Dulrik wrote:
What do you want to see from such a system? (What's the goal of adding crafting?)
Creation of items from plain (a piece of parchment) to elaborate (a sliver of sky (in pretty colours)).
A way to customize pieces up to a certain quality. There shouldn't be a way to mar the work of an item that is already considered to be mastered. (A breastplate of black stone to a breastplate of black stone with red jade inlay.)
Dulrik wrote:
What all should you be able to make? (Anything? Weapons/armor only? Tools and accessories only?)
Weapons, armour, clothing, shovels, scrolls, vials, wands, staves, musical instruments, writing parchment, dyes, trinkets.
Dulrik wrote:
How good should those items be? (Potentially better than anything found or strictly worse?)
For the most part, I think that most items created would be on level with average to good, depending on the players skill, with a chance to create something that is considered to be a masterpiece. With age ticks, add a bonus chance to increase the probability to create masterpiece items.
Dulrik wrote:
How hard should it be? (How many steps? How much resources and time to be invested?)
It should scale with difficulty depending on the level of item that is being created. A piece of plain paper would take some wood, water and a little bit of time and can be used to create 20 pieces of parchment every 3 real life hours, for example. A grand master sword would require high quality ore (being either bought or found), chemicals/minerals (again bought or found) to enhance the ore in smelting for basic production and could only create one every real life day, more for even more elaborate pieces.
Dulrik wrote:
How fixed should the system be? (Duplicate items you've seen? Need to obtain pre-set recipes or plans? Randomly throw things together and see what happens?)
For the most part, I think that most items would be similar to what is already found within the game that would be created. These items would be taught by craftsmen for just coin and not experience taken, unless experience were to be granted for creating items. For the the items which would be considered more rare or special in nature, a partially legible page or a ripped note, something alone those lines, would be found. Taken to a master craftsman of that trade, you are given partial knowledge of how to create that item.
You get a ripped page from the corpse of your latest kill.
look page
Dwarven runes appear slightly smeared and faded on what is left of this page. A familiar rune on the page is found which is known to be a common rune among dwarven-kind as being the mark for armour crafting.
When taken to dwarven smith Alebeard and given to him:
"This is amazing! The smithing technique of Rockhand the Sure. Named so because rumours told that his hands were so calloused and worn that he could probably fold steel with his bare hands.
Enough of the history lesson. This is by no means complete, but it is still highly prized!
I shouldn't, but you did find it and shared these secrets to making the legendary armour that King Thumin wore with me, so let me show you what all these runes mean."
You learn some smithing techniques of King Thumin's armour.
skill
King Thumin's armour (poor)
"If you should find more notes about this, bring them to me and I will certainly help you, and myself, of course, in learning these techniques better."