Per Mesanna's request, suggestion for crafters to compete with existing loot level
Hey folks, I just posted this at Stratics but for those who frequent here I'm copying it over:
At the Meet and Greet this week, a player named Urge opened the topic of
creating parity of crafted items vs looted legendaries. From Larisa's
transcript:
Developer Meet And Greet ~ Catskills ~ March 25th, 2019
//begin quote//
Urge says: Are there any plans on increasing crafting to become on par with loot?
Mesanna says: We are aware that crafters need a pirpose again and if you have any suggestions
Mesanna says: we would love to hear them
Urge says: Ill send some in.
Mesanna says: feel free to email me
Mesanna says: and I will make sure the team reads them
//end quote//
I gave some thought to this, here is my rough suggestion for discussion if anyone is interested.
Developer Meet And Greet ~ Catskills ~ March 25th, 2019
//begin quote//
Urge says: Are there any plans on increasing crafting to become on par with loot?
Mesanna says: We are aware that crafters need a pirpose again and if you have any suggestions
Mesanna says: we would love to hear them
Urge says: Ill send some in.
Mesanna says: feel free to email me
Mesanna says: and I will make sure the team reads them
//end quote//
I gave some thought to this, here is my rough suggestion for discussion if anyone is interested.
Mythical Intensification Crafting
This process creates an avenue for crafters to compete with modern regular loot items without reducing demand for high end legendaries.
The Mythical Intensification Crafting process takes a loot item of Lesser Artifact, Greater Artifact, Major Artifact, or Legendary Artifact OR a previously Enhanced Crafted Item and consumes it in an attempt to create a Mythically Intensified item.
Mythical Intensification involves using one of five intensities:
Ruin (weakest)
Force
Might
Power
Vanquishing (strongest)
And it uses bonus strengths based on selected material levels (not all materials used initially, but can be added in a later publish):
Shadow
Gold
Bronze
Verite
Valorite
Yew
Oak
Bloodwood
Frostwood
Mythical Intensification can only be performed on weapons or shields. This means that a maximum of TWO Mythically Intensified items can be used by a single toon.
Intensification raises existing mods and adds new mods to the selected item based off of the following table:
The process has the following steps:
1. The owner of the original item purchases an blank Mythical Craftsmanship Commission deed from NPC blacksmiths or carpenters. The deeds are priced at the following levels:
Shadow (+ 50,000 gold)
Gold (+ 100,000 gold)
Bronze (+ 200,000 gold)
Verite (+ 300,000 gold)
Valorite (+ 500,000 gold)
Oak (+ 50,000 gold)
Yew (+ 100,000 gold)
Bloodwood (+ 300,000 gold)
Frostwood (+ 500,000 gold)
2. The owner of the original item double clicks the deed, and is presented with a menu to choose the requested intensification level. Each level will have an associated cost. The costs for a level are:
Ruin (+ 50,000 gold)
Force (+ 75,000 gold)
Might (+ 100,000 gold)
Power (+ 250,000 gold)
Vanquishing (+ 500,000 gold)
Thus, the total cost of finished commission deed will be:
Once material bonus cost is selected, the owner is given a target and asked to select the item that will be intensified. This selection will consume the item. Its original properties now appear on the deed, with the corresponding power and material levels and the name of the owner at time of selection. The deed is now finalized and ready for the crafting attempt.
3. The owner double clicks the finalized deed, and then targets a willing Legendary Blacksmith, Bowyer, or Carpenter (depending on the type of original item). Only crafters with the skill level of 120 may make an attempt. The selected crafter is given a gump showing the finalized deed, and are prompted to accept or reject the commission. If rejected, the deed returns to the owner's pack. If accepted, the deed appears in the crafter's pack. The crafter then has 3 minutes to make the attempt. If the attempt is not made within the three minutes, it returns to the owner.
4. The crafter has 3 minutes to make the attempt, and in this time can utilize the UO Store Runic Enhancing tool, if desired. If it is not used, the success of the attempt is based off of the following table:
If the attempt succeeds, the intensified item appears in the original owner's pack. The crafter recieves the 50% of the total cost of the commission per the table above.
Restrictions:
- Only one commission can be attempted per crafter per day.
