Bring back qualities to herbs
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:57 pm
So back when, herbs used to have individual qualities. I feel this brought more life to the herblore in the game, unlike now where every herb seems to be of top quality and equally useful in alchemy. So my proposal is to bring it back. This is a proposal for a future milestone, not something immediate. It's more or less a rough draft and definitely needs to be fleshed out in how to do things in detail, so I may go back and change/make additions to things like the pros and cons for better oversight if people have good criticism to come with.
Old state:
Herbs would not stack as we did not have the required technology to work with, so each individual herb having a quality meant individual inventory slots for the herbs. A druidry rune would be used by alchemist to identify the qualities of the herbs, something which added to the skill level of alchemy (Now only brewing will level up alchemy).
Current state:
Qualities were removed so that herbs could be stacked, currently up to 1000 like any stackable item.
Proposed state:
Using the same approach as with magical gems, we can make 10 different stacks per herb. 9 qualities following how the alchemy system qualities are designed, plus 1 for unidentified herbs.
Meaning, any herbs currently owned or harvested after the change, would appear as, EG: "Sun herb(???)"
Then one would use a tool, rune, or whatever makes sense, to identify these herbs, making them seperate into 8 possible stacks.
EG: Sun herb(Outstanding), Sun herb(bad), etc, for all 8 qualities.
These qualities could then effect the quality of the potions brewed by them, and make the quality of potions less randomized as well.
Optionally the analyzing part could be skipped and any harvested herbs would automatically get assigned a quality visible for everyone, making only 8 stacks needed. However I'm not sure how existing herbs should be dealt with then. Plus analyzing could be tied with in herblore, making herblore skill effect the analyzed quality RNG, or be tied in with how only alchemists with the perception and touch with nature being able to analyze them like in the past.
Rough concept of how analyzing could look like:
A tool, either static or handheld, could be used to identify qualities through a crafting interface to make it less work.
Or a rune, tool, or even gems like with potions, could be used to identify them individually like with the potion approach, though that seems a lot of extra work for the alchemist given the amount of herbs needed per potion, while it wont necessarily help with the attention to detail it would provide the game.
Pros:
Gives more life to herblore with more attention to detail.
Makes the RNG of potion quality in alchemy more consistent, based on good materials rather than only luck and skill level.
Could add an additional skill to alchemy, fleshening out that some more.
Cons:
Makes it more work to mass-produce potions (Not sure this is really a con though, as potions are magical and don't really feel all that rare right now)
Herbs will take 8-9 times more bagspace.
Potential problem with herbs and cooking(?)
Please keep in mind to keep the criticism constructive, whether you like the proposed change to herblore or not.
Old state:
Herbs would not stack as we did not have the required technology to work with, so each individual herb having a quality meant individual inventory slots for the herbs. A druidry rune would be used by alchemist to identify the qualities of the herbs, something which added to the skill level of alchemy (Now only brewing will level up alchemy).
Current state:
Qualities were removed so that herbs could be stacked, currently up to 1000 like any stackable item.
Proposed state:
Using the same approach as with magical gems, we can make 10 different stacks per herb. 9 qualities following how the alchemy system qualities are designed, plus 1 for unidentified herbs.
Meaning, any herbs currently owned or harvested after the change, would appear as, EG: "Sun herb(???)"
Then one would use a tool, rune, or whatever makes sense, to identify these herbs, making them seperate into 8 possible stacks.
EG: Sun herb(Outstanding), Sun herb(bad), etc, for all 8 qualities.
These qualities could then effect the quality of the potions brewed by them, and make the quality of potions less randomized as well.
Optionally the analyzing part could be skipped and any harvested herbs would automatically get assigned a quality visible for everyone, making only 8 stacks needed. However I'm not sure how existing herbs should be dealt with then. Plus analyzing could be tied with in herblore, making herblore skill effect the analyzed quality RNG, or be tied in with how only alchemists with the perception and touch with nature being able to analyze them like in the past.
Rough concept of how analyzing could look like:
A tool, either static or handheld, could be used to identify qualities through a crafting interface to make it less work.
Or a rune, tool, or even gems like with potions, could be used to identify them individually like with the potion approach, though that seems a lot of extra work for the alchemist given the amount of herbs needed per potion, while it wont necessarily help with the attention to detail it would provide the game.
Pros:
Gives more life to herblore with more attention to detail.
Makes the RNG of potion quality in alchemy more consistent, based on good materials rather than only luck and skill level.
Could add an additional skill to alchemy, fleshening out that some more.
Cons:
Makes it more work to mass-produce potions (Not sure this is really a con though, as potions are magical and don't really feel all that rare right now)
Herbs will take 8-9 times more bagspace.
Potential problem with herbs and cooking(?)
Please keep in mind to keep the criticism constructive, whether you like the proposed change to herblore or not.