Forums » Crafting and Gathering

Maker's Mark Tool Idea

    • 186 posts
    November 26, 2016 9:05 AM PST

    "Maker's Mark"

    I often wonder what makes craftsmanship so appealing to a consumer. Apart from the pride that goes into creating an item, there seems to be a connection made between quality, the level of experience a craftsman has and of course ownership of said item. For instance, say you have a sword, the level of detail that could be delivered with a robust crafting system is for a different topic all together, but the relevance here is each step that is taken through the process, and the amount of efficiency that was achieved along the way. 

     

    In the crafting of this sword say you have the below example:

    Image result for different parts of a sword

    (compliments the middleages.net ;) )

    While some parts could be combined as a whole (ie, perhaps they do not wish to go to this degree, I mean blade, cross guard, grip, pommel and scabbard should give depth enough). It is each pieces quality that determines the end product.

    With my previous idea, (to create runes, or give a weapon magic attributes) a special tool could be crafted as a Master craftsman. The similar level of detail could be given to the tool, where you have the seperate parts of the tool, (haft, head of hammer, the runes themselves, and whatever binding agent is required to combine it all).

    If you have a tool that only comes out at 80% efficiency, it would only add 80% of its bonus to your weapon (that is to say that the runes would only be 80% of their potency), and the Mastercraftsman could either choose to add his name to it (perhaps there could be a naming convention, where the attributes determine what the weapon is called) or given the opportunity, to continue to work on making the part of the tool a higher quality. 

    This could be achieved by removing the runes from the head of the tool, and recasting the part of the tool that negatively impacted the overall quality. The runes themselves would likely be found items within the world. They could have relevance to the story, perhaps they are ogre in origin (which could impact the weapon similarly to whatever the Ogre natural abilities are, str con, etc.) or from an ancient civilization that is only known through myth or legend. The Makers Mark would be the name of the craftsman, and since the tool is difficult to make, and takes a lot of time and effort to gather resources for, the craftsman could become known by the quality of their weapons, the bonuses that are given from their special tool and perhaps the style that they specialize in.

     

    Hope this is a little more cohesive, as I said before I would rather this be something that adds to crafting, and not something that distracts, and it could give real depth to the "Made by" aspect of a craft.


    This post was edited by VitaKorp3n at November 26, 2016 9:05 AM PST
    • 902 posts
    December 3, 2016 2:03 AM PST

    I'm all for a very in-depth crafting system and I do want to see finished crafted items be a sum of what they are made of; makers skill, materials, magic and precious stones (etc.). I love the idea of crafting individual parts of a whole and would like to see crafting disciplines trading with each other for parts that are required outside the player’s profession.

    Back to the main point of this thread though, I do like the idea of a maker’s mark (but as I said in a different post), I think this should be kept for high end, rare items, not for mass produced, levelling items.

    I also like the idea of selecting from a range of icons to create a unique signature. Though 9 individual elements maybe a bit much? Maybe 3 or 4 in a single line would be more practical? You would have to make around 15 different symbols to allow all crafters to be able to create a unique combination. Also, thought would have to go into how people would go about creating their own signatures. You don’t want a system that allows the player to create a signature, press a "Check" button and then have it come back and say "that combination is in use". Frustrating and very time consuming. You need a mechanism that only enables icons where the current sequence can be extended. For instance, in a 4-icon system, if we chose the first three icons, then the fourth slot would only show the icons that have not already been claimed by others. If every icon has been selected for this last slot, then the third icon, should not be accessible for that sequence when the player was selecting the third icon. Thus, helping the crafter create a unique signature. Maybe something along these lines could be adapted for naming characters to stop the dreaded "That name is already taken" syndrome?

    • 186 posts
    December 3, 2016 11:44 AM PST

    Perhaps this tool would have the requirement of "Master [Craft]", 9 interacting runes (or whatever item gives the tool the special additional traits) may be a bit overkill, but I have to wonder if 4 spaces would give it enough variance for something that feels special? I am going to take a serious look at this a bit later, from what I understand of the problem it would use both Factorial and powers to figure out the possiblities.

    The second point you brought up is incredibly important. It would be incredibly frustrating if you found something that you liked, that felt like it met your character's personality or whatever, and it tells you "sorry, no" I would likely not bother with this system personally if I felt so limited. One reason I removed this topic from the "Made by" thread was because of this, for one thing, I didn't think it really fit the topic, and because I didn't want to distract from that OP original idea. The two ideas could easily work together, the crafters name is put on whatever they craft, and the Markers Mark symbolizes the traits that the runes or whatever give the tool, that are found on the items they craft.


    This post was edited by VitaKorp3n at December 3, 2016 1:27 PM PST