Player-made Magical Items

[Dyson]

I was wondering what the views were on making magical items in-game; personally, I think this is one of the best areas to encorage player interaction. This can be done by "breaking" item construction down into several phases, rather then just "Player A tries to make a magic sword."
I'd suggest a base Research-Construction-Enchantment model for the typical items (ie, swords, rings, etc).

For example, my wizard decides he could use a "Sword of Making Things Scream and Burn" (or, for the boring, "flametongue"). We'll say I choose this particular weapon since I'm specialized in Pyromancy and already know a decent amount of Fire Spells. I choose "research known magical items" (ie, items my character has seen, handled, or read about in an in-game book somewhere), and pick "Sword, Flametongue." The system does a skill check, and decides I have enough Pyromancy skill to concievably figure out how to enchant one of these swords. My character spends a minute or two in animation over a book, my gold goes down a nominal amount, and a scroll labeled "Flametongue Sword Ensorcelment Formulae" appears in my hand. Now, I could try to forge & enchant the sword myself, but since I spent all my XP becoming an awesome wizard who stabs things, I didn't purchase much in the way of "Blacksmithy" or "Item Enchantment." So I go to my guildmate, Fred the Dwarf (who just happens to have high BlackSmithy," and give him the Formulae. He makes the sword according to the specifications (perhaps we retrieve some components first, the scroll tells us which ones), while I ask around for a person who's got high Item Enchantment. I find one, he charges me some price, and I give him the Formulae Scroll. He uses it on the Sword that Fred forged (within a reasonable time period, maybe 6 hours of real-time), and succeeds on the check. The sword, prepped for enchantment, glows healthily, and I cast the required Fire spells into it, making my checks. The other wizard performs once more, to "seal" the blade. Provided we all succeed (and we are likely to, since we all have high ratings in our individual scores) we end up with a nifty new Flametongue. To reflect our level of skill, the Flametongue performs at a certain quality (ie, if we were all Masters, Novices, or whatever, it'd affect how good the finished item is). Now, a wizard of equal XP as me with scores in Pyromancy, BlackSmithy, and Enchant Items could do the same thing on his own, but since his scores are each only 1/3 as high, his sword will only be 1/3 as good. Of course, the upside is that if he screws up, he won't have two angry people on his tail.

That's the system I envison. Anyone like it? Hate it? Or has the system already been decided on?

[Ruadin]

Item creations by players are definitely something I would like to see too. And as Dyson said, no one person should be able to make the whole thing. It should be broken down into raw materials, design formula and lastly enchantment.

I'm of the opinion that players should be able to manipulate most of the items they come across in the game unless the nature of the item doesn't allow it. For example trying to enchant an already enchanted sword would be bad.
However if there's a high level mage lurking around with the ability to cast "bless" there's no reason why someone can't come up to him, give him a piece of armor and have it imbued with the spell. Sure it might require a special technique, sure it might require a high degree of skill, sure it my be so physically tasking that it requires a full day of recovery afterwards regardless of success or failure - but at least it can be done!

Perhaps various items can have various properties that can allow them to be or not to be enchanted. For example I think it would be ridiculous to expect someone to enchant a wooden sword with a fireball spell. Also based on the properties of the material of the item in question, you may be able to fit more than one enchantment on it as long as the spells don't conflict with one another. Maybe a rune magic system can be implemented where different magical runes can imbue an item with different magical properties.


Ruadin

[Dyson]

Though I like the idea of casting runes on items, I don't think a whole "rune magic" system should be incorporated- at least, not at first. Regular magic systems are hard enough to get right, as UO and AC have proved already. Also, the idea of item preferance was already implied in the previous post (see: components). Ruadin's example of a wooden sword makes sense; you could even go so far as to require special types of metal, like brass for fire items or cold-wrought iron for cold.

[Ruadin]

I agree with Dyson that rune systems are hard to implement, but when implemented correctly they could add so much depth to the game. Consider a real life example of a rune system: chinese symbols. Each one of these symbols means something - there's a symbol for fire, water, sky, sun, etc...
Now imagine that each of these symbols embodies a magical property. As you can see, it wouldn't be so difficult to implement such a system though it might take some time to develop.

From a developer's standpoint they must create a set of runes, define them and then apply rules to each one (to define its use and identify its properties).

As a player, you would have to discover these runes and then research their uses (some taught and some by trial and error). There, you just created a quest generator :)

[Wrentia]

Item Creation is important, but must be handled carefully. For the development standpoint, I'd hate to see and asembly line type of thing happen. Sure lesser items should be easier to create, but really nice items should be quite difficult. Plus, each enchantment on an item should be casted seperatly. As an example, lets say I want to make a ring for my rogue friend that is +5 ac, +5dex, +5 agi...First I should have to craft the ring. An item able to hold this kind of magic should require the rarest of metals. After I have created the item with my mastery of the jewelcraft, I should then cast the protection spell that gives the +5 ac. If my casting fails the item is destoryed and I take a hefty amount of damage from the implosion. If I succeed, I have to move on to the next step, which is to seek out what ever casting class can buff phsical stats and get them to cast the two remaining enchantments, both of which has a chance to fail. Finnally when all that is done the sealing type spell mentioned in another message should be employed.

Each aditional attribute on an item should carry a higher risk of failure in the casting.

All spells involved in creating a magical item need to be researched and based off regular spells. Remember, this is creating a permanent item (items with charges are also feasable, and we need to be able to recharge them). Special spells like the sealing spell are also heavily researched perhaps involving some form of world traveling quest.

Just some ideas...

-Wrentia

[Dyson]

Wrentia- I agree completely. For "lesser items," I'm thinking temporary items- Potions (perhaps only two steps, research and brewing), Scrolls (special paper and ink components required, but otherwise, the only step is a Spell check), and possibly candles or somesuch (same procedure as potions). Middling items would be those of a charge or limited use, such as wands & staves (three or more difficult processes; not including the gathering of components). The most difficult items would be those of a permanent nature, such as magick swords, armor, or various rings/amulets/etc (armor, water breathing, etc). I'd suggest 5+ processes for these monsters; possible re-forges by members of different races, quest-obtained items, and the like. Example: A sword of Stolen Life (draining HP) might require a cold-wrought iron sword to be re-forged (in silver & ash from a book taken from a lich) by an Undead Dwarf, enchanted by several wizards from a guild in possession of a Necromancy magick Source, and blessed by a priest of a dark power BEFORE the component spells are bound into the blade.

Ruadin, no offense, but I still disagree on Rune Magick. I think it'd be cool to introduce it later (maybe for dwarves first, then other races), but not at the game's inception. Players should be awed by the standard wizards alone; too much magic in a gameworld reduces the fantasy ambiance (ie, if there's an abundance of magick, it becomes to common to stay "magical.")