Life is Feudal Official Forum

[Ishamael]

A highly skilled blacksmith uses his forge and selects "design weapon option". A gui comes up which he then uses to select what he's building... sword, spear, etc. The game then opens a gui which allows for very simple 3d modeling (similar to 2nd life) with a default model loaded. The player CAN NOT upload anything. They can then use the gui to design their weapon on the server.

By selecting resources in their inventory they can add textures to their design (again, user does not upload anything). If they have gold in their inventory, they can add a gold texture to part of their object. The handle they designed can have a wood texture if they have wood in their inventory.

The amount of resources the design will require can be determined based on the VOLUME of their design and the cost of a default weapon in the game. They can be limited in the amount of polygons that can be used so they don't burden the server.

Once they have finished their design, they add their "blueprint" to their character which would then appear in their crafting options. Each player can have 5 blueprints (also to not burden the server). Which they can then go on to craft using the normal crafting menus.

I would not expect there to be bonuses to weapon stats for the design of the item, but this would allow a lot of customization in terms of crafting armor, weapons, jewelry, etc. and it should be possible via a simple runtime 3d editor which the players can access via a gui. Newely created content can then be sent to clients via the same or similar network path that terrain updates use.

I don't think this has ever been done in a game, and would probably be a cool novel feature to boast about when advertising.

[Telakh]

Sounds fun. Although it makes sence only when the weapon's properties, such as weight, armor penetration capability in swing and thrust, ballance, ergonomy (chance to be disarmed) are calculated during the blueprint creation and affect damage calculations and therefore force players to improve their crafts constantly.
Otherwise it does not make any difference if such craft process is dedicated only for weapon design. There are not too many types of weapons and most players do not care how do their swords look like if each of them has equal stats. Basically it is easer to pre-create few types of swords as it is usualy being done in every game.

[Ishamael]

Sounds fun. Although it makes sence only when the weapon's properties, such as weight, armor penetration capability in swing and thrust, ballance, ergonomy (chance to be disarmed) are calculated during the blueprint creation and affect damage calculations and therefore force players to improve their crafts constantly.
Otherwise it does not make any difference if such craft process is dedicated only for weapon design. There are not too many types of weapons and most players do not care how do their swords look like if each of them has equal stats. Basically it is easer to pre-create few types of swords as it is usualy being done in every game.

I think what you described would be cool, but that might be too big a project to get it in the game atm. What I described was a huge project alone, but would be a very unique feature that no other actual mmorpg has. Giving crafters the ability to slightly customize their wares would give them an advantage when selling them to people. I know that if there were 2 swords and 1 was a stock sword and 1 was a custom looking badass sword, I'd buy the badass one. Also, having the foundation of the system in place they could expand later.

Eventually what you described would be my dream though

[Telakh]

You are right as well yet what you suggest is very much like character's face customization. Some games have it simlified, some have serious designer but it does not make any difference when you have a hat/coif/helmet on.
There are not too many standard sword(as examle) types and you will either have another resized curlass/dagger/sabre/bastard or some crappy sci-fi lightsaber or poker that has nothing medieval in it(it has to be moderated anyway and you are still limited in number of parts, size and peaks count). A no matter what blade is crafted, nobody will pay attention with all the armors, horses and ranks around, just like to char's face.

And thats why I say that while crafting idea itself sounds fun, it will not be such a great feature without physical properties implementation, and yes, it is a dream. I'd rather see some ships, piracy and enchanced sieges in the future

[Fawkes]

Well, I like the idea.
It could work like the (awesome) Steam Workshop.
A smith designs the actual 3d model of the weapon he wants to create, so it requires real skill to create a good weapon. Afterwards a GM/admin has to approve the weapon.
This means that a really good smith (3d designer) could become a real celebrity because people who have more ressources want something to show off. On the other hand this'll probably collide with the planned item shop. /

//Edit:
I thought about how to allow custom models without ruining the item store. The solution would be pretty simple! The devs could implement colors/gems that can be used to customize a weapon/armor while being forged and that can be purchased (exclusively?) from the item store. So basically a smith can give an item any form he wishes, but it's nothing but boring gray. To make it look good he needs to add colors. Afterwards a GM has to approve it, so that a dagger can't look like an axe or stuff.

The really good stuff could be shown on the website and, if appropriate, be implemented into the item store. Whoever designed the item in the first place gets a fair share of the benefits, of course. All like the Steam Workshop.

[LastKossack]

Also a customizable short name for the weapon would be cool too something like:

Long Sword (Big Bertha I)

[Telakh]

Also a customizable short name for the weapon would be cool too something like:

Long Sword (Big Bertha I)

There will be player-chosen names for exceptional weapons. About 1/10000 chance to craft one if I am not mistaken.

[Atiden]

The ability for a 3D designer to make use of their skills in the game is awesome, the only downside I can see is that it basically places the smiths into to different tiers, the smiths who know how to make good 3D models and those who are unable to make a good 3D model and thus are just normal smiths and are stuck with the in-game models, this will create an imbalance in the system by making the 3D designer smiths more popular, and the normal smiths become the smith you go to when you can't afford the 3D designer smith.

To me this has the potential to ruin the appeal of being a smith in the game unless your a 3D designer, at which point you lose all the average players who want to be smiths in the game.

The steam workshop works because it is designed specifically for programmers, 3D designers and map makers, while this is a game designed to allow the average player to do things in a game that they can't do in real life.

Like I said, I think the overall idea is awesome, I just don't see a way for it to work in the game without making the average player feel cheated because they don't have the required real life skills/knowledge to do well with a 3D model designing system.