Have you ever wondered who crafted all those items the trader offers?
What if every time you sold an item to a trader it was added to a list on the server you were playing on with the name of the hearthling that crafted the item, the town it was made in, and the player who sold it.
Whenever the trader appears after this, the player created items are within the trading window.
Each time the item is sold by the trader the player that crafted the item would get royalties/discounts for creating such a valuable item and be able to track the history of where that item has been.
Additionally as the item or weapon journeys throughout stonehearth its stats could be adjusted based on the history of its creation and use.
So when you pick up a weapon it could have a log that says:
Crafted by the hearthling Mer Burlyhands in the town of Stones Edge by player GenBOOM.
(Rarity = Common)
The weapon was sold to a cheap trader for 83 gold coins.
Cheap trader sold the weapon on Deepmun 17 to player somenoob for 129 gold coins.
(GenBOOM now has +5 gold coin trading discount with cheap trader)
While wielding the weapon hearthling Elena Addion was slain by a monster Rock Golem on Deepmun 19.
(Weapon is now unlucky, -2 luck to those that equip it)
(Rarity = Unique)
(Value adjustment - 19 gold coins)
Equipped by a monster Warrior Goblin in a local tribe near the valley between 3 mountains.
Used in a successful raid against a town of goblin slayers.
Blessed by a Goblin Shaman.
(Weapon is now cursed, +5 rage to hearthlings that see it on the battlefield- causing them to charge, +3 life leech to the one that has equipped it)
(Rarity = Rare)
(Value adjustment - 74 gold coins)
(Questionable Origins, Stones Edge, Town Reputation - 48)
(Added quest objective- Reclaim Cursed Weapon to Restore the Reputation of the town of Stones Edge)
Dropped by Goblin Chief in the foggy forest.
Discovered by rare trader on Deepmun 23.
Sold to player magicmoe on Deepmun 25 for 36 gold coins.
(Quest Objective- Reclaim Cursed Weapon - Complete.)
(GenBOOM now has +1 gold coin trading discount with rare trader)
Purified by a Master Cleric on Deepmun 28.
(Curse has been reversed)
(Questionable Origins Removed, Stones Edge Reputation Restored. Diplomacy +48 with GenBOOM in the town of Stones Edge)
(Weapon is now blessed, +5 courage to hearthlings on the battlefield, +3 healing aura around the one that has equipped it)
(Rarity = Legendary)
(Value adjustment + 196 gold coins)
Sold by magicmoe to GenBOOM for 177 gold coins and a Defensive Pact on Deepmun 29.
etc
Map Generated Geographical Descriptors
"Equipped by a monster Warrior Goblin in a local tribe near the valley between 3 mountains."
The purpose of giving a geographical location is so that it can be found again, and is a context clue for if a quest becomes available.
To do this descriptors would have to be added to block chunks when the map is generated that is unique to that location so that it makes sense as a clue. It would have a lot of different descriptors for each location, but it would pick just enough descriptors for the clue to be a unique location on the map that has been revealed to the player or players if you are on multiplayer.
If it is within the revealed map to one player but not another, it should be obvious that you would have to chat with them to find out where the location is. This may of course require some exploration as well. Knowing this could be a quest that could have rewards puts both players in an interesting situation.
It could be cool, but a log like that would be a bit weird. Maybe some flavour text that gave the name of the creator, and some information about its highlights? like a rare sword that said
“This sword was created by Marie of the town of Cobble.
It was later enchanted by the enchanter Marcus, and was used
to slay the Great Goblin Tod. It was then lost for several months
before finding its way into the hands of Jill of the town of Gregtown”
"It was then lost for several months
before finding its way into the hands of Jill of the town of Gregtown"
Doesn’t make sense to me because it doesn’t explain how it was lost or why and the log isn’t updated until it is found. So being lost had no real meaning.
If you follow the log I made, it was lost because it became unlucky before it was cursed, so it makes sense that it got dropped. The Warrior Goblin likely became the same Goblin Chief that dropped it due to the weapon being cursed it became more powerful for Goblins than hearthlings.
In my head it makes sense that the weapon is somehow logging information because it has mana in it when it was created. Each time the weapon is picked up by a new person the mana is exchanged and the information is stored in a crystal on the weapon or whatever.
The only time I added the date was when a player actually knows when something happened. "Elena Addion was slain by a monster Rock Golem on Deepmun 19."
The only reason the date is recorded is because the player somenoob knows thats when Elena died.
When the sword is lost, it becomes much more vague.
