Sorry for the long post... but I was thinking::eek:
The purpose of my post is to provide some of my ideas for end game content, implement some advance crafting, and start allowing the players to differentiate between their setups and others. Tried to wrap this into a model that would not (hopefully) lead to massive redesign and therefore be a bit easier to implement.
Let's start with crafting. The thought would be to implement the ability to craft your Purple X mark gear and add 1 trait to each item. This could be anywhere from bumping the Crit a bit, increasing the shield bleed through, adding a bit of DoT, adding a +point to (WEP/Eng/Sh/Aux) for an engine, etc. Since the crafter gets to pick this, you have some diversity in weapon design. To make this work NONE of these items could be found in drops or purchased, they could ONLY be crafted. I'd even consider bind on pickup so they could not be placed on the exchange.
Next, to craft them, you need new unique items that are added as rewards for completing missions. These new items are not unlocked as drops until RA5.... and they do not always drop. So, if you do the big dig again on normal setting you have say a 33% chance of one of the new items being rewarded. Advanced, 66% change, Elite 99%. They should not be only available on fleet actions, but also on replay of other missions would be banded for RA level. You could even put them in "explore the TRIBBLE cluster mission" but I'd suggest a lower percentage of drop chance. say 5%, 10%, 15%. Band this to the level of explore so
that if it is Btran, you get the normal chance, but a "captain" (I forget the name) explore it would take the odds and divide them by 50% (i.e. captain: 2.5-5-7.5, Commander 1.25-2.5-3.75, Lt Comm .625- 1.25 - 1.875) Hey, if your RA5 and doing explores for a Lt Comm you should have to do ALOT of them to get rewarded....
Finally when crafting these items, provide levels of things you can craft, the better...the more of the unique items required. So if you want to add +5 to the better the of all four (WEP/Eng/Sh/Aux) abilities then you would have to have MANY drops. I'd recommend requiring up to 100 hours of play for the real high end boost to the item.This would give end game players new drive (if they wanted better purples) and encourage replay of missions thereby providing larger endgame content. In addition, by using existing purple gear your not adding another level of stuff so it should be easier to program... we have already seen that it is not a big deal to add new items for drops.
i think bonuses like the "anti borg" proc should be a craftable venture myself. A notion that expand to encompass a variety of such procs to make equipment more variable and give the end game crafting and endless supply of ideas.
Other bonuses for example could be:
- 2 x proc chance (for whatever type you do it)
- hybrid weapon (add another proc with a much smaller chance of occuring)
- efficient engines MKV +
- reduced bleedthrough shield enhancements
- ablative armor modules (same as batteries but will act as buffer hull armor?)
i think bonuses like the "anti borg" proc should be a craftable venture myself. A notion that expand to encompass a variety of such procs to make equipment more variable and give the end game crafting and endless supply of ideas.
Other bonuses for example could be:
- 2 x proc chance (for whatever type you do it)
- hybrid weapon (add another proc with a much smaller chance of occuring)
- efficient engines MKV +
- reduced bleedthrough shield enhancements
- ablative armor modules (same as batteries but will act as buffer hull armor?)
Some ideas to the mix :P
Good ideas, Darren has a thread with all kind of proposal setups for adding to the Crafting with similar ideals, Lets hope we can get this going.
OP some pretty good ideals also, I bet we might be seeing these kind of things in season 2.
Agreed. Crafting needs unique items, and the flexibility to choose different ways to upgrade base items would be a great way to add some flavor to the experience.
That already is part of the mechanics. Resilient shields.
They are unlikely to allow anyone with a covariant shield to get a reduction in bleedthrough since it negates an entire shield type. So if that's what you're looking to do, that is not really a very viable suggestion. If you're looking to get more resilient shield recipes, that's a different story. But yeah, they're not going to let you slap bleedthrough properties of resilient shields onto covariant shields, completely destroying the whole point of both (and why they have drawbacks).
Bleedthrough resistance from Reslient means less overall capacity.
Covariant means lower regen, higher maximum capacity.
That already is part of the mechanics. Resilient shields.
