Brian
03-29-2004, 11:28 AM
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Today I want to talk about items and crafted items.
Another concept we've had for Mortalis Victus was not wanting to fall into the trap so many other games do, with those oh-so-cool items that everyone wants to have, without having any explanation of where they come from.
It would be difficult to supply a point of origin for everything in a game. Simple things like wood or berries can be found and explained easily enough, but who actually took the time to mash a bajillion of those berries into juice? Who went out of their way to splinter that lumber into oodles of arrows for the hunters?
In the best cases, Keriann the Seamstress might actually be the one supplying the blouse, but did she actually sew it, or did she just alter it to the desired specifications?
In Mortalis Victus, we're aiming to supplant the question of "Where does all this cool stuff COME from?" with crafting systems.
Resources will be found scattered throughout the world: berries would logically be found on berry bushes. Meat, bones, and fur might be found on local game. A vein of ore might eventually be mined to make metals.
Combined with Skills and knowledge, a person might take some of these raw materials and create something more useful.
Now, I know what you're asking... you want to know the difference between Skills and knowledge, right? Well, if you're instead wondering what you're going to have for dinner tonight, this post probably isn't for you.
Skills define the general strength overall of a character's ability, where knowledge of a subject would reflect what they've seen, practiced, and created before.
For instance, Kinder, a young woman with an affinity for making clothes, might decide to take the fur her husband brought home from the hunt last night, and try to dye it blue.
If Kinder's skill is high enough to dye furs, this shouldn't be a problem - assuming she's got some blue berries that she knows stain very nicely.
Perhaps a village elder showed her the trick of dyeing furs some time ago.. or she only happened to see it done once. Or what if she actually wants to dye the fur NAVY blue? That's trickier. She's never seen it done, but with just a dash of purple berries, she suspects it COULD be. Her chances of success might plunge drastically while trying something new. Maybe it'd come out regular blue anyway - or maybe smeared.
Or maybe while making a normal blue fur, just by some stroke of luck, she happened to invent an entirely new color, oceanic blue. She'd certainly be the envy of the other ladies in blue furs at that point, now wouldn't she?
With a good mix of craftable items, a broad range of possibilities in the knowledge, and plenty of new items to invent, Crafting should be the answer to many a child's question.
Today I want to talk about items and crafted items.
Another concept we've had for Mortalis Victus was not wanting to fall into the trap so many other games do, with those oh-so-cool items that everyone wants to have, without having any explanation of where they come from.
It would be difficult to supply a point of origin for everything in a game. Simple things like wood or berries can be found and explained easily enough, but who actually took the time to mash a bajillion of those berries into juice? Who went out of their way to splinter that lumber into oodles of arrows for the hunters?
In the best cases, Keriann the Seamstress might actually be the one supplying the blouse, but did she actually sew it, or did she just alter it to the desired specifications?
In Mortalis Victus, we're aiming to supplant the question of "Where does all this cool stuff COME from?" with crafting systems.
Resources will be found scattered throughout the world: berries would logically be found on berry bushes. Meat, bones, and fur might be found on local game. A vein of ore might eventually be mined to make metals.
Combined with Skills and knowledge, a person might take some of these raw materials and create something more useful.
Now, I know what you're asking... you want to know the difference between Skills and knowledge, right? Well, if you're instead wondering what you're going to have for dinner tonight, this post probably isn't for you.
Skills define the general strength overall of a character's ability, where knowledge of a subject would reflect what they've seen, practiced, and created before.
For instance, Kinder, a young woman with an affinity for making clothes, might decide to take the fur her husband brought home from the hunt last night, and try to dye it blue.
If Kinder's skill is high enough to dye furs, this shouldn't be a problem - assuming she's got some blue berries that she knows stain very nicely.
Perhaps a village elder showed her the trick of dyeing furs some time ago.. or she only happened to see it done once. Or what if she actually wants to dye the fur NAVY blue? That's trickier. She's never seen it done, but with just a dash of purple berries, she suspects it COULD be. Her chances of success might plunge drastically while trying something new. Maybe it'd come out regular blue anyway - or maybe smeared.
Or maybe while making a normal blue fur, just by some stroke of luck, she happened to invent an entirely new color, oceanic blue. She'd certainly be the envy of the other ladies in blue furs at that point, now wouldn't she?
With a good mix of craftable items, a broad range of possibilities in the knowledge, and plenty of new items to invent, Crafting should be the answer to many a child's question.