- Negative mods will be replaced with "Greatly Prized", per the following:
Greatly Prized -This will be a new mod applied to all resulting crafted items from this process. Items with the Greatly Prized modification have the following:
"This item's insurance cost is 500% of the the normal insurance cost for a similar non-intensified item."
For example, if the insurance cost for the source item was 2000 gold per death, the Greatly Prized insurance cost will become 10,000 gold per death.
For any source item that contains the following properties:
Cursed
Antique
Prized
Brittle
This property will be removed from the resulting crafted item and replaced with the following property:
Greatly Prized
For any other source item that does not contain the Cursed, Antique, Prized, or Brittle properties, the resulting crafted item will additionally receive the Greatly Prized modification.
- The final item will have the following naming convention:
"A Mythically Crafted (insert material type added) (insert item type name) of (insert intensity level) Wrought By (insert crafter's name) for (insert commissioning player's name)"
Example Names:
"A Mythically Crafted Golden Heater Shield of Power Wrought By Calavera for Lord Pawain"
"A Mythically Crafted Valorite Longsword of Vanquishing Wrought By Calavera for Lord Pawain"
"A Mythically Crafted Bloodwood Bokuto of Might Wrought By Calavera for Lord Pawain"
Sample Items:
Initial Item is a Wooden Shield with the following mods:
Brittle
Spell Channeling
Reactive Paralyze
DCI 15%
SSI 5%
Fire 5%
Durability 75/75
If Yew // Might is attempted and successful, this item could become:
Greatly Prized
Spell Channeling
Reactive Paralyze
DCI 21%
SSI 9%
Fire 5%
Durability 75/75
- or perhaps -
Greatly Prized
Spell Channeling
Reactive Paralyze
DCI 15%
SSI 9%
Fire 9%
Durability 75/75
However, if the same initial item was used in a successful Valorite // Vanquishing attempt, it could become:
Greatly Prized
Self Repair 5
Spell Channeling
Reactive Paralyze
LMC 8%
FC 1
Luck 100
DCI 30%
SSI 10%
Fire 10%
Durability 75/75
and it would have cost the following resources:
- the original item, which is consumed in the attempt
- 1,000,000 gold, half of which is automatically deposited into the crafter's bank box on success
- 1 charge of the UO Store Runic tool (assuming one was used by the crafter)
This provides crafter with a way to create nice items using existing 'almost there' legendaries or from player created enhanced weapons and shields. It also provides continual demand for loot items as 'fodder' for the process when folks choose not use the Runic tool. And for those great pieces you don't want to fail on, it provides more demand for a UO Store item that can generate revenue for the game.
This process creates an avenue for crafters to compete with modern regular loot items without reducing demand for high end legendaries.
The Mythical Intensification Crafting process takes a loot item of Lesser Artifact, Greater Artifact, Major Artifact, or Legendary Artifact OR a previously Enhanced Crafted Item and consumes it in an attempt to create a Mythically Intensified item.
Mythical Intensification involves using one of five intensities:
Ruin (weakest)
Force
Might
Power
Vanquishing (strongest)
And it uses bonus strengths based on selected material levels (not all materials used initially, but can be added in a later publish):
Shadow
Gold
Bronze
Verite
Valorite
Yew
Oak
Bloodwood
Frostwood
Mythical Intensification can only be performed on weapons or shields. This means that a maximum of TWO Mythically Intensified items can be used by a single toon.
Intensification raises existing mods and adds new mods to the selected item based off of the following table:
The process has the following steps:
1. The owner of the original item purchases an blank Mythical Craftsmanship Commission deed from NPC blacksmiths or carpenters. The deeds are priced at the following levels:
Shadow (+ 50,000 gold)
Gold (+ 100,000 gold)
Bronze (+ 200,000 gold)
Verite (+ 300,000 gold)
Valorite (+ 500,000 gold)
Oak (+ 50,000 gold)
Yew (+ 100,000 gold)
Bloodwood (+ 300,000 gold)
Frostwood (+ 500,000 gold)
2. The owner of the original item double clicks the deed, and is presented with a menu to choose the requested intensification level. Each level will have an associated cost. The costs for a level are:
Ruin (+ 50,000 gold)
Force (+ 75,000 gold)
Might (+ 100,000 gold)
Power (+ 250,000 gold)
Vanquishing (+ 500,000 gold)
Thus, the total cost of finished commission deed will be:
Once material bonus cost is selected, the owner is given a target and asked to select the item that will be intensified. This selection will consume the item. Its original properties now appear on the deed, with the corresponding power and material levels and the name of the owner at time of selection. The deed is now finalized and ready for the crafting attempt.
