Crafting Variants/Unique Items

[Osmedirez]

At the moment crafting is a very straightforward process: If you have the materials and the skills, you can craft everything in the game. This is a suggested format for increasing the complexity of the crafting system, as well as encourage a more lively economy in the future game.

The system I imagine works something like this:
You start with a regular crafted item. Example: Farmer's Jacket
Anyone can craft it. Now, you're making a couple to sell one day, just using up materials that you don't really need, trying to get some coin out of it, and one of the crafts comes out as: Red Farmer's Jacket

What's this? Different color. If they ever add bonus's to clothing, maybe it'll have a slightly different or variant bonus. Even if not, it's a unique item.

To make it interesting: Once the player has 'acidently' crafted a Red Farmer's Shirt, the recipe is now added to their crafting list. It would probably have additional or variant ingredients to keep it interesting. Maybe a rare red item to cause the color change?

The reason for having the recipe stay with the player, rather than just happen very rarely, is to encourage crafters to search for unlockable recipes. This will increase the demand for lower tier crafting materials in the long term, as well as provide a more complex economy. To maintain rarity of these variants, have each one be very very rare, with perhaps the chance of finding an unlockable recipe increase with.. higher proficiencies, higher humors-- basically, hidden requirements to discover them.

Keeping your crafting character alive becomes much more important (not that it's ever NOT important), but the chances of having that recipe again are very small, or the investment of time in trying to find that specific recipe makes it almost not worth it.

The number and manner of unlockable recipes should be fairly large, I think. Perhaps it's easier to find something like a color variant, for instance, and make even rarer unlockable recipes that change the shape of the object somewhat.

Foods could have variants with different ingredients, shifting the gluttony events slightly or maybe adding slight long-term buffs. Variant storage items could be very valuable to have in a town (if they add a tiny bit of extra space) and makes an individual crafter a specialized resource indeed.

As long as the variants don't throw the balance of the game significantly, I think this would make crafting more interesting over all. Imagine being paid by one player to kill another who has a special recipe. Industrial espionage!

I realize this would do away with the need for a specific 'dye' based customization system, but overall I think this would be more interesting. Players could have a much broader choice of unique appearances.. towns who have specialized clothing crafters could have a dress code, and while I'm not a programmer, I don't think adding this system would be too much of a stretch of the system already in place.

A possible alternative or secondary system I thought about was crafting stations that allow for 'randomized' results. Such as a potter's wheel. Add clay and water, work the clay on the wheel.. maybe you get a bowl, maybe a mug, maybe a plate, maybe a Easter Island Head?!?.. shapes could be consistent, but perhaps with a semi-randomized color scheme (or a way to influence the color via adding coloring agents to the wheel in the first place). This would allow decorative items that would give players a way to individualize their houses/properties/etc. Pottery is just one example, I can imagine variations for just about every type of craft. I think something of this variety would be better for build items over the above method for craft items.

Comments? Suggestions? Criticism? All welcome. Thank you for taking an interest. ^_^

[MagicManICT]

I'm just going to temper this idea, as great as it is, with pointing out the complexity of doing something like this. There's only two people developing this game. It might be something that can be gotten to in the next few years once the game becomes profitable and more people can be hired or there's time to work on it. Otherwise, you're not the first person to come up with dyes and customizing recipes here or on the Paradox forums during the early alpha/beta phases. (I still love the idea, but I want people to be reasonable in expectations, too.)

[ShadowAtlan]

I'd just like to say that the chance of coming out with unique variants of various craftables is a fantastic thing that I adore. It's basically a skinner switch, I know, but even the slightest chance of a random gain from doing something makes my heart sing. Things like the coffin planks from cutting boards, strange lumps of clay from digging clay, those are little surprises that make me actively want to keep working. Similar benefits for crafting would simply be amazing. I'm the kind of person who goes out of my way to look or make things unique, even if it's something that is little more than, as the OP mentioned, a red jacket opposed to a blue,

[Osmedirez]

I'm just going to temper this idea, as great as it is, with pointing out the complexity of doing something like this. There's only two people developing this game. It might be something that can be gotten to in the next few years once the game becomes profitable and more people can be hired or there's time to work on it. Otherwise, you're not the first person to come up with dyes and customizing recipes here or on the Paradox forums during the early alpha/beta phases. (I still love the idea, but I want people to be reasonable in expectations, too.)

