Crafting System Retrospective [STAGE 1/4]

Started by Hollow_Mage, January 20, 2018, 04:55:49 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Hollow_Mage

Hi everybody. I just came back from a long, very long hiatus. I'm practically a different person by now!

But enough about me: this is about the CRAFTING SYSTEM!

Our most recent iteration of crafting was developed by a bunch of people, but primarily Johannes. That's why it was called Jcraft. Back when Skype was a thing, we talked about it for hours, and if that's just me (some peripheral side character of EfU's many stages) then he must have worn down the DM team's ears. It's clear he was excited when he came up with the ideas and got to implementing it. He also had me help out a teensy bit with non-script things (not to toot my own horn, but I've been a dialectic other since I was 3, I'm pretty good at it.)

The gist of it is this: 3-8 reagents go into a container. Each time you put in a new ingredient, it changes the result. You can switch between "Themes" by using the right ingredient, or occasionally set off oppourtunities to use a Spell Cast too. If you stop putting ingredients in, the script will look at what you made, figure out if it matches an item whose recipe is EXACTLY THAT, and then you roll your check.

The part I got to help with was a little bit of the writing. Some of the themes that were devised earliest on, I probably had a hand in writing 3-4 of them? I don't remember exactly. There were probably more than 40 themes, and they were all killing players. If you delved into alchemy and herbalism and explored as much as you could of it, then technically you read content with my writing in it and now that I realize this FEAR ME! FEAR ME MORTALS!

------------------------------

[BUT LIEUTENANT SUCKERPUNCH, WHY DO WE CARE? ALSO LEAVE]

Because I invested in Herbalism, and the mechanics of my perk-class are based thematically on Alchemy, and neither of those things make me feel genuinely safe!

Wait, no, that's why I care...

Because you're invested in the positive endings as much as you are in the negative ones, and it's always easier to destroy than it is to create! Although it really should be a challenge to rebuild or even stay alive in the face of an Abeir-Toril worth of adversity, I felt like the Crafting system made it feel more surmountable.

Therefore, I propose we bring back crafting in EfU!

------------------------------

[HOW?]

First we need to accept that it's gone, and that it's not coming back. (Somebody could be tinkering with it for an update but let's compromise and say it's in a coma)

Then we can remember all the good and challenging times that made JScript really interesting, useful, or effective at creating RPable moments for Other Players. Some sort of Retrospective thread, say this one that we're in right now.

Then we can start brainstorming wildly! We'll start a new thread to discuss two topics: What would be fun/interesting/balanced for players across the level-spectrum; How do we IMPROVE on the current Crafting system (Disabled) and the previous one (JScript)? This has been done before, but not recently.

Then we can vote on which elements of a Crafting system that we: Can do; Want to do; and Aren't veto'd by the DM team. In our third thread, we'll have a working design document for a new EfU scripted crafting system, with input and editing and realistic time-based goals.

Finally, the fourth thread will be a project management thread/document where anyone can track our progress and volunteer their time. Scripters, writers, artists, and playtesters would be valuable at every stage. By the end of the thread, we would have a package of scripts and/or conversations to send off to the DM team for the mysterious STAGE 5.

[STAGE 5 INFORMATION IS REDACTED: ACCESS IS RESTRICTED TO NRD-101 CLEARANCE OR HIGHER]

------------------------------

[NO. THIS IS GOING TO TAKE FOREVER. NOBODY IS GOING TO WANT TO PUT IN AN EFFORT. THERE'S TOO MUCH WORK TO DO.]

I'm going to make this incredibly easy for everyone who wants to get involved at any stage of the process: This first thread will last 1 week, and be replaced (not closed) on January 27th with the second thread. That will stay up for 2 weeks and then be replaced with the third thread. That will stay up as long as it needs to until the majority of recent comments are positive. Then the fourth thread will begin, with accompanying file and document hosting, Discord/Email/Forum PM organization, and active production/project management assistance from one or more bored, bored, bored people like me.

If we change what we can and accept what we can't, then we won't bite off more than we can chew.

------------------------------


OKAY TALK ABOUT DIRE WOLVES AND SPIKE GROWTH

Hollow_Mage

I could go out into the Crossroads and block off large sections of the path by using my infinite Herbalism table and a known failed recipe to constantly make spike growths that lasted for hours and hours in-game. I may have done this, but more important to the discussion, it was possible. hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Learning a reliable way to access a non-basic theme for under 20gp was one of my 5 favourite EfU memories of all time.

Nobody shared recipes with me. Confirm this if you can, but was there some sort of alchemical arms race between factions at one point?

There were a lot of junk items in addition to recipes that were automatic failures. On the other end, I believe you could make Time Stops.

Silvermoon_Dervish

It's a bit silly how alchemy can spawn dire wolves. This would imply alchemists have the power to create a very specific, very complex life form through accidental tinkering. IMO an amorphous blob of flesh would be better suited, if a horrifying animal bioform popping out of the witch's cauldron was to be expected.


Spike growth to me only makes sense if the alchemy is done on the outdoors.
Yip yip

Dredi

Indeed, as far as I understand a new crafting system is in the works already, but its just a very complex matter which will take some time.

Jus gotta be patient :)


Hollow_Mage

I remember a class from the old splat books that replaced spells-per-day with Tinkering. Essentially, your known spells and spells-per-day could be assigned to tinkered items that you'd carry around. It kinda worked like Arcane Mimic without the stealing.

So it would be interesting to have Tinkering modify a base item rather than create brand new ones, but that's just me.