Make crafting open, so you can craft anything from Romulan Ale to whatever.
Example:
1.) What do want to craft? Tier 1 Item "A"
- The item must start out a white item (Uncrafted)
(On a side note you should be able to uncraft anything at a ?# Credit Value)
- Should be able to craft anything at any tier.
- You can only craft up to the rank you are at.
(Commanders can only craft tiers 1-3)
- You can only craft higher tiers items after you have meet the minimum requirements for the lower tier.
(Commanders can not craft tier 3 items until they have crafted minimum requirements from tiers 1 and 2.)
2.) What availability would you like? Very Rare
- Should be able to craft anything, anywhere from Uncommon to Very Rare.
- Uncommon to Very Rare crafting should be open to all tiers, as long as you have the right anomalies.
3.) What abilities would you like to add? Ability "A" and Ability "C"
- How many abilities you can add should be tied to the tier of that item and what type it is.
(Example: Ship Consoles, Ground Weapons, and etc. all have different amount of abilities that can be added.)
4.) What willl this crafting cost? Tier 1 item "A" + Very Rare + Ability A + Ability C. Cost = ?# Anomaly "A", ?# Anomaly "B" , ?# Anomaly C, and ?# Anomaly "D".
This would allow players to be able to craft anything they want any way they wanted to.
This has been mentioned a few times before. It would be a great crafting system, but I doubt their engine could handle creating any item with any ability (more specifically the item you're trying to create has to be in their item database somewhere, so they would need to preload every single possible variant of equipment in the crafting table before such a thing could be possible, which seems unlikely). I haven't tried the new MA system but really I'm hoping some better items are added soon. Any game where crafted items can't compete with easily purchased items usually means no crafters...and believe me STO is hardly the first to do this.
(more specifically the item you're trying to create has to be in their item database somewhere, so they would need to preload every single possible variant of equipment in the crafting table before such a thing could be possible, which seems unlikely).
I highly doubt that this is the case. You'd have to be an absolute beginner to design a DB this way. The items in game now imply that each item begins with a base item with a variable number of special bonuses drawn from a bonus table, and the number of bonuses imply rarity level.
I highly doubt that this is the case. You'd have to be an absolute beginner to design a DB this way. The items in game now imply that each item begins with a base item with a variable number of special bonuses drawn from a bonus table, and the number of bonuses imply rarity level.
I might agree with you if they were using SQL or Oracle, but Coderanger has mentioned that they have their own database on the backend, which implies to me a less normalized environment like Google's Bigtable. DB design choices aside, each unique key, whether that key is the ID of the item or a composite of the item key and its bonuses, would need a corresponding entry in the crafting table with number of components, level available, etc. That's no small task, even if there's a separate bonuses table (not to mention it would require updating the crafting table every time a new item was introduced unless you went all the way back to revamping the entire items table / database to integrate directly with crafting).
That said, I can see this being accomplished on a smaller scale without sacrificing a DBA somewhere; for example creating items similar to what's available in Gamma Orionus for lower tiers through crafting, and in time it definitely should. Now that their crafting system is more flexible, the next step is to make it desirable by having items that are at least on par with what you can loot or buy with marks.
Comments
I highly doubt that this is the case. You'd have to be an absolute beginner to design a DB this way. The items in game now imply that each item begins with a base item with a variable number of special bonuses drawn from a bonus table, and the number of bonuses imply rarity level.
That said, I can see this being accomplished on a smaller scale without sacrificing a DBA somewhere; for example creating items similar to what's available in Gamma Orionus for lower tiers through crafting, and in time it definitely should. Now that their crafting system is more flexible, the next step is to make it desirable by having items that are at least on par with what you can loot or buy with marks.
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=157460