Ideas for spicing up crafting boosts

[mmatto]

When I started crafting, the boost system was a big let down in otherwise so fine crafting system. I would like to start a thread for discussing improvements to crafting boosts, even if I see now lots of other improvements needed for crafting system. Crafting improvements are not currently development priority but they might be at some point in future and we could do some thinking work in advance.

By crafting boosts I mean hp, sap, stamina and focus boosts that be given to items. Problem in current boost system is uniformness, lack of options and only couple of feasible combinations for selecting boosts.

1) Uniformness

Amount of total boost in item depends only on item quality. However, homin at certain level might use some armors at higher quality than others and he will get more boosts by selecting lighter armor. Idea is good to provide some items with higher boosts if item is otherwise poorer and this idea could be extended to other items e.g. staves, daggers... Current implementation is poor as advantage of extra boosts will be lost at higher levels as highest quality item is 250.

My suggestion is to have different maximum boosts for different items e.g. q20 light armor piece could have 40 points worth of boosts and heavy armor just 20 points.

This idea could be taken a bit further and maximum amount of boost would depend on crafted mats and item quality just like many other crafted statistics.

2) Lack of options

There is only 4 different boosts available at different power levels. Even worse, only hp and focus boosts are really needed in current system but skill balancing might help a little here.

Every crafter must have thought that it would be trivial to add lots of other boosts. Why not to add boosts for every item and character stat there is? For example, crafter could give parry bonus, stamina regeneration bonus, magic resistance bonus or maybe decreased malus or bulk for heavy armor. How about elemental damage brick to weapons or ammo?

3) Combinations for selecting boosts

Current system encourages min/maxing boosts. Just select one boost and give as much of it as possible. Amount of boosts is linear to quality of item and that is a problem. Cost of a single boost should increase progressively instead of linearly. This means that you would get more total boosts if you select small amount of many boosts. Setting right progression rate will require some thinking, but result of this would be far more diverse usable combinations of boost for different situations.

Does anyone have additional improvements that might be possible to implement without rewriting whole crafting code from scratch? Or want to comment on these suggestions?

In my opinions, adding variety to item boosts would spice up also using those items. Some of these ideas are so simple that they might be though as rite rewards, but if we are not getting rites soon I would like to get abilites from trainers.

And just a final reminder, I would like to keep this thread related to boosts and forget other improvements such as additional plans, working modifiers on weapons or revised enchantment system.

[grimjim]

I agree, some extra boosts would be nice to give more options.

Balancing things like parry/dodge boosts added to armour with the other boost options might be a bit of a mare though.

Currently you can add up to half of a weapon's QL in Sta/HP/Focus/Sap You couldn't do that with these boosts, they'd have to be equivalent.

Maybe +1 Dodge/Parry at level 150, +2 at 200, +3 at 250.

The other thing is that the current elemental weapon plans mean nothing, they just look good.

Perhaps being able to add elemental damage boosts to elemental weapons would be better, of the appropriate type of course.

Level 200-250 in 10 level increments, using up the equivalent of 10 normal boost points per increment.
Fire +1-5/1-10/1-15/1-20/1-25/+1-30 Fire damage, dealt with the hit.
Poison Adds poison damage per tick for 5/10/15/20/25/30 seconds.
Waving has a chance to enact confusion as a madness spell effect level dependent on what level boost.
Electric has chance to stun, as above.

Then you could have some optional visual effects, just for glitz and individuality, other possible effects learned from ency missions, perhaps things to add to the normal factors on armour in factors of ten, like the protection percentage or amount, lightness, etc.

[g00st]

i thought there might be hope for boosts to ammo, maybe race dependent along the lines grimjim suggested. electric paralyses fire is damage over time etc etc. as at the moment there is no point crafting different races ammo. (like theres much point crafting it in the first place :S)

[grimjim]

Ooooh, draining effects... those would be good. I want a mage-killing sap-sucker

[g00st]

i want an ocyx flame thower!

[alyssah]

The materials you use to craft make a difference to your other attributes not just sta, sap, foc & hp. By combining the right ingredients you can increase parry, dodge etc And with jewels you get resists to elec, poison, fire etc. The fun is combining them. At least that is the way it reads but not positive about how effective it is.

[micrix]

I am a big fan of elemental boosts for melee and ranged. But this should not happen on the weapon but as a brick in the melee/ranged stanza, usable at 125 similar to magic.

This would not solve the melee vs. mage thing, but would help a little. The problem of melee compared to elemental magic is the speed of attack. A mage aims and fires, while a melee must first get close to the target. Off topic, but i think we need a faster change of weapon. Like running towards the Kitin firing ranged and then quick draw the blade or pike and hit him.

Dodge, parry, resist etc. sounds nice. I also could think about a boost to reduce weight. This should result in more speed when on boots, less malus on armour... and so on.

[sprite]

Level 200-250 in 10 level increments, using up the equivalent of 10 normal boost points per increment.
Fire +1-5/1-10/1-15/1-20/1-25/+1-30 Fire damage, dealt with the hit.
Poison Adds poison damage per tick for 5/10/15/20/25/30 seconds.
Waving has a chance to enact confusion as a madness spell effect level dependent on what level boost.
Electric has chance to stun, as above.

Then you could have some optional visual effects, just for glitz and individuality, other possible effects learned from ency missions

mmmmmmmmmm

[aylwyne]

You could maybe make the amount of boost that an item can hold be influenced by the materials used. It would be based of the level of the item like it is now but could be increased or decreased based on the mats used. Each armor mat could have an additional stat added, called "boost capacity" or something. If you use mats with the highest boost capacity, it could add 20% to the boosts in your crafting plan or something. Likewise, using mats with a poor stat would reduce the boosts.

Another thing I'd like to see is an additional mat slot in all crafting plans that is optional and could be used to add modifiers to the crafted item. This could be used to add special mats that give unique qualities (resistances, boosts, colors, etc.). If that extra slot were there, they could then start creating special "modifier" mats that have different effects on the crafting. These could be obtained through harvesting, quartering, missions, etc.

[sprite]

If that extra slot were there, they could then start creating special "modifier" mats that have different effects on the crafting. These could be obtained through harvesting, quartering, missions, etc.

:O Finally a use for mission mats?!