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Asherons Call: Letter to the Players: Tinkering!
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June 25, 2002
If there is one constant that defines all massive multiplayer online games it is change. We feel this is especially true of Asheron's Call. In the past few months we've revised the treasure system--and we aren't done yet! We've simplified how magic works, and provided a thrilling story arc whose effects will resonate far into the future. Now we are on the cusp of adding the new Tinkering system to the game, along with entirely new Tinkering skills. All of us are extremely excited about this system and feel that it is going to introduce fascinating new dynamics for all Asheron's Call players. The thrust of this letter is to convey to you the whys, hows and whats of this new system.
<SPAN class="Head">What's This About a Skill Credit Refund? </SPAN>
In July, the old Appraisal skills will be completely removed from the game. They will not be available for new characters to train. However, the Tinkering skills will be available for them. Existing characters that had either trained or specialized an Appraisal will be refunded the skill point cost for those skills. The exceptions to this are Gharu'ndim characters. Instead of being refunded the skill point cost of their default racial skill, Item Appraisal, they will be trained in Item Tinkering, their new default racial skill.
Any experience that was spent in the Appraisal skills will be completely refunded to the character. This includes any experience a Gharun'dim character may have spent in Item Appraisal. If any skill tesseras were spent to increase the character's Appraisal skills, the experience equivalent to purchasing that point of skill will be refunded to that character. This does not, however, reset the quest flag for those tessera. In addition, the experience represented by the +5 skill points for training (+10 skill points for specializing) an Appraisal that was given to a character at creation will not be returned to the character.
The following tables explain the refund of skill credits in detail:
<SPAN class="Head">Table 1: Skill Credit Refund for Characters with Appraisal Skills Trained* </SPAN>
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Race |
Item |
Armor |
Weapon |
Magic Item | ||||
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Aluvian, Sho |
2 Skill Credits |
4 Skill Credits |
4 Skill Credits |
4 Skill Credits | ||||
|
Gharu'ndim |
0 Skill Credits |
4 Skill Credits |
4 Skill Credits |
4 Skill Credits | ||||
<SPAN class="Head">Table 2: Skill Credit Refund for Characters with Appraisal Skills Specialized* </SPAN>
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Race |
Item |
Armor |
Weapon |
Magic Item | ||||
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Aluvian, Sho |
4 Skill Credits |
6 Skill Credits |
6 Skill Credits |
8 Skill Credits | ||||
|
Gharu'ndim |
2 Skill Credits |
6 Skill Credits |
6 Skill Credits |
8 Skill Credits | ||||
* -- Note that all experience spent on these skills is refunded to the character, no matter their race.
<SPAN class="Head">The New Tinkering Skills </SPAN>
With the Appraisal skills gone, what do the new skills look like? The following charts explain the new Tinkering skills as compared to the old Appraisal skills:
<SPAN class="Head">Table 3: Item Tinkering </SPAN>
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Original Appraisal |
New Tinkering | |||
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Name |
Item Appraisal |
Item Tinkering | ||
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Cost |
2 Skill Points |
2 Skill Points | ||
|
Spec Cost |
2 Skill Points |
Skill cannot be specialized | ||
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Based On |
Focus |
(Focus + Coordination) / 2 | ||
<SPAN class="Head">Table 4: Armor Tinkering </SPAN>
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Original Appraisal |
New Tinkering | |||
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Name |
Armor Appraisal |
Armor Tinkering | ||
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Cost |
4 Skill Points |
4 Skill Points | ||
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Spec Cost |
2 Skill Points |
Skill cannot be specialized | ||
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Based On |
Focus |
(Focus + Endurance) / 2 | ||
<SPAN class="Head">Table 5: Weapon Tinkering </SPAN>
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Original Appraisal |
New Tinkering | |||
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Name |
Weapon Appraisal |
Weapon Tinkering | ||
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Cost |
4 Skill Points |
4 Skill Points | ||
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Spec Cost |
2 Skill Points |
Skill cannot be specialized | ||
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Based On |
Focus |
(Focus + Strength) / 2 | ||
<SPAN class="Head">Table 6: Magic Item Tinkering </SPAN>
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Original Appraisal |
New Tinkering | |||
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Name |
Magic Item Appraisal |
Magic Item Tinkering | ||
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Cost |
4 Skill Points |
4 Skill Points | ||
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Spec Cost |
4 Skill Points |
Skill cannot be specialized | ||
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Based On |
Focus |
Focus | ||
Note that these new skills cannot be specialized. This is because existing characters are unable to specialize skills after their creation. Allowing new characters to specialize these skills would give them an unfair advantage over existing characters. With no one able to specialize Tinkering skills, a level playing field is created for all characters, new or existing.
