customize crafted items and housing

[BloodofDragons]

well i always wanted to beable to customize the look of crafted items. to beable to change the way weapons, armor, jewlery and clothes would be amazing. much like the item creation in nwn. this stage would come after the item is created so no time would be lost if the creation failed. once the item succeded you would be brought to a window with the base appearence and a set of ways to change how it looks. you could of course skip this section by selecting the base look or you can change the color, shape, size of areas of the item and even add parts. such as spikes, extra padding/plates to curving blades, adding blades at the hilt and even adding gems on wands and staves. this would not effect the items in anyway other then appearence. this would greatly enhance the crafting in the game and make items of all types more unique. you could even learn new patters and add-ons, creating yet an other money sink and giving crafters more to do and help the grind of crafting not be so much of a grind. items could honestly be more valuble just from appearence. after all most people like to show off what they have. you could even go as far as alowing people a one time chance to make their own trade mark that could be put on items where the crafter wants as a final step in creation.

as for housing being about to make your house from scratch would be just as amazing. start by buying an empty plot or even one with something already on it. you could then demolish what is there if you want or add to it. you start with the walls of course whether you want stone or wood. then you could put doors and windows where you would like and even make a second story. the only problem would be if you are limited to how many trade/craft skills you coud know but then again you could always make other toons.

this could be put in game even if the house building is not. have every ownable plot have 2-5 smaller plots around the main plot reserved for that plot owner. the player could then purches these plots either when they have reached the right lvls or when they can support the added land money wise as it would add to the upkeep. on these new plots you could make farm land for your self or what ever you want including more housing area. so someone could have their own masions made from scratch or a farm with their own cooking area.

some of this may have been suggested already but......

[stygiant]

I really like your ideas.

I always thought that allowing players to customize their armor, without making it too childish like CoH, would really help immersion. Being able to choose color pallets (within the allowed color areas - aka no neon pink) and maybe having some symbols of sorts that might mean something, would be quite nice.

Building a house from scratch could be fun as well, especially if you get to design your own layout. As long as not too many resources are needed and the building process is creative, yet not too complex, it'd be a nice addition.

[Xalias]

I do think customising items would be the the all time ultimate MMO market breaking Addition to a game but with that my understanding of how games work makes it unlikley something like this will ever happen in an MMO.

It would involve alot of pre made art for intividual customisations Jewls,spikes etc.. then those customisations renderd into 3d models so for instance you want a gem embeded in the base of your swords hilt would be one lot of art and its own 3d model to view it equiped so now you want to add a a few jagged edges along your sword would mean youd have to have a new art made up for a gem in the hilt and the now added jagged edge blade along with a new 3d rendering so you can see it on your charachter.

added to that each combination of customisations would need to be animated so the sword acctually swings when you attack.

seriously speaking it could take one artist untill the end of time to add every customisation/combination aspect to even a for lack of a better word beginning crafted weapon.

while its not an imposibility to do this it would take artist and coders many moons just to add 5 customisations to one weapon type.

i suppose the easyist way to do something like this would just be to have the main parts of weapons with different customisation so 10 different lookin hilts and 10 different blades thats 100 different customisation options for a single weapon type , bareing in mind tho alot of games dont have nowhere near that many options for a single weapon 10 different looking versions at most the better looking of which are higher level.

I may be completly wrong however and well get blown away with even being able to draw our own designs onto things lol but as i see it very unlikley from a basic understanding of how things become real objects in game

[Jimmmy]

Totally agree with changing your weapons appearance by like color, shape, and texture.
But i think branding your weapons would be awesome so everything you own could have your logo, it might diminish the value but it would be cool for you

a diamond embroidered sword hilt would be pretty sweet looking on a jagged rusty blade

[Jimmmy]

Also i dont think you should need to buy the material for your house, its all one price for certain sizes like, small medium large extralarge or mansion. Maybe make some people able to be in construction as a job title.