Crafting ideas
Reforging has been trumped by Legendary Artifacts. These drops are completely random though and sometimes leave the owner wanting different properties.
What if we added in a couple of items, such as the whetstone of enervation that will add and remove properties from items?
For example:
An item that, when used on a piece of armor, has a chance to remove a property. Maybe do it like refinements where you can select what you want to remove and there's a chance based on your Blacksmithing or Tailoring level (whatever is applicable)
Another item that will add a property, if there is room, with chances to be the property the owner wants to be based on their skill level again. Maybe if they are 50 Blacksmithing and they use the item and want to add Intelligence, it'll add 5 whereas if they had 120 Blacksmithing it would add 8.
This would give crafters a little more excitement with chances to craft gear tailored to what they want. You could add chances to fail and succeed, chances for intensities, maybe rare chances to add something unique like HCI.
The items could be obtainable in the same fashion the whetstones of enervation are. Maybe even have a cooldown on usage.
It's whatever you want it to be I would just like the idea of chance-based item customization. There's room to be as strict as you want to be with how the item is used.
Even if I had just a small chance to remove Stamina Regeneration and add Mana Regeneration to an item, this would make a lot of players buy new gear they weren't interested in the past knowing they have the possibility to alter it into something they can use.
PLEASE POST YOUR REASON WHETHER YOU LIKE THE IDEA OR NOT
What if we added in a couple of items, such as the whetstone of enervation that will add and remove properties from items?
For example:
An item that, when used on a piece of armor, has a chance to remove a property. Maybe do it like refinements where you can select what you want to remove and there's a chance based on your Blacksmithing or Tailoring level (whatever is applicable)
Another item that will add a property, if there is room, with chances to be the property the owner wants to be based on their skill level again. Maybe if they are 50 Blacksmithing and they use the item and want to add Intelligence, it'll add 5 whereas if they had 120 Blacksmithing it would add 8.
This would give crafters a little more excitement with chances to craft gear tailored to what they want. You could add chances to fail and succeed, chances for intensities, maybe rare chances to add something unique like HCI.
The items could be obtainable in the same fashion the whetstones of enervation are. Maybe even have a cooldown on usage.
It's whatever you want it to be I would just like the idea of chance-based item customization. There's room to be as strict as you want to be with how the item is used.
Even if I had just a small chance to remove Stamina Regeneration and add Mana Regeneration to an item, this would make a lot of players buy new gear they weren't interested in the past knowing they have the possibility to alter it into something they can use.
PLEASE POST YOUR REASON WHETHER YOU LIKE THE IDEA OR NOT
- Yay?10 votes
- Yay!50.00%
- Nay!50.00%
"everything looks stupid" UO feedback 2024
Comments
Imbuing also needs SSI added for jewels. Let us craft up to major artifact level at 120 skill. This would allow for optimization to more advanced characters and allow less advanced to better compete. Legendaries would still be the high end gear.
You've added nothing to the conversation, no insight, not even an opinion, just a comment to insinuate that this thread isn't worth reading. Nothing you've said adds any value to the thread.
Trolling without moderation is pretty much what I've come to expect from both official and non-official (Stratics) forums.
While I'd like to see perhaps the high end runics have some use added to actually using them for crafting again, realistically that's tough because this would just empower the scripters to run crafting scripts 24/7 for the runics to monopolize the market.
I think the thing that would most help crafted items get closer to legendary (but still keep the divide) would be to bump up total property weight on exceptional items by 50pts or so. This would allow a little more modded weight without going overboard. That said, things like splinter/SSI should remain as they are as they some of the most sought out properties that people should have to work for (like they do now).
- Adding items that remove and add a property from a piece of armor/weapon
- Adding properties to be imbueable that weren't imbueable before
Neither of those suggestions deals with item weight, meaning hunting mobs would still be the only place to obtain legendaries. My original suggestion was to be able to alter legendaries, in which case the method of obtaining legendaries would not change.
Unless there's something I missed, can you give an example where any of the suggestions in this thread would make crafting "on par/better than obtaining legendaries"?
There are already people who script killing mobs. Absolutely anything added to this game can and will be scripted. That shouldn't prevent us from getting new features added to the game.
Couple things here... I don't really have an opinion on imbuing SSI/Splinter, I'm leaning towards that should be something that drops off mobs and not imbueable just to keep things a little unique so I agree with you there. I'm not against increasing weight for imbueing either.
I'm more for loot customization with a reasonable cost.
would bring crafted items CLOSE to Legendary artifacts, making crafting viable again, while keeping Legendaries at the "top"!
I think this would be an excellent solution. @Bleak @Kyronix
What would be the point of working and spending time on crafting if then, a Crafted item could never EVER, by Design, be able to match a Looted item ?
