Crafting materials, Colors, and quality

[Barbamaus]

Hello! How's everyone doing?
I've noticed many of the latest updates introduced new colors for brick-related items.
That's very cool, but unfortunately those are all structures where quality matters. And this brings me to this thread.

Haven is a game heavily focused on raising the quality of your stuff. Some could even say that it's the game goal to get to keep making better items than the one you currently have.
Making design and quality come from the same materials forces players to choose between having the thing they like and having the best they can make.
This means that most people will have red or yellow brick stuff anyway, because that's usually the best clay you get.
This becomes especially bad considering quality matters for Snekkja and Knarr too, which are some of those items you would really want to look the way you like.

I believe it would be best to have building materials matter for quality, and then having an option to re-design what you built by adding the materials of the color you like.
For example, I make an oven with the best clay I got, but then I can add [X amount] grey bricks to make it look grey. [X amount] could be the same as it takes building, or less, that's up to you. It should still be enough so that 1 piece is not enough to change the whole design.

To be clear, this change would only be necessary on items where the quality matters.
Houses, wheelbarrow, study desk, and such do not need such an option (they could have it, but it's not necessary) because you can already ignore quality and go for design.

I know this is not a huge issue (and many probably won't care about it), but I think it would make the game better. After all, we spend the entire game trying to improve our bases, so why not giving us a better chance to improve its design?

[Archiplex]

Can already do this with http://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Sketchbook

[Barbamaus]

Can already do this with http://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Sketchbook

You missed the point.
That's a shop option, which makes sense mostly for those materials that would be way too expensive or even impossible to get. Make a stone tower out of rock crystals. Make a Knarr sail with golden cloth. And so on..

But it just makes no sense that if my best clay is ball clay, I can't make a grey oven without paying or renouncing to quality, no matter how much grey clay I have.

[Archiplex]

Shop option will become redundant and useless if you can replicate this with ingame costs, even if said cost is like 4x the normal materials required.

[MagicManICT]

Trading for premium items is also a viable option. You don't have to be able to be able to buy them yourself directly from the store.

edit:

Shop option will become redundant and useless if you can replicate this with ingame costs, even if said cost is like 4x the normal materials required.

Pretty sure jorb has already stated that he is firm on this stance as you've stated it. I'd have to dig up the old patch notes where sketchbooks were given the ability to change building colors from at least a few years ago (w10, I believe).

[jorb]

For the default case, I think looks should reflect what you built the object from, and if you want to change the looks, I think the store option performs that function. Not looking to change this.

As a hypothetical, if we removed the store option, I think looks should always reflect the materials you built the object from, and there shouldn't be an option to change that.

Yes, customization is nice, but I also like how looks in the normal case conveys meaning.

[Flameturtle]

Yeah, if you've got a big village and you're using the water clay for your objects then that indicates to me I might want to check out the local clay q in case its better than mine. I like that the items reflect how they were made and if you want to customise the look of your stuff then you have to plan ahead.

[Barbamaus]

Shop option will become redundant and useless if you can replicate this with ingame costs, even if said cost is like 4x the normal materials required.

It would be nice to know how many people actually buy that item and use it for "common" materials, instead of the rarest ones.
Also there's plenty of games where you can buy items that you can also get in-game. The people buying it are usually those who consider their money less valuable than the time they would spend getting the item themselves (or too lazy to do it). So that wouldn't change.

Trading for premium items is also a viable option. You don't have to be able to be able to buy them yourself directly from the store.

Is it though? Premium items are usually traded either for other premium items / tokens, or for top quality items that most people don't have. Unless you have the luck to own the highest quality -something-, you'll usually be unable to buy those.

For the default case, I think looks should reflect what you built the object from, and if you want to change the looks, I think the store option performs that function. Not looking to change this.

As a hypothetical, if we removed the store option, I think looks should always reflect the materials you built the object from, and there shouldn't be an option to change that.

Yes, customization is nice, but I also like how looks in the normal case conveys meaning.

I love that it reflects what you build it from, but that works well only for non-quality items. Fine by me if I have to travel far away to get the stone I want for my house. But the color of my quality items will always be forced upon me by what's the highest q material.
Even with wood works that way: you can start tree planting on day 1 for the wood you like, but then you get a q40 seed in an ant dungeon and that's gonna be the high q wood you have.
What if instead of changing where it takes the look from, it changed where it took the quality from? Kinda like you get two sections when you build something: the first gets the quality materials and makes "the inside" of the structure. The second one gets the design, making the outer layer of it. It could be the last layer of bricks or stone outside a smelter, or stuff like that.
Alternatively could pigments have a role in design? Bricks and wood can be painted, and so can metal in most cases.

Yeah, if you've got a big village and you're using the water clay for your objects then that indicates to me I might want to check out the local clay q in case its better than mine. I like that the items reflect how they were made and if you want to customise the look of your stuff then you have to plan ahead.

You're focusing too much on clay.
You have the same issue with wood for smokers, knarrs, and any other item where the material shows and quality matters. Same with cloth, metal, and so on. That would give you some insight on what's of good quality around there, since it's stuff they grow.

[vnsmirnov]

Beauty is always more valuable than quality!