Crafting Issues:
Currently there are four main issues with the crafting system. The one I find most critical is the lack of connecting between getting data samples and anything that remotely feels like building something. There is an issue of Farm X tokens, get Y reward. The new changes seem to add burn Z currency to the equation, which understandably has garnered a less that absolutely positive response. Most would agree however that something is needed to address the mass production of MK XI purples by people endlessly circling B'Tran scanning anomalies. But the first issue is how do I connect scanning yet another unknown substance to creating a decent Phaser array?
This brings up the second major problem. Endlessly circling B'Tran scanning anomalies is not a lot of fun. Crafting should be an extension of the game that is enjoyable.
The third major problem of this equation is that is just that... It is an equation. There is no element of risk, involved. Nothing adds a bit of excitement to the whole process, no surprises. Some of the most fun crafting systems I have seen add something of this nature.
The fourth is more one of decorum. Above a certain rank I find it hard to picture my captain head buried in a half assembled impulse engine hand sticking out, saying, No, no! I need the quantum flux regulator not the positron relay assembly... The captain chooses what to do and who gets to do it. They don't want to be buried in the details. They don't have time. Make it so #1. Make it so.
What follows is a detailed description of how I would suggest changing crafting to address the problems above. I am including as much detail as possible so I apologize in advance for the length of the post. I have endeavored to keep the idea to something that would blend well within the framework of the game, without requiring significant re-structuring of the game engine.
Architecture:
To craft an item you combine schematic with a base of the appropriate level and rarity and, up to three bonus modifying components. These components affect the outcome, which like the Doff missions would have tiers of outcomes. With a base chance for each. The chance of outcome can be modified in a few ways, that are covered in the crafting success chances section below. The rarity of the base determines how many bonus modifiers can be added. Uncommon = 1. Rare = 2, Very Rare = 3. There are no common crafting item bases.
So for example, a single combine would be: Schematic: Personal Shield + Rare Personal Shield Base MK XI + Personal Field Generator MK XI [CAP] + Personal Emitter Amplifier MK XI [Reg]
The end result would be determined as follows:
Critical Success:(6%)
1% Very Rare Personal Shield MK XI [Cap]x2 [Reg]
1% Very Rare Personal Shield MK XI [Cap] [Reg]x2
4% Very Rare Personal Shield MK XI [Cap] [Reg] [Other]
Success: (80%)
60% Rare Personal Shield MK XI [CAP] [REG]
10% Rare Personal Shield MK XI [CAP]x2
10% Rare Personal Shield MK XI [REG]x2
Failure: (10%)
5% Uncommon Personal Shield MK XI [CAP]
5% Uncommon Personal Shield MK XI [REG]
Critical Failure: (4%)
3% Pile of slag + Minor injury
1% Pile of slag + Major injury
NOTE: Yes, I recognize that this is using a base that people hated in the original crafting setup but these bases are a tad different. I will cover the differences in the component acquisition section below that should keep these bases from becoming an impossible bottleneck again.
Component Acquisition:1. Exploration Mission Rewards:
When you fly in to a mission in a distant uncharted nebula, in addition to the standard skill points, you have a chance of receiving either an item base (33%) or bonus modifier component (60%) of the appropriate tier. Rewards are based on the mission type. Ship items for space missions and Officer items for ground. The idea being you get what you need by doing what you enjoy. The tier will be based on the location of the mission and will be the even tier (MK IV, VI, VIII and X) in that category. Tier XI will be exclusive to the VA/LG instances.
If an item base is awarded, the rarity of that type is determined by a distribution based on the difficulty of the missions.
Normal: 30% Uncommon, 55% Rare, 15% Very Rare
Hard: 20% Uncommon, 60% Rare, 20% Very Rare
Elite: 10% Uncommon, 65% Rare, 25% Very Rare
So this means if you run an elite exploration mission in B'Tran VA, you have a total of 8% (33% * 25%) chance to get a MK XI very rare item base as your reward. Meaning roughly every fourth time you run your daily, but should also pick up 2-3 rare item bases at the same time, with 7-8 bonus modifiers. This keeps the bonus modifiers in about the same distribution as you need them to craft with. This doesn't count the drop items if any of the missions include combat, as those are already assembled, but could potentially be broken down for more components.
2. Doff Missions Rewards.
Occasional Doff missions which currently reward schematics/items such as the secure schematic or raid convoy missions will offer bases, and modifiers for these crafting.
