Post by almordre on Jun 22, 2009 13:15:13 GMT -6
Tim mentioned that he has something new in mind for Shop upgrades in v4, but this mess just popped into my head, so I'm tossing it out, just in case it's useful
#1:
what if you very, very occasionally encountered a "Craftsman" NPC. a win would result in an item drop where you would acquire a book or "Tome" containing instructions for creating different types of gear. These Tomes could be delivered to a controlled town for use by the town's resident craftsman to expand that town's Shop offerings, or held in player's inventory until a town is taken, or sold/traded just like regular items in case you have duplicates or want to trade with others to get specific capabilities for your shop.
The type of Craftsman NPC would determine what Tomes they carry, so that you have to find and win against the right one to get access to the gear you want. You'd have to find and win against a Knifemaker and return his Tome to your controlled town to add knives to the Shop there. Naturally, if someone brought back a second-level Tome of Cutlery
, but there was no first-level Tome of Cutlery there, the second-level Tome would be too confusing and the town's craftsman wouldn't be able to do anything with it until he got a copy of the first-level Tome.
stat-wise, the Craftsmen would prob have to be hard-coded to hit at least a couple levels above the player encountering them, to increase the difficulty of beating them - only a fairly well-performing character, or really good luck in the fight would let you win against someone who inherently knows their weapons (like a person who makes them usually does). As the players gain XP and levels, they would naturally encounter higher-level Craftsmen, and therefore get access to better Tomes and better gear to their Shops.
#2
What if the Shop worked like a real blacksmith/craftsman would work? He doesn't have shelves full of stuff for sale - he waits for someone to come in, place an order for some armor, pay for it, and then he starts making it. He also can only produce so many pieces in a day's work.
So, you'd visit a Shop, pay your money, and come back later (how much later depending on how 'big' an item) to collect your gear. While the Shop is working on your order, everyone else is waiting for their orders to be filled, because the craftsman can only work on one project at a time. Could probably base the time-to-make on the item's equip points with an equation of some sort. This could use the same time scale as the character's age - a 'day' game time equals an hour. The Shop would need to give an estimate on completion time, allowing for time needed to make the item, and standing orders that are already waiting.
To offset the time needed to make things, think of the day Perrin spent helping out the blacksmith in... ummm... Illian, was it? Controlling-clan-members that hang out in town "assist" the Shop craftsman, and he gets things done a little faster. Maybe even higher-level or "older" players speed things up more than low-lvls...
This scheme has a couple of fringe benefits - it could encourage players to spend a little more time in their towns to speed up getting their new gear or the income from everyone else's gear, and it could encourage a little more "commerce" between towns - if there's a huge wait for a sword in Illian, you travel a town or two over and see if they're as busy there...
OK, it's time to leave one job and run to the other one, so there may be more to follow to flesh these ideas out - not sure if the "train of thought" has hit the station yet or not, but I gotta run
#1:
what if you very, very occasionally encountered a "Craftsman" NPC. a win would result in an item drop where you would acquire a book or "Tome" containing instructions for creating different types of gear. These Tomes could be delivered to a controlled town for use by the town's resident craftsman to expand that town's Shop offerings, or held in player's inventory until a town is taken, or sold/traded just like regular items in case you have duplicates or want to trade with others to get specific capabilities for your shop.
The type of Craftsman NPC would determine what Tomes they carry, so that you have to find and win against the right one to get access to the gear you want. You'd have to find and win against a Knifemaker and return his Tome to your controlled town to add knives to the Shop there. Naturally, if someone brought back a second-level Tome of Cutlery
, but there was no first-level Tome of Cutlery there, the second-level Tome would be too confusing and the town's craftsman wouldn't be able to do anything with it until he got a copy of the first-level Tome. stat-wise, the Craftsmen would prob have to be hard-coded to hit at least a couple levels above the player encountering them, to increase the difficulty of beating them - only a fairly well-performing character, or really good luck in the fight would let you win against someone who inherently knows their weapons (like a person who makes them usually does). As the players gain XP and levels, they would naturally encounter higher-level Craftsmen, and therefore get access to better Tomes and better gear to their Shops.
#2
What if the Shop worked like a real blacksmith/craftsman would work? He doesn't have shelves full of stuff for sale - he waits for someone to come in, place an order for some armor, pay for it, and then he starts making it. He also can only produce so many pieces in a day's work.
So, you'd visit a Shop, pay your money, and come back later (how much later depending on how 'big' an item) to collect your gear. While the Shop is working on your order, everyone else is waiting for their orders to be filled, because the craftsman can only work on one project at a time. Could probably base the time-to-make on the item's equip points with an equation of some sort. This could use the same time scale as the character's age - a 'day' game time equals an hour. The Shop would need to give an estimate on completion time, allowing for time needed to make the item, and standing orders that are already waiting.
To offset the time needed to make things, think of the day Perrin spent helping out the blacksmith in... ummm... Illian, was it? Controlling-clan-members that hang out in town "assist" the Shop craftsman, and he gets things done a little faster. Maybe even higher-level or "older" players speed things up more than low-lvls...
This scheme has a couple of fringe benefits - it could encourage players to spend a little more time in their towns to speed up getting their new gear or the income from everyone else's gear, and it could encourage a little more "commerce" between towns - if there's a huge wait for a sword in Illian, you travel a town or two over and see if they're as busy there...
OK, it's time to leave one job and run to the other one, so there may be more to follow to flesh these ideas out - not sure if the "train of thought" has hit the station yet or not, but I gotta run