Clockwork constructs:

I've always liked the idea of little creations following artisans around unfortunately I can't quite think about what they could offer to make them worth it.
You could only have one per artisan and it would be a high skill (near trans)

One thought was to have them as little combat aids perhaps inserting a miniature into them to activate them and give them the miniatures abilities (though they would be about as powerful as your normal pet so more or less just a toy but with maintenance of all the miniature equipment and maybe leveling them would increase that slightly)

Unobtrusive:

Some ability to make certain items unable to be seen on ih or look, primarily to allow people to describe features of their manse in the room descriptions. Would be able to be seen by artisans via a skill.

Routes include selecting specific artisan creations to be able to be hidden or a new skill which allows for the creation of these (though i understand that would be difficult)

Repair:

Could we maybe have some ability to repair furniture? pleaseeeee just cause it would be really nice of you?

Ooh, clockwork constructs would be very cool, especially if they weren't anything like pets/ents but something unique. I'd be happy to trade in Prized for that. I'll have to think of ideas for what they could do, something on a par with the other trans tradeskills. Definitely not something offensive. How about something that could diagnose you once per twenty seconds without an eq loss? Maybe something that could cure certain afflictions for you if you got them, on a tick.

I'm of two minds on the repair thing. It absolutely makes no sense that we can neither repair nor deconstruct (and get back some of the commodities). But as it is, we get so little business since our wares last so bloody long, maybe if we could repair, we'd get even less.

I'd absolutely love the ability to make knick-knacks and toys with no particular purpose but to be props. I was also thinking, since most of our wares are only useful to manse-owners, maybe there should be some that help aetherships. Maybe furniture that increases a ship's total health slightly? Maybe something to expand the capacity of an aetherhold? Maybe something that helps make it faster to lock and unlock into a module?

A few other artisan ideas while we've got a thread for it. Some I've posted elsewhere.

Outdoor Manses
If people aren't going to be allowed to make manse rooms outdoors to match descriptions that imply that they are, for some kind of play balance reasons, then when building furniture in a manse, the outdoors flag on furniture designs should be ignored. (It would still apply everywhere but manses.) That way we wouldn't have to design all kinds of duplicated designs, one for outdoor and one for outdoor-that's-mechanically-indoor use.

Jewelry Boxes
If racks can protect weapons, and cabinets can protect clothes, why can't boxes protect jewelry? It'd give boxes a use -- they hold so few things that really no one needs them otherwise.

Keepsake Chests
Syntax: LOCKWORK SEAL CHEST
This can only be done on a chest with a lock, and takes 6 iron. This seals the chest with a special lock that protects the contents of the chest. For as long as the chest lasts, the contents will never decay. However, the chest can only be opened once. When it is opened, the chest itself falls apart, leaving behind only its contents. Thus, it is only useful to protect your equipment during a long absence, but useless for protecting items on a day-to-day basis.

lol, little robot periodically repairs a piece of furniture in the zone they are in. Has to be able to walk to it, could be cool in manses (near replaces one of the effects of prized) cute room message would be a must

with the repair thing if the cost is right and we mark up we see the same business without the commodity drain we bring.


it could be cool for the constructs to have an ability or two and then just the ability to order them to attack (all ents have it I believe but they either have abilities or do very minor damage) maybe different types.

Bird - Will fly to a player, can carry small amount of items. throwing it in any direction would return it to the owner? could be an example.

I LOVE THE CLOCKWORK CONSTRUCTS IDEA!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!

Ahem, sorry about that. It's quite a wonderful idea.

And I think, if we get some repair ability, furniture decay time should be wayy lowered. Like, 100 being max. I agree, having furniture lasting almost a whole RL year is just too much...

I would give up prized at trans for the clockwork constructs, but I still like the Prized ability. Maybe make it one under trans, and just have it prevent decay.

But yes, clockwork constructs would be SO COOL

We've discussed an idea similar to this before but it was shot down simply because database bloat is absolutely necessary to avoid with items. I think we would see a lot of players storing "keepsake" items with something like this, rather than the intended purpose of protecting some equipment during an extended absence.

