Magnum opus: A dream for crafters.

[Hyrist]

The long halls of the old temple radiated heat from the flowing veins of lava streaming under them. The soft hum of motion seemed to bring Lin to a trance as she hefted her bag of fine materials down towards her goal. Long had been the journey and although her body trembled with excitement, she was almost hesitant to pick up her steady gait towards it's conclusion.

Regardless, like the inevitability of a fate predestined, the path opened up into a circular room. A wide, open chamber that was as grand as the creations that had come from it. Lin was not the first adventurer to have made these steps, but that did not take the breath of local away from it.

Littered along the ground were the remains of broken tools, abandoned after their work had spent them. Bits and baubles from items the craftswoman had never seen also lay in broken pieces, they too lending their strenght to the things made here. Soon Lin too would add her own parts to the pile.

In the opposite corner of the room was a large bowled furnace - the place of making. Setteling in, the Lancer and craftswoman set down her pack and began to remove it's contence. Each item a tale told on it's own in the possessing:

The long shaft of wood her long friend Galliano had cleft from the Elder Treant, which she had spent all the following night crafting into the lean form it held now. The claws taken as a trophy from the Fallen Garuda, large, tallon like, which would have likely ended her life if it weren't for the steady shield of her Guild's head Paladin Kayle. A shard of a crystal, taken from the Labrynth of Bahamut, blast from the body of a Golum by the raging storm of the mage Neelia. Meteria pristine to the point of glowing, picked from the countless spears exhausted to make them.

And the scattered tombs of learning all representing long sleepless nights of training for this very moment.

After a moments reflection on each piece, Lin Celestine began the process of bringing these small tales, these legends of her own life, together at the forge, taking the steps passed down both from the ages and between other adventuers, untill finally it was complete. It was her masterpiece, her Magnum opus. A spear built to her own specifications after long trials and study, powerful enough to rival the great Gae Bolg in combat, but tailored specifically for her own hand to aid her in her own adventure.

Marveling after the completion of ages of work, Lin allowed herself a moments rest as she smiled at her achievement. The journey of making her own weapon of legend was complete, but the journey of making the legend of the weapon had only begun.

She had only to give it a name.

Thank you if you read all that bit of flavor text there. I figured a bit of a story would do well to relay the feelings I had behind this idea.

The one thing that has kept me from taking up crafting in most MMOs is that there is a glass roof to what I am going to be able to achieve as it. That no matter how much effort I put into crafting, the best my character will ever be able to achieve is an 'ingredient' to some legendary weapon that someone with the same amount of effort could just buy on the auction house with gil and turn in to some NPC to make a superior 'Relic" out of it and a handful of other achievements.

I want to be able to craft something glorious, something good enough to give Relics a run for their money, but is mine, down to being able to name it myself. I'm more than willing to take the time and effort needed to make this long term goal as hard as or even harder than achieving a Relic if I were allowed to custom tailor it.

That's why I want to pitch the long term idea of a "Magnum Opus" system. For a quick overview.

Maximum level crafters once meeting certain quest requirements, would be able to embark on a journey to craft a powerful weapon to be their own personal masterpiece.

Depending on the stats they want to have, the craftsperson would have to gather specific materials (likely Untradeable.) from differing beasts of choice for each part of the craft. For example, if the player wanted to create a spear with more emphasis on attack, they would go gather a horn from Ifrit, however, if they wanted to focus instead on critical attack damage, they could go after the Talons of Garuda. Such decision could be made for things like the head, the pommel, the shaft and grips for spears, and other components for differing weapons and armor as well. Specific meteria could also be used for further customization, and could be used as components of the craft, rather than at risk of destroying the weapon itself.

There would also be other trials to complete. For crafting these components, tombs learned through crafting guild points could be purchased, and specific locations in dungeon areas could be a requirement for crafting these Magnum Opus items.

The end result would be a masterpiece built for the player, and a true endgame for players with a love for crafting. It would be an alternative persuit to a Relic for similar performance (of course the Relics might end up being the ultimate weapons overall, but in this manner, a player can make the best weapon for their particular playstyle)

I hope this idea can get relayed to the development team for a long-term idea.

Also, what is everyone's thoughts on this? Do you think it can be done, and would you use it? Thanks for your time.

(TL;DL Custom built 'relic'-strength for crafters to make with the same effort it would take to have an NPC do it, that they could name themselves. Would you want it?)

[AmyNeudaiz]

I wouldn't say "Relic" strength, but it's a really nice idea.

[Aryden]

Don't just limit it to weapons. You could also do tools and armor. Maybe even make a system where once you create a certain master item, only you can make it on your server? Could be interesting.

