Crafting 2.0

[Ashante]

I. CRAFTING SKILLS

1. Butchery

Butchery is the art of retrieving useful materials from corpses. Using a Hunting Knife, anyone can attempt to butcher a corpse if they have rights to that corpse, but unskilled butchers are more likely to ruin corpses than retrieve anything from them.

Skills

Butchery (max level: 150)

Raising Butchery gives you....

• Improved chances of successfully butchering corpses. A beginning butcher ruins about four out of every five corpses, while master butchers fail rarely.
  
• The ability to use better Hunting Knives, which increases butchery yields.

Butchering Mechanics:

There are five Butchered Resources: Bone, Hide, Chitin, Tallow and Sinew.

The amount of resources gained from butchery depends on the quality of the player's Hunting Knife and the monster's level.

A monster can't be butchered if it was killed by a player more than five levels above its level. (Its corpse was too badly mutilated by the player's vicious attack....)

Until a corpse is looted, it may only be butchered by someone with looting rights. After a corpse is looted, it may be butchered by anyone. Corpses may only be butchered once.

The player gains CXP from every Butchery attempt, regardless of success or failure.

The player can gain CXP from Butchery only 100 times every 22 real-time hours.


2. Mining

Overview: Mining is the process of extracting raw materials from mines and logging camps. Anyone can pick up a beginner's tool and start mining, but advanced miners can use superior tools and locate rich veins of ore to extract, greatly improving yields.

Skills

Iron Mining (max level: 150)
Silver Mining (max level: 150)
Stonecutting (max level: 150)
Crystal Working (max level: 150)
Lumberjacking (max level: 150)

Raising Mining gives you....

• Improved chances of Critical Success during mining, which greatly multiplies resource yields. Beginners have almost no chances of Critical Success, while master Miners achieve Critical Success frequently.
  
• The ability to use better Mining Tools, which increases mining yields.

Mining Mechanics:

The five Mined Resources are Iron, Silver, Stone, Crystal and Wood.

The amount of resources gained from mining depends on the level of the player's Mining Tool and whether or not the player achieves Critical Success. Different mines also have slightly different yields.

Any given mine may be used five times by any player in three real-time hours. The player may then move to a 'fresh' mine or wait for the timer to reset.

The player gains CXP from every Mining attempt.

3. Refining

Overview: Refining transforms raw mined resources, such as Iron and Silver, into more advanced alloys. Refined materials are necessary to craft many high-level items.

Skills

Steel Smelting (Wood + Iron; max level: 150)
Dramastic Smelting (Iron + Silver; max level: 150)
Moonglass Sculpting (Silver + Crystal; max level: 150)
Tukalite Sculpting (Crystal + Stone; max level: 150)
Runewood Carving (Stone + Wood; max level: 150)

Raising Refining gives you....

• Improved chances of successfully refining ingredients. A beginning refiner ruins about four out of every five batches, while master refiners fail rarely.
  
• The ability to use better Refining Tools, which increases Refining yields.

Refining Mechanics:

Resources must be refined while standing near a Blast Furnace.

Players refine resources using recipes. Refining recipes demand equal amounts of two Mined Resources plus an amount of Coal. (Coal is purchased only from NPCs.)

Refining yields are determined mainly by the level of Refining Tool being used.

The player gains CXP from every Refining attempt, regardless of success or failure.


4. Toolcrafting

Overview: Toolcrafters make the tools needed by all other crafting vocations. Without the proper tools, high-level crafters achieve only a fraction of their potential.

Skills

Toolcrafting (max level: 500)

Raising Toolcrafting gives you....

• Improved chances of success when crafting tools. To attempt a recipe, the player's Toolcrafting skill must equal or exceed the recipe's difficulty level.
  
• The ability to use better Magnifying Glasses, which further increases Toolcrafting skill.

Toolcrafting Mechanics:

Higher-quality tools are harder to craft, cost more resources, and require higher skill levels to wield. They also dramatically improve the performance of those crafters capable of using them.

For Butchery, Mining, and Refining, tools increase resource yields.

For Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, Toolcrafting and Spellbinding, tools improve the player's skill level.