People tend to get the best item they can use, not to settle on average ones...
Having a Crafting limited in the quality of items which people can craft as compared to items which people can loot, would simply mean people disregarding Crafting althougether (as it happens now saved a few, much limited exceptions like the Crafting of Weapons and 190 Luck pieces) and thus make Crafters pretty much unplayable...
My stance on crafting is instead different.
I am of the opinion to make Crafted items be at the very least on par with looted items BUT, make the crafting process one that is work and time intensive, CANNOT BE SCRIPTED, and one which would actually take a player to sit at the keyboard and spend their time in the game Crafting, and not doing anything else....
This way, if Crafting was not possible to be scripted, and it was a complex process to Learn and Master, and time consuming, chances are that a lot of people would not want to get into it and would, instead, ask for the services of knowledged and experienced Crafters who could then sell their wares in the game once again....
Also, by making the Crafting process a complex one, time consuming to Learn and to Master, and also time consuming to actually make items in Ultima Online, if not scriptable, players would simply leave crafting entirely to those other players willing to actually PLAY a Crafter in Ultima Online and, thus, we would no longer see MULES in Ultima Online, that is, Crafting Templates only used to support one's own needs in game... Crafting would again become a Template that players were to play as their MAIN, and not as a "Mule" character merely to support the needs of their Fighting characters...
THIS, is what I'd like to see in Ultima Online, my hope is that the Developers, @Bleak, @Kyronix , will make an effort to make Crafting in Ultima Online make a come back as it once was, many Years ago, when crafting was actually a MAIN playing profession, and not simply a "Mule" character to have and play aside of one's own Fighter....
Why would people want to settle for "lesser" crafted items if they can get and use better Legendaries items instead ?
Maintaining looted items as better to crafted items would keep Crafting to remain to languish as it is now, to my opinion.
No, I am convinced that the only one way to make Crafting make a come back in Ultima Online, is to permit Crafted items to be at least on par with Looted items because players tend, understandably, to go for their BEST option, not for lesser ones....
Of course, then, in order to not have all items be always crafted, THEN the entire Crafting process should be made hard and time consuming enough so that most players would not want to bother with it thus leaving it only to those players willing to spend their in game time entirely or mostly on it....
If there is one thing that I always hated and that I think killed crafting in Ultima Online, is Crafters being used as "Mules" and, thus, not played as "Main" characters but only to support one's own Fighting Characters needs....
This has made people self sufficient and no longer needing to resort onto other players for their crafting needs. Crafters would not sell anything to others as a consequence...
If, instead, Crafting was made a complex and difficult process to learn and really Master (at least to make the really good, high end stuff), NOT SCRIPTABLE, and time consuming so that players would actually need to spend their time in game at their keyboard, doing crafting and not else, chances are that most players would not want to bother with it and, THUS, they would resort to other players willing to play a Crafter as their Main character in Ultima Online, for their Services...
THIS, I think, would make Crafting make that come back in Ultima Online which it deserves.... to make Crafting once again what it was in the early Ultima Online....
To my mind the main difference between crafted items and loot is 'control'. Many of my characters wear mixed suits of looted and imbued armour, because with imbuing I have the control to fill in the gaps. Both my sword fighter and my archer use totally crafted weapons, because I have the control over what properties I put on them.
The idea of more items like whetstones to give an element of control over properties on looted items interests me, with the usual symbiosis of characters in UO I would make them obtained by hunters but only able to be applied by crafters. We can remove damage increase from weapons, but I despair of how many jewels have both damage increase and spell damage increase on them I want one or the other, but never both. I would like to be able to remove one.
I play both crafters and warriors in UO, depending entirely on my mood. But my crafters are not 'mules'. @popps you miss the point. Yes the crafters support the warriors, but in turn the warriors support the crafters by obtaining resources for them.
Your "crafting" idea is basically the addition and removal of mage armor by npc's except you want to pick and choose whatever you'd like, in my opinion because you may not know how to manipulate this with reforging.
You want splintering to be a reforge option. Why? Gating good splinters as a rare find prevents pvp from turning into a further hell hole. Id get a laugh out of flooding the market with cheap infinitely repairable god splinter weapons and reading the fallout here. Might as well make bonebreaker imbuable too.
Get off the high horse, go read any of the other crafting idea threads for my opinion on a balanced way to improve the crafting system before starting yet another.
@sibble - As mentioned by another person, you didn't really give crafting ideas as the thread name (crafting ideas) suggest. I was disagreeing with the refinement idea for properties on legendary items (as this is altering and not really crafting) because as I mentioned to popps, the end result of this change shouldn't be to make almost any piece "God mode" (things would become very boring at that point)... we play the game and the proper content to acquire those elite legendaries and that should remain the same.
