Marlon P. Posted December 8, 2021 Posted December 8, 2021 This is a proposal for a minor overhaul of how we handle in-game crafting. The basics of what I am suggesting is a soft restrictions system expanding on mechanics that already exist, giving a proof of concept. The current system is handled entirely through staff moderation. What crafts can and cannot be crafted is not marked anywhere or immediately intuitive. We have our “Skills” system but this is no more than a vague suggestion. Even if you’re marked as a “professional” at construction, the moderation staff is not going to let you build things you should not be able to build. This system is a holdover to a far older time where the skill system was also not enforced. This can definitely be better. Skillset We currently have four levels of skill expertise. [Untrained] [Amateur] [Trained] [Professional] Crafts We have 9 categories of “crafts” when interacting with “sheets” of materials. Recipes are, more or less, duplicated irregardless of the material the sheet is made out of. For the purpose of this suggestion all “crafts” will be assumed to be from your basic steel sheets. Generic Crafts Generic Construction Generic Miscellaneous Construction Recipes Miscellaneous Construction Airlock Assemblies Turret Frames Modular Computers Steel Weaponry Step 1 is reorganizing the categories to have sub headers marking their difficulty. Options below chosen arbitrarily only for demonstration. Generic Crafts [Untrained] Generic Miscellaneous [Amateur] Generic Construction [Amateur] Construction Recipes [Trained] Miscellaneous Construction [Trained] Steel Weaponry [Trained] Airlock Assemblies [Professional] Turret Frames [Professional] Modular Computers [Professional] Failure Conditions You can craft any item of or below your crafting skill with a 100% success rate. Items above your skill level have a 45% chance of failure. Items 2 levels above have a 66% chance of failure. Items 3 levels above have a 75% chance of failure. This means that we can still craft any item at any point in time when we have access to materials. However we face the realistic problem of fumbling in it because it’s above our skill level. The existing system I referenced in the opening paragraph is what we use for improvised weapons. Weapons are made with a quality determined by your skill. Recipe Books / User Guides A set of recipe books, or user guides you could call them, will be created. There will be 9, each with a title conducive to roleplay. Big Book of Generic Miscellaneous A Guide to Practical Generic Construction Hephestus’ Airlock Assemblies User Guide Et al When a recipe book is in your possession you can make any craft within that category with a maximum 10% chance of failure on each attempt if it’s above your level. These recipe books will be available to check out from the library. The actual mechanic of doing it You hold the book in one hand and craft with the sheets in the active hand. Any additional conditions is up to the developer's intuition. This system does not consider crafting beyond the original metal sheets. Maybe in a future suggestion if this model is shown to work beyond improvised weapons. Balance Normal rules on powergaming will still apply. Going through all the effort of checking out a book on, say, swordsmithing in order to craft your sword not only gives the crew to notice your (apparent) intentions IC’ly, but there is also an OOC awareness of what you are doing. Running around with a book on these matters does show your hand, which can both cover you IC and OOC if you have good intentions. But at the same time, and what makes it fun, it can also incriminate you severely. Running around with a book on swordsmithing after reports of some suspicious individual attacking people with swords? Well, why do you have that? Are you the suspect??? Conflict! Roleplay! Justify yourself to security or your friends or you will die instantly. Another balancing feature that I like is inventory management. Inventory management and by proxy resource management is a core element of gameplay. Running around with several recipe books means you lack inventory space for other items. Antagonists The options of your run-of-the-mill traitors intrinsically being given [professional] levels skills or being reliant on their existing skills are both incredibly interesting because of the duality of freedom and operating under restrictions. That is why for antagonists it should be up to the player as a toggle from the antagonist menu on character selection. Thank you for reading my suggestion.
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