3. The owner double clicks the finalized deed, and then targets a willing Legendary Blacksmith, Bowyer, or Carpenter (depending on the type of original item). Only crafters with the skill level of 120 may make an attempt. The selected crafter is given a gump showing the finalized deed, and are prompted to accept or reject the commission. If rejected, the deed returns to the owner's pack. If accepted, the deed appears in the crafter's pack. The crafter then has 3 minutes to make the attempt. If the attempt is not made within the three minutes, it returns to the owner.
4. The crafter has 3 minutes to make the attempt, and in this time can utilize the UO Store Runic Enhancing tool, if desired. If it is not used, the success of the attempt is based off of the following table:
If the attempt succeeds, the intensified item appears in the original owner's pack. The crafter recieves the 50% of the total cost of the commission per the table above.
Restrictions:
- Only one commission can be attempted per crafter per day.
- Negative mods will be replaced with "Greatly Prized", per the following:
Greatly Prized -This will be a new mod applied to all resulting crafted items from this process. Items with the Greatly Prized modification have the following:
"This item's insurance cost is 500% of the the normal insurance cost for a similar non-intensified item."
For example, if the insurance cost for the source item was 2000 gold per death, the Greatly Prized insurance cost will become 10,000 gold per death.
For any source item that contains the following properties:
Cursed
Antique
Prized
Brittle
This property will be removed from the resulting crafted item and replaced with the following property:
Greatly Prized
For any other source item that does not contain the Cursed, Antique, Prized, or Brittle properties, the resulting crafted item will additionally receive the Greatly Prized modification.
- The final item will have the following naming convention:
"A Mythically Crafted (insert material type added) (insert item type name) of (insert intensity level) Wrought By (insert crafter's name) for (insert commissioning player's name)"
Example Names:
"A Mythically Crafted Golden Heater Shield of Power Wrought By Calavera for Lord Pawain"
"A Mythically Crafted Valorite Longsword of Vanquishing Wrought By Calavera for Lord Pawain"
"A Mythically Crafted Bloodwood Bokuto of Might Wrought By Calavera for Lord Pawain"
Sample Items:
Initial Item is a Wooden Shield with the following mods:
Brittle
Spell Channeling
Reactive Paralyze
DCI 15%
SSI 5%
Fire 5%
Durability 75/75
If Yew // Might is attempted and successful, this item could become:
Greatly Prized
Spell Channeling
Reactive Paralyze
DCI 21%
SSI 9%
Fire 5%
Durability 75/75
- or perhaps -
Greatly Prized
Spell Channeling
Reactive Paralyze
DCI 15%
SSI 9%
Fire 9%
Durability 75/75
However, if the same initial item was used in a successful Valorite // Vanquishing attempt, it could become:
Greatly Prized
Self Repair 5
Spell Channeling
Reactive Paralyze
LMC 8%
FC 1
Luck 100
DCI 30%
SSI 10%
Fire 10%
Durability 75/75
and it would have cost the following resources:
- the original item, which is consumed in the attempt
- 1,000,000 gold, half of which is automatically deposited into the crafter's bank box on success
- 1 charge of the UO Store Runic tool (assuming one was used by the crafter)
This provides crafter with a way to create nice items using existing 'almost there' legendaries or from player created enhanced weapons and shields. It also provides continual demand for loot items as 'fodder' for the process when folks choose not use the Runic tool. And for those great pieces you don't want to fail on, it provides more demand for a UO Store item that can generate revenue for the game.
Thanks for reading.
Comments
Everyone should send in their ideas though.
Imbuing
Let us imbue up to 7 Mods+150% To current cap, but the item becomes antique as soon as we break the old limitations. Keep it at 5% Chance to imbue as the minimum, makes it a great gold sink. This is mostly for Pvpers.
Bring back imbuing Artifacts.
Reforging.
1st. Fix the issue where you can get 3 mods with 5 charges on a valorite hammer with 2 names that have a maximum of 10 mods possible. That's a joke. It's not a bug, it's just the way that it's coded.