3. Breakdown of Dropped items.
Tired of endlessly hitting recycle on that disruptor cannon you just picked up off that bird of prey you blew out of the sky? Instead, take it to be scavenged for its base components. You won't be certain of the outcome, but it's better than just chucking it for change. As a bonus, breaking down existing machinery gives you both spare parts and a minor improvement to your crafting skills. What kid hasn't gained invaluable knowledge by disassembling a radio or vacuum cleaner? Why should duo-tronic relays be any different. Pass the screwdriver.
Results should probably break down as follows: For each item you have a 40% chance of getting a base item of the same rarity, and a 10% chance of getting a base item of one rarity level lower. Uncommon and do not yield lower bases. Common items do not break down. Each modifier that is on the object being broken down has a 30% chance of yielding the same modifier that would be used for it.
Continuing the example above: breaking down a Rare Personal Shield MK XI [CAP] [REG] You would have a 40% chance to get a Rare personal shield MK XI Base, a 10 % chance to get a Uncommon Personal Shield Mk XI Base and a 50% chance to get no base object. You would have a 30% chance to get a Personal Field Generator MK XI [CAP] and a 70% chance to get nothing from that modifier. You would also have a 30 % chance to get a Personal Emitter Amplifier MK XI [Reg], and a 70% chance to get nothing for that modifier.
The reason for the low return rates on the breakdown is to prevent the endless cycle of Craft/ Breakdown to level up without using up a lot of components. You would have to get extremely lucky (3.6% chance) to get back all the possible components, and you would still be out your schematic, if you crafted then immediately broke down the resulting crafted item. However if your crafting didn't turn out exactly as you hoped, you still get a shot to get most of what you need to try again. Because there is a chance of going up a level in rarity on the craft there is a corresponding chance of going down a level on the break. Meaning if you start with that rare phaser array, and break it to the uncommon, base, there is still a small chance of you crafting it back up to the rare with the desired modifiers, if you are willing to risk a schematic and your bonus modifiers.
One immediate danger of the deconstruction is the use of store bought low tier items to rapidly level up crafting without having to fight in the zones or scan anomalies. However as these items that are bought for EC are all common they cannot be deconstructed. The dilithium bought items are effectively self limited by the dilithium restrictions and would indeed be a viable input for crafting without being imbalanced. Any store bought uncommon for EC would need to be flagged as either bound, if bound limits are on deconstruction, or unique, to prevent this sort of abuse.
4. Scavenged From Freighters (Klingons) / Reward from planetary aid missions (Federation)
Who knows what the generous (or unwary) may find in their hearts to donate to your cause. Grateful species can be appreciative of help in their time of need. Federation freighters are like QI'lop presents waiting to be unwrapped.
5. Ferengi Black Market (Dronza- Dilithium)
Why has Dronza survived despite hungry neural-energy sucking aliens, lousy drinks and a STILL rigged dabo table? It isnt for the mood lighting, or the deteriorated holograms. The ferengi's have the goods. People come for them. Hungry to craft that very rare piece. Don't want to muck about exploring or raiding? Head to Dronza, but bring your dilithium. Word on the street is that the even tier item bases are available for discriminating buyers with high budgets, even the ultra elite MK XI's. The ferengi always have a deal on the best gear. Be warned: Some assembly required.
6. Craft It!
The Odd tier item bases will be crafted from a schematic plus data samples of the appropriate tier. It will be possible to make an uncommon item base using only a schematic + standard data samples, or a rare item base using standard and trace samples. The uncommon base combines can yield a rare on critical success, the rare can yield a very rare on critical success. Critical Failures yield slag.
When in doubt, add more power. Batteries can be used as a generic bonus modifying component However... the results of using battery components are random. Using batteries instead of specific components does have a success penalty. -10% to success. +5% failure + 5% critical failure. This effect is cumulative. Using 2 or 3 batteries doubles or triples the penalty respectively. The type of battery corresponds with the type of item being crafted. Shield batteries for shields, aux for deflectors/sci consoles etc. Personal equipment uses personal batteries. Shield for armor or shields. Weapon for weapons and kits.
Continued on Next post on thread.
Comments
Finished Product combines:
Failure: (0%)
Rare:
Failure: (10%)
Failure: (20%)
Critical Failure: (6%)
Very Rare (Even Tiers):
Failure: (20%)
Returns slag 2% critical injury 3 % major injury, 5% minor injury
Failure: (10%)
Rare (Odd Tier Only):
Failure: (10%)
Note: Slag is a pile of previously molten metal remnants with high levels of impurities. Recyclable for energy credits. Although, not much. Horta pets in inventory may consume them from time to time.
