Armoring ideas!

Discussion in 'Tradeskill Discussion' started by ARCHIVED-foozlesprite, Oct 18, 2007.

  1. ARCHIVED-foozlesprite Guest

    I have both a tailor and an armorer and can't help but notice that the armorer certainly gets the short end of the stick. Both make protective gear (for lack of a better word) for about half the classes in game. However tailors also make hex dolls, appearance clothing, quivers/pouches/etc. and bags (even some weapons thrown in!). I know there's probably no decent equivalent to most of these that an armorer could make but I'd like to throw in some ideas here (feel free to add any of your own as well).

    1.) Appearance armor. City merchants have it, why can't the PCs craft similar stuff? This might also be a quick fix for the people complaining about armor dyes not being planned. In addition to unique designs for armor, you could have a standard-looking design colored in a few different ways. Maybe a set of chain appearance one tier and then a set of plate the next, to help make up for all the recipes tailors have that armorers don't.

    Tailors only get a few dress outfits per tier but they get them in both male and female designs. Instead of by gender, for armorers you could separate it into individual pieces (7 crafts instead of 1). This would help balance out some of the additional recipes that tailors have over armorers.

    2. Add some sort of item for charm slots that armorers can make, similar to hex dolls. I'd suggest that instead of making a debuff item with a stat on it, make it a BUFF item with a stat on it. It would last for the same amount of time as the current hex debuffs to ensure a balance. Maybe they could be tikis or fetishes? Not too inventive on the name here but I'm sure there are lots of talented people here that could come up with a better one ;)

    3. This one is a really far-fetched idea and even I don't give it much credit but it may turn out to be worth something. To even out with the fact that tailors make bags perhaps armorers (maybe with a certain rank of tinkering required?) could make a refrigerator-like item for the food and drink slots. Maybe they could let you store more food/drink on you at a time. It probably wouldn't be too popular but it's another random idea lol.

    Let me know what you think and add your own ideas here!

    As a side note, feysteel nodes could be just a little more common ;)
  2. ARCHIVED-Condar Tarsonia Guest

    I definitely like the second idea. The only problem I could see with that is you may need to add a recast timer on the item as well, or else what's to stop someone from using it on every battle (besides a tedious 8-second cast, or similar)? Depending on the buff, this may be a non-issue, and I suppose the same could be said about hex dolls... so yes, I like this idea :)

    The first one is also a good idea, but I don't know about the separate pieces idea. Again I see the 'fairness' argument easily creeping up - who wants to spend the money on 7 separate pieces when they could just get a tailor made outfit? I'm sure there would be plenty that WOULD, but I think just having a 'one piece' armor set would be more appropriate. As you said, simply alter the color schemes within a tier/design, and alter the design in each tier. Another good idea, and I agree this would potentially help quell the armor dye cries.

    But... the refrigerator? Considering people can carry a stack of food/drink of 20, with up to a 5-hour duration... I don't really see much need for having more than 100 hours of food/drink on me at a time - unless I'm out harvesting for feysteel

    Otherwise, some nice ideas there Daine!
  3. ARCHIVED-foozlesprite Guest

    LOL like I admitted the fridge is a long shot. About the hex doll equivalents just put whatever reuse timer there is on hex dolls on them (is there even one? lol)

    As far as the armor pieces go though, I still have to think individual pieces would be best given the information presented, b/c (at least on my server) tailors make a LOT more money than armorers in general. It would also allow for some customization of outfits...a blue chestplate and pants with white everything else could even make for some sort of guild heraldry to match cloaks and such. Plus since there's no equivalent to guild colors/insignia on clothing, we could even add some similar recipes for tailors (but that would start to imbalance them again lol) and have guilds dress up in matching colors for guild events or raids :D
  4. ARCHIVED-Condar Tarsonia Guest

    Afaik, there is no recast, just a short cool-down time like normal spells.

    While I see your point about the different armor pieces to mix and match colors (to go with guild colors), and think that would work, part of the reason the devs said they don't want to see armor dyes is to prevent people from dressing in crazy color schemes... you know, the people that can't dress themselves in real life showing us that fact in the game with mismatched neon pinks and greens. Sure they could limit the colors they add, but you would still have people running around with one of each color in different slots, and that would be annoying.

    The more I think about it though, I like the idea - although I think tailors would need more recipes as well, with a similar idea but using the tailored leather and cloth armor patterns to achieve a similar effect. And no, I don't have a tailor, but I would much prefer to have something along the lines of what you're suggesting instead of those current 'clothing' options. Personally, I find them quite bad looking (for the most part), especially the male designs.
  5. ARCHIVED-foozlesprite Guest

    Yeah there's only one tailor made clothing piece I would let a male character be caught dead in and appropriately it's what my GAY fae tailor wears while crafting lol.

    If you'll look I suggested in my last post that they add some for tailors too. I agree that some people would do some ******** things with appearance but if you've ever seen the loot from Lyceum of Abhorrence you'd know that people can already use that stuff to pull off some annoying color schemes lol. For your benefit, they are the same neon pinks and greens you mentioned ;)
  6. ARCHIVED-Corgidad Guest

    I like the ideas on adding some chain and plate appearance items, and even the buff hex dolls.

