@Tuoni said in Questions and observation on the lack of depth for people who like crafting to define their character:

Perhaps some people desires soulbound gear but usually those are more a thing in themepark MMOs and are more rare in sandbox games. I am not against soulbound system and I think that works fine e.g. in games such WoW. However, games which have a player-driven economy and full loot rules it would be problematic to fit soulbound system in the same concept. In Fractured the idea is that players will drop gear when they are killed and they can sell their gear if they want to even they have used that before. Because of these reasons I would say there is no room for soulbound system in Fractured.

For the traditional cookie-cutter soulbound system, I agree that won't work for Fractured. No one should want that in this kind of game. I'm talking about something different though

What FibS and I were discussing could work. Not every piece of gear, regardless of rarity and power, is going to be bound/blessed like we discussed. That way players can still sell all kinds of gear as they please, but if a player wants to keep a piece of gear or they're planning something, they have limited time to enjoy it worry free. If they wanted to sell that gear, they need to decide that before taking the final step to get it blessed/bound/marked (whatever we're going to call it lol).

Players with this kind of gear are still going to drop some gear; the process to create this equipment should be complex and limited to x number of gear pieces per player. For example, if they die they may not drop their sword and helmet, but everything else is yours to take, and what they kept isn't gonna be enough on its own to track you down and revenge kill you

@FibS said in Questions and observation on the lack of depth for people who like crafting to define their character:

There's no such thing! Either you have soulbound gear or you don't.

Maybe you're not getting me, not sure. If changing the name to soulbartered or soulloaned helps then sure, but if there's one thing I've learned from this game, this community, there's no absolutes or molds unless someone makes it. Creativity and laughing at the norm has been a staple of this forum, so why stop now? The name may be the same (or not), but that doesn't mean the concept has to be.

This is a standard non-solution that many MMOs use to pretend to limit broken parts of the game, and it's borrowed time; players only need to become expert [job]s once and then [gated content] is in the economy forever.

Other MMOs use it to cover and patch over, but who says Fractured has to as well? With other games, gated content is typically outright better. It's an old money tactic that feeds on player's egos like Halloween candy. No gear provides a complete and utter advantage here; only a different advantage that can be rendered mute by some skill and thinking. Having soulbound equipment means nothing if you like the tactics to counter reduced health, and if you do, then that encourages other players to get better in their gameplay. Yes, there will be a gate of meeting a good enough crafter, but between the diversity of mind among the players and some tweaks like the ones below, it will be more like a hurdle than an actual gate.

Are you implying that a master crafter can only soulbound gear to themselves?

Absolutely not! At least, not only. It could be set up so that all soulbound gear requires a crafter and client pair, regardless of the client's crafting skill, or if master crafters are allowed to create their own soulbound gear, then the process is significantly more laborious due to the lack of someone else's involvement.

This idea could work if the soulbound item (or any other blessing granted by the god) is temporary. As in "a few hours" temporary.

I like the temporary idea, yes, but a few hours seems a little too brief, especially considering I meant for the journey to acquire a single piece of soulbound gear a little extensive. Maybe a day, day and a half?

In the case of a blessed weapon, characters should further be limited to only have one blessed weapon at a time. If they want to make another one it must replace the one they have.

That makes sense, yea I'm with it.

I say have items that do this, but are not merely soulbound - they cannot be taken off. This would then be a classical cursed item rather than a soulbound one per se.

This actually goes along better with the idea I'm getting at The name could use some work though; after all this soulbound sounds too advantageous and cursed might be too negative for some players to explore. Something largely neutral with the direction this is going would work.

Removing the curse should transform the item to a mundane state, removing all benefits alongside its curse. After removing a cursed item, the player's max life remains penalized for at least a few hours and they cannot put on another cursed item until the debuff wears off.

All benefits? That might be a little too much. Though it's partially a gift from a god, there's still benefits from it being worked on by a master. That aspect of it should be kept, so like it still has higher durability than common gear, and say a third (rounding down if need be) of the buffs are kept. That way, if they're caught outside and the blessing lifts, they have a chance at crawling back home instead of basically digging their own grave right there.

