My idea would be to simplify this idea just to make it complicated again:
The basic key points:
- Items can have tiers. In the vanilla this would be at least “Common” and “Fine”.
- Common items can be crafted by workers just like they do now. What items can be crafted may depend upon the race/kingdom of the worker.
- Fine items can accidentally get crafted once a worker is skilled (like now). Additionally, Common items may be upgraded if the recipe is known (i.e. the accidentally-upgraded part happened a few times).
- Additionally, I would like to introduce Weathered. Weathered items have seen some really hard times, lots of wear-and-tear, and just don’t look (or maybe function) the same. They can mainly be found in ruins and dungeons, but I would welcome if all items can “degrade” over time too.
- Recipes can be “learned”. While all crafters can do their race/kingdom’s common items, all other items are not known to them at the beginning.
- Personally, I would limit this. A worker is able to learn all recipes of his own kingdom, but only X per other kingdom (i.e. 5 dwarf, 5 sheepfolk things, 5 rabbitfolk stuff). Maybe this is tied to the level, so each level a worker gains additional two recipe “slots”. Recipes could be unlearned every once in a while.
- Items can switch their tiers. In the picture above, there are three processes at work:
- Upgrade is a process that requires the worker to know both the normal and the upgraded recipe (e.g. the common and the fine one). Upgrades lift the item out of its current tier and into the next one. I would say that an upgraded item requires the base item and some additional resources, similar to the Comfortable Bed we have right now.
- Restoration is done by taking a weathered item, some resources and luck. This process has a chance to fail and is quite expensive (both resources and time), up to the point where simply crafting it again would make more sense. After X (varies per item) successful restorations, a crafter may learn the recipe permanently. As such, it does not require any recipe, although it may require a certain level (i.e. fine lamps cannot be restored by a level 0 carpenter). Each item would have a “skill” that would depend on the amount of restorations already done (successful weighting more than failed ones), the level of the worker and whether the final product is known (a huge boost). This skill determines the chance of success.
- Weathering is a process that slowly degrades an item, but that’s an extension not necessarily required. By using some very simple and stupid algorithms, and item turns into a lower tier. Factors would be placement (outdoors rapidly accelerates this, while being stored in a stockpile as icon slows it down), use (chairs could get a little more used every time someone used them) and quality (weathered items degrade much faster than common degrade faster than fine items). A weathered item drops not a whole tear, however, it first degrades to a weathered version of itself (i.e. Weathered Fine Lantern). If not restored, the item may drop a complete tier (or more).
I think this would be a great change, including but not limited to:
- Ability to craft fine (or even finer) items
- “Assimilating” other kingdom/races’ abilities, without being able to completely replace them easily
- With weathering: The requirement to maintain your village, not just build-and-forget. Of course, it would need to be properly done, as in the ability to simply say “Take this, upgrade/restore it, then place it back” instead of picking it up and then re-positioning it.
- Upgrading items to increase functionality (for example, comfort for beds or chairs)
- A simple “research” system that uses chance but is not completely dependant on it
- A resource sink: Restorations would be pretty expensive (costs may scale with skill?) and upgrades would offer additional experience/nicer items for resources.