What can these new skills do? As was mentioned above, only Item, Armor and Weapon Tinkering currently have defined enhancing effects. The list provided below is only the effects that will be seen in July. More effects can and will be added in the coming months. The effects provided by Magic Item Tinkering, once available, will entail giving items unique abilities they do not currently have.
<SPAN class="Head">Table 7: Item Tinkering Effects </SPAN>
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Effect |
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Reduce Burden |
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Increase Value |
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Decrease Value |
<SPAN class="Head">Table 8: Armor Tinkering Effects </SPAN>
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Effect |
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Increase Armor Level |
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Increase Slashing Resistance |
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Increase Piercing Resistance |
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Increase Bludgeoning Resistance |
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Increase Acid Resistance |
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Increase Cold Resistance |
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Increase Fire Resistance |
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Increase Electrical Resistance |
<SPAN class="Head">Table 9: Weapon Tinkering Effects </SPAN>
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Effect |
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Improve Damage Variance |
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Increase Damage (Melee Weapons) |
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Increase Damage Modifier (Missile Weapons) |
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Improve Speed |
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Increase Attack Modifier |
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Increase Defense Modifier |
<SPAN class="Head">Trust Quality Workmanship </SPAN>
Before detailing the process of Tinkering, it is necessary to explain the workmanship of treasure-generated items. While workmanship has always been an element of treasure items, it hasn't been important enough for the players to take notice of. Workmanship is now a fundamental part of Tinkering and acts as a modifier in Tinkering operations, reducing the difficulty of these operations. The table provided explains the different levels of workmanship, from lowest to highest.
<SPAN class="Head">Table 10: Workmanship of Treasure Generated Items </SPAN>
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Workmanship |
Quality | |
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<No Descriptor> |
0-1 | |
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Well-Crafted |
2 | |
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Finely Crafted |
3 | |
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Exquisitely Crafted |
4 | |
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Magnificently Crafted |
5 | |
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Nearly Flawless |
6 | |
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Flawless |
7 | |
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Utterly Flawless |
8 | |
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Incomparable |
9 | |
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Priceless |
10 | |
<SPAN class="Head">So I Have the Skill. . . Now What? </SPAN>
Tinkering actually involves two steps. The first step is salvaging certain materials--like steel or alabaster--from items generated by the treasure system. These salvaged materials are collected until you have a certain quantity and are then used to enhance the abilities of another item.
While all material types found in the game are salvageable, only a handful of materials currently have defined enhancing effects. More effects will be assigned to materials in the coming months. In addition, players won't see the effects provided by Magic Item Tinkering in July, but we hope they will be available in August.
Example: Keryth's patron Tarka gives her a quantity of Salvaged Wool. The item is described as "Salvaged Wool (75)"in her inventory. Examining it reveals that Armor Tinkering uses this material and that it increases armor's cold resistance. It also reveals that the average workmanship of the material is 4. Her patron also gives her "Salvaged Ivory (15)". Examining this reveals that this item has no apparent use (no Tinkering skill uses it).
<SPAN class="Head">How Do I Salvage? </SPAN>
The Tinkering skills--like the Appraisals--can be used without being trained, so any character can salvage. Trained characters though will have the advantage of being able to salvage more material and value from an item than untrained characters.
For a character to start their career in salvaging, they will need to purchase an Ust. Ust is an ancient Empyrean word meaning "That Which Reduces" and is a fundamental part of the salvaging process. An Ust will be easy for players to find, as vendors in the major cities will be selling them at a low cost.
Once the Ust is in the character's inventory, double-clicking on it will bring up the Salvage panel. Items of similar material types can be dragged into the panel, and once the player has all the items they want to salvage in the panel, they can click the Salvage button. The character then receives a portion of the material salvaged from the original items. The amount of material returned is based upon the workmanship of the items put in and the character's highest Tinkering skill.
Example: After defeating a pack of Banderling Maulers, Keryth picks up a Flawless Gold Hammer, an Utterly Flawless Pyreal Tungi, and a set of Exquisitely Crafted Gold Bracers. None of these items are really worth hanging on to, so she decides to salvage materials from them.
She places all three of the items in the Ust, but the Ust won't let her salvage them because they are different materials. Noticing her mistake, she places the Gold Hammer and the set of Gold Bracers in the Ust. The Ust reduces the items into "Salvaged Gold (10)". Examining the gold reveals that it is of an average workmanship of 6. Placing the Pyreal Tungi in the Ust by itself creates "Salvaged Pyreal (3)"in her inventory. Examining the pyreal will show an average workmanship of 8.
