Shattered Kingdoms

Well, I've looked through the help file, and did a search through the forums, not to mention looking through wert's thread about new additions without finding any info or request for it, so maybe I'm missing something.

Why is there no smithing, tailoring, woodworking, cooking, fishing, or any other crafts implemented in the game?

I have to admit, since I just didn't hear anything about 'em, and my IC experience as a dwarf mentioning if there were any smiths around just kind of got me a wtf giggle response, I figured there was some big reason known by the builders and the experienced players and everyone just kind of went along with it, but I honestly have no idea why a game of this size simple doesn't have crafts.

I apoligize if there's an obvious answer to this somewhere, but I honestly am stumped

There are smiths and tailors to repair equipment/make things out of skins. However, there are only so many materials they are skilled enough to touch. (There used to be others that could handle just about any material you brought them but they were eliminated/nerfed.)

Everything else (all other crafts) must be done strictly by PCs using purchased RP tools for that purpose.

Well, the simplest answer is that there is no coding to support it. One can always rp the process: my first character was a smithy, yet didn't actually have a coded way to create/repair items.


Not a dumb question, though.

Now, a second light of my ignorance jumps out. I'm new to MUDs, and to be honest, this is my first MUD, so before I say "Well, why don't you add the code!" (which, I've never worked with MUDs, but I've programmed a few games in the past with friends, and I understand a new feature can mean thousands of lines of code and a long time of debugging) maybe you guys can clear a few things up.

I've seen all kinds of... engines? I suppose? used to run MUDs. Is this basically what the MUD uses as a basis, and if so, are all engines incompatible with each other? (i.e. you can grab the crafting code from one engine to apply it to another without horrible horrible things happening)

Durlik would be (much) better qualified to answer that question than I am, but I believe it is something to the effect that SK started with a generic mud code [see the info that shows up when you first log on] but has been so heavily modified that it is essentially unique now.

I don't believe it is really feasible to graft code from, say, another mud to SKs.

Well, thanks for your responses, they did clear a few things up. I'll keep hopping back and forth to this topic (in case new knowledge or perhaps Dulrik surface ) but it seems pretty clear.

Still, I'm tempted to wander over to the "What I want to see in SK is..." thread and make the suggestion, just to see if it's just me that wants to be able to smith my blades and cook my stews, or if there's perhaps enough support to warrant a larger petition, of sorts.

People have wanted all sort of trade skills for a while now, it was even one of the highest picked options on a poll once.

Still no trade skills. Don't get your hopes up.

Werttrew is right in that it was not a standard feature of our MUD code, or any MUD codebase that I know of, when we started creating SK in 1994. I've long wanted to do an economy, including trade skills but I only have so much time available to me for adding new features. There have been lots of major features added to SK that don't exist on a stock codebase, and the more features you have, the more maintenance is required when making changes, so further new features come slower.

Trade skills sound simple, but you would need quiet a lot of them to make it work, each one takes a significant amount of work, and even then the whole economy system needs to be well planned out in advance to get a true benefit from it. None of which means that they aren't coming someday. I've spent a lot of the last couple years on combat/PK related changes and I am trying to move my focus to non-combat tasks for awhile. The mentor system is a good example of the last non-combat feature that got added, so it's not like we are not adding new stuff. I plan to keep adding stuff to the game as long as there are players.

As a player, this was one change I have thoroughly enjoyed. It gives alot of rp opportunity as well. I started just before this change was implemented and wish it had been in place when I did start. You guys definately get kudos for this.

Also reading some of the posts on economy, there are some really good ideas being thrown around, look forward to seeing what comes of it in the future. Hopefully some of these trade skills will make it in someday.