    However, I have long felt that tailors get waaaaay too much breadth of items in their repertoire, and that hex dolls should have gone to the weaponsmiths.

    Perhaps this "soap box moment" belongs in a separate post, but why do tailors get 8 useful common adornments, armorer's get 5, and all other classes get just 1? Again... another way weapies could have gotten more love that passed them by.

    --Corgi
  7. ARCHIVED-hun_gover Guest

    The problem with adding short term buffs is that make a massive difference to the game mechanics, it would quickly lead to overpowering classes and there is no way that anything that can make such a difference should be player crafted.

    The only thing armorer's need is a slight increase to the quality of their product to make it a more viable alternative to Legendary class drops.

    if the product was at least viable then it would get a lot more custom and Armorer will be where it should be. Adornments should never be used to balance Tradeskill classes, because this is just ignoring and masking the real problems.
  8. ARCHIVED-Wyrmypops Guest

    Hmm, hadn't thought of extra recipes for cosmetic armours going to armourers. Sounds good to me. Good for the appearance fun, and good for armourers getting an extra few recipes per tier.
    One armour set per tier, or two, or three - vanguard, plate and chain. Each set having a theme. One could be a metallic bronze, like the melted bronze gauntlets in-game that are one offs with no matching peices. Another, a metallic red, like the Ichovirion shoulders that again have no matching peices. Could have a metallic green set, a metallic blue set, whatever. I mean, those reeeeally metallic sets, like those two peices mentioned and those from the city merchant.
  9. ARCHIVED-Lodrelhai Guest

    I would LOVE to see some player-made fluff armor - various styles of chain and plate in a variety of colors, wearable by all. 'Cause I doubt they're going to open up appearance slots to everything/anything, but I still feel that if a battlemage wants to look like a battlemage in plate, he should be able to, preferrably without having to do umpteenthousand writs for the local fighter's guild to get the same plate that every other battlemage is wearing.

    More variety = good!

    Oddly enough, I think the refridgerator thing would be fairly popular at the lower levels. I've got a couple new alts running around, and by level 12-13 they've got half a dozen different foods, 2-5 of each, all Superior with 30 minute duration from various quests. Of course, once every 10th NPC stops rewarding you with food and you're buying 20 5hr food and drink and only consuming one just before you head to the raid, the usefulness kind of comes to an end. v_v
  10. ARCHIVED-foozlesprite Guest

    You have a good point about the lower level food overload and it even happens again once you get to Steamfont and the Feerrott, but I really doubt that makes them a viable product in the long run ;) Thanks for the support though lol.

    The Ichovirian pauldrons look really nice and you're right, I would love to see a set that looks like it!

    About the buffs though, I don't see how they would be overpowering. You could make them shorter duration than the hex doll debuffs if it really is such a game altering issue. The only issue between them and hex dolls that I see is that when you use a hex doll, you're thrown into combat with the target. Maybe make it so you have to target an enemy to use the buff doll, and when it completes combat begins? The explanation could be that you're projecting a part of the monster's abilities on yourself so you have to have a monster to use it...?

    On the same subject...anybody come up with a name for these potential buffing items yet?
  11. ARCHIVED-Condar Tarsonia Guest

    That's what I was warning about - the complaints of being overpowering I don't really see them being overpowering though - plus you could add in all kinds of buffs, not just "+XX Strength" but maybe things like +1 Defense, or +1 Parry, or something. Also, like I said, you could keep an 8 second cast, do something like a 30 second duration, and a 2 or 3 minute recast if it's that much of a concern. I do like your suggestion of also targeting the enemy - you could make it similar to hex dolls and some abilities (I think... Necros come to mind, but don't quote me on it) that 'leech' from a target - sap strength, so while it reduces the strength of your enemy, it buffs you a smaller amount.

    There are tons of possibilities, and I can really see this working, along with the fluff armor.
  12. ARCHIVED-foozlesprite Guest

    Well I was thinking that just like a hex doll each buffing item could have a plus to a certain stat (connected to which buff it gives) that is active even when the item's buff/debuff isn't. The buff itself could be anything from plus some defense/ministration/parry/whatever to a temporary increase in health/power regen.

    It's not only necros that get a tap of an enemies' abilities, I think shadowknights and defilers both get them as well as probably some others. I wasn't even suggesting you make it a tap, just that it throws you into combat when you use it, just like a hex doll (to keep them balanced, although I know it would be the devs that did any final balancing and determined all these little details.)

    Some good critiques all around though! However his post will probably go fairly unnoticed for a while, since Kunark is coming up and poor Domino and all the other devs have entered crunch time...it's my hope that some of these ideas can be taken and improved upon once the expansion rush is over. Oh and Domino: keep up the good work, you've made many tradeskillers happier in general! Don't get too stressed! And good luck getting all those bugs fixed!