Crafting

Introduction
Pantheon’s Crafting and harvesting in this internal pre-alpha is currently a very simple system. With it we can combine two or more items in a container to return a new item. Combinations use a skill associated with the materials, such as Blacksmithing for metals, Alchemy for potions, Tailoring for cloth, and so forth. It is functional, but we feel it lacks impact and depth. As far as what professions are concerned, we're considering the following as our professions:  Each profession will have a specialization, or option for focus within that profession. Players will be limited to one profession, and one associated specialization.
 * Alchemist,
 * Blacksmith,
 * Outfitter,
 * Provisioner,
 * Scribe,
 * Stonemason and
 * Woodworker.

* ''Some cartography may added. (Possible, but not confirmed).''  ** ''Possible inclusion of counterfeit currency. (Rumoured, not confirmed).''
 * Updated 18-August-2017

Overview of Crafting
A major goal of the Crafting system is to provide players with a means to gear up through the power of choice. Dropped and quested items come with set stats but crafted items can be customized. The offset to this power of choice is that crafting will require effort to gather the necessary materials for particular results, whereas dropped items are a (potentially) simpler matter of killing the requisite NPCs to get your gear.

For example if Gereon wants a Silvered Longsword. He plans to be fighting wererats in the City Underneath in a few days with his guildmates so he has two choices:


 * 1) Find humanoid NPCs that also have a beef with Lycanthropes, beat them up, and take their stuff.
 * 2) Find a crafter that has a Silvered Longsword recipe and gather the needed materials (hypothetically speaking, this could be a) acquire an unmodified Longsword, b) acquire silver ingots, and c) acquire a tempering agent).

In this scenario, perhaps Gereon doesn’t have easy access to NPCs that drop Silvered weapons. He has been killing the wrong city’s guards so it is safer and faster for him to find a player to help him out. Crafting gives players like Gereon alternate avenues to acquire those items they need while serving a dual purpose: socializing between players through Economy, and giving players avenues to some solo content (the Crafter or Harvester).

Crafted Improvements
Crafting will also allow us the opportunity to further improve almost any items to be better suited to specific situations.

For example:

Gereon has acquired his Silvered Longsword:


 * as a Dropped item, and it’s awesome for cutting up wererats.
 * as a Crafted item, and it’s awesome for cutting up wererats.

The trouble is that his Silvered Longsword isn’t so great against the other vermin or the slimes inhabiting the particular area of the Waterworks near the wererat lair. Gereon really wants to have an edge fighting at least one of the two additional types of enemies in the Waterworks that he knows of. He could:


 * Find another dropped weapon that is good against slimes, vermin, or both--requiring time, luck, and effort to find the right combination of materials or stats. This has the added "cost" of requiring more of his bag space for gear.
 * Find a crafter with a Bane enchantment against vermin or slimes to upgrade his Silvered Longsword.
 * Find a crafter with a recipe to re-forge the Longsword with a new Material that is better suited to fighting against slimes or vermin.
 * Just try his luck and tough it out with his Silvered Longsword and hope for the best.

Depending on Gereon's playstyle, it may be more beneficial to farm the desired item or to farm materials to have the desired item crafted.

Customizing Items
Additionally, crafting needs to compliment the other areas of gameplay. One big way that crafting will figure into this is most of the items that come from quests, NPC loot, or crafting can be further upgraded. Doing this requires "customizing" the item(s) to the recipient, unlocking additional stats at the cost of causing the item to be bound to that player.