Crafting goals/meaningful items

[ven]

How can we make items more unique?

Let me expand on my post from 5 minutes ago:

I go to a market. I have the option of buying two swords offered there, both around the same quality range. They are

• q112 hirdsman sword
• q120 hirdsman sword

I pick the one with the highest number, exclusively because it has a high number attached to it.

Now consider this alternative scenario:

In the market for a new weapon, I see two options:

• Red Blade, crafted at the Ivory Kingdom by Ned of house Riverfall, at day 80 of year 1.
• Sword of Mayhem, crafted at the Kingdom of Netherland by Jennifer of House Nuggety, at day 120 of year 2.

Which one do I choose?

• I notice a random rare crafting bonus gave the 1st sword a red skin instead of the standard gray one, hence its name. It was also created in a kingdom that doesn't exist anymore, so there's a unique historical value in this one.
• But upon inspection I see the 2nd one comes with a list of famous kills, so I know this sword was part of some recent faction drama. I also have some friends in the Nuggety family, it would be nice to promote their name a bit.

I think giving endgame players the ability to make their products unique can be a great way to improve everyone's experience with the game. Not just weapons, but also armor, clothing, and some other items. They can be used to add a cultural dimension to the game, as they spread the fame of a kingdom, village, crafter and family. These accumulate as the world lasts longer, generating preexisting lore for new players without further input by the devs.

Trade could be much better too, since it would not be just a matter of achieving a higher number than your competitor, but rather of finding more and more unique and interesting items than the barterstand next street does.

A few rare bonuses could also be randomly applied during crafting, from simple things like armors in different colors to % modifiers in cooldown, walking speed, crop yield, wound resistance etc.

[DDDsDD999]

Unique items with rare bonuses would be cool. Tie in end-game dungeon/boss-fight type stuff and rare random drops and it could be really interesting. One annoying thing is crafting a Q100 sword with a rare enchantment or whatever, and it becoming useless because everyone has Q150 swords. Should have some way to let the bonuses carry over to new weapons, or refining weapons.

I think a weapon buffing a specific move could be a really cool way to balance stuff, and get people to use a variety of moves. Maybe a realm could buff all the weapons crafted in it for a specific move or colour.

"Culture" as a game mechanic could be interesting, but it would need to be done well. Kinda makes me think of Civ. The more I think of haven politics the more it makes me think of Civ tbh.

[2d0x]

...One annoying thing is crafting a Q100 sword with a rare enchantment or whatever, and it becoming useless because everyone has Q150 swords...

True, but if you add a carry, then rarity and uniqueness become an empty sound.

[DDDsDD999]

...One annoying thing is crafting a Q100 sword with a rare enchantment or whatever, and it becoming useless because everyone has Q150 swords...

True, but if you add a carry, then rarity and uniqueness become an empty sound.

I view it more as you carry the "enchantment." I just don't see how you could have unique items where items just keep raising quality, and not have the unique stuff be transferrable. Either the item would have to be so busted that quality doesn't matter, or you can only use it for a month (maybe that wouldn't be too bad?).

[2d0x]

I could not translate and understand everything unequivocally.
The quality can be limited by the possibility of application.
If "enchantment" appears accidentally and rarely, but it can be transferred to another object, then I will create low-quality cheap trash in large quantities. Having received the "enchantment" I will transfer this to a high-quality demanded item. And I will be a bearer in the future, along the way again making junk to get "enchantment."
It is the impossibility of inheritance (and repetition) of properties that makes subjects unique. Otherwise, this is a pseudo-rarity and pseudo-unique.

[ven]

Yeah I can see how that's an issue. Maybe a post-deep artifice skill could let a crafter spend massive amounts of XP to merge the original item with another of the same kind to keep the random bonuses but update the quality so that the weapon remains useful.

I think this would still preserve its uniqueness, since there is an element of sacrifice in gathering and then wasting lots of XP for a single item. I assume people would only do that for things that really matter to them - which in a way also makes the item special and valuable.

I don't know how much XP high-statted crafters usually have right now though.

[jorb]

Weapons making should be a much more involved thing for sure.