practical use besides learning skills yet, the full extent of the usefulness of badges is yet to be revealed till the developers add a use to all of the proficiencies.

A few different badge ideas:

(Note: these are purely for giving an idea on what numbers I imagine these "badges" would give.)
(Note 2: I added some proficiencies that currently don't have a use on their own, but keep in mind that these are purely suggestions on what badges could look like.)

Iron Cross Pin

Worn: Shirt.

Needs: Blacksmithing.

Time: Crafted; unlimited.

Requires: 1x Iron Bar.

Proficiency Buff: +300 Faith & Wisdom, +100 Law & Lore.

Blood-Red Sunflower

Worn: Head.

Needs: Gardening.

Time: Found; 15 minutes.

Requires: Rare find when picking sunflowers.

Proficiency Buff: +1200 Stocks & Cultivars, +800 Sugar & Spice.

End

So that's my idea. I hope it is a system that could actually be used. Feel free to discuss and criticize.

[Zou]

A great idea when all of the proficiencies are useful outside of obtaining skills. I agree that certain badges should only go on certain pieces of equipment(head, torso, pants, boots).

[Ass_Kraken]

I like the idea overall, but I think differentiating between eternal badges and temporary badges from how they're acquired is a bad move, I'd prefer there be two types, "Badges" and "Stamps", the badge lasting forever and the stamp being temporary so how they're obtained not having any bearing over their effectiveness.

[MagicManICT]

I'm of the opinion that nothing in a game should last forever. Granted, player turnover will cause many rarer items to end up being lost, and that could be seen in games like EQ where massive changes have occurred over the years with some potent gear being added and removed. The number of active players with some of these old items becomes extremely small over time. However, crafting wasn't really a focus in most other MMOs without significant item decay, and the items weren't meant for consumption. In a game where crafting is the primary focus, nothing should be permanent.

Much like nails and iron bars, I could see some of the more basic or intermediate items being available for sale on the Company Store.

Instead of limiting the item the badge can be attached to, maybe limit the number of a particular badge or the number of buffs received? Maybe add in a diminishing return on the stacked buffs so that maxing out exactly one stat isn't desirable unless it's a farmer solely focusing on planting. (Then that could be avoided by providing some alternatives to pushing to max.)

[Potjeh]

Why is this an issue? I think that having visual cues to the build of characters you meet is a good thing. The real problem with everyone looking the same is the fact that some pieces of equipment are simply better than others in every regard. There should be more sidegrades instead.

[ShadowTani]

Why is this an issue? I think that having visual cues to the build of characters you meet is a good thing. The real problem with everyone looking the same is the fact that some pieces of equipment are simply better than others in every regard. There should be more sidegrades instead.

With only specific cloth sets that give bonuses the end result will be that everyone will aspire to wear the same. Why is this a problem you ask? Well, why did they even add cloth crafting if they will go the route with only specific cloths having stats? It will quickly devolve to an one-dimensional job then because nobody will want to wear the other basic clothes, or worse if these stat based sets aren't even craftable. Personalization is important for some players, both on a personal and a community level. Personally I'm of the opinion that features such as the cloth crafting should be expanded upon, not restricted.

Anyway, simply put, variation adds to the fun, limitation don't, so this is a valid concern many of us have.

[Potjeh]

Like I said, sidegrades. You don't see every pyro in TF2 running around with flaregun, but a good percentage of them does.

Anyway, I think that function (ie getting clues about character build / throwing people off by wearing "wrong" clothes) is infinitely more important than aesthetics.

[Sevenless]

Had this sort of idea myself, decided to keep it for my own machinations if they ever fruit. Way I figured out the balance between aesthetics vs information in combat: Clothing "types". Combat shirts vs farmer shirts determine what upgrades can be attached. The items themselves have base stats and difficulty to acquire, therefore giving the information, but the add-ons to the clothing let you customize some little surprises for the enemy.

Basically means farmer clothes could never hide a full powered warrior. In order to get the disguise, some combat prowess would have to be sacrificed.

[MagicManICT]

Basically means farmer clothes could never hide a full powered warrior. In order to get the disguise, some combat prowess would have to be sacrificed.

That could be useful. Was one thing I liked about some of the other games I've played. You can see what's coming out onto the field, but you can't necessarily know how they've customized it. For each base, there's a lot you can do with it, but you can't take an armored tank and turn it into a skirmisher. However, it's only practical if there's enough variance in customization to actually have a surprise.

[Sacre]

Had this sort of idea myself, decided to keep it for my own machinations if they ever fruit. Way I figured out the balance between aesthetics vs information in combat: Clothing "types". Combat shirts vs farmer shirts determine what upgrades can be attached. The items themselves have base stats and difficulty to acquire, therefore giving the information, but the add-ons to the clothing let you customize some little surprises for the enemy.

Basically means farmer clothes could never hide a full powered warrior. In order to get the disguise, some combat prowess would have to be sacrificed.

I had such a restriction in mind myself, but I figured people would probably complain there would then still be some pieces of equipment that are more powerful than others.

If each piece of equipment had two or three proficiencies it was tied to, though, it could work pretty well.