They are unlikely to allow anyone with a covariant shield to get a reduction in bleedthrough since it negates an entire shield type. So if that's what you're looking to do, that is not really a very viable suggestion. If you're looking to get more resilient shield recipes, that's a different story. But yeah, they're not going to let you slap bleedthrough properties of resilient shields onto covariant shields, completely destroying the whole point of both (and why they have drawbacks).
Bleedthrough resistance from Reslient means less overall capacity.
Covariant means lower regen, higher maximum capacity.
Obviously some oversight into balance still needs to take place on Cryptic's end, but they've left a lot of room for gear to be improved without causing balance issues. A LOT of room.
Critical to the success of it is to make the items you craft available nowhere else.
Why would I work hard to make something I can buy for 40,000 EC's?
the reason for "Crafting" is to not need all those EC's. I love the crafting because it has "Broken the Back" of the scalpers who would buy equipment on the exchange only to relisted for major league EC's.
If you are complaining that the prices are too cheap, I'd love to sell you some stuff at inflated prices. Now, with the changes:
"WHites" are purchased with EC's
"Greens" are purchased with badges (Exploration or PvP)
"Blues" are crafted from whites with Samples
"Purples" are Drops (unless your RA, when you get them with Medals)
Everything is on the exchange
Why are the sample scalpers making money? Because people are too lazy to get their own samples... so it's their own fault if they get scalped. The system now works.
Unique Items? The blues on Memory Alpha are close to that. Crafting other items? Balance issues come to mind. If you look at the weapons you are crafting MK VI Plasma, MK VIII tetryon, and mk X Polaron. This is a balance to the levels at which skills are applied to weapons: Phaser/Disruptor at MK VI, Plasma/Tetryon at mk VIII, and Polaron/Antiproton at Mk X. If you could craft blue phasers EVERYONE would be using phasers at Cmr, especially with the new respec feature. It would destroy the balance.
Comments
Other bonuses for example could be:
- 2 x proc chance (for whatever type you do it)
- hybrid weapon (add another proc with a much smaller chance of occuring)
- efficient engines MKV +
- reduced bleedthrough shield enhancements
- ablative armor modules (same as batteries but will act as buffer hull armor?)
Some ideas to the mix :P
Good ideas, Darren has a thread with all kind of proposal setups for adding to the Crafting with similar ideals, Lets hope we can get this going.
OP some pretty good ideals also, I bet we might be seeing these kind of things in season 2.
Why would I work hard to make something I can buy for 40,000 EC's?
That already is part of the mechanics. Resilient shields.
They are unlikely to allow anyone with a covariant shield to get a reduction in bleedthrough since it negates an entire shield type. So if that's what you're looking to do, that is not really a very viable suggestion. If you're looking to get more resilient shield recipes, that's a different story. But yeah, they're not going to let you slap bleedthrough properties of resilient shields onto covariant shields, completely destroying the whole point of both (and why they have drawbacks).
Bleedthrough resistance from Reslient means less overall capacity.
Covariant means lower regen, higher maximum capacity.
Most crafted items above the base ones are blues. I rarely see blues (even at Lt.Cmdr.) that cheaply.
Unless they're the items dumped on the market by crafters!
Thats the point you can't but them (if you read the whole post)
You have to work to get the mats to craft them.
the reason for "Crafting" is to not need all those EC's. I love the crafting because it has "Broken the Back" of the scalpers who would buy equipment on the exchange only to relisted for major league EC's.
If you are complaining that the prices are too cheap, I'd love to sell you some stuff at inflated prices. Now, with the changes:
"WHites" are purchased with EC's
"Greens" are purchased with badges (Exploration or PvP)
"Blues" are crafted from whites with Samples
"Purples" are Drops (unless your RA, when you get them with Medals)
Everything is on the exchange
Why are the sample scalpers making money? Because people are too lazy to get their own samples... so it's their own fault if they get scalped. The system now works.
Unique Items? The blues on Memory Alpha are close to that. Crafting other items? Balance issues come to mind. If you look at the weapons you are crafting MK VI Plasma, MK VIII tetryon, and mk X Polaron. This is a balance to the levels at which skills are applied to weapons: Phaser/Disruptor at MK VI, Plasma/Tetryon at mk VIII, and Polaron/Antiproton at Mk X. If you could craft blue phasers EVERYONE would be using phasers at Cmr, especially with the new respec feature. It would destroy the balance.