Zadraes, first let me say, thank you for the seamstress in HE. It got me thinking though...could we have something like this year round?

In addition to standard tasks that are already in the system, what if we had the opportunity to do some crafting related tasks that would reward some sort of ticket-like currency, as well as prestige.

I don't know how easily convertable they are, but maybe adjusting the current society masters to give/accept either a work order or a task? Or just a new NPC in the area.

To prevent 24/7 tasking, maybe limit it to 5 tasks every 24 hours? The currency could then be spent at a crafting shop for high quality (and limited use) instructions, better tools etc. Obviously not katana-level, but somewhere around quest-level prizes? Expensive enough that they will take some saving to get, but cheap enough not to totally deter using the system.

Just thinking! :)

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You say, "Tada."

WHAM
A sudden burst of oily smelling air strikes you in the face.

I don't think we will ever see 'quest or auction' level prizes in the daily systems; if we say base store stuff is +/- 0, then Normal steel is +1, Quest is variable between +1 and +3, and auctions are probably variable between +3 and +5.

Best we could probably hope for is rare but not auction quality goods, like having electrum, plat, etc. come out. Or possibly a grab-bag of tickets and similar fest-specific currency, since we'd have to pay for the fest to spend those, and they're non-transferable.

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I'm a badger, I be badgerin'

A big benefit is that she takes any set of items.

Could allow players to make what they want and/or is actually good for training and get compensated for level and material.

I would think Zasele like NPCs would be good to put in the clans, or smaller cities that don't have societies.

I could see a little one or two room "workshop" on Aesry that had maybe Zasele-Like-NPC, a crucible, forge, and ingot cutter, (or similar per crafting skill).

If you could design them small and easily deployed with just one or two rooms, and one NPC that wore a lot of hats, it would be easier to deploy crafting halls (or small workshops) in the outlying areas. As demand for them grows in various places, you could replace it with a society and make the workshop premium only or something.

Just a thought on how to take existing items and meet player demands at the same time.

I liked Zasele, and the concept, it might be neat to have them give out small amounts of tickets, or script, as a "rare" reward. Increasing the value of the item should increase the chance for a "rare" reward. Might encourage people to use the nimian for alchemy or throw platinum in their metal widgets, etc. Mastercrafted might also give a bonus.

I think as a trade off for giving out the rares they should be out in obsucre places without societies that already exist. You want to just grind workorders and have everything at your finger tips, stay in Crossing. Want to have a chance at something rare, maybe start brewing potions out in Knife Clan, for example.

Either way, I like stuff like this.

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Player of Diggan, Ranger & Halfing of Aesry

>>Convince me. What's fun about Zasele that work orders lack? What rewards could she offer (NOT crafting materials) that would make it worth while?

IMO the benefit was that she gave physical rewards. I like prestige as a concept, but it doesn't actually give anything beyond maker's marks. Also, while I know it's not sensible, and even though it doesn't really provide much, the whole decay aspect still bugs me.

So I kinda knew where I stood with Zasele tasks better than prestige. It's not like the dyes I got would vanish or my task counter would go down if I took time off playing the game.

IMO a perfect world would be having prestige work like the task counter, and being able to occasionally get the chance at something "special" for doing crafts. The one other thing that crafting does currently lack is the chance at something cool like you get when looting mobs. When I'm crafting, I'm glad I get coin, but I'm also going "well, I guess if I spend my time crafting today, there's no chance at a map or some other rare fun thing."

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Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

One great thing about Zasele was that freedom to make what you wanted within her guidelines (cloth or leather, 4 piece items or larger, well-made (?) or better). It was nice to be able to leave the fest grounds, go hang out, train a little, whatever, make a few things and when I went back to the fest grounds, you got the task and turned things in. True, you can "cycle through" work order requests to get ones for just what you want to make, but then you also have the timer on them. So you never start a work order, esp. if you are a forger or blacksmith...bleh...if you might have to exit the game anytime soon.

Diggan had made the suggestion to add NPC's like that to smaller cities that don't have societies, and I think that could be kind of neat. For instance, SCC is pretty armor/weapon heavy, so have a wandering NPC that gives "tasks" for crafted weapon or armor items. Horse Clan is alchemy friendly, so the "tasks" there could be for remedies. I could even see there being 2 kind of tasks from each NPC, a prestige task and a materials task. So if you didn't want to mess with a work order, but still wanted to further your prestige, you could ask for the prestige one, it would reward more than just stamping something, but less than a work order, plus a handful of coin.