That said, my suggestion about my crafting idea would be that when using something like a valorite runic hammer to make an item (ie a blacksmith uses it for 1 charge to CRAFT a weapon) the mods that would randomly be added (as they are now) would follow similar logic to how the legendary items are spawned with a combination of mods that share the same synergy (ie Mana leech / stam leech / life leech together) while also using an appropriate property weight (ie valorite would allow property weight to be slightly over cap).
My second suggestion was to just slightly increase the max weight (around 50 points) to give slightly more weights but nothing crazy (like someone said add 2 more properties and 200 more weight). This would allow a slight bump and allow people to craft things (and reforge/imbue) for a target specific item while also not overpowering things to the point of making legendary items trash.
And this "self-sufficiency" does kill Crafting because the reason for a Crafter to exist is to make things and sell them....
But if Crafting is made easy, chances are that any and all Fighters would have their own Crafter and make things for their Fighters so, if I may ask, to whom would then those players willing to make Crafting as their MAIN playing style, be able to sell their wares, when the rest of players will have their own "Mules" to use to support their Fighters' needs ?
They would simply not have a market to jiustify their effort in Crafting as a Main playing style.
Sorry, but while you are talking about "patching up" Crafting with some small changes here and some small changes there, I am talking about something entirely different....
I am talking about making Crafting in Ultima Online great again, a reason for players to only or mostly play a Crafter because their work will be unique, wanted by other players who will not want to make Crafters because too hard, too complex or too time consuming and would thus resort to the hired services of Crafters for their Fighters' needs and not simply develop a Crafter of their own to use as a "mule" to their Fighter....
That is at least how I see it.
Making a piece comparable to Legendary quality would need to be a complex, laborious and time consuming process which would deter the "casual Crafter" from even wanting to attempt doing it and would ensure work and a market to those players who really want to mainly play a Crafter in Ultima Online, NOT a Fighter....
As in regards to crafted Legendary items being common, what about "Looted" Legendary items ?
Just log on Atlantic, type in the word "Legendary" in Vendor Search and see how many there are...
And those, are ONLY the ones showing up for sale, multiply by hundreds of folds for those which players have in their secure containers or Bank Boxes and one might have a rough idea whether "looted" Legendaries might or not be ALREADY much common....
And Crafting, especially if made a complex, laborious (i.e. requiring study and mind work to be mastered) and time consuming process would make them common ?
Excuse me ?
That you like "Fighting" as a way to acquire those elite Legendary pieces does not mean that all players might like fighting....
There is plenty of players who play Ultima Online for fishing, gardening, decorating their Homes AND for Crafting among other things which have nothing to do at all with Fighting.
Why shouldn't then Crafters be able to make Legendary quality items WITHOUT having to engage into fighting if Figting is NOT what they enjoy or like for their playing ?
Unless Crafters are allowed to make HIGH END quality items, comparable to legendary items that spawn as loot, how would they EVER be able to play Crafting as a really viable profession in Ultima Online ?
Why would players want to buy from crafters SUB-PAR items as compared to "looted" Legendary quality items when they can use Legendary Quality items that they get as loot from Fighting ?
And if Crafters cannot sell their items because they are CAPPED by Design for the items which they can craft to be of a lower quality as compared to items which can be found as loot, may I ask HOW would then Crafters be supposed to sell anything in Ultima Online and thus play Crafting as a really viable MAIN profession ?
That is why Crafting is now unplayable..... because Looted items have been made way more preferable then Crafted items....
If we want Crafting to make that come back which it deserves in Ultima Online, the ONLY way, to my opinion, is to permit to Crafters to be able to create Legendary Quality items.
Of course, in order then not to have the market be flooded by them, in conjunction to this, the Crafting process should then be made an elitarian one which only a few players would want to get into....
That is why I am saying that Crafting needs to be made a difficult, complex, time consuming and laborious process, NOT SCRIPTABLE.
In such a way, only those players REALLY motivated to play a Crafter in Ultima Online as their MAIN character would do it (they would have hardly any in game time left to be able to play a Fighter if they wanted to get into serious, high end quality, serious Crafting...), thus, severely reducing the amount of crafted High End Legendary quality items being created by players.
Most players finding Crafting too complex, too hard to learn, study and master and too time consuming would simply go Fight and get their Legendaries from Fighting OR buy them from those few players who took the effort, dedication and time to Master high end crafting to make them.....
Anything else, to my opinion, would NOT bring Crafting back as a serious and MAIN occupational activity in Ultima Online but would keep, to my opinion, Crafting being relegated to the role of a Mules' activity merely in support to one's own Fighters' needs.
