Flawed Quality Code
Previously the quality code was a bit flawed in that, it was pretty much impossible to gather anything but average (or worse) quality items. Simply because the tools that one could purchase from shops were typically of only average quality.
Varying Quality of Items now available
I’ve updated code so that shops have a random chance of stocking with items of different quality. From awful all the way up to excellent. Of course, you’re more likely to see average than excellent but there is the chance that you’ll be able to buy one eventually. The trick will be to keep checking stores till you find one. The higher the quality tool, (or really any item) the more it is going to cost to buy and the more you’ll make on it if you sell it.
What Does This Mean for Crafters?
So, now we have tools of varying quality, what does this mean? It means that you’ll notice some variances in the quality of them items you gather AND the quality of the items you craft. When you craft, it looks at the lowest quality of all tools used (and also checks your skill) and selects that for the resulting item.
Examples:
awful knife + excellent skin + master leather working = awful product
excellent knife + excellent skin + inept skill = awful product
good knife + good skin + reasonable skill = good product
Make sense? Now… what does producing objects of higher quality mean for the crafter? Basically better profits.
Breakage
Also, your tools are less likely to break if they are higher quality. Break you ask? You haven’t seen that happen before? Now an tool’s quality gradually reduces over use. As it reduces, there is an increasing chance of it breaking when used for crafting.
What it doesn’t do yet:
A better quality sword isn’t going to do more damage. Quality doesn’t effect armor, or food, or anything other than aesthetics, price and tools. For now.
Darvhul
March 6, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Will Blacksmith/Weapon smiths/Armor smiths be able to fix the broken or damaged?
Leech
March 6, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Er… so it picks the worst variable in the bunch, and that’s how the item comes out? It doesn’t average all variables together?
Carmine
March 6, 2009 at 11:45 pm
@Darvhul Hmm, quite likely not as not all times that reduce in quality would be made of metal.
@Leech That is right.
Demosthenes
March 7, 2009 at 10:36 am
Does this mean weapons will degrade over time as well?
Also, I would assume this means that for tool-less crafts (basically gathering) that you can get higher quality items also?
Furthermore it would seem to be worth adding some method whereby players can create high-quality tools themselves to use or sell at premium.
Xietanu
March 7, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I’m a little curious about the breakage. How quickly will they wear down, roughly? I just wonder because some crafts have relatively expensive tools, and replacing them on a regular basis could be a problem, at least for the less well off characters.
Also, I’m a little curious about the reasoning behind choosing the worst variable when making an item. I would have thought that given the same poor tools/materials, a master of a craft could still make something better than a novice? Equally, wouldn’t novice be more able to make something nicer out of better materials than poor ones?