[Enginseer-42]

So, Dev Mats and uniques genuinely are a bit of an issue. Events have become a necessary 'Dev-Mat Grind Circuit' rather than the cool spice of life adventures they once were and that's no good, because without some kind of paid DM job, there's no way you're going to get enough events for everyone. Despite our really good DM's.

So, firstly, I really like Blox's Alternative, where Dev Mat Creation is something you can do as a master craftsman. I don't know if it would be possible, but getting a combination of a refining process for various 'dev material' metals as an unlockable tier 0 craft, and the ability for alchemists and artificers to create unique dev-mats that they can name/write descriptions for, perhaps with hard coin costs to create them like with anvils, but the higher the coin cost, the more valuable the dev mat? Perhaps some kind of key word system? Not sure.

Secondly. Bring back mire style monsters, but make them.... more varied? And have them serve to replace events as the bread and butter of dev mats. Dragons from the Tarians, Holy Spirits from the Temple of Eos, Crazy void-beasts from the ruins of Achyon/Pauper, Mutants, Monsters, Undead. Ents, Ogres. Give each an ability that spawns a dev mat for the first person to defeat them in a given year, with fluff set by the monster character and a ranking value set by their current RPL. Possibly a higher value for a kill, but I don't really like the idea of incentivizing kills, but I also don't really like the idea of farming a weakened monster for loot. Not sure how that could be balanced.

Thirdly. It would be neat if large factions could perform 'Projects' to get Dev Mats. The faction spends money/resources, and a 'focal point' is placed on the map. Every day it remains up, it gathers points, and can be harvested for dev mats by the ones who placed it. But it can be destroyed or looted by enemies, which gives them dev mats instead and either destroys the focal point, or lowers it's point accumulation. Celestial Festivals, Holy Artifacts, Dark Rituals, Crazy Magitech Structures.

EDIT: This should really be in suggestions and I have no idea how I ended up putting it here.
EDIT EDIT: Theori has fixed it's location.

[StarMann]

I proposed this idea a couple months ago but I liked the idea of having a travelling Bazaar that pops up every few weeks that people can go to and spend coin on low to mid tier dev items and then have an auction for the higher tier stuff. It was sort of the purpose of the travelling merchant EC I had for a while. Just a way of getting dev items out there. I do plan on making a new Chester character at some point too to help alleviate some of dev item drought.

[BLOX]

I proposed this idea a couple months ago but I liked the idea of having a travelling Bazaar that pops up every few weeks that people can go to and spend coin on low to mid tier dev items and then have an auction for the higher tier stuff. It was sort of the purpose of the travelling merchant EC I had for a while. Just a way of getting dev items out there. I do plan on making a new Chester character at some point too to help alleviate some of dev item drought.

Kinda reminds me of the traveling shop in Stardew, where if you show up at a certain time on a certain day you can purchase items.

Wouldn't be too hard to do either, either mechanically or via a DM, but I feel like if a DM does it they might get burned out.

Anyway, here's a more detailed suggestion for the dev-mat creation hidden that I had in mind.

Synthesis (Artificer/Alchemist) - 5rpp
Requires: T1 Alchemist or T1 Artificer
Flavor: As a master in your craft you've taken one step forward towards creating objects. Taken a step above ordinary crafts and materials, you are capable of forging/brewing special items that can be used in a broader sense. No longer are you tied down by the standard- now, imagination is the only thing holding you back. The user of this skill is capable of creating rare items for application purposes through various means. By sacrificing items that correspond to their original occupation (metal/ore/gold for artificers, reagents/potions/gold for alchemists, both for double crafters), they are capable of synthesizing unique items that have never been seen before.
Suggested Process:
This one is a bit tricky because there are a few ways that it can be achieved effectively, I think, but each have their own problems.
Ticket System (1):
An in-game ticket system that allows for Synthesizers to submit a series of materials, a report, provide an icon of the item, and a series of logs for admins to review once they are available. Think of it like a-helps but only accessible to those who have paid to invest in Synthesis. Each admin can vote yes/no after reading it, and once all admins have cast their vote, the player receives a notification (like a letter) informing them of if the synthesis failed or succeeded, along with any additional notes that the admins might have. This removes the journal system as a middle man and gives instant feedback from admins authorized to do so, keeping things in-game. At the same time, it could run into the problem that tickets have, wherein some tickets remain unanswered for a while...
Journal System (2):
By making use of the journal system and the item app format, it could be possible to submit a few RPs, offer up a few materials, and be rewarded (with much less criteria) with a dev item or two. While this would make bulk dev items a bit easier, it'd run into the problem that the journal system has, wherein they take a bit of time to get answered. This, combined with the fact that creating dev items would be step 1 in a 2-step process for whatever (usually crafting uniques), making the class effectively moot and pointless.
Automatic System (3):
A system by which no admin interference is really needed. A certain amount of gold and materials can be used in a Synthesis crafting window to achieve a certain quality of dev item. The icon, description, and everything else are up to the synthesizer, which gives for freedom, and erases the middle man of admin interference. The biggest problem, in this case, is likely ensuring that players follow lore limits, and it's more likely that you'll be able to achieve whatever you want if it's kept up to the whims of the synthesizer. Still, with a few well-placed rules, this could probably go well??? Hopefully?

Other Abilities:
So if we go with my original idea to nerf uniques by having them 'artifact' (a.k.a. lose all their stats and require something to fix that after a certain amount of years), I think synthesizers should also have the mechanical ability to undo this. Think of it like the medic skill, but it's cast on an item. Still costs 1000 energy per use, and the amount of times the skill has to be used will probably be more than just 2... if you think of it like the medic skill, you could treat this like a reverse injury, where the amount of time left is instead with 'how badly corroded the item is,' which increases the more it's left alone.

anyway thats it this idea was made on a whim so if it sucks its not my fault
unless it doesnt suck in which case i worked hard on it

[Chance]

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.

[NikolaNeiju]

There was masterwork artificer pending for rework on the Mastery Magic list for a long while, I wonder if that could be repurposed for BLOX's idea? I'm fairly sure there are a lot of people who would want to be a master artificer, perhaps a non-combat, double crafter/medic oriented character. Those that pick to help people indirectly, have connections. Etc...!

Have it give IC benefits more than anything, so that it doesn't feel like a grind tool! Helping forging custom materials, have some bonuses when working on large projects, so that these may actually feel like they can be accomplished with help of several professional individuals!

It could give less renown people or those who are just starting out their journey a good goal to work towards if they choose to pursue the art of crafting (such as alchemy or artificing), allowing them to make their own impact that does not SOLELY rest on verbing which as many of us know. Can be stressing, hard, and sometimes unfair even if you do everything right!