A successful Toolcrafting attempt may occasionally create a 'flawed product' with severely reduced Durability or a 'masterpiece' with greatly improved Durability.

The player gains CXP from all successful Toolcrafting attempts.


Tool Types

Hunting Knives are used to butcher corpses.
Mining Picks are used to harvest Iron and Silver.
Rock Hammers are used to harvest Stone and Crystal.
Hatchets are used to harvest Wood.
Crucibles are used to refine Steel and Dramastic.
Chisels are used to refine Moonglass, Tukalite and Runewood.
Flat Hammers are used to craft weapons.
Shaping Hammers are used to craft armor.
Magnifying Glasses are used to craft tools.
Athames are used to craft Spellbinding materials.

5. Weaponsmithing

Overview: Weaponsmiths make weapons for the adventurers of Dereth. Crafted weapons start out with certain special abilities and can gain more through the process of Spellbinding.

Skills

Human Martial Weaponsmithing (Swords & Daggers, Flails)
Human Exotic Weaponsmithing (Staves, Bows, Vials)
Tumerok Martial Weaponsmithing (Swords & Axes, Spears)
Tumerok Exotic Weaponsmithing (Drums, Nests, Cestas, Handblades)
Lugian Martial Weaponsmithing (Swords & Axes, Hammers)
Lugian Exotic Weaponsmithing (Scepters, Swordstaves, Boulders, Wrenches)

All Weaponsmithing skills have a max level of 500.

Raising Weaponsmithing gives you....

• Improved chances of success when crafting weapons.
  
• The ability to use better Flat Hammers, which further increases Weaponcrafting skill.

Weaponcrafting Mechanics:

Each type of weapon has seven styles, in order of increasing difficulty: Light, Balanced, Weighted, Heavy, Guardian, Champion and Arcane.

The crafter first chooses a weapon type and style, then selects the desired level of the finished product. The combination of these factors determines the weapon's ingredients and difficulty.

Weapons typically cost some Mined and/or Refined ingredients, some Butchered ingredients, and some amount of Coal (purchased from NPCs).

A successful Weaponsmithing attempt may occasionally create a 'flawed product' with severely reduced Durability or a 'masterpiece' with greatly improved Durability.

The player gains CXP from all successful Weaponsmithing attempts.

Weapon Styles

Weapon styles bestow the following advantages and disadvantages on finished weapons:

Light: Lower Vigor costs, one Spellbinding slot.
Balanced: Improved Durability, two Spellbinding slots.
Weighted: Lesser Improved Damage, one Spellbinding slot.
Heavy: Greater Improved Damage, no Spellbinding slots.
Guardian: Improved Armor Level, Lesser Reduced Damage, two Spellbinding slots.
Champion: Improved Weapon Masteries, Greater Reduced Damage, two Spellbinding slots.
Arcane: Reduced Durability, three Spellbinding slots.

6. Armorsmithing

Overview: Armorsmiths make armor for the adventurers of Dereth. Crafted armor starts out with certain special abilities and can gain more through the process of Spellbinding.

Skills

Human Armorsmithing (max level: 500)
Tumerok Armorsmithing (max level: 500)
Lugian Armorsmithing (max level: 500)

Raising Armorsmithing gives you....

• Better chances of success when crafting armor.
  
• The ability to use better Shaping Hammers, which further increases Armorsmithing skill.

Armorsmithing Mechanics:

Each type of armor has four styles, in order of increasing difficulty: Light, Flexible, Reinforced and Battle.

The crafter first chooses an armor piece and style, then selects the desired level of the finished product. The combination of these factors determines the weapon's ingredients and difficulty.

Armor typically costs some Mined and/or Refined ingredients, some Butchered ingredients, and some amount of Coal (purchased from NPCs).

A successful Armorsmithing attempt may occasionally create a 'flawed product' with severely reduced Durability or a 'masterpiece' with greatly improved Durability.

The player gains CXP from all successful Armorsmithing attempts.


