I'm sure this's been discussed before>crafting.

[halfhuman]

I just spent about 1/2 an hour walking around town looking for the right piece of bone to craft with.  You know what I got? -200 sids.  That's IT.

I wish that if you have the skill to craft an item, then you could know what you could make of it with the view command.  It'd definately put an end to:

buy #3
You buy #3 for 4,563,208,209,098, 1345, 084, 012, 452 coins.

craft #3
You don't think you can make anything out of that.

offer #3
you sell #3 for .00000000000001 sid.

It'd certainly save a lot of money!  My dad runs a lumber yard and people don't come in, grab a board that looks about right, buy it, take it home and THEN see if it'll work for building a birdhouse or some shit.

[Rhyden]

The only problem IRL I would see about this is that in the past, my characters have been yelled, tormented or even threatened for even touching some of the merchants' merchandises. Since Zalanthas is a cruel and harsh world where nobody can be trusted, it only makes sense shopkeepers will be equally protective of their things. I mean, they must get hundreds of different people in some of those stores a day. Humans, dwarves, half-elves, and elves. Everybody would be equally untrustworthy (minus elves of course who are the least trustworthy) so you have to see why this would be nearly impossible to do.

[Bestatte]

Yes, this has been discussed. I don't recall the thread or the folder it was in. Here's my opinion - it hasn't changed.

In the shops in the game, if you "view" clothing or weapons or armor, you are "testing its weight" or otherwise seeing if it is suitable. In other words, the shopkeeper IS allowing you to get up close and personal with the item in question.

I think it would make a great deal of sense if a person could know that they can make something with a raw material. I do NOT think it's necessary for you to know -what- you can make. Only that yes, you can in fact make SOMETHING, or no, you can't make anything.

The only problem lies in the skill check. The shopkeeper code would have to compare with your actual level of skill with the craft, because what isn't craftable to you today might be craftable to you tomorrow.

The only other possibility I can think of, is if the object in question is craftable by someone with your particular craft, even if YOU can't make it yet. That way, at least you know that at some point in time, you'll be able to do something with it (even if you find out after buying it, that you can't make something with it today).

[Anonymous]

I could go either way on this, personally.  While it is somewhat nonsensical that your PC looks at a length of leather and has no clue what to do with it until he or she holds it, I think it is one of those things that helps hold the economy together.  I'm sure there are hundreds of crafting recipes right in front of my PC that I have no clue hecould make use of but if he did, and a dozen other people did as well, the economy would probably be even more out of whack.

Being able to know what they would be able to make out of material before buying it, while realistic, sort of takes away from the fun of discovering new recipes.  I know my brief stint at a couple other muds saw me sort of unenchanted by their crafting system because you knew all the steps.  It made it seem a lot more dry to me.

[Bestatte]

No no, CRW, at least not my idea of this. I agree about not knowing -what you can make- out of something.

I just think you should be able to tell that you can make something. Not anything specific, not a list of things you can make. Just something like this:

view #4
A piece of leather, approximately three cords in length. It has two more lines of descriptions. But instead of "Nothing unusual" at the end, you see this:
You think you can use this for leatherworking.
You think you can use this for knifemaking.

(assuming you have both the leatherworking and knifemaking skills)

[Maybe42or54]

I like bestatte's idea.

[Anonymous]

No no, CRW, at least not my idea of this. I agree about not knowing -what you can make- out of something.

I just think you should be able to tell that you can make something. Not anything specific, not a list of things you can make. Just something like this:

view #4
A piece of leather, approximately three cords in length. It has two more lines of descriptions. But instead of "Nothing unusual" at the end, you see this:
You think you can use this for leatherworking.
You think you can use this for knifemaking.

(assuming you have both the leatherworking and knifemaking skills)

No, I understand, I still think that knowing you can make something out of material, regardless of what, removes some of the mystery.  For me that's half the fun.  Maybe for others it isn't.  I wouldn't stomp my feet and make an angry thread on the GDB if something like this was done, I just lean towards leaving things more geared towards discovery than intuition.

[SewerRat_inTheOpen]

I can totally understand what this is about, I spent many days getting useless-for-the-craft-materials but my suggestion is to build a human and join a house that suits the craft. That's what I did, free supply of what you need and even the end products of your craft for you to analyze. Get some foundation before heading towards independence.

[jhunter]

I think it would be realistic to tell if you -can- make something out of a material via view.

I think it'd be  worthwhile addition. It really sucks to buy something that logically you should be able to craft into something and cannot because the code doesn't support it.