[Hyrist]

I'm a bit concerned of someone who could craft these could eventually make their own custom build that could be utterly and entirely overpowered.

So as long as it's balanced well, I'm all for armor!

[Bluebun]

They are comming. It's called a house~

[Hyrist]

Which is absolutely nothing in common to what I was talking about.

I was talking about those who want to create legends instead of just tossing a bunch of random items to NPCs and have their time crafting max out at having a nicely decorated bedroom.

This is about putting hammer to forge and coming out with something of your own that would give a Relic a run for their money Real Steel style. There's nothing even close to that in the system right now and there really should be, in my opinion.

[Tetsaru]

Personally, I'd love to see something like this, where you can tweak certain things in an item's recipe to sway its stats in one direction or another, instead of just always saying "X + Y + Z always makes a Cobalt Winglet, now slap some materia on it and hope it doesn't blow up." Anyone who's gotten all their DoH's to 50 should be able to have perks like that. If I'm making a sword, why does it have to be a preset recipe? Why can't I make something ORIGINAL from scratch?

Example 1: I could make a blade out of darksteel, with a diamond edge, a hilt out of oak, inlaid with buffalo horn and wrapped with raptor leather, a counterweight made of adamantium, then adorn it with all sorts of gemstones and gold leaf, douse it with a Maddening Potion, and finally, name it what I want (such as "Tetsaru's Super-Duper Ohboyee Sword of BREAKIN' STUFF!!!"), along with using all-purpose dyes to give it a unique color scheme. Such a sword would obviously be very badass, due to all the materials it uses... but having a lot of heavy materials would probably make it very sluggish. The result would be a sword with very high damage, STR, and attack power, small boosts to other stats, a bonus to +enmity, but a long delay and a penalty to accuracy.

Example 2: The blade is - get this - a Silver Shark. The hilt is a long piece of bamboo skewered into the shark. A Prickly Pineapple provides the counterweight. The shark is coated in Spoken Blood, and numerous Cactuar Needles are protruding from its body. The result: a sword that attracts beast mobs but deters humans, deals small amounts of damage to attacking enemies, provides a reusable food effect at the cost of durability, and looks absolutely ridiculous.

And as the OP mentioned, you could use things like primal and NM drops too, or hell, even take actual primal weapons like Ifrit's Harpoon, and be able to modify them. Getting something like "Ifrit's Horn" and adding it to Ifrit's Harpoon could turn it into an Ifrit's Harpoon +1, or something similar. Imagine someone with Lv50 Armorer and Alchemy taking something like a Bomb Baron's Core, some ceruleum, and a Heavy Darklight Armor, and using a controlled explosion to break the armor into two separate body and head pieces? The possibilities are endless, and it would keep U/U items and other seemingly useless loot relevant, as you could keep experimenting with it (instead of just turning it into random useless materia, or NPC selling it, etc. ).

Still, I'm curious what other people think: should such customizable items be U/U, and help encourage players to level their DoH's, or should we be able to sell and trade them?

[Phe]

I wouldn't say "Relic" strength

The strength should depend on the time that has to be invested.
When it takes as long to create a "Magnum Opus" as to get a Relic, the performance can be equal.

I support this idea, but i'd also like the disciples of the land to be involved as well.

[AzuraSin]

I like this idea. Need more to do as a crafter than make the same stuff over and over and hope it sells ... so that you can buy more stuff to make more stuff with and sell it ... ad nauseum. Besides making DoH more pseudo-realistic and useful, it would feel more like those jobs were part of the game rather than shoehorned in for an alternative to killing mobs.

[fusional]

The strength should depend on the time that has to be invested.
When it takes as long to create a "Magnum Opus" as to get a Relic, the performance can be equal.

I support this idea, but i'd also like the disciples of the land to be involved as well.

relic is about more than time invested. putting the two on equal footing just due to a time element is ridiculous.

if there are steps equally as difficult as some of the relic faction leves and ifrit extreme, then maybe there's an argument for equal stats. until then, get out of here with that mess.

This is about putting hammer to forge and coming out with something of your own that would give a Relic a run for their money Real Steel style. There's nothing even close to that in the system right now and there really should be, in my opinion.

why? because you want weapons as good as relic without having to meet performance requirements necessary to get it? because you feel entitled to having weapons as good as the people who do the relic quest... just because?

if somehow the materials to make your 'magnum opus' require battles as difficult as some relic faction leves and ifrit extreme, okay, but then why not just have relic?

because you want to be different?

what planet are you guys from?