Problem: While the original idea of making miniatures require co-operation between tradeskills was well-intentioned, it is now simply prohibitive to the craft. Additionally, requiring the use of powerstones makes it even more difficult.

Idea: Put all skills related to miniatures in the Arts skillset, either all in one skill, or spread out in three or so skills. Make miniatures and related items only cost basic comms.

Solution created: More people have access to miniatures, something that is now entirely under-used and unappreciated. The system gets used again, and a secondary market for miniatures is established. Achievers are happy.

Discuss.

First: HOLY CRAP IT'S RICHTER

Second: I approve of reducing the number of skills required for fun things. Go for it!

What is the point of miniatures anyway? I don't get it...

I liked miniatures. There wasn't really a "point" to them, but it was kind a neat little thing to play with. The problem was that if you want to get involved with it is that you have to find a bunch of different tradespeople (sometimes problematic or just time consuming) and if I recall correctly the things just decayed too quickly making it not something worth investing a lot of time into.

EDIT: If by point you meant what is done with them, you and someone else each gets a miniature, put them in a miniature fighting ring, and the miniatures proceed to beat the crap out of each other. Lusternian cock fighting. Good times.

Sounds like some Pokemon fad thing brought to Lusty...

I'm pretty sure miniatures were just a minigame they never really intended to update to begin with, IIRC Hajamin coded them in a day or something because he was bored over the holidays.

What trade actually makes the miniatures?

None. Arts is the skill which lets you make the actual miniatures.

I believe all tradeskills have a miniature related skill. Consider wanting a few figures, with various upgrades. You now need one of every type of merchant. Sounds hard, hmm?

The tradeskills you need to get a usable miniature are: Jewelry (blank miniatures), Arts (give it a form), Enchantment (activate it), and Artisan (to build a ring).

Everything else is upgrades, with varying times it survives (my forged stuff, for example, only lasted one or two rounds), and you can't have all upgrades at once (I think poison, quicksilver and forged stuff are incompatible).

Of course, you've got the whole thing of wanting every upgrade, which I can't really blame you for. I did it too. And it didn't really help after the first two or three rounds.

I'd seriously like to get miniatures up and running, in a tourny of some kind. Perhaps divine sponsored, with rare prize miniatures. I have this very nice snow covered fightingring design, I'd like to use it at some point. And I could use my sealed sketch of Raezon for the miniature

Which reminds me, Richter. Where did you get your Kethuru miniature?

IDEA FOOLISH

QUESTION SELF EXPLANATORY

DELETED.

Are you sure about the Enchantment part? I don't think you need that step.

The part Richter leaves out is that all this stuff can be sold in shops. So all those supply issues are trivial compared to the lack of demand. I've got 14 blank figurines in one shop, and 8 carved figurines in another, for instance. (And a publicly accessible ring in the Gargling Pixie.) I'd stock the add-ons if anyone was interested.

If you just want to look at the miniatures, you don't need an enchanter. If you want them to come alive and be able to fight, you need the enchanter.

Personally, I lost interest in miniatures quickly because for all the time and energy you invest in them, they'll decay in a year or two and you'll have to start over with a new one. The idea of making them gain/lose decay time on a win/loss in the ring is not very practical.

IG or RL year?

I like Richter's idea. I really enjoyed miniatures when they were new and everyone was trying them. They seem to have died out, because it took so much upkeep just for a little toy thing. And then getting a new one was rather difficult if you couldn't find a tradesperson with the skill. If they were simpler to make, it would be easier to get and more people would (maybe) play with them.

IG.

That ought to be tweaked too, regardless of how easy they are to make. No one wants to get their hands on a nifty Estarra miniature and log on a week later to find that it's turned to dust.

They ought to work it out like the pet leveling system. Start a miniature off at level 1 and allow it to lose/gain "experience". If it drops below 0%, it shatters. Otherwise it's more or less forever. This would not be any more or less profitable to tradesmen and women than it is already, seeing that now one is currently using them. Though, you could have the miniature just break and need repairs and recharges before it were fighting fit.

Is there a cheap artifact to make a miniature permanent? That would also work and net some credit income.

We need to get rid of the stupid crap they added later, like miniature cloaks and minimeals. Those were stupid and nobody uses them

They do. If they win a miniature battle, they may gain a level. If they lose, they may lose a level.