Armageddon General Discussion Board

Archived Forums - No Longer Used => Ask the Staff => Topic started by: Riev on September 29, 2017, 09:09:34 AM

Title: Custom Crafts - The Third!
Post by: Riev on September 29, 2017, 09:09:34 AM
Can staff go into more detail about "ego" projects and submitting custom crafts every 30 days just because they "can"? Generally, when I have characters with the ability, I have long-term projects in mind and I'm able to come up with something every 30 days that fits the project, theme, and where I'm going.

At what point is it "submitting for the sake of it" and "ego projects" and thus an apparent drag on staff time/resources?
Title: Re: Custom Crafts - The Third!
Post by: seidhr on September 29, 2017, 11:34:17 AM
If you're in Salarr and you submit a new recipe every 30 days because there is a House push to make a new line of armor from scrab shell - that's one thing.

If you're a merchant and you want to look like a badass (or someone else wants to look like a badass, and they hire you) and so you make a item for a new wear slot every 30 days so you can trick yourself out with custom loots, that is another.  This is especially true if these items are made out of obscure combinations of multiple items that a player would be unlikely to stumble upon randomly when making other gear, and these items don't make it into the wild with other players because you want to look like a gangsta. 

Like.... when that PC dies or retires, and "a mantis-bladed, black-hafted crescent axe" sinks into the silt, nobody is ever gonna realize that you can make another one by combining a mantis shell, a diamond, a ruby, a wagon wheel spoke, and handful of black dye - without an example to work from.  (note: I just made up this item and recipe)  Maybe someday we'll have a system in place where crafters can tell what items they could conceivably make, even without the component items to work from - that would make this a moot point.
Title: Re: Custom Crafts - The Third!
Post by: seidhr on September 29, 2017, 12:15:03 PM
As for your second question, I think that's a matter of interpretation and the answer you'd get would vary by staff member, but for me it's just a waste of staff time if we're writing all this stuff up just so one player can puff out their chest.

You'll notice that we've rephrased "mastercrafting" into "customcrafting" in the last year or so, and that's because we've wanted to de-emphasize the assumption that anything submitted through this system had to be some kind of amazing work of art with a 500 word description.  Afterall, this is a primitive world where most people are fighting to survive, the tools available are not that great, nor are the materials... etc.  I would say that the general consensus amongst staff is that custom-crafting is best used to round out the game world with practical items that most any player would find useful, or very thematic items that are meant for a specific purpose.  For example:  Staff introduces a new type of creature, and players rush to write up armor that you can make from its hide - I think that's really cool.  Or, like Akariel's project where he's been adding items that result from skinning creatures, new food items made from those - nice!

One thing to add, is that if you really want to write a master-class level item or something that is just meant to be super cool and unique for one person only, please mention that in the request for the item when you send it in.  You don't -have- to submit crafting messaging and so forth for an item if there's only ever gonna be one of them.  Just tell us the ingredients, and when we make the item, we'll give one to you.  This saves us having to add it to the crafting system.  In the event that you ever wanted a second one, we do allow the submitter to send in another custom craft request for a duplication of the item to be made.