My Idea For Crafting

[Reinhart]

*EDIT*
Terribly sorry, I didn't realize proposals for changes had to be made to the Privy Council.
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Since I can't seem to post topics in the suggestion forum, this is going here.

I doubt we will ever see official support for crafting in Mount & Blade due to the nature of how weapons and armor work in this game and if we do it won't be especially deep for the very same reason, however, in my years of (slowly) creating, re-creating and perfecting my paper and pencil (Mostly Instant Messanger.) RPG system I've played with a number of crafting systems and I want to propose my favorite, modified to allow for it being used by the Mount & Blade engine, or at least as far as I understand it.

The basis for this system is to first create a new skill... let us say 'Blacksmithing'. This skill will be bestowed to not only the character but to all NPC blacksmiths in varying degrees, one smith may have 2, one may have 4, etc. (Perhaps assigned randomly at the game's outset.) Going to a different smith would result in different quality work, what this would do is add some serious variety to the arms and armor or Mount & Blade and make weapon and armor shopping much more enjoyable, however, I'm not done yet allow me to explain the mechanics.

Each weapon and armor has a base amount of damage or protection (respectively.) it imparts, yes? Well, when a piece of equipment is 'made' the equipment will be modified by the blacksmith's skill and/or a bit of luck, let me explain. The system I use for my game has base statistics for each piece of gear, lets say we're making a Katzbalger (Germanic sword.) and it has a base offensive rating of... 12, lets also say the blacksmith has a blacksmithing skill of 30 (This would translate into 3 in the Mount & Blade engine.) all you have to do is take the base of the weapon and increase it by 30% resulting in 15.6, or 15, improving the quality of the blade. To add additional variety an additional modifer of between 1-20% may be randomly added to account for the inherant imperfection and inconsistancy in human actions. My system also accounts for various (Mundane to mystical.) metals but that wouldn't be an issue in Mount & Blade due to the non-fantastical slant on the game. It's pretty simple (In theory.) and I think it could add some life to the equipment in Mount & Blade which almost seems to be stamped out by modern machinery with it's unchanging (Except for some basic modifiers.) abilities. Negative modifers could be kept in to represent the effects of equipment which has been used before, which I like.

I guess upon thinking about it this system would present some balance issues because in theory you could have a short sword doing as much direct damage as a great sword but in theory that is possible if the short sword is especially fine and the great sword is of very poor quality.

Thoughts?

 

[Voutare]

I like it, but I think that if someone has a rating of 35, it should be %35 percent add on, it should just be 3.5, so it is more dependant on the number, and not the base.

 

[Orion]

Your post made absolutely no sense to me, Voutare, but whatever.

Reinhart, I completely agree with you, as much as anyone possibly could. At the moment, modifiers are just randomly selected, but I would greatly prefer the system you have suggested, where the quality of the weapon is both random and based on the skill of the crafter/NPC. Randomly generating the NPC's "Blacksmithing" skill would be an awesome idea as well, and would be much more realistic. Not all blacksmiths in medieval times were of the exact same skill level

Overall, I love it. Every single aspect of it.

 

[Reinhart]

*EDIT*
-Stuff added.

Well yes, my game's system works on that principle... but Mount & Blade supports a skill system with a much lower set of numbers, 1-10 etc. So, I used 30, 40, 50% examples, you know the description could read: "Increases the base statistics of crafted weapons and armor by 10% per level." Unless it was made to be a... second kind of skill, maybe one that improves with use that can be on a seperate number system but I didn't do that with my system because it was to... confusing, theres some things only a computer can do without it being far to annoying and tedious.

 

[Stonewall382]

Should be pretty damn doable, too.  Just use troop slots for the smithing skill, and modify the refresh vendor items trigger.  The hard part would be making the weapons in module_weapons.py able to be changed just by a trigger.  I don't know that a variable would work in the base damage section of the item entry.
Wait!  If item slots exist (I'm not sure whether they do or not), those could potentially work to show each individual weapon's damage.  *shrug*  I wanted to be able to modify damage in weapons myself for my mod, so I'll check it out in a bit maybe.

 

[Voutare]

I like it, but I think that if someone has a rating of 30, it shouldnt be 30% percent add on, it should just be 3, so it is more dependant on the number, and not the base. So instead of having something that is 12 base, that would become 15, you could just add the 3 to the 12, to make 15... and with larger numbers it would be easier to calculate, and I dont think the engine can work with percents anyway.

sorry, forgot the example.

 

[Stonewall382]

...But adding 30% to 12 would give you 16, not 15.  What's your logic behind wanting this?

And yeah, the engine can work with percents.

 

[Reinhart]

If you round up it gives you 16, if you just take whole numbers it's 15 and it wouldn't scale properly if you just added 3 to all weapons adding 3 to a dagger and 3 to a bearded axe doesn't scale properly, thus the % system.

 

[shope]

I forge knives as a hobby, and therefore have a great deal of interest in crafting systems.  Any mechanism which would create diversity and dynamics in a game is always a plus, because it adds to the replay value and detail level, with the varrying weapon atributes and such.  Although I sincerely doubt any official introduction of this due the narrow tunneling motion, the game developers are headed in the production of the game.  In regards to different materials for the weapons, there really are only lower carbon grade steels and higher carbon grade steels, any use of wrought iron in something that is over a foot long has to very thick to prevent bending (Wrought Iron is a very soft tough substance) and is very impractical for swords, you could use wrought iron to make axes though.  Or you could have different steel manufacturerers, of different local foundries, which have better methods for melting down the iron ore into steel, some would have less impurities in the steel and others would not.  I think it would be great if the crafting was similiar to that of The Guild 2, where you own a blacksmith workshop and you hire employees to craft items, you would have to supply them with resources and you could sell your goods to towns by hiring caravans, and you could also hire escorts for the caravans to ensure no bandits attack them.  Otherwise, great plan and im glad someone else is interested in crafting.

 

[Reinhart]

Yeah, that was what I was saying, the lack of 'real' diversity in crafting materials makes using different metal types pointless for Mount & Blade. I have bronze, iron, steel, high carbon steel, mithril and one of my own creation; moonsilver. The later two couldn't be used in Mount & Blade and the first-- while a fine metal to make weapons out of, would be out of place.

And of course, I love crafting, I like the thought of making your own weapons and armor and I like diversity in my arms and armor. Shopping for weapons and armor is also pretty fun and I've been hoping for a diverse system-- perhaps more complex than the one I suggested in a game such as an MMORPG but nobody has tried it.

 

[Orion]

If all else fails, you can ask Winter. He might even use the idea in his next version of craftmod