"Equipped by a monster Warrior Goblin in a local tribe near the valley between 3 mountains."
The purpose of giving a geographical location is so that it can be found again, and is a context clue for if a quest becomes available.
Map Generated Geographical Descriptors
To do this descriptors would have to be added to block chunks when the map is generated that is unique to that location so that it makes sense as a clue. It would have a lot of different descriptors for each location, but it would pick just enough descriptors for the clue to be a unique location on the map that has been revealed to the player or players if you are on multiplayer.
If it is within the revealed map to one player but not another, it should be obvious that you would have to chat with them to find out where the location is. This may of course require some exploration as well. Knowing this could be a quest that could have rewards puts both players in an interesting situation.
I didn’t consider a lore reason for such a detailed log but I suppose you could change your initial idea to include that. I was just thinking of the flavour text you get for items like in path of exile.
To clarify my point however, my adaptation was to just include the highlights of the item’s history. If the act of being lost is considered a big part of the weapon’s history, and the fact that it was lost because the trader that bought it dropped it in a swamp is a minor detail, then the detail is left out.
If the item was lost and because it was cursed and thus thrown away, then the text might read “It was then cursed by the necromancer Ell before finding its way into the hands of Jill of the town of Gregtown.” The fact it was cursed is of higher priority in the timeline and the fact that it was lost becomes a detail.
This is all to stop the text from becoming too long and possibly giving away exploitable information
in other words its a linear thing, one line represents a single chunk in time.
so while I do like your long sentences, it would no longer be a log.
and actually I don’t know how it could be implemented with such detail in another way without running into some kind of memory problems while the data is stored before more events happen so that you decide to update the text on the weapon in the order you are going for. see the problem? you don’t know what will happen until it does. it just raises too many questions imo about when to update the text.
You could aggregate sections of timeline from the log and form a sentence based on priority. for instance, lets say every weapon starts off with who the item was made by and where:
“This iron sword was made by Webster of the town of Dale”
If the sword is enchanted at some time:
"“This iron sword was made by the blacksmith Webster of the town of Dale and was later enchanted by the enchanter Goldface of the town of Cobble”
Then we can start adding highlights. We don’t want to add too many so lets say we can have a maximum of three sentences. Every year we can add a new one when we consider a great feat to be achieved. In the first year its user kills a lot of wood golems:
“It was used to slay many wood golems”
In the same year, its user kills a chief. This sentence gets overwritten with:
“It was used to many slay many wood golems and kill the chief known as Golga”
Again in the same year, the user kills a troll. if we consider this feat to be greater than killing many wood golems, we get:
“It was used to slay a troll and kill the chief known as Golga.”
We can have a lot of rules depending on how complex we want it. For instance we could have great feats that overwrite all other feats like killing a dragon, we could aggregate many feats into “It was used in many adventures, including (biggest feat)”
We then add an adverb or adverb phrase to start the next sentence in the case of more adventures the next year, such as “Later…” or “After that…” or “It was then…” and repeat the process. Overall I like your idea, it really adds to the dwarf fortress feeling of fidelity
Thats great idea for flavor text, but its a different idea, to me its not achieving the same goals…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you shared your thoughts about it, its a great idea, but its a fundamentally different suggestion. If you made a thread and explained the whole thing in one go, it would be helpful in getting your vision across and I would be glad to support it.
To me it seems that this is best suited for more of a weapon inscription that only has space as you said for a few lines and it is updated with only its latest adventures. That sounds great, but I was going for something with the entire history that also tied into trading and bonus abilities.
You have to choose how much detail any log would have, still. A ship’s log might consist of complete sentences but it wouldn’t record everything the crew said, or the shapes of clouds that obviously wouldn’t bring storms, or…
A detailed log might be good for Dwarf Fortress, but I think a more summarized flavor text would fit Stonehearth better.
Like i said in my intial post I adapted your idea because I thought a log like that would feel strange. To expound on that, it feels strange in a game like stonehearth where things dont feel so raw. You could call my idea separate, but to me it is an adaptation of yours. You asked if we “wondered who crafted all those items the trader offers,” and to me this achieves that.
The other part of your idea says that you want to give clues as to a possible source of content. Again to me this log idea doesn’t feel like it belongs in stonehearth, but it could be adapted to something that does and achieves the same thing. In addition to the dynamic flavour text, the trader that dropped it could give you the quest on arrival to your town, or upon visiting another person’s town, you could get a popup giving you the quest from someone that knows of the sword’s location.
