Forge/Crafting & Item Drops

I think people should be able to forge things whenever they want in order to prevent backtracking.

My idea was supposed to be that Miriam's room WAS the save point and having it "move" would be the story explanation for the multiple save point locations. It doesn't actually move. Sorry if that seemed unclear.

Also, keep in mind that the whole thing with Miriam's room is all fan speculation and people tossing ideas around whereas crafting is a confirmed thing. We're still getting crafting even if we don't get Miriam's room.

With crafting, I don't care if there's multiple places to do it. It's something I'd rather do on the fly since it's more of a gameplay/weapon-based thing rather than a save mechanic. I don't want to have to go to another or the most recent save point area to combine items that drop and I don't care if it's in the same area as the save room.

I know there's other members who feel differently about crafting, but that's how I feel about it.

Oh. My bad.

Still, it's all good. We're all just tossing ideas around. I just thought it'd better not to get ahead of ourselves and act like Miriam's room is actually happening and keep ideas for one thing from spilling into another thread.

But what I'm more concerned about than only crafting in certain areas is grinding. When I have to grind in order to get crafting material, I want to be able to make my items right then and there because of instant gratification.

When there's a lot of grinding involved with crafting, I end up getting impatient. I'm getting older and I honestly don't feel like spending an hour killing enemies just to get one item that can be used to get another item, and then upgrade that item into another item.

I know what you mean... and it's cool I won't down your Idea, its good. I just want to have a full forge in the game.

I'm there with you, we shouldn't put the cart before the horse. and yes Miriam's room is not a thing... nor is how we craft. but it is so fun to talk about what it could be lol... see I like this kind of conversation (not a debate but a sharing of ideas).

I can see the merit of your instant crafting idea and to be honest there will be times I would want that. but there is something in looking at the fires of the forge and watching the forging going on. Actually that would be cool if we could have both (if you have certain familiars with you) the player could have a mini forge (on the pause menu) to do some refining and some weapons (it should be limited to Lv)

I personally would not like the forge to be used to refine items --> then use those Items to make another item ---> so it can be used in a component of an item ---> to be forged into a weapon. I kinda want a simpler kind of forging....

Maybe:

• small components can be used to make weaker weapons/armor
• later we get stronger components but the smaller ones can be refined to make the stronger one (with a recipe)
  
• this will keep going until we reach a perfect item (the strongest component + purifying item = perfect item)

I think this will make it so the earlier weaker items/materials can still be useful... I hate going through a game where I have to throw away material cause it just doesn't matter anymore.

I don't know what the actual means of item crafting will be, but I don't think it will involve traditional blacksmith forging. Unless I missed something, I haven't seen anything about something like that. I love swords and the process of making them, but I don't think that's what we'll be doing here.

When I think "alchemy", I think of a meeting of science and mysticism/magic, in this case being in a Japanese fantasy game, probably leaning more on the time-saving magical side of things. The location this stuff goes on in will probably resemble more of a lab than anything, and items would be synthesized in a variety of ways combining real scientific techniques and a lot of flash/time skipping magic circles and spells. That's kind of how I'm picturing it, rather than Miriam slaving over a forge. Of course, some other NPC could be doing that.

So, on to the balance of items...I think this will be an important decision. A lot of the fun of an Igavania game comes from the discovery of items. I think the thrill of a rare weapon drop could be replicated in rare craft material drops/secret and hard-to-gather recipes, but there's a good balance to be found. Will actual complete weapons be dropped/bought, or just components of them? Are we making a whole weapon from scratch, then, or just adding enhancements/swapping chemical or physical attributes? Are their stats randomized/can they be on par with or better than what you can make at the time? I imagine the team will be looking at a lot of things like that...and for me, the most important thing is just finding the right amount of excitement in discovery. Igavania drops/finds and I imgaine historic alchemy were all about that for a lot of us: happening upon something new, often unexpectedly.

One thing that would really make the roguelike dungeons worth doing is if they had special alchemy ingredients only to be found there, like what some of you guys are suggesting for rare drops

(again sorry for double posting)

What do you guys think of being able to name your own creations... Personally I think it would be cool to name your own weapons and/or armor even furniture... I think it would be really awesome if there were hidden bonuses for specific names.

what do you guys think?

Two very important things not sure if mentioned ( probably was mentioned)

One: I hope some enemies will drop special weapons or special armor or....special items themselves without relying completely on forging. Part of the fun of SOTN was that you'd fight a medusa and you'd get a medusa shield potentially. I don't want to find an enemy and get materials that can make different things but not something unique to that enemy. A mixture of forging and finding/item drop weapons would be great.

Two: I hope that you can't buy weapons that you make through forging. It would kind of ruin the specialness of forging if you can just buy it in the in-game shop. The weapons and how you get them should be separate depending on how you get them. So.... Weapons dropped by enemies separate from weapons made from forging separate from weapons you buy at shop. All unique.

Yeah, maybe the Katana featured  in Update 20 will be a 'special' weapon, because it reads as if we must earn it because it is so powerful.

I just hope that if they go this route (unique weapons that are not able to be crafted) that there isn't anything completely unbalanced and thus limiting choice (unless your a masochist I guess). It would be a shame too since there will be quite a few weapon choices available to us from the looks of things so far.

Silver