The other task option could be for materials. I agree with lots of comments here, that the fest quality stuff doesn't need to be in the loot table for these, or it should be very, very, very rare to get. But, it was nice when turning in Zasele stuff to get back some basic cloth once in awhile, I just had to keep the thread and pins on hand and the rest was self perpetuating. So maybe it could be like that. The Remedy task folks would give out herbs, alcohol, water and catalysts in their loot bags. Forging tasks would have ingots, oil, backings, etc. Basically, balance the reward sacks to that after x-amount of turn-ins, you would have enough low to mid-quality base materials to do another x-amount of turn-ins. The idea here being you aren't necessarily turning in high value items for work order coin, or to maximize your prestige with the hardest masterfully-crafted item you can make, but to give you some focus to your training other than dumping the results into the closest bucket. That you also save yourself trips back to a city for your base materials is also a huge perk, esp. if you're making a trip from Hara or M'Riss every week for stuff. Unk.

That would actually be nice to take something off Kodius' plate too, since he has indicated not being a huge fan of building up the actual Society Buildings, Society Emissaries could be put out around the different areas that would give you a way to participate in the crafting systems more without the stress of having to make whole buildings & NPC's. Make it so the remote NPC's would be able to return your deeded items, maybe with a short delay (Alchemy Society Emissary JoeBob looks at your deed and indicates it will be a few moments while he sends a runner to collect your item), kind of like the delay when Premie folks ring the bell to transfer their vaults. A perk of having a career or hobby could be reduced fees or times on that, if you have Remedies as a hobby and go to the Remedy Emissary, it's free to turn in the deeds, there would be a small fee for anyone else. You would still need to hit up a Society Building if you wanted specific materials, to train your techniques, pick up a register, buy books & tools, etc. But without knowing the voodoo that GM's do in making new NPC's, it seems like it might be a good way to fill in remote areas with some very basic access to crafting and take a little of the pressure off having to get buildings for each craft going in each major city.

And, it would free up folks who want to maintain their prestige but feel tied to a city because they need to stay close to a society building and/or forge. If the Emissaries were pretty common, someone could say craft up 50 sets of gloves, deed them and put them in their registers, then head out to hunt or play somewhere away from a proper forge. Every couple days, they find the Emissary, ASK EMISSARY FOR PRESTIGE TASK, complete it and reset their decay timer. And while some might make the argument that if you are serious about your prestige, staying near a society building is the price you pay, I would counter with the idea that if the crafter made the 50 gloves, what does it matter if they turn them in all at once or over the course of 2 or 3 weeks. Same amount of prestige gain (or possibly less) but just spread out. Making someone stay tied to an area just to keep their prestige from decaying seems...mean.

Finally then, in order to give these guys a fun factor, maybe make a global 'fun loot' pool they all can potentially pull from when giving out material rewards. The artistry dyes are a good example, they don't benefit anyone but are fun to use. Maybe put pretty tools in the group, like how the Premie team put fancy-dancy forging and alchemy tools in various monthly gifts. Could have some "crafting themed" clothing and RP toys. Nothing that someone could sell and retire on, but you know...fun stuff. :)

~Kythryn
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain

>ZUERCAT's post

TL;DR?

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Mmmmm...pie

>Finally then, in order to give these guys a fun factor, maybe make a global 'fun loot' pool they all can potentially pull from when giving out material rewards. The artistry dyes are a good example, they don't benefit anyone but are fun to use. Maybe put pretty tools in the group, like how the Premie team put fancy-dancy forging and alchemy tools in various monthly gifts. Could have some "crafting themed" clothing and RP toys. Nothing that someone could sell and retire on, but you know...fun stuff.

Digging this up way late. Or early, depending on how you look at it. If any creative types wanted to design stuff to go into such a pool, I'd be accepting them at my play.net address. Standard disclaimer applies -- All submissions become the property of Simutronics to be used as desired. The submitter gives up all rights to the submission. Entries can be modified as needed/desired and used for any needed/desired purpose. This isn't a contest, so no prizes are promised beyond my eternal gratitude.

Not making any promises, but having a head start with a list of items to throw in could help a few potential future projects.

SGM Zadraes
Premium Lead
Trader Guild Advocate

While I'm not Zadraes, if I were answering such a request and wanted to be really helpful, I would first focus on designing items rather than expanding on the mechanical advantages that the items might produce. And I mean that in the most literal sense. What do they physically look like. Sometimes that's the hard part, and it can get easily overlooked. Be sure to use the standard guidelines for alterations (http://www.play.net/dr/info/alteration.asp) to provide a TAP and a LOOK for an item. and design items like you were getting an alteration or LTB scroll. Be creative but sensible.

Though I also personally approve of making every item out of tacosilk. And that is why I will not be designing anything for anyone anytime soon.

Helje
DragonRealms Board Monitor

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at DR-Helje@play.net or Message Board Supervisor Annwyl DR-Annwyl@play.net.