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Armormodding Corner
Zhulkarn
Member Posts: 149 ✭✭✭
To me current tradeskills are skeleton versions of what they might be in the long run and they have the potential to be the cornerstone of a connected and fluid ingame economical structure. Hence it would be benefical to brainstorm with our fellow players and here is a bunch of feedback along what I would enjoy from a sci-fi tradeskill. Some of my impressions along suggestions:
1. No Level Requirement
The mod quality levels are Simple, Complex, Advanced and Obfuscating with their min/max levels restrictions. Basically there might be several reasons for someone to slap lower level mods upon their higher level gear. They might be far cheaper or more readily available, perhaps that is just the little bit of edge one needs. Hence the level requirements should be removed from all armor mods for fluidity of commerce.
2. Concept of Researching and The Feel(tm) of the Skillset
Currently reverse engineering each mod will give some proprietary parts and 5% on the schematic knowledge of that particular mod. And that is cool to make it a slow progress because that makes a dedicated modder a valuable asset to have for factions and dynasties. Yet it lacks the feel of progress if the process remains as such. What I suggest is to add a skill named Research which will allow people once a specified amount of time (1 day, 2 days, a week etc.) to do research effort upon a schematic. The rolls can have a critical failure with 0% yield, critical success with 10% yield but mostly a yield at range of 1-5%. This could cost a modicum of marks as well. This would not detract from the necessity to acquire mods since to Research you should reverse engineer that mod once to get the schematic.
Overally what I would like to see is that modding skills get more Research&Development feel as a concept rather then being lucky and rich for the rare mods circulating around.
3. Junk Economy
Some junk can be tagged as "Electronic Junk" which could yield proprietary parts when processed and have varying quality. It could be interesting to add quality levels to those electronic junk as well along two skills which I will dub as Process and Appraise. Naturally Appraise would allow you to see the quality of electronic junk. While non-modders can see it as electronic junk (such as a busted module), modders would be able to see their quality. And with Process ability modders can take some parts which can fit their schematics (possibly random or allocating depending on the quality)
4. Modding Focus
An ability which can be changed over a large amount of time (3 RL months or perhaps more) which allows you to specialize on a certain type of resistance mods, meaning what you do will yield a small percent better then what is advertised on the schematic. This would give the feeling of that you are specializing on part of your expertise.
5. Reserving A Part of Cool Things for Tradeskills
Naturally in IRE games artifacts are the most alluring products because as a company they have to make profit. But in my opinion tradeskills could be equally alluring and more expanded. From Armormodding perspective we can see that there are various types of armor slots and each slot can have an interesting utility/fluff/cool mod you can attach it to. Some examples (forgive me for the chosen names!):
a) Disco King MK-3 (Fluff Example)
Be the center of attention with this module at every party you are invited or uninvited! This fine module embedded to your torso will project a holographic disco ball and catch the eyes of all people around. (In practical could add ambient messages, perhaps even a disco-related death message)
b) Doc Trauma Module (Utility Example)
This emergency unit will provide an injection of adrenaline to keep you on your feet when the things are most dire. Ranging from Copper, Bronze, Gold, Platinum packages Doc Trauma always looks out for you! (In practical it will give 5%-10%-15%-20% health injection with a very high cooldown when you go under a certain health level)
c) Boot Thruster Module (Utility + Fluff Example)
Embedded to your boots, this module will cut your feet from the ground literally! No need for those uncool jetpacks or weird techno-magic of nanoseers, anymore! (I guess Star Lord from Guardians of Galaxy was inspiration for this, also can give a cool flying off line as fluff)
d) Grav-vy Premium (Utility Example)
Within low gravity planets it might be a pain in the ass to walk or some people might be trying to drag you along. No more! With Grav-vy Premium, you shall say a big NO when you do not wish to be moved. (Gives a chance to resist forced movement attacks)
Anyways, these are just a bunch of utility
6. Magnum Opus: The Pinnacle of Your Art
After you start to research and fill your list with mastered schematics, focusing and specializing on certain modules will not be enough...you will crave for more...something very personal. You will be sleepless and will want to create something that will define you. When people use what you created, they will be in awe of your expertise and years of effort in the field. It is your goddamn Magnum Opus.
After you master a number of schematics, you have the option of creating a custom and powerful module by merging the schematics. As a concept it could work as a slot system. DISCLAIMER: What next comes is just an experimental idea with no regard to balancing: Let us say a Magnum Opus has 8 slots. A simple module will take 1 slot, a complex will take 2, advanced will take 3 and an obfuscating will take 4. And to add some spice, you cannot fit two same quality of modules back to back. You can go Simple, Advanced, Obfuscating but cannot go 8 Simple in a row as an example.
And you cannot change your Magnum Opus for a whole RL year. It should give the feel that it is your greatest achievement, master module etc. etc. And of course very time consuming to produce.