@Tuoni There isn't an exact problem, more so people simply desiring soulbound gear. It's a game after all; no desire for anything and Fractured would have little monetary backing. Soulbound gear or anything like it is a reasonable desire considering we've all likely played countless games that involve soulbound gear and it's something many are used to and enjoy. It's a wanted, but not needed, addition for some based on what I've read. Personally I'm fine with or without it cause I still plan on playing this game regardless, but I'm just contributing ideas as they come

Just gonna hop back to the soulbound gear idea for a sec. It is overused and is often a fallback for many MMOs and games in general, but Fractured is all about doing things differently, so why can't they implement a unique soulbound gear system?

To start, only expert, master, etc. crafters can make soulbound gear. It'll force people to decide between having all the combat, utility, etc. focused talents they want and losing some to become a better crafter. Maybe make crafting skills like this, cooking, alchemy, etc. have a separate talent tree?

There's still the max talent points, but once you put a talent point into this crafting talent tree, it's stuck there. You can use Resting to change these Crafting Talent points from Blacksmithing to Cooking or Alchemy, for example, but not to a school of magic or fighting. So you can't pull points from being a master blacksmith to become an elite assassin well versed in alteration, divination, and illusion. You'll lose some combat variety, but with the right roll and skills, you should still be able to hold your own. Considering you'll be a crafter anyway, you'll probably have a lot of people wanting to keep you alive. Everyone can make some basic items like now, but to get elite and master items that are only slightly (and possibly objectively) better you'll need a crafter. Some crafter-locked stuff too

Back to the soulbound stuff, they could put more emphasis on the "soul" aspect. The crafter's client must be at a high enough standing with their god, and the final part of the crafting process must be a blessing or something in front of that god's altar.

It could also be a standard feature that soulbound gear caps the wearer's Life bar when worn. You've given some of that Life to your god in exchange for this gear security, but maybe also a slightly more significant boost in stats to offset the Life lost.

Still watching how everything develops, but disregarding that it'd be a nightblade and druid mix. Limited damage but lots of debuff skills/spells to help my tank and dps builds gain the upper hand and they won't have to worry as much about me getting hit thanks to an evasion skill or two. When things get real bad I'll have the AoE, healing, and/or buff spells to pull us out of trouble

I'd like to see what they say about this too. It'd be nice to see an expansion in lore and changes in the universe as a result of both player-driven actions and a dev plan/timeline they have setup. Like if there's a massive guild metropolis that falls after weeks of raids and sieges by an alliance of dozens of guilds, there's a lot of things implemented by the devs (that're possibly voted on by players).

For example, a new race could be born from the battle (considering they were talking about adding one), especially if all three races are involved. Sentient constructs born of human technology that grants a weak understanding of it, residual (lingering might be a better word) druid magic that grants an affinity to nature, and residual blood magic that makes them semi-predatory and greedy. They could have access to every class of skill and tech, but only on a base or moderate level.

They can be good, neutral, or evil, but only chaotic. They're accepted everywhere, easier than humans and beastmen in terms of travel, albeit begrudgingly on Arboreus and Tartaros due to respective taints. They can follow a god for additional favor/skills from a race, but only Nelena, Iridia, or Babilis, the respective mother gods. Their alignment plays a factor too, leading to more beastman features (druid magic, a transformation stage, etc.), more demonic features (blood magic, better stealth like Shadow Demons, etc.), or the better use of human tech. Shifting sides causes certain features/skills to be locked, even if you previously earned them, the result of conflicting magics within. They're not forgotten, only locked until a certain karma level/alignment is selected again.

Another thing could be a (probably neutral) god of war/combat born from the clash. While they may boost one's combat prowess and group fighting, excess attention could be brought upon the worshipper(s) in battle, and they could be perhaps too intimidating when interacting with NPCs right after the battle. Basically you turn in to Kratos, but without all the power, only some.

But otherwise yea I feel like it's gonna be expanding player interactions in general if they can or enhanced PvP, might even pull another planet or a moon outta nowhere

Just a thought here. What if humans, after reaching a light level such as 9k+ or -9k, transformed? At that level, being so close to 10k, they've clearly shown their intentions in the game. I think it'd be nice to give a reward. Not so much a bonus, just a slightly different play style. Like, a good human could begin a quest, at the approval of a Beastman council (player-based or NPC?), that would send them Aboreous. The council would bless them or grant them the ability to stay on the planet for 36 real world hours, in order to infuse with the benevolent energy of the planet, and learn the ways of Beastmen. At the end of this pilgrimage/ meditation period, the human would transform and gain some abilities that focus on using the good energy and such.

A similar story would begin for evil humans on Tartaros, but they would need to go through a series of trials at the behest of Babil.