Doff effects on Crafting
At tier IV and above a Doff from the reserve list is required to create the item. Basically you would add the reserve officer to the construction and instead of getting the item immediately it would be added as a doff mission yielding crafting experience plus the item. Mission time would be 5 minutes for uncommon, 20 minutes for rares, 1 hour for very rares, and would consume one assignment slot. Success and critical success chance modified by the traits of the officer and type. For example when crafting a personal weapon an armory officer adds to the success, or an astrometric console benefits from an astrometrics scientist. I apologize that this section is not overly fleshed out. I am still learning the Doff setup. I will have to leave the table for item type, officer types, and traits out for the moment. If there is sufficient interest I would be glad to help setup the matrix. In addition to the crafting experience, doff experience from the appropriate type based on the officer requirements could be added as a reward.
Leveling:
For the most part I would suggest leaving the leveling pretty much the same. I would however suggest considering a possible increasing the EXP required to level to offset the ability to scavenge components from recycling items, and the multiple combinations. I might suggest either adding it to the progress view on the doff assignment screen as its own bar, or combining it with the engineering experience from the doff tree.
Interface:
I would recommend a tabbed interface to the crafting with 4 main tabs. The first being Schematics Second being Item Bases the third being Final Assembly and the last being Special Items
Schematics
The schematics tab would show the existing schematics, with hover windows over each for their costs and exp benefits. With those possible to create enabled and those with insufficient samples disabled. A create button. All in all no different than the existing schematic creation. As these are low tier items, no doff is required for creation.
Item Bases
The Item Bases tab has a drop down for tiers. Available are (III, V, VII, and IX) The window underneath has one Item Base that corresponds to each of the schematics, plus addition bases for those that are typed for example arrays come in type phaser, disruptor, ... antiproton. Because of the number of typed items, I would have each schematic be a drop down point expanded shows the sub items. The recipes and results change tier to tier, going to the appropriate sample group for each tier, and potentially increasing in sample number as they go up. Results are the generic item bases used for crafting the odd tiers. When a item is selected the bottom window shows the requirements, and odds of success failure and has a create button that is enabled if all required samples are present and the doff if required is selected and the experience requirement for making the item is met. If Doff is required, for tier V and above, then the right hand side of the tab will be the officer selection window from the doff mission screen, with suggested officers and a show all reserve button adding an officer will affect the success odds. The officer of the correct type may or may not be required for completion, with low tiers accepting any officer, and upper tiers having tighter restrictions. If officers are used the injuries apply to sick bay time for the officer assigned.
In addition to base items, special items (horta pets, shuttles, aegis) will be crafted on this tab, as they only require the data samples currently. If they are fleshed out to have additional requirements, then the base item for them will be constructed here, with the final items on the final assembly tab.
Final Assembly
The Final Assembly tab will be a significant change. In here you will have several areas to choose components to use. First area will be the item base drop location. A box that holds an item icon from the inventory. The rest of the locations will be disabled until an item base is chosen. Removing or replacing the base clears the rest of the fields. Once a base is in place the next areas open up, and the objects of the correct type or bonus modifiers become enabled in the inventory window. With no base placed, the inventory window will enable only base objects.
The next area contains a drop box for the modifiers. Appropriate modifiers for the item type, or the battery for the item type can be dropped in these three slots. The first slot enables if the base type is uncommon, the first and second slot for rare, and all three slots for very rare. The bottom of the screen shows the information on the results once all slots are filled with odds of success .
If a doff is required, above tier IV items, the right hand side has the reserve officer selection screen from the doff mission interface, and there is a slot to add an officer. Adding an officer changes the success chances based on the officer type/attributes. The officer of the correct type may or may not be required for completion, with low tiers accepting any officer, and upper tiers having tighter restrictions. If officers are used the injuries apply to sick bay time for the officer assigned.
Additional logic may be required on the modifiers to prevent stacking of modifiers that are not allowed to be contained more than once or twice. For example the [Turn] or [Aux] modifier on impulse engines. Only 1 would be allowed of each for any base type engine. In the future special modifiers such as [Borg] or [Recharge] may be made available (although I would recommend significant testing before these are brought out. These would also likely require stacking restrictions to prevent serious imbalance issues. Also as consoles are currently limited to MK X very rare, and MK XI rare. Logic will need to be added to prevent critical successes from exceeding these limits. In these cases a critical success will not raise the quality above maximum.