Final note: Anyways, these are some ideas and concepts which I would like in Starmourn and feel like it would make the whole modding process more profitable, more integrated into the economy and of course more fun thematically.
1. No Level Requirement
The mod quality levels are Simple, Complex, Advanced and Obfuscating with their min/max levels restrictions. Basically there might be several reasons for someone to slap lower level mods upon their higher level gear. They might be far cheaper or more readily available, perhaps that is just the little bit of edge one needs. Hence the level requirements should be removed from all armor mods for fluidity of commerce.
2. Concept of Researching and The Feel(tm) of the Skillset
Currently reverse engineering each mod will give some proprietary parts and 5% on the schematic knowledge of that particular mod. And that is cool to make it a slow progress because that makes a dedicated modder a valuable asset to have for factions and dynasties. Yet it lacks the feel of progress if the process remains as such. What I suggest is to add a skill named Research which will allow people once a specified amount of time (1 day, 2 days, a week etc.) to do research effort upon a schematic. The rolls can have a critical failure with 0% yield, critical success with 10% yield but mostly a yield at range of 1-5%. This could cost a modicum of marks as well. This would not detract from the necessity to acquire mods since to Research you should reverse engineer that mod once to get the schematic.
Overally what I would like to see is that modding skills get more Research&Development feel as a concept rather then being lucky and rich for the rare mods circulating around.
3. Junk Economy
Some junk can be tagged as "Electronic Junk" which could yield proprietary parts when processed and have varying quality. It could be interesting to add quality levels to those electronic junk as well along two skills which I will dub as Process and Appraise. Naturally Appraise would allow you to see the quality of electronic junk. While non-modders can see it as electronic junk (such as a busted module), modders would be able to see their quality. And with Process ability modders can take some parts which can fit their schematics (possibly random or allocating depending on the quality)
4. Modding Focus
An ability which can be changed over a large amount of time (3 RL months or perhaps more) which allows you to specialize on a certain type of resistance mods, meaning what you do will yield a small percent better then what is advertised on the schematic. This would give the feeling of that you are specializing on part of your expertise.
5. Reserving A Part of Cool Things for Tradeskills
Naturally in IRE games artifacts are the most alluring products because as a company they have to make profit. But in my opinion tradeskills could be equally alluring and more expanded. From Armormodding perspective we can see that there are various types of armor slots and each slot can have an interesting utility/fluff/cool mod you can attach it to. Some examples (forgive me for the chosen names!):
a) Disco King MK-3 (Fluff Example)
Be the center of attention with this module at every party you are invited or uninvited! This fine module embedded to your torso will project a holographic disco ball and catch the eyes of all people around. (In practical could add ambient messages, perhaps even a disco-related death message)
b) Doc Trauma Module (Utility Example)
This emergency unit will provide an injection of adrenaline to keep you on your feet when the things are most dire. Ranging from Copper, Bronze, Gold, Platinum packages Doc Trauma always looks out for you! (In practical it will give 5%-10%-15%-20% health injection with a very high cooldown when you go under a certain health level)
c) Boot Thruster Module (Utility + Fluff Example)
Embedded to your boots, this module will cut your feet from the ground literally! No need for those uncool jetpacks or weird techno-magic of nanoseers, anymore! (I guess Star Lord from Guardians of Galaxy was inspiration for this, also can give a cool flying off line as fluff)
d) Grav-vy Premium (Utility Example)
Within low gravity planets it might be a pain in the ass to walk or some people might be trying to drag you along. No more! With Grav-vy Premium, you shall say a big NO when you do not wish to be moved. (Gives a chance to resist forced movement attacks)
Anyways, these are just a bunch of utility
6. Magnum Opus: The Pinnacle of Your Art
After you start to research and fill your list with mastered schematics, focusing and specializing on certain modules will not be enough...you will crave for more...something very personal. You will be sleepless and will want to create something that will define you. When people use what you created, they will be in awe of your expertise and years of effort in the field. It is your goddamn Magnum Opus.
After you master a number of schematics, you have the option of creating a custom and powerful module by merging the schematics. As a concept it could work as a slot system. DISCLAIMER: What next comes is just an experimental idea with no regard to balancing: Let us say a Magnum Opus has 8 slots. A simple module will take 1 slot, a complex will take 2, advanced will take 3 and an obfuscating will take 4. And to add some spice, you cannot fit two same quality of modules back to back. You can go Simple, Advanced, Obfuscating but cannot go 8 Simple in a row as an example.
And you cannot change your Magnum Opus for a whole RL year. It should give the feel that it is your greatest achievement, master module etc. etc. And of course very time consuming to produce.
Final note: Anyways, these are some ideas and concepts which I would like in Starmourn and feel like it would make the whole modding process more profitable, more integrated into the economy and of course more fun thematically.
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