Armor Styles

Armor styles bestow the following advantages on finished armor pieces:

Head, Body and Legs
Light: 2 Spellbinding slots
Flexible: Improved Max Vigor, 1 Spellbinding slot
Reinforced: Improved Defensive Masteries, 1 Spellbinding slot
Battle: Improved Armor Level, 1 Spellbinding slot

Hands
Light: 2 Spellbinding slots
Flexible: Improved Max Vigor, 1 Spellbinding slot
Reinforced: Improved Offensive Masteries, 1 Spellbinding slot
Battle: Improved Armor Level, 1 Spellbinding slot

Feet
Light: 2 Spellbinding slots
Flexible: Improved Max Vigor, 1 Spellbinding slot
Reinforced: Improved Runspeed, 1 Spellbinding slot
Battle: Improved Armor Level, 1 Spellbinding slot

7. Spellbinding

Overview: Spellbinders transfer enchantments from looted weapons and armor to other items. Both looted items and crafted items can be improved through Spellbinding.

Skills

Spellbinding (max level: 500)

Raising Spellbinding gives you....

• Better chances of success when crafting a Philosopher's Stone.
  
• Better chances of success when applying a charged Philosopher's Stone to a item.
  
• The ability to use better Athames, which further increases Spellbinding skill.

Spellbinding Weapons and Armor

First, a Spellbinder crafts an empty Philosopher's Stone or Gem. Philosopher's Stones extract a random enchantment from a source item, while Philosopher's Gems extract all enchantments from a source item. Philosopher's Gems are harder to craft, and both Stones and Gems must be crafted to a high enough level to contain desired enchantments.

If the player's skill check fails during this process, all the ingredients for the Philosopher's Stone/Gem are lost.

Any player may use a Philosopher's Stone or Gem on a looted source item to extract one or all of its enchantments. The source item is destroyed, and its enchantments become charged Stones (i.e., "Stone of Toxin.")

A Spellbinder may use a charged Stone to apply that enchantment to a new item. The target item's wield requirements must equal or exceed the requirements of the source item. The target item must also have an available Spellbinding slot.

Most looted items have one Spellbinding slot. Crafted weapons have 1-3 slots, and crafted armors have 1-2 slots.

An average Spellbinding success reduces the target item's Durability by a small amount. An exceptional success avoids all Durability damage, while a marginal success causes extra Durability damage.

Outright Spellbinding failure is impossible--the worst thing that can happen is a marginal success. However, if a Spellbinder is not of sufficient level to apply a charged Stone to an item, he may not attempt that Spellbinding.

The player gains CXP from successfully creating Philosopher's Stones/Gems and from binding spells to target items.



II. CRAFTING EXPERIENCE AND LEVELS

1. How do I earn Craft XP?

As players perform Crafting actions, they earn Craft XP. Almost everything you can do in the Crafting system earns CXP.

Resource-gathering skills (Butchering, Mining, and Refining) grant CXP based on the player's skill level, so a level 50 Miner earns more CXP by Mining than a level 1 Miner. For these skills, CXP is earned regardless of success or failure.

Item-manipulating skills (Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, Toolcrafting, and Spellbinding) grant CXP based on recipe difficulty, so a player earns more CXP by creating a level 50 sword than creating a level 1 sword. For these skills, CXP is earned only on successful attempts.

2. How can I spend Craft XP?

Craft XP may be spent to raise any Craft Skill. (For example, you can earn CXP from Butchering and spend it on Human Armorcrafting.)

Each additional level of a Craft Skill costs more CXP to purchase.

There is no limit to the number of skills in which a player may spend CXP.

There is no normal way to untrain skills.

3. Will my existing crafter get free Craft XP for his old skills?

Yes, players will receive CXP in compensation for their old craft skills. The exact formula for this conversion has yet to be determined.

4. Will I be able to reset my new Craft Skills if I make a mistake?

Normally, it will not be possible to reset or untrain your Craft Skills. We're investigating the possibility of allowing limited resets during the launch month, to help players correct any mistakes they make while spending their converted Craft XP.


III. ITEM DURABILITY

Item Durability is being introduced with the launch of the new Craft system. All Crafted and Spellbound items gradually wear out through use. This ensures that crafters will always have a market for their items.