For instance you use a val hammer with 5 charges and land Auspicious of Fortune + Arcane of Wizardry on a weapon and get
Auspicious Broadsword of Wizardry
Spell Channeling
luck 150
Damage increase 40 (From exceptional)
I can explain how to fix it, but like I said I would rather keep this simple.
2nd. Increase durability for the Fortified setting to scale with the runic hammer. 255 for Valorite/Barbed/heartwood. Simple change, but makes the armor more Viable.
3rd. Revamp Fundamental and and Integral to just being like Powerful with no negatives.
Dull copper hammer + Powerful + Fundamental + Integral = Shadow Hammer with Powerful.
Basically 2 charges of the lower hammer = The next level hammer. This will also help push valorite/barbed/heartwood up some
Runic Craftable Recipes
Add Recipes for Unique Armor that we can Craft with Runics. Use the Useless resources like the Stygian Dragon head, slasher of veils claws, etc.
Things like
Caster's Gloves (5 sdi 4 CF) + Runic Craft
Ranger's Sleeves (12 Stam 4 Dex) + Runic Craft
Warriors Plate (10 Hp + 5 DE) + Runic Craft
Unique Mods with Random Mods from Runic crafting without the OP changes to Reforging.
The idea was for crafting to compete with current loot, not exceed it. Someone didn’t get the memo about reducing power creep.
I suggested the other week to make magical craftables reforgeable, that would help.
We all know that brittle items from loot spawn with 255 dura vs crafted brittle items having about 60. How about just reducing the dura on brittle loot and increasing the dura on brittle crafted? Nah let’s introduce another unnecessarily complicated crafting system...
My suggestion was 650 Intensity for Imbuing, ~ 800 For using 10 charges on a runic.
Not sure how that would exceed it, unless you were talking about what the other person was suggesting.
I check that I want 150 luck, then have it tell me what tool, how many charges, and chance to succeed is.
I don't like the crapshoot that it is now. With UO's RNG, the farther we can move from dependence on it the better IMO.
I suggested something similar but without the antique. I would rather imbuing be capped with a much lower durability than with antique.
Email those ideas in though. Maybe we can get a discussion thread when it's time.
The problem I found is we need loot to be better to encourage doing new areas but at the same time, we need crafting to be somewhat close because of the time and gold/ store money for forged tools invested.
The gem could be used on any imbuable item to create an “artificers item” which would increase the imbuing budget to 1200 and allow up to 12 properties. It would also increase the imbuing caps to the max property cap (example mana regen cap would change from 2 for regular imbuing to 4 for artificers imbuing).
All artificers imbuing would have a 100% success chance.
This would keep some value to hunting while adding value to some of the higher end legendary items with mismatched properties and let crafters start creating better items.
I agree with this.
I would also like more control, and more options on Greater Reforging outcomes.
This would make crafting more viable and attractive to me.
Add in a couple of attractive combinations for crafting, such as the wooden shields that can be made for pvpers using carpentry runics - sc, dci, reactive paralyse, soul charge + etc. These particular shieds still easily compete with Legendary items due to an excellent matching of properties for a parry mage etc.
To that end I would suggest tweaking imbuing with possibly a higher weight limit, maybe a chance to add properties that are currently only possible through reforging or loot and/or tweaking reforging to bring the negatives it has more in line with current generated loot and possibly a way to more closely define the result, reducing some of the randomness.
I think 650 is too low and will keep imbuing useless for certain templates. That is only 5 mods and a partial 6th. That would be great for a mage suit but would still leave dexers in the cold.
I suggested 8-9 properties imbued with base resists being slightly increased. That would be at least 1000 weight.
Reforging should be slightly below legendary with maybe a mod or a cap below. Maybe it could even give a slight chance at giving a legendary 12 mod item or max cap 9 mod items.
All somewhat complicated to the naked eye if you haven't experienced them, some with alot of reading involved to understand.
I'd rather not implement an entire new system, but rather find a way to incorporate global loot into crafting needs, and revamp systems like reforging and imbuing to compete. Do not allow more powerful items worsening the power creep(is it even a creep anymore?) Make global loot type basic items more customizable in a way I guess?
Maybe that means recycling legendaries and such into a new material, the more intensity the higher power that material or something. Would at least remove some stuff from the game.
A mid level piece of armor is exactly what I'm aiming for. Reforging should be on the upper end but not quite as good as artifacts.
