Viewing Shop Items

[Yokunama]

Would it be nice if crafters could view if items could be useful to them or not?

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>view #1

 Its a piece of bone. What did you expect? A bone with magickal powers?
A piece of bone looks like it could be of some use.

[Gimfalisette]

Personally, I would love that. Especially for general newbies or crafting newbies, it would be really helpful to just be able to tell whether you can use an item in crafting. It stinks to pay good 'sid for something and only then figure out that it's not usable in crafting. Maybe the "view" should help to distinguish between things that can't be used in crafting at all, things that the character can currently use for crafting, and things that someone else might be able to use in crafting?

[Sephiroto]

In your more traditional bazarr you're going to be able to pick up items and examine them.  They're not exactly the 'look but don't touch' that the game seems to make them.

For this reason I'd like to see objects in bazarrs interactable with to the degree of being able to value, analyze, and the use of the 'craft' them to see what can be made.

[Hymwen]

I'd also like to see the approximate weight of an item. Like when you pick an item up: "It is very light/manageable/extremely heavy/etc."

[Dalmeth]

I agree that it would be great to be able to analyze objects a bit more thoroughly before you buy them.  Being able to discern an item's weight and have an idea what you can do with it in the craft system is vital.  Not all PCs can afford to experiment and see if their skills have any effect on it.

Being able to analyze something would be pretty neat too.

All in all, this will help players avoid making just one thing to get by because they can't afford to buy experimental materials.

[MorganChaos]

Yeah. This makes sense because mor or less every shop has a roomdesc describing the products laid out on counters or shelves.

[Dalmeth]

Here's an idea for implementation : Make it like assess -v.  So when you want to see what you can craft with you use view -c (object) (vendor).

[John]

In your more traditional bazarr you're going to be able to pick up items and examine them.  They're not exactly the 'look but don't touch' that the game seems to make them.

Despite the code I often manhandle items, might even try them on (depending on the type of seller and the type of item). I ignore the code-limitations to shops as much as possible.

So having said that, way cool idea.

I'd also like to see the approximate weight of an item. Like when you pick an item up: "It is very light/manageable/extremely heavy/etc."

Again two thumbs up.l

[Angela Christine]

I'm in favor of being able to tell if a material looks like something you could use for crafting.  Although it would need some way to check your specific crafts, while also ignoring the salvage "craft".  Because practically everything is useful for crafting if the code considers salvage a craft.  

I'm not sure how it would handle items that require multiple ingredients.  Suppose that your only craft is tool making.  The store is selling "a sturdy yet slender length of bone".  Assume that the only item tool making can craft from that bone is "a diamond tipped drill" which requires both "a sturdy yet slender length of bone" and "a shiny diamond".  Neither you nor the store currently possess a shiny diamond.  Does it tell you that you can use the bone, that you can't use the bone, or that you could only use the bone in conjunction with another unspecified item?

Also, how would it deal with items that can be used with crafts you know, but only at skill levels higher than you possess?  Would it tell you that you can use it because it is used by a skill on your skill list, which would be misleading because you can't use it yet.  Or would it do a skill check (checking not only what skills you know, but also at what level you know them, and then check that against all of the recipes that use that item) and tell you that you can't use it, which would be misleading because while you can't use it this instant you might be able to use it tomorrow, or next week, or even today if you also use a skill-boosting tool.

I don't know, it sounds like it could be kind of resource intensive to check all that independently for every item that every person looks at.




I am opposed to being able to analyze without buying though.  In some cases just looking would be enough, but in many others analyze could involve partially disassembling or even completely destroying the sample item to see how it was made.  Just because the imms were very kind the day they created the analyze skill and it does not break items, doesn't mean that it shouldn't have the possibility of breaking items.  Analyze should have both a chance of damaging the sample item, and a chance of failing, requiring repeated attempts to figure out how it was made (with each of those attempts having the chance of damaging or destroying the sample item).  Theoretically analyze isn't just telling you the code "recipe" of 1-5 ingredients needed, it is telling how to construct the item, and just looking at the item for a few seconds shouldn't be enough to tell you that.  Most shops would let you handle an item, but they would not let you start tinkering with it in a potentially destructive way, nor would they let you handle it for a long time.


Angela Christine

[Sephiroto]

AC, I agree that items comprised of more than one part may need to be disassembled to be analyzed and that it might potentially be damaged.  However, in terms of more simply constructed items like some weaponry for instance, just turning the object over in one's hands and looking at it closely can be enough to figure how it was made.  

One shouldn't have to break apart a 'generic bone longsword' to see that it was made from sanded and sharpened bone with a strip of leather wrapped around the hilt.  But like you said, figuring out the exact construction of a 'shirt of duskhorn chain mail' might take extensive time and be likely damaging if the character is going to figure out exactly how those rings were carved and joined together.

It looks to me like this 'analyze' idea is hit and miss at this point.

[Fnord]

Some crafting skills/materials do this already. Without getting too IC, if you have the right skill and view the right materials, something about the description informs you that it's useful. So this is in the game already, but I only know of one crafting skill it works for, so far.

[Yokunama]

Some crafting skills/materials do this already. Without getting too IC, if you have the right skill and view the right materials, something about the description informs you that it's useful. So this is in the game already, but I only know of one crafting skill it works for, so far.

I don't recall something like this already being a part of the crafting system. If it is something noticeable in the description, I suppose it isn't affected by a certain crafting skill.

Besides, people hate having to spend a sum of money on material when their character could easily pick up, examine it, and determine if the piece is useful or not.

[X-D]

All for the ideas, always have been, nothing to add though.

[Yokunama]

Just wanted to give this thread a little bump. Maybe someone could find something else interesting to discuss about the idea.

[EonBlueApocalypse]

view # altered to do a skill check for value, analyze (if you possess said skills, otherwise erroneous vaues or empty field) and give a rough weight and crafting guideline.   Depending on whether it is a raw material or a finished item, analyze or craft would be used.

Value, in the least, would enhance the realism of haggle, in that, (s)he says (s)he wants 300 coins for it, but you are pretty sure (s)he's trying to rip you off (even if (s)he isn't).

This obsidian necklace looks hawt.

It can be worn around the neck.
Its weight is no problem.
You think the obsidian necklace might be worth 55 obsidian coins.

You think an obsidian necklance is made up of a set of obsidian beads.

Edit:  I submit that I have played a merchant, but I don't recall if value is already part of this structure.