1. When do items lose Durability?

Weapons have a chance of losing Durability with every attack.


Armor pieces have a chance of losing Durability every time the player is hit. (That chance is divided among all the armor pieces a player is wearing.)


Tools have a chance of losing Durability every time they are used.

2. What happens when an item runs out of Durability?

That item is destroyed. (Players are therefore encouraged not to use near-ruined weapons and armor in combat.)

3. Do looted items or quest items have Durability?

A looted item doesn't have Durability unless a crafter uses Spellbinding to add an enchantment to that item. Once Spellbound, looted items wear out just like crafted items.

We don't currently plan to add Durability to existing quest items, but future quests might give rewards that involve Durability.

4. How quickly does Durability run out?

Weapons and armor will last "a really long time." You shouldn't have to worry about purchasing new ones until you've just about outgrown the old ones.

Tools will last "not a really long time." They'll be good for 50-100 uses, on average.

These values will probably change drastically during balance testing, so that's really all I can say at the moment.

5. Can Durability be repaired?

Not at the moment.

[Ashante]

IV. RECENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Butchery

Why does your Butchery skill level not affect the amount of material gained by Butchering a corpse?

Actually, it does, in two ways. First, higher Butchery skill improves your success rate, which translates to a higher average yield per corpse. Higher Butchering skill also allows you to use better tools, which increases the amount of material recovered after a successful attempt. You can think of this as a Butchery skill bonus that's only unlocked when using appropriate tools. Similar dynamics apply to Mining and Refining.

Shouldn't there be a "Butchered by..." tag on monster corpses after they're butchered?

Yes, this will appear in the corpse's examination panel.

Will groups have to police themselves for 'ninja butchers?'

If a fellowship member continually butchers corpses against the group's wishes, you'll have to kick them out. We're working on a more comprehensive solution, but I can't offer an ETA at the moment.

I want to craft with my high-level Healer who hasn't taken any masteries, but he can't kill monsters five levels below himself. Doesn't this mean I'll be a lousy Butcher?

Afraid so. If your character is a terrible fighter, he won't make a great solo Butcher. However, there are lots of great fighters in the game who will probably be glad to sell you Butchered materials or exchange them for other services. This is the sort of interaction that makes economies thrive.

However, we know a lot of people are concerned about this limit. If it proves too restrictive during balance testing, we'll expand it.

Why can I only receive CXP from 100 Butchery actions in a day?

Butchery is the only craft skill that's vulnerable to macro abuse. This is a safety valve to ensure that nobody can find a way to earn Craft XP all day while they're AFK. We'll examine this limit during balancing to make sure it doesn't penalize Butchers too much. Note that you can butcher as many times per day as you want, you just stop earning CXP at a certain point.

2. Mining and Refining

After I use an Iron Mine five times, do I have to wait three hours to mine Iron again?

No, you can move to a different Iron Mine and immediately mine five more times. There are about forty-five different mines in Dereth, so dedicated miners will do plenty of traveling...

After I use an Iron Mine five times, does everyone else have to wait three hours to use it again?

No, the timer only applies to individual players.

Will Critical Successes in Mining be affected by the yield of the mine you are at?

Yes, the Critical Success multiplier will compound with the mine's yield multiplier. Mine yields currently hover around the 100%-130% range.

Why do pure Miners have to split XP among ten skills while pure Butchers only have to raise one skill?

It will probably cost less XP to raise the Mining skills, and the difficulty of mastering Mining will doubtless increase the market value of Mined and Refined resources. If you're the only guy producing large quantities of Moonglass on your server, you should be in pretty good shape to make a mint.

Still, we do have concerns about this. If Mining is too difficult to advance compared to other skills, we may consolidate either Mining or Refining, or increase the caps on other skills to compensate.

3. Weaponsmithing

Why can't we craft daggers or foci?

We really wanted players to be able to craft daggers. However, every weapon style is linked with one specific art type. With eleven Tumerok edged weapons and only seven weapon styles, something had to go. We might sneak one or two daggers into the Human Martial tree, or we might drop some Tumerok Axe art to make room.

