My first 4 hours with Boundless

I mean, in principle people could go around right now giving new players diamond hammers, yeah? That we don’t (usually) do that is just a function of economy. If low players run around with superdiamond superhammers, well, is that a problem? And if yes, is it not mitigated by their lack of the stats/mastery/durability skills to really make use of the hammer?

But I see your point about specialist crafters. In which case:

…that’s a good point. And I’m a bit talking out of my ahem tailbone here, because “crafting” in the sense of “put two sticks in get one sword out” has never been my thing in a game, but it does seem like crafting could use something more to make specializing in it beneficial. So here are some ideas based on different systems where everyone can craft basic versions of items, but crafters have some benefit:

crafters make better gear

  • A specialized crafter has an x% chance (increasing with how deep they spec) to craft a “masterpiece”, which has y% improved stats.

  • More involved version: crafters can select a stat to specialize in for their masterpieces – so a Power-specialist makes masterpiece hammers that hit harder, a Dex specialist makes faster ones, etc. Or can infuse a weapon with some other materials to buff it?

  • Crafter-specialists make gear with an additional slot. Slots can be filled with craftable upgrades to give a tool extra effects. (Ideally these effects would range from useful to cosmetic to utterly ridiculous just-for-fun things – hammers that squeak & whatnot xD)

crafters make visibly different gear

  • Only craft-specialists can use make tools with two colors (assuming two-tone tools ever become a thing)

  • Crafters can change the appearance of a tool in some way

  • Crafters can add their maker’s mark glyph, as suggested in another thread

crafters make gear more efficiently

  • like the bulk/mass crafting now.

Again, I suppose I’m biased by not much liking game-crafting in general. But the reason I don’t like it is exactly the reason @Optimist-Prime mentioned:

So I guess yet another option would be to make crafting depend in some way on player skill or knowledge. I’m not sure what that would entail. Complicated personalized recipes? Some sort of minigame? But probably you’d rather not revamp the entire way crafting works…so I’ll hold off on another idea-flood there. For now. :wink:

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That wouldn’t change anything really yeah they could have diamond hammers but in the hands of the user they would be useless basically

all the rest about what you said is good though