Proposal: player-only custom crafts

[jstorrie]

I would like to see custom-crafted equipment changed so that only PCs can make them.

As it stands, there is little incentive to play a master crafter, save making plenty of 'sids.  What about creating interesting and unique items?

Kadius and Salarr would still, presumably, be the place to go for custom items, since odds are they would employ the most masterful PC craftspeople, but this would help independents make a name for themselves, too.

This could also add a new depth of play to 'elite' crafting.  Your PC wants to make a custom item, so you run the description past an immortal, who tells you what you would need to make it.  Maybe it would be in your Kadius warehouse already; maybe you would have to send Jim Ranger out to slay you a Gaj for those special gaj-tentacle-laces.  When you had everything ready, you could play out crafting it and wish up/send the log in for your item.

Thoughts?

[Mekeda]

This already exists to no small degree. If you have the skill and the ingredients and rp the construction, I know of NUMEROUS occasions where pc's have been able to make their own items.

So... we already do this. Please look over the details for submitting a new object on the how to pages and let us know. We reserve the right to edit items or flat out refuse the rediculous but if it is a logical item that fits into the game world, odds are you will not have too much difficulty in getting it made.


Mekeda

[jstorrie]

Mekeda, that's not quite what I'm suggesting.

I don't mean allowing PCs to create custom items, as I know that's already possible.  I mean disallowing the creation of custom items by VNPC crafters in the various Houses.

[Bestatte]

I e-mailed mud about this for something at the beginning of the month, and just sent a reminder note asking for a reply.  I did get one response from one of the IMMs who said in his opinion, for a variety of reasons, it would not be doable. One of those reasons was that if it's a fairly simple object, it would be (or should be) made craftable.

Hopefully I'll get an official decision on this soon, the IMM who responded did say this was only his opinion, and he kindly responded just to make sure that I got a response of some kind (which I really did appreciate).

[Mekeda]

If you are saying that you, as a pc, should be able to craft anything that your house makes or deals in, that I agree with. If you find something that is not craftable, write up a recipe and submit it to your clan imm.

If you mean that we as staff should no longer use the vnpc crafters to introduce ideas submitted to us by players not in the clans, in the clans but not crafters, or of our own creations, then that is not really something I can agree with.  Those VNPC crafters and their creations are, often times, things submitted by your fellow players, either at staff request or because they see an idea and want to have a hand in improving the mud. The warrior who can't ic'ly craft something but takes the time to email an item and it's crafting recipe should not be penalized from contributing to the mud just because his class is not merchant.

Mekeda

[jstorrie]

Submitting an item to the craftable pool isn't the same as ordering one from Kadius, though.  In the first case, something has been introduced that can make the play of quite a few people more interesting.  In the second, someone has just had some unique string added to their inventory.

If your warrior in question wants to order something straight from Salarr, I'm not saying he shouldn't be able to - just that if it's a custom item with nothing else in the world like it, a master PC craftsman should have to work on it.  If the warrior's player wants to submit an item to the pool of craftable items, I don't see anything wrong with that.

What I think is a problem is that there isn't enough incentive or reward to play a master crafter, other than pulling in tons of 'sid.  If PC warriors, nobles, and the like are all representative of the world's most great and famous warriors and nobles and such, why are PC merchants generally responsible for less innovation than the VNPC crafters that churn out all the custom orders?

[mansa]

You are saying that we are going to elimate immortals loading items for PC merchants.   That PC merchants must -craft- the items themselves?  Is this correct?  No more loading items to fulfill orders?

[Gilvar]

This is illogical and creates an increased sense of importance among PCs. VNPC and NPC crafters will always exist in houses because they are capable of making things. It would be illogical if only PCs could make 'unique' things, and provide more of a burden on the staff to implement the loads and loads of unique and original, one-shot items that players would be submitting.

Its alot easier with merchant houses which would realistically have much more skill, resources, and manpower to do custom and ornately orignal things because it gets nicely seperated among imms that are assigned to the houses and they can decide whether it warrants a new item, or if something already existing can be used.

[jstorrie]

That's pretty much what I was suggesting, mansa.  It would make sense to me that there would only be a small handful of true masters in Zalanthas at any given time, and if anyone wanted masterwork, they'd have to go to them.

If it's too much of a hassle to implement, though, I guess I'll drop it.

[Gilvar]

If your saying more GENERIC high-end items available for people with the skill that is fine, feel free to submit items and I'll make them. But there is no way to make it so that all unique/custom items are made by PCs with no immortal intervention.

[Bestatte]

I've had a couple of very specific custom items made before..one was when I played a noble's hired guard, and another when I played a Kuraci assassin. Neither items that I had created had anything to do with the jobs I was hired to do. One was a particular kind of perfume, that served a specialized function. The other was a scented soap. Neither was for sale, and neither were craftable at the time - though Mekeda did say that once my Kuraci died that soap object could become craftable at some point.

I know a clothworker who was employed as a templar's concubine, a noble's concubine, ANOTHER noble's concubine, and another noble's concubine - who was making exquisite clothing, all custom ordered to sell to other nobles and rich people, none of which were craftable to my knowledge (I might be wrong on that), and none mass produced by any merchant house.

Past precedence shows clearly that it's doable. Maybe there has to be extenuating circumstances, but that doesn't mean it can't be done - particularly since it already HAS been done, and at least one person (the clothworker) made a rather lovely profit from the work.