Later on Keryth comes across a Well-Crafted Pyreal Yumi. She places the salvaged pyreal she created earlier and the Yumi into the Salvage panel. The Yumi and the previously salvaged pyreal are combined into "Salvaged Pyreal (4)". Examining the pyreal now reveals that the average workmanship is 5.
The salvaged materials also retain a portion of the value of the items used in their creation, but retain almost none of the burden of those items. These salvaged materials can then be sold to almost any vendor, if the player has no interest in using them in later Tinkering processes.
Example: The combined value of the Gold Hammer and the set of Gold Bracers used by Keryth to create her salvaged gold was 8,360 pyreals and their combined weight was 875 bu. The salvaged gold is worth 842 pyreals and weighs 100 bu.
As each item is added, its workmanship will affect the value and average workmanship of the entire stack. Combining shoddy items with a stack of higher workmanship material will reduce the workmanship of the stack as a whole. Items can continue to be added to a stack until the stack reaches 100 units of material. At that point no more material can be added to the stack and the player should start a new stack. Also, smaller stacks of material can be combined into larger ones. When combining smaller stacks of material, the skill of the salvager does not affect the quantity or value of the material in the resulting combined stack. Players should be aware that if the total material in the smaller stacks is over 100, the excess materials are lost.
Example: Keryth has two stacks of salvaged gold in her inventory. One stack is "Salvaged Gold (40),"which has an average workmanship of 8 and a value of 4,323 pyreals. The other stack is "Salvaged Gold (65)"with an average workmanship of 9 and a value of 6,468 pyreals.
When she combines these stacks in her Ust, she receives "Salvaged Gold (100)". Examining the combined stack of gold shows that its average workmanship is 8 and it is worth 10,278 pyreals. The 5 excess units were lost.
<SPAN class="Head">How Do I Enhance? </SPAN>
Once there are 100 units in a stack of salvaged materials, the material is ready to be used to enhance an item. While all characters can salvage, only characters with trained Tinkering skills can attempt to enhance an item. In addition, since each material is specific to the Tinkering skill that uses it, only characters trained in the right skill can use that material.
Enhancing an item is the most dangerous step in Tinkering as there is a risk of destroying the item if the Tinkering fails. Additionally, whether the enhancement was a success or a failure, the salvaged material is always consumed in the process.
There are a variety of factors that affect how difficult it is to enhance an item. Some factors make the application easier, while others make it more difficult. The workmanship of the item being enhanced increases the difficulty, as a higher workmanship item is harder to enhance than a lower one. Also some enhancements are harder than others, making the enhancement harder. Finally, the number of times the item has been tinkered increases the difficulty. Making the process easier is the average workmanship quality of the salvaged materials; higher workmanship materials are easier to work with than shoddy materials. Of course, the higher the skill of the Tinker the better chance they have of successfully applying the enhancement.
Example: After her hunts, Keryth comes back with quite a few salvaged materials. The items used to create some of her salvaged materials weren't of the best workmanship and aren't complete stacks, so she decides to sell them. However she did come back with "Salvaged Gold (100)"with an average workmanship of "Flawless". Since she's trained in Item Tinkering, she decides to risk using the gold to enhance the value of a favorite keepsake.
The item she selects is an Exquisitely Crafted Alabaster Orb. Crossing her fingers, she applies the salvaged gold to the Orb. Unfortunately she fails and the Orb is destroyed. She also loses the gold, but she knew that was going to happen, no matter whether she succeeded or failed.
Back at the allegiance mansion her patron surprises her and gives her "Salvaged Mahogany (100)"with an average workmanship of "Incomparable". When she examines it she sees that the Mahogany is used in Weapon Tinkering and can increase the damage modifier for her bow. Since she's not trained in Weapon Tinkering and knows this is a difficult enhancement, she seeks out the allegiance Weapon Tinker. Fortunately Jill of All Trades is there and offers to apply the Mahogany to her bow. As Keryth holds her breath, Jill applies the material to the bow. Fortunately Jill is successful and Keryth is thrilled to see that 4% has been added to the damage modifier of her bow.
Remember, no matter the success or failure of the Tinker, the salvaged material is always consumed in the enhancing process.
<SPAN class="Head">Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy </SPAN>
We hope that now it's obvious why we are so excited about this new system. In our own discussions we came up with a number of uses for Tinkering and we are confident that it will add a whole new level of enjoyment for Asheron's Call players. We are also confident that the community will come up with some fairly ingenious uses for Tinkering as well.
So be prepared, come July the possibilities will be almost endless!
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