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.

[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.

[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?

[Hyrist]

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.

However that is what I'm pitching. You could gather meterials that were from runs such as Ifrit Extreme or Garuda, or even more difficult World Bosses or long term Guild Rewards, just as the process of Relics were done, in order to obtain comparable components.

The difference would be, these components would then have to be crafted into their necessary piece items via crafting, and could not simply be assembeled by an unknown NPC in the middle of town.

Arguably the process might even be more difficult than a relic, with the trade off of being able the customize your stats to a degree, as well as name your own Magnum opus.

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?

what planet are you guys from?

That added comment you edited in makes me want to smack you.

This isn't about elitism, this is about personalization and creating a crafting experience on par with the combat experience.

This is about ADDING to the variety of long term goals. And having personal ownership of your own work, which, given the amount of effort put in, shouldn't be restricted to being outshines by someone who decides to ignore crafting.


Also, I don't know what planet you're from. But I'm from earth, here there still are people who work hard to perfect their craft and make things one-of-a kind, rather than mass produce the same BS Crap over and over again.

If you want to call playing a video game an effort or a matter of weighing skill over another, go play an e-sport. I've ZERO tolerance for that sort of crap, especially when you're being needlessly defensive.

[fusional]

However that is what I'm pitching. You could gather meterials that were from runs such as Ifrit Extreme or Garuda, or even more difficult World Bosses or long term Guild Rewards, just as the process of Relics were done, in order to obtain comparable components.

ifrit extreme and garuda aren't remotely on equal levels of difficulty. garuda is super easy. if materials dropped from ifrit x, people would just cry that it's too hard. making the materials drop from even more difficult bosses than ifrit x would make the weapons incredibly rare, which would be fine- but then most people would never get them and the forums would be loaded with moaning. moreso than usual. which is already commonplace.

This isn't about elitism, this is about personalization and creating a crafting experience on par with the combat experience.

and how would you accomplish that, exactly? by making the synth a 2% success rate? have you actually experienced ifrit extreme to form a basis of comparison in the first place?

This is about ADDING to the variety of long term goals. And having personal ownership of your own work, which, given the amount of effort put in, shouldn't be restricted to being outshines by someone who decides to ignore crafting.

you're just flipping the script here. relic already takes a fair amount of effort. you have personal ownership of your 'work' in the form of successfully finishing the hardest boss battle in the game (1.0 anyway). why should it be restricted our outshone by someone who decides to ignore challenging battles?

(also, while some people just buy their relic double melds- there already is a fair amount of crafting risk/reward going on in the relic quest when you factor in most double melds probably taking an average of 5-10 class weapons to finally succeed, and making flawless pieces for those class weapons is far from a guaranteed process)

Also, I don't know what planet you're from. But I'm from earth, here there still are people who work hard to perfect their craft and make things one-of-a kind, rather than mass produce the same BS Crap over and over again.

If you want to call playing a video game an effort or a matter of weighing skill over another, go play an e-sport. I've ZERO tolerance for that sort of crap, especially when you're being needlessly defensive.

i work hard to perfect my craft. battle craft. i can assure you that's more difficult than crafting in this game, no matter how you slice it. if yoshi can somehow replicate the skill it takes to clear some of the hardest battle content in the game and apply that to crafting, fine. i won't begrudge anyone that. skill is skill. time investment is time investment. but you can't expect equal payoff without equal effort/investment. and right now there is simply no way to compare crafting an item to beating ifrit extreme.

but you're right, even though relic was designed with more hardcore players in mind, and even though yoshi gave us ifrit extreme, relic faction leves and rivenroad (h) specifically to weigh skill and reward players for it, it's me who should go play another game.

yep, seems legit.

while you're at it you should probably just beg developers to take anything in the game away that requires any skill whatsoever.

[valetarkus]

I think it's definitely a cool idea! But for me i can see some issues. I agree with Fusional there, that's kinda why relics are so good because they take some effort to get. But as far as altering the stat distribution on different equipment (exaple something with +3dex and +5vit could be changed to +5 dex and +5vit or whatever similar to the different materia) that would be cool. And also having a huge variety is great but as far as the look and the name goes its going to have to look and stay the same due to dev limitations and selling to others in the wards.

[Dzian]

but as far as the look and the name goes its going to have to look and stay the same due to dev limitations and selling to others in the wards.

I'd rather them be untradeable. And they'd pretty much have to be if they have any kind of power to them. Which is fine i think most people seem to want something like this as a reward for levelling crafting. A DoH end game if you will. Where you spend time mastering your crafts and becoming one with the steel that forges your blade or some other lore type aspect.

If you had a weapon on par with relic that you could simply buy it'd be broken. akin to my earlier example of going to the wards and just buying an Artemis Bow.

If they were to put this in I'd want the weapons to be on par with relic because if I was going to work towards it with my crafters I'd want something I'd actually use at the end of it. and I'd expect it to be damn hard to get. and priceless as a result of that hard work. If you were to give these weapons any kind of monetary value then they'd end up being common place. people would end up farming them up for profit. again similar to if relics were purchaseable.

It seems there is alot of argument in this thread regarding the strength of relics vs. this proposed system Magnum Opus.

I think alot of that arguement stems simply from the idea of people being able to just buy something as powerfull as relic without any of the hard work involved,

Which is why I think they'd have to be untradeable. If they were to have stats on par with relics then the difficulty in getting them needs to be on par. make them tradeable and that difficulty is non existent

[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.

[Delgah]

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.

Not really possible, this mean, if someone join game 1-2 year after launch, or even raise his craft in that time, every possible items have been mastered. The idea to give an unique name or customize size/colors like we would for new character would add a lot of versatility. And obviously, all those items have to be exclusive, the effort put to get craft at 50 being part of journey, like relic demand lot of time.

Another idea would be to have a special item, found in dugeons, that once used in a standard recipe, make your item now exclusive, in exchange of a (big) increased materia meld success. Thus crafter could access triple meld more easely.
(I know, materia system may change, but idea is not that bad i guess)

EDIT
One interesting point would have part of armor instead of weapons. Something like rings or earings would be awsome, not that many choice here, compared to others pieces of gear.