Having crafting up to par with loot equals the playing field but leaves hunting as yielding the best armor.
PoF should be harder to get than a Valorite Hammer if not removed from the game completely.
Since I'm on this rant, bring back the macing armor and acid damage. Back in the day I remember one fight with a macer meant all your armor needed repair. Stepping in acid usually brought something down to near 0 durably.
Resists on armor
Crafted suits can still be mildly competitive, however a lot of their customization and strength must be sacrificed to still have resists close to looted items. This compounds even more so if any traditional artifacts with low resists in included in a suit.
To fix this, simplest thing that comes to mind would be to increase the arms lore bonus. Adding base resists or material bonuses would only make looted items better.
Imbuing
Imbuing is in a decent state, it's only shortfalls is limited selection and limited total intensity for many items. For example a fully reforged, imbued and enhanced shield is a joke compared to looted ones.
Increasing imbuing caps could fix this and a few other problems I'll get to later. To keep the crafting competitive edge, maybe consider increasing the caps on exceptional only.
Would be nice to see things like reactive para, casting focus etc. Be included in imbuing.
Reforging
I love it, many hate it, but in its core is working and solving a lot of problems. However, there are a couple glaring problems.
The random properties. Oh how they are tricky, trying to get reflect physical? You're in for a wild ride? Trying to get the perfect piece? Nope enjoy lower reqs. The negative or rather useless mods lower req, durability etc. should go imo. Self repair is good. And the wanted randoms like reflect should be put into a name perhaps.
Would be nice to see fun things like splinter, bone breaker, etc included, but that's just a wet dream of mine.
Runics
Largely are fine, except higher end ones. Going all out with say a valorite hammer will yeild at best something comparable with a looted minor artifact. Many times with two names + power, there will still be room to imbue on an exceptional item. Throwing that many charges to the wind should yeild more than that.
Using structural and the like is essentially a waste of charges. The item will improve modestly however the state it's in makes it useless in combat compared to looted items. The looted amazing 255 brittle items are a non issue, crafted ones are toast after seeing combat and still don't even compare.
Odd things
Dragon armor
Can't be enhanced with ingots or anything making it fall short badly. Can't be used with luck suits. Which sucks based on how difficult it is to work with and how great it looks. This also applies to cloth armor. Not sure what can be done there... Maybe special cloth from gardening or fishing to enhance with, I sure don't know.
Artifacts, special suits
I enjoy working with these, but their limitations are glaring. Some can be enhanced some can't, Imbuing caps are small, and some just don't let you do much of anything with them if anything at all. I'm talking about things like clockwork legs to beastial set to epiphany sets.
Craftable artifacts
Need a boost in general across the board or need to be able to be reforged, runic crafted etc. Most give weaker bonuses than skeleton loot. But there are some fun ones that would be great to work with or provide a nice boost on top of traditional crafting.
Refining
I love this extra layer. The more the better for me. I'd love to see refinements that revolve around other things like offense +hci -ssi or like +cf - LMC. Just wish list stuff, but for the love of God, don't add anymore until you can get around to making refinements stack. Simplifying the armor classes would be appreciated too. The different tiers is good, but those chests with them are a mess.
I'm sure I'll add to this later.
Tldr, more bonus to arms lore, more power to higher end tools, small tweaks to imbuing and armor types and some qol stuff, with no change to looted items.
My biggest issue is Stam suits. Being able to play a max swing Archer should not only be for the wealthy.
We live is a world of magic and we should be able to make anything and everything that is in this world with the proper training, all this loot should not just magically appear out of nowhere. UO needs to stop catering to just certain types of play styles and truly look at UO as a living, breathing world where all play styles are treated equally. There should be nothing in this world that could not have been made here and if there is some forgotten knowledge and a hidden stash of these then it should not be and unlimited stash and that knowledge that made these items should be discover-able.
Pre AoS the best crafters were always in demand and it is about time that that play style was brought back to its former glory.
IMHO There should be nothing that a fully trained craft person can not make as good if not better that any loot that can be found. If you are going to portray UO as a world then let all the people that live in that world truly shape it. Let all play styles have an equal piece of the pie. Let the Warrior/PvPer find this new loot but the Craftters and Magic users should be able to unravel it to see how it was made so more can be made.