It would not permit to players to play a Crafter as a MAIN playing style which, a game of the vastity of Ultima Online should, to my viewing, especially considering how in the early Ultima Online this WAS the case, with Crafting being a MAIN occupation and viable Profession alternate to Fighting and were Crafters were, for the most part NOT mules to Fighters but a real, MAIN Profession standing on its own.
That is what I would like to see again in Ultima Online for Crafting, a REAL come back as a MAIN, full time occupational playing style.
At least, that is how I see it.
It would be unfair and a bit overpowered to be able to use an item to remove exactly what property you want and another item to add exactly what you want.
Why not make it a dice roll?
Here's the idea...
@Bleak @Kyronix
You use an item that removes 1 property on a piece of armor and choose to select Lower Reagent Cost. There's a roll based on how strong the item is you used, how intense the armor is you used it on and RNG. If you win you get the property removed that you wanted. If you lose it either fails to remove anything, or worse, removes something you wanted. Maybe even a really low chance to break the item.
Then the item to add a random property, not allowing more properties than the highest legendary and but intensity can be anything depending on the roll, again same as above.
People would gobble up all the extra equipment sitting in vendor searches for months, years even. They'd try and alter it to their liking, sometimes being successful, sometimes failing. In the end, they'll spend time on obtaining these items and they'll spend gold on armor and weapons to use it on.
EDIT: Another nice side-effect would be decreasing the wares on the vendor searches due to more people buying and attempting to alter.
For example, valorite runic hammer to reforge clean +10 SSI to jewels or +35 damage increase or +18 SDI. It's not easy to collect these high end runic, and may require burning 30 or more such hammer to maybe make one of the desired specs.
Another way is for artifact resource that can time warp and revert an antique item to become brittle. Perhaps this can be a super rare item for the end of year Artisan Festival. I have 3 x legendary crafters in 3 active accounts yet the artisan festival never attracts me.
There are some players like myself driven by acquiring functional items only. These are items that serve good purposes rather than just decor. We are only interested in a decor if it can sell for high price, so that we can use them to buy things that are functional such as power scrolls, major arties, and usable resources.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
However; I can see a potential for allowing the valorite runic hammer make items much better using the structural / fundamental toggles. For example as it stands now when using every single toggle on the reforging screen (10 charges of a val hammer) the total properties added still only would be 5 and most of the properties are the same as what can be imbued (maybe 1 might be overcap) all while the added durability (from fortified/integral - 2 charges) doesn't even go to max durability AND it can't be repaired. I think that if we use 8+ charges of a valorite hammer (over half it's charges) we should get something with some use in return (versus something we can create using a copper/gold runic + imbuing).
@sibble - Sorry I just disagree with adding more stuff (that's not really even crafting; aside from needing to craft the refinement) that relies on the RNG which is infamous as it is.
@popps - Replying twice (separately) to my single post is a perfect example of why there is no need for me to rebut any counter you provided (twice). I say this with no malcontent but I think if you spent half the time playing the game that you spent posting about the game; you would have a much better idea on how game mechanics work and why things need to be balanced. Again,we shouldn't be adding the "God-mode" ability...if people want that they can download Duke Nuke'm.
Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
People do not settle for the "lesser" items, they want to use the top quality ones...
If top quality items are set to ONLY come from Loot well, guess what.... players will go hunting, get those Looted Legendary items and disregard crafting entirely....
And if "lesser" crafted stuff is being disregarded, I do not see how any player wanting to seriously play a Crafter as a MAIN character, NOT a Mule, would be able to play in Ultima Online....
They would make "lesser" items which noone wants because guess what ? They get better items from hunting....
So, the bottom line question one needs to ask is, "Do we want a playable and viable Crafting in Ultima Online to exist or not " ?
Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
I was using this word, simply because it has been used in Ultima Online for a very, very long time to indicate, this was my understanding, a crafting template used by the same one player only (or mainly) to support one's own Fighting character and not as a viable, "main" character to be used fully "alternatively" to a Fighter one, as one's own most relevant playing style in Ultima Online. (i.e. most of the playing time spent in Ultima Online....).
At least, that was my understanding of the sense that this word has been used over the Years when discussing these matters in relation to Ultima Online gameplay styles and Professions, certainly not in reference to real life.
I mean, these Forums here, are to discuss things about Ultima Online, not real life, I understand.
What other word should then be used to better clarify the concept if I may ask ?
The point here, is to be able to use a word which might indicate, in the Ultima Online gaming world, a Crafting template basically mostly only used for self sufficiency of a player using it to support one's own fighters' characters.
That is, only, or mostly to support one's own Fighting templates and not to be played as a standalone, "main" character most of the time that one is logged into Ultima Online.
What other term would then be better and preferable to be used, when trying to explain and discuss such a thing in the gaming World of Ultima Online ?