Crafting Revamp

imadoctornota

Crafting is something that has become (or mostly been) a meaningless part of the game. And when you do craft something, it tends to feel something more like buying an item (and paying way too much, not to mention getting something that isn't the greatest to begin with). There's been talk of a crafting reputation, but, since rep unlocks at level 50, the blandness of the crafting system still needs to be reworked. We need to be able to make what we want and have it look how we want I say!

This idea is in it's infancy, but see what you think for starters:

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Crafting1.png?t=1371709912

After placing an item in the "workbench," visual options display above
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Crafting2.png?t=1371709947

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Acc.png?t=1371709880
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/CritD.png
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/CrtH.png?t=1371710103

Placing 20 samples on any of the first boxes of Tech/Physical/Energy will work for this one
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Dmg.png?t=1371710169

These Bonuses may not be duplicated on the same item
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Kb.png?t=1371710220
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/DoT.png?t=1371710201
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/CritX.png

The Kb and DoT bonuses vary based on item as follows (as per the way it is in game):
Mk I-III = 1
Mk IV-VII = 2
Mk VIII+ = 3

This is what it looks like when you merge various abilities together:
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/AccDmg.png?t=1371709807
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/CritHx2.png?t=1371710036

And some very rares:
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Accx3.png?t=1371709864
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/CritDDmgx2.png?t=1371709982
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/DmgCritDAcc.png?t=1371710124

You can also take an uncommon or rare item and add 1 or 2 (respectively) bonuses to it, as in this example of adding a [Dmg]x2 to this uncommon disruptor pistol with [Acc]:
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Acc-Dmgx2.png?t=1371710551

Now for a little more detail on the explanations. I had to start with the eye candy! (lol actually the pics could be better, but it's just to show the basics)

You can place a schematic or any upgradable item of Common, Uncommon or Rare quality on the workbench.

If you use an item, you must use the corresponding data sample to its 'Mk' level (below) If you use a schematic, the Mk of the item depends on the data samples you use:

Tech/Physical/Energy
Mk II: Alien Artifact/Mineral Sample/Radiation Sample
Mk IV: Unknown Alloy/Biological Sample/Antimatter Sample
Mk VI: Encoded Data/Plasma Sample/Tetryon Particle
Mk VIII: Genetic Sequencer/DNA Sequence/Methogenic Particle
Mk X: Photonic Technology/Exobiological Data/Tachyon Wave Signature
Mk XI: Technical Schematic/Unidentified Substance/Chronometric Wave Signature

Note: You can add modifiers to existing common, uncommon or rare Mk I, III, V, VII, and IX items by using the samples corresponding to the closest Mk rounded up.

Mk XII Items: Mk XII items use the same samples as Mk XI and can be crafted in a few ways:
1) By using an existing common/uncommon/rare Mk XII item.
2) By "upgrading" the mark of a Mk XI or lower item (see below).
Note: It is possible that the possible "Crafting Reputation" could be the way that Mk XII items are crafted. If that is the case, they should certainly be Bind on Pickup! What's the point in crafting if you're only going to do it for the handful of items you need? You gotta be able to sell that stuff!!

Upgrading:
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Ugrade2.png?t=1371745389

You can upgrade 2 Mk's at once this way:
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee129/PatonPaWic/Ugrade1.png?t=1371745425

Design Note: The above does not include any usefulness to the variety of rare particle traces (they are all essentially regulated to a single type), but I've been thinking about some sort of crafting recipes that could be collected to make the varying types stand apart, though I don't know that it'd work too well with the current outlined system. In any case, the varying types have useful differences in the duty officer system.

imadoctornota

Any questions or comments?

o1derfull1

You obviously put a lot of attention and effort into that, and it seems well thought out. Obviously there are some tweaks that would need to be made for balance, and leveling. Overall, however, I like your idea of being able to to upgrade lower marks and/or lower rareity via crafting. Though being able to upgrade a rare XI -> XII should be ridiculously expensive.

brian334

Custom items which can be as good as you get with the various marks would be nice crafting options, but what I'd like to see is simply the ability to choose which properties I add to my items.

For example, I want to create/upgrade a shield. I could choose [Capx2] and [Reg] or some other combination not found in the default drops. This would give me a reason to go a-crafting.

I'd also advocate a doubling or tripling of cost when stacking the same ability. So in my above example, while the [Reg] would come at normal cost, the [Capx2] would cost normal price plus normal price x2 for the second level of cap, and if I wanted a [Capx3] I would have to pay normal price plus normal price x2 plus normal price x4.

Also: prepping an item for a single power shouldn't be as expensive as prepping it for three. I would advocate that a schematic come with four possible costs to convert to an item. The first cost would be to craft the item, the second to craft it with an upgrade slot, the third to craft with two slots, and the fourth to have three slots available. As before, creating more slots would double or triple the cost for each successive slot.

Upgrading an existing item should be done along similar lines, so if you have an [Accx2] beam and you want to add [CritD] you have to pay the cost to create the third slot then pay for the [CritD].