When all available slots are filled including the officer if required, and the player meets the crafting level requirement, then the create or start button is enabled to start the mission or create the item.
Deconstruction:
This tab has one drop box for item deconstruction. When this box is selected anything that can be deconstructed (non unique equipables, excluding things like electro plasma cannons, mission reward engines etc) from the inventory is enabled. Dropping one in the box will show the rewards with odds in the description below. An officer may be required above tier 4. The officer of the correct type may or may not be required for completion, with low tiers accepting any officer, and upper tiers having tighter restrictions. Mission times should be from 5 minutes (tier IV) 20 Minutes (tier XI). Officers may affect the success percentages (see Breakdown of Dropped Items above)
Component List:
Each item base has a list of Modifiers [CAP], [Reg] ,[AP] etc.. along with a battery type it can take. Due to the upcoming changes on the skill tree (and resulting changes of consoles and items) it's hard to try to list the modifiers possible. Again if there is interest I would be happy to assist coming up with a matrix of modifiers with their names. Items without modifiers.. specifically consoles.. will either use the generic modifier (Battery) with its associated penalties, or an item gotten from deconstructing other consoles for example all consoles could have a chance of yielding a Overload Concussive Detonation Feedback Assembly on deconstruction. With very rare consoles yielding up to 3 of them.
Due consideration can be given to later adding special modifiers obtainable in special ways. For example the borg modifier. For now I would recommend making all Borg gear un-deconstructable. The danger coming from stacking these modifiers or applying them on items with other unique effects. For now I would recommend making all unique effects outside the crafting system only.
Continued on Next post on thread.
Deconstruction will have an interesting long term effect on the economy. As one of the primary sources of energy credits through recycling, the overall EC supply will decrease as more items are deconstructed rather than recycled. The ability to modify very rare items by deconstructing them then re-building them with different bonus modifiers, will increase the overall market for rare items but decrease the enormous imbalance in price among the best items. No more 80 million EC for [acc]x3. This addresses some of the EC inflation that is occurring due to a lack of sinks on the economy by reducing the supply side EC. The dilithium value of the even tier (and XI tier) items will not be diluted by the crafting significantly. Values of current trash very rare items would increase as deconstruction fodder Already deconstructed base items would be worth around 1.5x-2x of these trash items given the deconstruction probabilities, but taking off for the risks on re-construction. The samples market would likely go down a fair bit, offset by the perhaps increase in popularity of the crafting system, given the flexibility it provides.
While it will be theoretically possible to craft a Very Rare MK X from samples alone... the path would be to create a rare MK IX item base... with a critical success taking it to a Very Rare MK IX base... then having a critical success bump the MK IX to a very rare MK X. It would not be possible to make MK XI very rare from samples alone, the base component would need to be received as a reward for an exploration mission, freighter, or aid mission, bought from a ferengi, traded for on the market, or deconstructed from an existing MK XI very rare or MK XI rare with a critical success combine. All of these being more difficult or expensive than farming traces, should cut down on the flood of available items. WITHOUT making dilithium absolutely mandatory for equipment. Since most very rare items in existence are bound you could also limit the influx on the market by not allowing deconstruction of bound items. However since they could only be deconstructed by the person that they are bound to, this may be a sufficient limit, as not everyone will have the per-requisite skill to deconstruct them.
As tier XII rares exist, and could theoretically be deconstructed, the possibility to create tier XII very rares does however exist in this model on a critical success for creating a rare MK XII from the deconstructed base. As it would be very difficult to accomplish, I would however suggest leaving it in but automatically binding these outcomes to give a definite advantage to crafting and the Doff system.
A knock on effect to be seen will be the rise in price of low tier items in the exchange as many existing high tier players turn to level up their crafting and find a need to get low tier samples and low tier items to deconstruct. This could provide a ready source of income for lower tier players new to the game, diluting off the current EC saturation.
The mission time for doffs will also add some limits on the mass production of items, however these limits would likely have little overall effect as the more limiting factors would be acquisition of the components and data samples.
Thank you kindly for your patients with this long post.
Cow.. could you elaborate just a tad? Specific problems?
Its better than what they are planning. have you read the official post #14?