Quality Control

[tremlingrendel]

Had an idea where whenever you create something, it show you the Quality it's going to come out as, and you have the ability to decrease the quality of the item when you make it. Whether or not there's some advantage to doing so, that's up to what's fair. But having the power to control the quality of what I make would be something I would enjoy having.

Though some alternative ideas to the concept:

- Maintenance: Taking the repair concept steps further, that objects have a "maximum quality" and decrease in "current quality" as they decay (or are used). When you repair/maintain an object, it recovers some of it's "current quality", based on the quality of the object used to repair it, but can't recover more than it's own quality. Example: A q50 tanning tub is currently q8/50. You use a q10 board to repair it, and the tub is now q10/50, but you need a q50 board to repair it to full.

- Upgrades: Once you're able to make higher quality versions of something, you could use the same material it takes to repair an object to upgrade it's quality instead (rather than having to make new ones). Example: You have a q10 Tanning Tub, and a q50 board (and appropriate skill to make a q50 Tub), so you just upgrade your tub instead of building a new one (though it may not be a q50 tub, may be like, q20 or 30, requiring more boards to fully upgrade).

- Dismantle: Though I've seen this concept suggested before in many different varieties, the idea of being able to break an item or structure down back into it's crafted parts (or just a fraction of them). However, the recovered parts would have reduced quality from the original (example: a q10 stone axe gives you a q5 stick when you dismantle it).

- Money Talks: The ability to use coins as a substitute for crafting materials when using the above abilities, and a new skill "Marketing", which allows you to obtain lowered quality coins off goods you dismantle (a q2 silver coin instead of a q5 stick from the above scenario). Adds a mechanical use to coins, but obviously creates a strange system of create/destroy to the coinage that may not be what's intended for currency.

[rye130]

You can already control quality enough through intelligent play and using the formulas. Proposing a mechanic that requires you to use high quality materials in repairing is never going to go over well with the community because repairing stuff has never been an enjoyable mechanic. Trying to make a use for coins is pointless, they were intended as a currency and don't work as such because of reasons discussed in other threads.

[tremlingrendel]

You can already control quality enough through intelligent play and using the formulas.

I know, I meant as a slider you can use to make lower-quality items than the maximum you're capable of with your skill/tools/supplies. More of a cosmetic ability more-so than one that applies any specific strategy.

Proposing a mechanic that requires you to use high quality materials in repairing is never going to go over well with the community because repairing stuff has never been an enjoyable mechanic.

That's part of the reason I would want to see it. A constant struggle against an environmental condition of entropy and decline.

Trying to make a use for coins is pointless, they were intended as a currency and don't work as such because of reasons discussed in other threads.

All the more reason to try and find solutions, or at least temporary uses, of an otherwise unused aspect of the game.

[AnnaC]

Quality decay for structures would just be unneccesary tedium. Also since structure quality is essentially abstract (it must be infered from end products they produce), something like this would need that to be changed (not that magnifying glasses, or more interface displaying structure/object quality hasn't been requested before as well itself).

Upgrades and dismantling would be nice though, it can sometimes get tedious destroying and building new stuff. However the abstraction on quality, it does make it easier to just upgrade your equipment in generational gaps, instead of a gradual upgrade (which of your old ones have been upgraded?). Either way quality is a balancing act, I know there is a difference of ideas about how much of the game should be obviously displayed as far as the shown maths are.

The coin ideas, no. Just no.

[SuperNoob]

out of all of this the only part I saw that caught my attention was lowering quality below max....this could come in handy for armors/nettles if you're going to make them and get 1-2 quality higher than where your last bonus comes, but in that you get another penalty. if you could make it lower you'd get max bonus with min penalty, and I sort of like that concept.

then again its not really that big of a deal(you can always use an alt with lesser stats to softcap something).