Vern Kron wrote:The issue you present with 'lower level carriers' is true. If it is arranged in such a way that creating these glyphs is based on the metals used: (bronze, silver, gold, archmage rings) (bronze, silver, gold, icebird?) then it faces a similar issue that much of the other crafts do: They will be selling goods that they learn with, that no one really wants to buy. The suggestion I would have is this: make it possible to 'break' a glyph. Make it be a level 1 thing, and have it yield a few random shards from the table. The higher level the glyph/object, the better the yield.
I'll follow that proposal.
Breaking a glyph will be a ritual able at 20% lower skill than making the glyphe. There are some shards in return calculated as 50-90% of the original number multiplied by the relative number of remaining charges compared to the maximal possible.
e.g. 20 charges nominal, 30 max.: The carrier was made with 25 and 10 charges were already used. The return of shards is [0.5,0.9
]*15/30*7=[1.75,3.15]. So 1 to 3 shards remain. The best value increased by 2 additional shards for copper and 1 for silver carriers. The return will be max at 6, so one shard is always lost. The carrier is destroyed in every case.
The good thing, I have another ritual and can reduce the ritual time further.
Vern Kron wrote:In reality, I just don't understand why it is an issue to have these objects maintain themselves?
The concern mainly feels to be tied to the objects that impact opponents, and older players hoarding goods. I will admit, I would be fairly annoyed to come across a character who after having fought them for a while, their topaz amulet fails. Only for them to put on a second one. So make that not possible:
After a topaz amulet/other glyph is expended, a glyph of that type cannot be equipped for a short period, like 5 minutes. Now if a character pulls out an emerald amulet and puts it on, after the topaz amulet, fair enough. They simply are more prepared than I am.
(This would also be helpful in the case that a ruby ring shoots fireballs, or does something directly against another creature. I can't just mass accumulate ruby fireball rings to nuke someone down, without it breaking and having to wait some time before I can begin my assault anew.)
This is a good way to avoid overpowering a character by collection glyphs for years and coming along with 50 rings in the bag, replacing them one by one during the engagement. I think even the expectation this could happen will give that char an extreme advantage.
I'll go the easier way and have a lead time. Once one wear a ring or amulet there is a lead time of 2 min until the first glyph charge can be consumed. That's even understandable: Imagine someone try to put an amulet around his neck or a precious small ring on the finger wearing gloves during a fight.
The probability a gold carrier breaks at the end becomes slightly higher than a silver or even a copper (0.6,0.5,0.4) So there is another disadvantage for carriers with higher effect power not effecting the effect itself improving the general value of the low level carriers.
Vern Kron wrote:It may be a complicated process to code that, I don't know.
Just a hint, very often the simple things are more difficult to code than a difficult one. So don't hide an idea just because you think it's too difficult. But on the other hand, if a developer say: "That's too difficult." trust him.