10-01-2021, 08:59 PM
Materials and their objective value are one of the more complicated and perhaps iffy aspects of the game, especially if there's a sense of necessity among players. Much like events themselves, which can be seen as calculated 'grind' to achieve or make steps to a tangible object, rather than an unscripted story where the participants don't know what to expect and are instead hit with surprises and ultimately satisfied with the adventure the DM provides.
You also have starkly different instances where a player gets lucky and stumbles upon an abandoned lot full of unique materials, like they're a winning contestant on a game of storage wars. And then you have the unfortunate player who is unable to get an event run and lacks the IC connections (or motivation to make them) to satisfy their own requirements for something they're working on. They would be very happy if they just 'got lucky', I'm sure, despite no roleplay or strife leading towards the attainment of the items.
So why do dev items obtained with no 'work' even have value in the first place? Because they're whatever we make them to be, they can sometimes be vague, often a paragraph or less of description and judging their value even from an IC standpoint can be difficult... which is fine, this is a game governed by creativity and make believe more than anything else. If a journal admin sees that you personally participated in the event to obtain your mcguffin, they're likely going to reward extra points in the end. If your chiron-level item has dry, recent blood on it, then it's very much worth more than a hand-me-down that's similar. It's taken into account with the amount of effort and color placed into the creation into something.
I'm absolutely in favor of creating more avenues for roleplay, which is ultimately what several of the above suggestions are, encouraging spontaneity and an alternative to attending an event, to get your piece of the puzzle to make another thing... a cycle of interaction we want to enable and encourage. It's why you can toss coin into the pot to gain themed rewards at the end of a raid, even if your team is down on overall wins.
Is it bad if there's a saturation of unique materials? No, not really. Because the determining factor is what a player does with those items, what they did to achieve them, and what they want from them. If you inherit a dozen materials but that leads to many scenes, good, it gave you something to roleplay about.
I like Blox's idea of being able to craft a custom object that you can modify and adjust the sprite / description of, a lot. It should have some kind of material sink (such as coin). We could also have standardized / public materials like alloys (the combination of multiple ores), which would be a resource & coin cost. I feel some kind of distinction will be necessary and we will need to begin marking down the 'value' of unique materials to ease the journal process (rare, epic, legendary, etc) and the customized materials would fall under the base category rather than a higher one.
Artificers can forge alloys, and alchemists can grow rare, exotic herbs. This'll also coincide nicely with our intention to automate custom props in the future, so it'll couple with that update.
On the subject of uniques themselves degrading over time, I don't really agree with that. It is likely unnecessary as, despite how it might seem on the surface, unique items actually provide a very negligible combat bonus. The most impactful are the legendary or higher tier weapons. Outside of that, you might get lucky if your armor has 5 bonus points vs an ultra arc, or you have an amulet with some ele power. It's always, purposely, very minor boosts. And the odds of someone being stacked in unique gear is also extremely rare, but in the end it's probably only scoring them an additional 10 - 20 points at the top end (which'll make a 2.5-5% HP difference in a battle, at most). Inheriting a legacy is an advantage, but it's a very small one in the grand scheme of the game's power dynamics.
You also have starkly different instances where a player gets lucky and stumbles upon an abandoned lot full of unique materials, like they're a winning contestant on a game of storage wars. And then you have the unfortunate player who is unable to get an event run and lacks the IC connections (or motivation to make them) to satisfy their own requirements for something they're working on. They would be very happy if they just 'got lucky', I'm sure, despite no roleplay or strife leading towards the attainment of the items.
So why do dev items obtained with no 'work' even have value in the first place? Because they're whatever we make them to be, they can sometimes be vague, often a paragraph or less of description and judging their value even from an IC standpoint can be difficult... which is fine, this is a game governed by creativity and make believe more than anything else. If a journal admin sees that you personally participated in the event to obtain your mcguffin, they're likely going to reward extra points in the end. If your chiron-level item has dry, recent blood on it, then it's very much worth more than a hand-me-down that's similar. It's taken into account with the amount of effort and color placed into the creation into something.
I'm absolutely in favor of creating more avenues for roleplay, which is ultimately what several of the above suggestions are, encouraging spontaneity and an alternative to attending an event, to get your piece of the puzzle to make another thing... a cycle of interaction we want to enable and encourage. It's why you can toss coin into the pot to gain themed rewards at the end of a raid, even if your team is down on overall wins.
Is it bad if there's a saturation of unique materials? No, not really. Because the determining factor is what a player does with those items, what they did to achieve them, and what they want from them. If you inherit a dozen materials but that leads to many scenes, good, it gave you something to roleplay about.
I like Blox's idea of being able to craft a custom object that you can modify and adjust the sprite / description of, a lot. It should have some kind of material sink (such as coin). We could also have standardized / public materials like alloys (the combination of multiple ores), which would be a resource & coin cost. I feel some kind of distinction will be necessary and we will need to begin marking down the 'value' of unique materials to ease the journal process (rare, epic, legendary, etc) and the customized materials would fall under the base category rather than a higher one.
Artificers can forge alloys, and alchemists can grow rare, exotic herbs. This'll also coincide nicely with our intention to automate custom props in the future, so it'll couple with that update.
On the subject of uniques themselves degrading over time, I don't really agree with that. It is likely unnecessary as, despite how it might seem on the surface, unique items actually provide a very negligible combat bonus. The most impactful are the legendary or higher tier weapons. Outside of that, you might get lucky if your armor has 5 bonus points vs an ultra arc, or you have an amulet with some ele power. It's always, purposely, very minor boosts. And the odds of someone being stacked in unique gear is also extremely rare, but in the end it's probably only scoring them an additional 10 - 20 points at the top end (which'll make a 2.5-5% HP difference in a battle, at most). Inheriting a legacy is an advantage, but it's a very small one in the grand scheme of the game's power dynamics.