Help us with ideas then

They would need to have some functions that would make it worth it (I know just having them without anything else would be worth it but some people might want more)

Possible ideas,

toy abilities - a few generally not so useful abilities (the bird above)
deconstructor - perhaps they could be ordered by someone with the priviledge to deconstruct the furniture in a location recovering some commodities?
miniature tie in - works with miniatures or their accessories. Equip knuckles and they randomly punch their target, etc certain abilities lessened to have little effect on combat

I would really love to see that Clockworks idea put to use. But nothing offensive. I can't imagine the Admin putting something overtly useful into the Artisan skillset, muchless anything to do with combat.

If anything, it should just be a toy. Something that does neat little room emotes periodically, but decays, and would be very expensive to make. Something to roleplay with. That would be nice.

I want artisans to make clocks, candles, and, for the love of Pete, fix the commodity bug!! I want to be able to make my demon-inspired instruments!!

Oh yeah. Why can't artisans repair stuff? Or at least when we deconstruct stuff, why can't we get any of the comms back? Tailors, forgers, and jewelers can. Why can't we? It's just silly. Make the decay times less and give us the ability to repair and get comms back. Please!!

OOH IDEA

give us repair and then...

Saran sits down to repair a golden chest, his clockwork construct wanders up beside him pulling an array of tools from a cavity within its chest and helps him out.

Not offensive doesn't mean it can't have some combat value: compare to the top skills in almost all the other tradeskills (+1 sip level, immunity to a poison, splendour robes, etc.). My idea of a free diagnose every 20 seconds is my favorite still.

I once dreamt of a city-Archetype based around Clockwork/Steampunk techs for Lusternia. Skills would be Engineering (specializing into Clockwork/Steampunk based on city affiliation), Explosives, and Gunmanship.

But since that'll never happen, excellent idea. Maybe smaller clockwork pieces that could be made for others? High material cost and whatnot, of course.

That would have my full support if we could sell them in shops, maybe the artisan only one was a personal recallable version.

For some reason I see clockwork creations being used for little things as... more appropriate? because then lesser versions can be produced for others and the artisan one being an amalgamation.

I would be more than for it if Prized were replaced with the clockworks thing. But I just can't see the Admin doing that (artisan feels like it got kinda shafted compared to the other tradeskills).

Once Prized got downgraded to prevent people from traveling through aetherspace (which was really the most useful function of Prized), I've never even touched the Prized function. I personally am not very attached to any part of it except for the non-decay, though even that I'd be willing to give up for something cooler/more useful.

Other ideas for what the little guys can do...
-Deliver items to people? Possibly like tracking, but perhaps with a smaller range or something...
-Picks things up for you (acquisitio machine?)
-Report on any mobs/people it can see in neighboring rooms
-Apply one type of salve when it's appropriate (ie, A little clockwork construct takes out a vial of mending from its hollow cavity, runs over to you and applies it all over your legs, or something more eloquent than that)
-Carry a shield and give a little protection in combat/hunting?
-Small percentage chance of distracting an enemy during combat

Or, it can have the ability to have all these effects, but can only activate one at a time...for instance, give it a shield, it'll hold it, but won't be able to do anything else...give it mending, and it'll go into salve mode...

Most of these are probably too overpowered, but they would be cool to see!

Yep, as I said above, it'd be trading in Prized -- who even uses anything other than the stasis-gem feature? Although, the two together are still not really better than other tradeskills.

Display Case: This would work just like a cabinet with one exception. When it's closed, people can still see what's inside it, and can even probe those items, but can't get them. Use this to display your precious keepsakes without exposing them to the problem of theft. I bet Richter would buy one.

I would like to see fancy clocks...

They could show the time of Lusternia, instead of always using TIME to see when it is.. you can could check the clock for the Lusternian hour.

Regarding repairing and deconstructing...

Maybe, if we could deconstruct and get a percentage of the commodities back based on the percentage of time remaining? So, if I build a chest with 200 months, and I deconstruct it at 100 months, I get half the commodities back. Or, something along those lines.

As this thread was necro'd and I came across this is problem today - Yes. Please.

Also as I posted in Wish List

Tubs - and further as we've no masons, building interactable pools or ponds. Scrub at home, not in a stream with folk taking a gander.

Syntax ideas: - CLIMB IN TUB / WADE IN POND (pool) / JUMP IN (pond/pool), etc.