This is definitely a long-term suggestion. At the moment there's a long list of other, more important things to implement. Agreed 100%.

As to the complexity: There's a system in place for randomly acquiring certain items during a normal process, and by integrating it into the regular crafting process, it eliminates the need for a secondary system of dyes/paints etc, which I think is pretty reasonable.

I've read most of the other suggestions for customization. ^_^ I think this system could be implemented beyond simple color customization, as noted in the OP.

But yeah, i doubt this is what will happen. Seatribe probably already has plans for a customization process later down the line, just wanted to share my random ideas. Thank you for contributing!

Had another thought. Add a skill to the process (or multiple for different crafting types) that 'unlocks' the ability to 'unlock' these recipes. Sample: "Americana: Allows inspiration from the new world to influence your crafting process." --or something to that effect. ^.^ Yeah, just making it more complicated, but since so many other things in the game are gated by skills, this seemed appropriate.

[MagicManICT]

When I think of "item customization," I always think of the first true MMO I played, EQ, and what you could do with the Fletching skill making arrows customized in all the stats. (In reality, it came down to making a handful of types of arrows for overall DPS increase because range just didn't matter.)

[jorb]

In reality, it came down to making a handful of types of arrows for overall DPS increase because range just didn't matter.

The problem is, indeed -- apart from the resource question (additional inventory icons and whatnot) -- usually to identify meaningful variables along which one can vary the produce without simply creating meaningless noise.

[Sevenless]

Honestly item variants are often just an excuse to add randomness and grind to the crafting process. Making it take 20 or 30 items to get a good one for example. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it increases the value of the end product if it's difficult to craft.

[Haxzploid]

I think it would be better if you just had a chance of creating a "better piece" and not unlocking a recipe.. This would make these items more rare. Also more easy to implement.

[Osmedirez]

I think it would be better if you just had a chance of creating a "better piece" and not unlocking a recipe.. This would make these items more rare. Also more easy to implement.

That mechanic already exists (in some fields) via the purity system. And is all well and good.

One of the most detrimental things about crafting games in general is that there is usually zero option for having a specialized crafting ability. In the case of hard to get recipes, they're only rare for the limited time that it takes the long-term players to develop all the prerequisites.

I'll also point out that most of my suggestions already have in-game analogues (which I was not 100% aware of till I played the game more). Alt-ingredient crafting Wicked Wicker Man, misshapen lump of clay has a chance to become 3 other objects when fired. Take that object, eliminate my more complex suggestion about a potter's wheel, and add more alternatives for what it can become and it's basically the same thing.

The only real difference with what I suggested then is having a larger pool of variants and recipes that require more than just a skill to utilize. Still think it would be a way to have more limited items, a certain amount of crafting differentiation later on.

[ShadowAtlan]

That mechanic already exists (in some fields) via the purity system. And is all well and good.

One of the most detrimental things about crafting games in general is that there is usually zero option for having a specialized crafting ability. In the case of hard to get recipes, they're only rare for the limited time that it takes the long-term players to develop all the prerequisites.

I'll also point out that most of my suggestions already have in-game analogues (which I was not 100% aware of till I played the game more). Alt-ingredient crafting Wicked Wicker Man, misshapen lump of clay has a chance to become 3 other objects when fired. Take that object, eliminate my more complex suggestion about a potter's wheel, and add more alternatives for what it can become and it's basically the same thing.

I found the game mechanic really interesting and can't wait to see how they expand it. I've already used several of the rare variants like coffin planks and march hare hides to make some of the basic things in the game. That's where we got bunny darko, wicked wickerman, or the one I found nobody had really mentioned before, Stuffed March Hare