The developers could set it so some enhancements do not stack, or do not stack more than once, such as if they do not want us flying around with [Capx3] shields, for example.

I would also recommend that set items such as the JemHadar Assault Rifle cannot be upgraded. These are, to my way of thinking, the property of the various authors who created them. I would extend this to certain specialty items such as the Tal Shiar Exoskeleton Armor or the Psionic Shield.

The cost to remove a property should be the same as the cost to add it, so if you have a [Capx3] shield and wish to remove one level of [Cap] to replace with [Reg] you essentially pay double the normal cost for a third slot property.

Custom Sets could also be available if the available set bonuses increase the cost of the item and force the crafting of a second, third, or fourth item. Let us assume you purchase a Set bonus for your item. For that bonus to apply in game you will have to have it on all appropriate items at a cost in addition to what the item itself cost, and this should be based on the cost of the completed item, so an Uncommon Set, (each item in the set has one power,) would be far cheaper, and offer much less to the player, than a Rare one.

With this system I could create a set I'll call 'Andorian Personal Combat Set' as a Two Piece Custom Set.
First Set Item: Andorian Personal Combat Armor [RegHP] [Dis] [Pla] [Sweeping Strikes II Set Bonus 2pc]
Second Set Item: Andorian Personal Combat Shield [Reg] [Cap] [Res] [Sweeping Strikes II Set Bonus 2pc]

Having both items equipped would unlock the ability to use the Sweeping Strikes II power.

It could be exploitable in the sense that if I find or craft another item with the [Sweeping Strikes II] attribute, say an Andorian Dagger, I could use it with either of the previous two items, but would have to re-craft the items to use them as a three piece set at essentially twice the cost of the two-piece set.

There will be certain powers that the Devs want to limit, of course, so these may not be available to the crafters, or they may be Bind on Pickup so that a player may craft one for himself but not sell or trade it.

The current Crafting System is basically useless, (except possibly for the Aegis Set, but that is also debatable.) DOff assignments and drops can give you for free anything else you can craft. For example, I leveled my Klink in crafting specifically because I wanted to load my ship with Harg'peng torpedoes. I spent a great deal of samples and dilithium getting to level 50 so I could craft the torps. The very next update saw the implementation of an Engineering DOff assignment which allowed me to build all the harg'peng launchers I wanted for free!!! Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.

The Exchange is a cheaper and less time consuming alternative to Memory Alpha. Without a revamp, crafting will never be much more than a waste of resources better used for additional content. The current system should be scrapped and replaced with something more useful, or at least something more customizable.

johnny111971

I really like your idea here... gets a solid +1 for me.

I do think that in addition to the above... it should take time to level to each Mk level. The idea was there, but insanely easy to do in its current form.

Perhaps throw some hard to find schematics / bound items into the mix for truely expectional upgrades.

delph1s

The crafting system needs something Unique, beyond the Aegis set it has.

Like being able to craft up to 4x modifiers or special vanity modifiers, though i dont have any ideas for such a thing at the moment.

To make it exceptionally difficult to make a 4 times modifier is obviously required, like give it a chance to fail (will likely cause too much anger, but its logical for something that shouldn't really be modified by this much) or the grindy way that includes mining data samples.

Frankly i think data samples should only be for creating the modifiers, while you have to mine for actual resources like decalithium and such, i never knew why it wasn't the case, but it really should be.

This needs far more depth, i think anyone can see that.

atticusmas

I love every part of it.

rathelm

Crafting would be fine if it didn't have such a high dilithium cost. You could spend 20K dilithium on a crafted item or you could spend 15K dilithium on a rep item. The rep item is cheaper and better due to power creep. They need to add the specializations and then have items that can be crafted that are better than drops. Finally add drops to the elite STFs that are crafting materials that are needed for these better items. The crafting materials should be made tradable.

defalus

Nice concepts, but this is Cryptic. Design or make a concept for a crafting system that the higher level item you make, the higher the odds you will fail in upgrading and items will be lost. Chance means more repetition means adding crafting kits to c-store to "boost odds of success".

imadoctornota

o1derfull1 wrote: »

I like your idea of being able to to upgrade lower marks and/or lower rareity via crafting. Though being able to upgrade a rare XI -> XII should be ridiculously expensive.

I agree, it shouldn't be cheap. I put in some numbers and such, but really just to show the gist of it. The actual costs would have to be hammered out.

imadoctornota

defalus wrote: »

Nice concepts, but this is Cryptic. Design or make a concept for a crafting system that the higher level item you make, the higher the odds you will fail in upgrading and items will be lost. Chance means more repetition means adding crafting kits to c-store to "boost odds of success".

This idea doesn't attach to the doff system at all. There is no potential of failure. Crafting systems shouldn't have that IMO.

defalus

imadoctornota wrote: »

This idea doesn't attach to the doff system at all. There is no potential of failure. Crafting systems shouldn't have that IMO.

Cryptic already have chance as part of gear upgrades/crafting in their other games, I can easily seen them adding it here too when they eventually get around to the crafting update.