Foci are stranger--they're a Tumerok-themed weapon that Tumeroks can't use, and mages already have loads of Staves and Rods to choose among. Foci are probably out for the moment.

Why are Flails Martial Weapons and Bows Exotic Weapons? For the Tumeroks and Lugians, the Martial weapons can be used by any characters of those races. Flails can only be used only by Defenders.

Bows and Flails both make some sense as Martial Weapons. The problem is that Alchemists are not heavily played, and Defenders can already use crafted swords and axes from all three Martial crafters. So who would specialize in Human Exotic (Staves, Flails, and Vials) when they could specialize in Lugian Exotic (Scepters, Swordstaves, Boulders and Wrenches?) It's my hunch that Bows add more value to the Exotic category than Flails.

However, it's a tough call, and Flails do seem more exotic than Bows. This may change during balancing.

Can you craft a level 150 Light Weapon or a level 1 Arcane Weapon?

A Level 150 Light Weapon? Sure! We're hoping that most of the weapon styles are valid choices from levels 1-150, depending on your character template. (To be honest, the principal virtue of Light Weapons is that they're the cheapest and easiest to make.)

We're not sure if there will be minimum level requirements for weapon styles...the idea of a Level 1 Arcane Weapon is kind of silly. It's something we're still considering.

Arcane Weapons don't seem cooler than the other weapon types. And reduced durability sucks! So why are they the hardest to craft?

In the absence of balancing data, we suspect that a triply-customizable weapon will prove more powerful than a doubly-customizable weapon with built-in advantages and disadvantages. There are some powerful enchantments out there! However, if this doesn't turn out to be the case, we might adjust the order of the weapon styles or remove the Durability penalty.

There is one design consideration: we don't want any weapon style to be ABSOLUTELY superior to any other weapon style. So Balanced weapons must retain some minor advantage over Arcane weapons, even if it's just higher Durability instead of a third Spellbinding slot.

4. Armorsmithing

You listed positive differences between the types of armor, but not negative differences like weapons have. Are there no trade-offs on armor? Every type gets one positive, with no drawbacks?

That's correct. Armor has fewer Spellbinding slots than weapons, and there are fewer Armor types to balance against one another. This makes us more comfortable with offering pure benefits on Armor. This may change during balancing.

Can we craft Helms? Robes? Shields?

Helms: Are craftable for every armor style.
Robes: Are craftable for the Light Armor style.
Shields: Will be craftable in several varieties. (We're still not sure what the styles will be like.)

5. Toolcrafting and Spellbinding

Can an enchantment be extracted from a crafted item? You could just extract and re-apply the same enchantment forever....

Nope. They can't be extracted from Spellbound looted items, either.

Will the resource caches be modified so that they no longer drop tools? If not, the value of crafted tools will be decreased.

Resource caches, along with the tools they once dropped, will disappear forever.

6. Craft XP and Leveling

Do we have specific CXP values or leveling curves yet?

Not yet.

Will Craft Skills provide 'trickle-down' buffs to other skills? If I'm a Master Human Martial Weaponcrafter, shouldn't I know something about Human Exotic Weaponcrafting?

Craft Skills won't affect each other. However, if you are a Master Human Martial Weaponcrafter, you're making boatloads of CXP with each crafting success. You can spend that CXP to "twink" Human Exotic Weaponcrafting to a decent level quite easily. Think of it as a trickle-down system where you control the trickle.

7. Durability

Exactly how long will weapons/armor/tools last before they wear out?

Most tools will probably be good for 50-100 uses. Weapons and Armor will take much longer to wear out, and high-level Weapons and Armor will have greater durability than lower-level Weapons and Armor. The exact values will definitely change during balancing.

Can Durability wear out in combat? Will I be in the middle of a battle when my drum disappears?

Yes, if your drum breaks during combat, you will suddenly find yourself drumless. We considered a system where "broken" items remained in the game, but had their damage or armor level set to zero. Although cool, this concept had to be cut in order to meet the Craft 2.0 deadline.

8. Miscellaneous

Will it be possible to leave the current dyeing system in place until the new one is implemented?

Unfortunately, no. But returning Dyeing to the game will be a high priority after launch.