Crafting news!

[Talad]

Happy new year to all PlaneShifters! We start the 2012 by bringing you three news for crafters!

• The first news is that we implemented leather working.
  There are two phases to it: making leather pieces and crafting a leather armor. A crafting manual is required for each and those can be acquired through quests. The leatherworking skill allows you to make leather materials (all those hides in your inventory will come in handy). Leatherworking tables with a puncher and water barrel have been added by Hirenn in Ojaveda and the Grotemeys in Hydlaa. Then the existing armor making skill in combination with the book "Making Leather Armor" will enable you to make a full array of leather armor: gloves, boots, arms, pants, and torso (gloves to start and the rest at increasing skill levels). You can even now make a leather cap.
• The second news is that we decided to merge the skills for making axes, knifes and swords into one skill called "blades making". This will allow a crafter to build all blades without the need to rank up in each individual skill.
  We applied the following rule to set the blades making skill to your existing chars. We took the max between axe/knife/sword and assigned it to blades making, plus we gave half of the sum of the other 2 skills as a bonus to the new leather working skill so you can have a good start with it!
  To learn leathermaking you should visit Hirenn in Ojaveda and the Grotemey family in Hydlaa.
• Third news is there are now several new shield making manuals available via quests. Can you find them all?

We also added a speak perception to NPCs so they should be aware of when you speak with them and not run away.

2012 will be a fantastic year for PlaneShift! With tons of great additions, we can't wait to work more on it and see your feedback!

[Aramara Meibi]

this is good news, and once again, no small feat.

I hope to see more additions which help to facilitate and guide RP rather than those that distract players away from it.

[Gilrond]

Sounds great! Let's hope that the rest of armor making is coming soon too.

One question about shield making books. Why are there so many of them? In case of swords, there are just a few, for regular, superior, and even more advanced ones. While for shields there is a whole bunch of books. Can they be merged for similar categories (like swords), i.e. regular, advanced, very advanced etc.

[Mordaan]

Big thanks to the skunkworks project.  They got the leather working stuff sorted out.  Made it very quick to implement.  It's good to finally see something come from that.  Hopefully it will encourage further work like that in other areas.   Kudos to everyone who worked on it. 

[Mordaan]

One question about shield making books. Why are there so many of them? In case of swords, there are just a few, for regular, superior, and even more advanced ones. While for shields there is a whole bunch of books. Can they be merged for similar categories (like swords), i.e. regular, advanced, very advanced etc.

Yeah, felt the same way (only after many months of work on the quests.    )  Should be beginner, intermediate, and advanced with different shields being available for each, rather than one for each shield.  But it is how it is for now.  We'll consider such things in the future I think.

[weltall]

when items have the same combinations they cannot be merged

[Gilrond]

Ah right. Each book is defined by its own transformations table. But with 11(! or even more?) new shield books, plus all old ones it getting over the edge

[MishkaL1138]

I don't get it. If I had sword/axe/knife making at 30/15/12, my blades making will be 30, and leatherworking will now be (15+12)/2=13~14?

Someone confirm this or explain it...

[BoevenF]

You're good at maths, Mishka
and my leatherworking... well, don't count on Boeven's Leathers opening soon.
I was writing a pamphlet rich in considerations and Pindaric flights, and a lot of off topics, then I suddenly decided to save your time. And mine.
Cheers to Talad and others who spend their spare time to play with code, as players do, with satisfaction I hope. 

@Mishka: I quoted myself in other forums for the precise purpose of being able to quoting myself while googling my quote.

[Tzarhunt]

This raises a few questions.
Blade making depends on the Metallurgy skill ; will there be a 'Tanning' skill in the future?
Will you, in a similar process, merge shield making and armour making (maybe distributing alchemy skills in the process and whatnot) or have you definitely abandoned the idea of balancing shields?
When you implement Mace making, will you merge it with the blade making skill in some Weaponsmithing skill?

I absolutely agree with LigH here; it's obvious (and well accepted) that you're forced to make some people unhappy on each update, but this is highly demotivating.

[weltall]

we won't think of merging armor with shields they are two well different things.

[Tzarhunt]

we won't think of merging armor with shields they are two well different things.

It really depends a lot on what type of armour we're talking about. Both plate armour and shields use the very same techniques, layering metal then hammering it into shape. Articulating the parts is a whole other question.
If you want two things very different, we can take a chain mail shirt and a steel plastron. Will there be a distinction 'Mail working' / 'Plate making' ?

What I see right now is that we have three different skills for crafting defensive equipment and one for offensive equipment.

[weltall]

no armor making covers leather, plate, chainmail and helmets related to them
the first goes with leatherworking the other go with blacksmith

[bilbous]

Can we have tanning crystal acid be available in stacks? currently Mrs. Grotemey has only single units. Stack purchasing will be much more convenient.

[Talad]

Sure. I added now a stack of 20. Sounds ok?