I have heard rumours you are already working on these, but thought i might give some input...player made weapons,components and batteries.
I like the simple feel of the game, so, in keeping with the games simple feel, i am thinking a simple crafting system that would be easy to implement would be the key.

my thoughts were to make a use for all that ore people mine and can only scrap to a vendor...make an item say, one component that takes ores to make, and one dropped looted item from a bot.

the problem with player made batteries and weapons and perhaps ammo is that its harder to procure, and more of a hassle, so, with the way the current system is where everything goes bye bye when you die that makes it difficult.

the only solution that popped into my mind was making player made equipment harder to destroy. in otherwords, make it so there is only a 10-40% chance that it will be destroyed. still a chance it will go bye bye, therefor not making them completely awsome weapons, but yet, it also means that players will still buy them. also, if the weapons can still be destroyed, it will keep the games economy flowing because it will be a reliable source of income to miners and traders.
however, i think that unless its really easy to get the parts for, no one would waste too much time buying player made weapons if the first time they die their expensive gun is gone, same with batteries.

so, those are my thoughts. as far as the crafting system goes, simple might be better. as in, i wouldnt spend tons of time setting up tables so that at X trade level you can make X weapon at X percent,and if you are below X level X weapon will only come out at 50%.

just make it so at a higher trade lvl you can choose what field of crafting you wish to go into. then, make it so they have to make X amount of low lvl component,weapon,or battery. after making X amount, they can now make a higher lvl battery,weapon,or component.

and throw in a 20% chance that they might fail to make it, and out of that 20%, 10% that they will loose all components, the other 10% that they will just loose some components or ores.

also, equipment that is player made shouldnt be too much better than vendor, you dont wanna throw off the balance of the game, or upset players that dont have the means to buy PM weapons. i think that if it is slightly better and there is less of a chance of it going kaboom every single time they die, players will get it even if it isnt that much better.

last but not least...dropped weapons and batteries :)
that I would love to see as well as the addition of a sort of crafting system/economy.

for example,a hive queen has a small chance of dropping a weapon that is very good. you must pardon me, i am new to the game, so i dont know if there is a lotto system in game yet, but if not, just add a random number generater so if hunting bots in a group people dont get bent out of shape and try to ninja loot any goodies :)

but even low lvl bots having a small chance of dropping a good weapon would be nice. make it so the weapon isnt worth much for people that just farm/harvest for money, and make it better than what you could buy at that lvl for a weapon or battery. make them hard to get (i.e. rare drop) if you desire to make them have a chance they wouldnt be destroyed, or make them more of a common drop if they dis appear when you die :)

So, thats my very long winded post, i hope that you wont take these as orders from some noob who doesnt know the game dynamics yet. I just started this game and loved it, just had a few ideas and thought it couldnt hurt to throw em out at you, regardless of how bad they are :)

either way, i love the game so far and canceled my everquest 2 subsciption and gave up mechwarrior 4 to play it more often :)
keep up the good work and hopefully you can make some sence out of my mindless drivel i call suggestions :)

/bow

Possibly a more rational and even more interesting way to recover/recycle crafted items would be to let them be dropped as cargo items and retrievable by bots. Then later those items may be retrieved from the bot wreckage, just as a nice little surprise. That would also further explain how the Hive Queens managed to upgrade themselves.

after hashing this out on MIRC, some players pointed out a flaw. I am not sure if ones escape pod flies directly to a station, if it is recovered, or if the player is teleported out of his ship before explosion. what bearing does this have? roleplay of course. if one flies directly to the station in his pod, or if he is teleported, weapons going with him is a bit on a roleplaying stretch.

however, i think it would work to make the weapons destroyable as normal. just make it so compnents for player made weapons are easy to find and or make, so people can produce them en mass and they wont be expensive.

anyway, im done with ideas for now and im getting carpal tunnel :P

New Player here

Question, on player craftable items

The item could be made by a sub class of either of the races if trade skill is part of their make up. The items are a just as vendor bought but they would/could use less engery drain per use and other plus<ie faster rate of fire>, but as to the life of the item still with in vendor specs.

Items that could be made per player's
Weapons
Equipment<range extenders, both missles and radar>
Engines
Shields<use ship armor rating per lvl>

Also the player would have to use skill points to increase this skill or basic other skills weapons, shields, engines.

just a thought

thanks
dragonne

Crafting goes HERE!!! http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/11406 ; We know the search function isn't great, but please try a little harder.

Okay, now that I have the obligatory crafting redirect...

"the problem with player made batteries and weapons and perhaps ammo is that its harder to procure, and more of a hassle" "also, equipment that is player made shouldnt be too much better than vendor"
After the economy is entirely dynamic, all items will be just as hard to procure as any other, so there won't be that problem; all items with the same name are likely to be the same for at least a LONG time. Also, general crafting will always succeed.

We don't want classes, and even levels are falling by the wayside (i.e. becoming less important) -- one of the best things about this game is that it is primarily twitch-based, not time-in-game based.

I'm not sure what a lotto system is, but we don't have one and probably don't want one.

"recover/recycle crafted items would be to let them be dropped as cargo items"
They already are...

"Also the player would have to use skill points"
We don't want skill points; especially not the kind that get spent.

I thank you for the LINK, yes the search function works somw what.

Ammo is ammo picked up at any vendor.

My thanks
dragonne

Reon - I always thought that you controlled your ship from your home station, Sercos using their cybernetic implants and Itanis using their magix(read backstory). UIT can use remote controls, or whatever they want...

but the ships have cockpits which implies an actual pilot on board.

Not all ships have cockpits.