Let's just cut to chase and sum it all up with, "Because it's awesome!" Being a long time Beast Master (and avid crafter) in SWG, I have to say that there's never been a more community oriented game play system ever invented than BM is SWG! People love it and they've spent years loving it together, even to this day. That's got to say something about the quality of the game play experience. (Some thing positive guys... think positive...) Now, there are quite a few game play systems in the SWG beast crafting that EQ2 does not have, such as random resource spawning and resources with various stats, but I think that on whole the following parts of the SWG beast crafting system could be added to EQ2 as an alternate way for Beast Lords to aquire new (and unique) pets, as well other classes to access new mounts and non-combat pets. I call it... Beast Alchemy! Here is how I envision Beast Alchemy in EQ2: Tamed Warders and BA beasts have exactly the same overall numerical power, but can differ in stat allocation and appearances. Which is "better" will be a matter of personal taste and play style, rather than stats. The same Incubation user interface as SWG (why change what ain't broken). Mutations via iso/lyase combination and hydrolase mutation chance. DNA collected from wild creatures. Crafted consumables (let's just make them all either Modest/Good/Better/Great quality, depending on the rarity of components used). Multi-stage hydrolase refinement using the same math as in SWG. Hydrolase Enzyme stat of Mutagen effects the chance to get a mutation (same swg). Hydrolase Enzyme stat of Purity effects the pets stats with the same principle of swg, with 60 being max. Points allocated when incubating are applied to the stats that Beast Lord Warders normally have in EQ2 (in some mathmatical manner that makes sense). Hydrolase Enzymes come from animals, when using an extraction tool. Tool quality and animal difficulty factor into quality. Isomere Enzymes come from animals as loot drops. Lyase Enzymes come as secondary items from harvesting nodes and collection sparklies (because people DO these things anyhow. Please don't add foraging - it's not fun and never has been. Ever.). Only includes Lyase that are 8, 9, 10, or 11 in power. Anything less really is a waste of database space. Resources used to make the Beast Alchemy consumables are ALL normal resources that are already in EQ2. Incubators and other tools as well as consumables are made by various other crafting professions. Beast Alchemy is its own primary crafting profession. Leveling Beast Alchemy award the player with genetic engineering bonuses on a finer scale than the SWG Expertise boxes. Anyone who has DNA or Hydrolase harvesting tool can harvest DNA, but Beast Alchemists and Beast Lords are granted a bonus to the DNA quality. All the "math" of beast crafting in SWG is the same in EQ, with the exception of the tools and consumables crafting . Essentially, the idea here is to take the truly fun and enjoyable concepts of chasing mutations, crafting interesting pets, refining hydrolase enzymes, hunting the best enzymes and dna, and supplying consumables (used in refining hydrolase enzymes) and sticks into EQ2 without really needing to change much about EQ2 itself. I think it would work really well and I know that loads of people would really, really enjoy it!
Tatwi wrote: I agree with the rest but not the bolded why should beastmasters and beast alchemists be held to a higher standard? it's not like armorers and weaponsmiths are any better at mining then everbody else so why should beastmasters have a quality bonus? If you want a bonus put it in as a tradeskill AA that everybody can take.
General_Info wrote: I suppose that does make perfect sense. I was just thinking in terms of the BM tree in swg, where anyone who takes the genetic engineering bonus is also able to call a pet. Really though, for EQ2 you're right, it should be on the crafting AA page for any class to use.
Interesting idea, though the language would have to be completely revamped. I do not believe any character in EQ2 understands the concept of DNA, and construct creatures are typically created by magic rather than gene splicing. Which actually gives more room to mess around, as DNA requires at least some level of compatability that magic seems willing to ignore. Here's why it probably won't happen: 1) To give crafted creatures different stat alloctions, they'd have to be different pet families, since currently all creatures in the same family have the same stats. That's a lot of work, especially if all crafted creatures do not share the same stats as each other. Available models would therefore be very limited as the devs construct more family stats. 2) If we keep the crafted creatures in the currently-available families to allow for faster creature development, then crafted creatures are simply an appearance change. It which case it is much easier to either make it tameable when it appears as a mob in the game, or sell us a petamorph wand in the marketplace/on an event merchant.
