Skill REDUCING Items
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:19 pmI understand the need for different kinds of metal and wood... and other varying raw materials. It allows a logic system to explain the effects on skills and attributes when items are made from these different materials. However it CAN interfere with common productivity.
What I propose is a series of skill REDUCING items. Items that will lower mining, lumberjacking, etc., by 25, 50, or any appropriate level that would bring the skill down to a level where only common materials are harvested. The specific number being predicated on exactly what skill level marks the beginning of advanced material harvesting.
For example: If you have an optimal lumberjacking skill of 120 then you're going to get all kinds of random logs when you harvest lumber. You will end up with several piles of unstackable wood that you can't combine into a commodity deed. You will also NOT have a nice large pile of material to use in the practice of skills producing items FROM the raw material. I may have made a mistake somewhere but an attempt to use higher end woods to make arrow shafts resulted in shafts that couldn't be used for making arrows.
For example: If you have an optimal mining skill of 120 you have a good chance of getting some high end ores when what you really want is a pile of iron to fill your Bulk Orders from. With the same accompanying restrictions on stacking and commodity deeds.
With an item that reduced your 120 lumberjacking skill by 50 down to 70 you will reverse this affect and be able to harvest more of the common lumber needed for large consumption activities or just plain normal looking items made from the lumber. Then you have the option of removing the item when you are after the more rare woods and then you have returned to the pot luck chances that result from the random harvest. An item that affected your mining skill in the same way would produce the same effect toward greater production of common iron.
In contrast I will tell why this is not a problem with, say, leather harvesting. With leather harvesting YOU control what type of leather you harvest by choosing the type of animal to hunt. If you want common leather you hunt animals that produce common leather. If you want spined leather you simply hunt different creatures. It is NOT random. Skill plays no effect on the harvest of a certain type of leather. So the problem does not exist for leather.
From the standpoint of implementation this should be an easy option. No other mechanic within the game or system need be adjusted and there is no need for a major redesign. A scroll that puts a negative skill modifier on the item of choice by a player is as easily accomplished as the existing scrolls that put positive skill and attribute modifiers on items. The only concern would be to make sure it is a removeable item so that any kind of curse effect is left off and that ONLY the negative skill effect is produced when desired.
From some of the comments on the public chat channel I know that I am not the only person frustrated by the good intentions of consciencious desire to provide variety in the game. This is the place to voice those frustrations and to agree, disagree, or lay out your own idea about a solution that resolves the issue.
Thank you.
What I propose is a series of skill REDUCING items. Items that will lower mining, lumberjacking, etc., by 25, 50, or any appropriate level that would bring the skill down to a level where only common materials are harvested. The specific number being predicated on exactly what skill level marks the beginning of advanced material harvesting.
For example: If you have an optimal lumberjacking skill of 120 then you're going to get all kinds of random logs when you harvest lumber. You will end up with several piles of unstackable wood that you can't combine into a commodity deed. You will also NOT have a nice large pile of material to use in the practice of skills producing items FROM the raw material. I may have made a mistake somewhere but an attempt to use higher end woods to make arrow shafts resulted in shafts that couldn't be used for making arrows.
For example: If you have an optimal mining skill of 120 you have a good chance of getting some high end ores when what you really want is a pile of iron to fill your Bulk Orders from. With the same accompanying restrictions on stacking and commodity deeds.
With an item that reduced your 120 lumberjacking skill by 50 down to 70 you will reverse this affect and be able to harvest more of the common lumber needed for large consumption activities or just plain normal looking items made from the lumber. Then you have the option of removing the item when you are after the more rare woods and then you have returned to the pot luck chances that result from the random harvest. An item that affected your mining skill in the same way would produce the same effect toward greater production of common iron.
In contrast I will tell why this is not a problem with, say, leather harvesting. With leather harvesting YOU control what type of leather you harvest by choosing the type of animal to hunt. If you want common leather you hunt animals that produce common leather. If you want spined leather you simply hunt different creatures. It is NOT random. Skill plays no effect on the harvest of a certain type of leather. So the problem does not exist for leather.
From the standpoint of implementation this should be an easy option. No other mechanic within the game or system need be adjusted and there is no need for a major redesign. A scroll that puts a negative skill modifier on the item of choice by a player is as easily accomplished as the existing scrolls that put positive skill and attribute modifiers on items. The only concern would be to make sure it is a removeable item so that any kind of curse effect is left off and that ONLY the negative skill effect is produced when desired.
From some of the comments on the public chat channel I know that I am not the only person frustrated by the good intentions of consciencious desire to provide variety in the game. This is the place to voice those frustrations and to agree, disagree, or lay out your own idea about a solution that resolves the issue.
Thank you.