Engraving on tools and weapons

[Liss12]

I was watching video about woodworking and engraving the other day and i thought to myself, hey it would be cool if we have things like this in haven, not only it would be super fitting thematically- people of yore would decorate everything they could with engravings and painted patterns- it could be an interesting mechanic too.

I know there are quite some people who play H&H solely for the game of chance with gilding/gem cutting with a hope of creating truly LEGENDARY artifact. This suggestion is about the same thing: spending months of work and tons of resources to flex on your neighbours with your gucci stone axe.

So my idea goes like this: basically engravings would be sort of gildings for the tools but with a twist: instead of providing stat/skill bonus like every gilding does they would give minor bonus corresponding to tool's purpose. Like extra speed when cutting trees for an axe, a small chance to get extra crop for a scythe, or reduced stamina drain for a shovel. I do not suggest it to be another Q boosting/spiraling mechanic! There would be couple of ornaments to choose from like knots, waves, vines, skulls and such which provides specific bonus when applied to specific tool, so trial and error mechanic cooking style yay.

And then there coming the casino part: each ornament have a chance to be successfully applied based on chisel q, tool q and heartlig's will*dex*psy*smithing/carpentry, failed engraving would result in "botched engraving" that gives penalties instead of bonuses. Each consecutive engraving on the same tool have smaller and smaller chance to be successfully applied to the point being abysmally low. And now the most exiting part of it: some engravings may combine into bigger one for example sea+trees=knarr, knarr+skulls=Naglfar with bigger and more sophisticated bonuses a little extra motivation for crafter to try to apply more and more engravings and discover new combinations. So what do you think?

[WowGain]

failed engraving would result in "botched engraving" that gives penalties instead of bonuses

this alone would ensure that not a single person would ever risk taking a tool thats actually important to their industry/combat and ruining it through dumb luck

[Southpaw]

idk about y'all but i'd rather not have to craft multiple of the same tool just to try to get a good roll on it while not getting a bad roll, and then immediately destroying the bad rolled item as a waste product.

people would not try to make overly complex gilded clothings if you could actively harm them doing so

whole ideas cool without penalties, tho

[Liss12]

idk about y'all but i'd rather not have to craft multiple of the same tool just to try to get a good roll on it while not getting a bad roll, and then immediately destroying the bad rolled item as a waste product.

people would not try to make overly complex gilded clothings if you could actively harm them doing so

whole ideas cool without penalties, tho

I was thinking about making penalties creative too, like axe that gives you cruel splinter every time you chop wood. Still perfectly usable for every other purpose like butchering or mining.

Ofc no one will risk their best Q hammer/pickaxe/axe to get some minor convinience bonuses, but fiddle with your not-so-best tools- why not? Make dedicated pickaxe for tunneling with extra mining speed and less stamina consumption, or perhaps even with rare buff of slightly reducing cave-in chance.

[vatas]

failed engraving would result in "botched engraving" that gives penalties instead of bonuses

Upgrade system like that is staple of Korean MMOs and usually associated with heavy pay2win, often as blatant as being able to buy scrolls that make the chance to succeed 100%.

[MagicManICT]

There are games with quality systems where the "grade of skill" performed in the minigame determines the usability of the end product. Star Wars Galaxies (emualtion server is available if you have access to the original game installation), A Tale in the Desert to name a couple, you have to meet minimum quality to use a mid level product to make a finished or other high level product, or the higher quality devices perform better. Otherwise, I think vatas has the right of it--it's mostly a p2w slot-machine mechanic.

And people are going to grind out a ton of items to get that "perfect win" no matter how heavily the odds are stacked against them.

[Sevenless]

It'd make more sense to subsume these bonuses into the gilding system (with a new set of gilding materials, like gems for rings).

This game has a silly amount of mechanics, and if we're adding a new system I think it makes sense to build it off existing mechanics if the option presents itself.