So, I was walking to the bus stop this morning, bored. It was early, and I have no idea why, but I started thinking about Crafting. It just came into my head, and BAM: Everything you are about to see came into my head, fully-formed and ready. It has inspirations solely from Cryptic's existing works (Champions and STO), and one of the STO inspirations comes from an unlikely place: An obscure Diplomatic mission called "Quarantine"...


I call my Crafting System the "Lego System", because it would work a lot like building stuff with Lego blocks. The first thing I need to cover is Research. I basically ripped of Champions Online for this one, and I don't really get why this system doesn't exist in STO already. Basically, you find an item, and you rip it apart for Data Samples (take apart your old Lego model for the blocks). It would give use for items that otherwise just sit around and gather dust. Standard Ship equipment, low-level loot, Bound gear you've replaced, all of it. This would solve one of the two major problems I see with the current Crafting system: Accessibility. It takes forever currently to grind everything you need in STO, which is one of the reasons that Aegis is so rare. I got over a hundred expertise in 3 or 4 trips to a crafting station in CO to get rid of junk that I had no use for! Plus, I got more crafting materials there then I did hunting around for those little investigate objects. It's really just a much better system.

And now, on to Development. This is where things start getting good. You still have your three basic divisions (Tech, Physical Sciences, and Energy Fields), but the WAY you craft items has been turned on its ear. This is where it starts to look like the puzzle from the mission "Quarantine" - at least, a little. What you do is when you click Development, you have another box to drag-and-drop in (like the CO Research tab). This is where you drop the schematic you want to use. For our example, we will build a Combat Impulse Engine Mk XII (Turn)x3, something that (to my knowledge) has never been seen before.

You have your data samples, you have your schematic, you're at your crafting place, and you want to build. You hit "Development", and drag your Engine Schematic into the box. It gives you three options:
*Hyper-Impulse Engine
*Impulse Engine
*Combat Impulse Engine
You click "Combat Impulse Engine" (If you wanted to build Aegis, you'd click Hyper - Aegis is a Hyper-Impulse engine). You get another screen with more buttons:
*Mark I
*Mark II
*(Skip a few)
*Mark XII
You click "Mark XII". Every Mark requires either a higher-tier Data Sample or a larger amount. This brings you to another screen, with 4 more options:
*Common
*Uncommon
*Rare
*Very Rare
This is where you select Rarity, which determines how many modifiers your new engine can have. You want 3, so you click Very Rare. The rarer your engine is, the more it will cost to make it. This will bring you to your second-to-last screen (or, set of screens). You get the following options:
*(Spd)
*(Turn)
*(Full)
*(Aux)
These are your Modifiers. Since you picked "Very Rare" in the last screen, you can pick 3. You click "(Turn)" three times. You get your FINAL (I promise) screen. It shows you:
Below that is what you need to make it. If you have everything you need, you hit "Craft". BOOM. You have your engine lickity-split. If you don't, you hit "Cancel", and go get what you need.

This solves the other major issue with the current Crafting setup: Usefulness. I don't know ANYONE who crafts for anything other than Aegis, because most of what you make doesn't have the right kind of Mods on it. With this system, you can craft literally ANY item in the game, mission specials excluded (No crafting your Borg parts, sorry). You could literally scrap the standard equipment on your new D'Kyr, add in some miscellaneous loot, and have everything you need to make yourself a full new set of equipment, a set that is PERFECTLY tailored to you. Bound item that you don't use any more? Scrap it and make something better!

And finally, for my last bit, a new section for crafting: Upgrades. Let's say you manage to find a Combat Impulse Engine Mk XII as loot. No Mods, no nothing. You take it to a Crafting Station, drag it into the Upgrade tab, and skip to the Rarity step above. You follow those instructions again, and (for cheaper than building a new one from scratch), you have the same engine. You won't be able to raise the tier of the item, but you can make it better.


So, now that you have seen how my idea works, Questions, Comments, Criticism. Anything is welcome, speak thine mind.

Interesting, but still just using data samples as currency and buying what you want from a vendor. There really should be a chance of failure and/or some player action required during crafting. Otherwise it's just another currency system like it is now.


Z

This might be a good idea from the standpoint of using lower tier Marks / Badges / Medals to buy gear and then rip it apart for mats.

It also provides for allowing borderline gear to be upgraded.

A side-effect would be seeing the exchange prices for Uncommon, Rare and Very Rare gear skyrocket because crafters would be buying the cheaper stuff to rip it.

Definitely need to throw in that chance for failure with the staggered possibility of losing some mats but also provide a vary small chance to stumble upon a really epic item.

Sounds good. Anomolies can even stay in the game as a suppliment providing the "rare" particle traces, although you'd have to rework the quantities required and which items use them; you want them to be necessary, but not a grind to get enough to make an item like it is now.

Except for upgrading existing stuff, you just described crafting in Champions. Which is better than STO's, developed by the same company, built in the same engine, and came first. That STO's crafting is what it is is really just... bad. You're not the first person to make these suggestions. You surely won't be the last, but I doubt we'll ever see it.

Not exactly. You can't build literally *every* CO item. This system is the best of both... Plus some more. I really hope this catches Dev attention.

Secretary, get me ThomasTheCrypticCat!

EDIT:

If you want to look at it as a "buying" type system (no one is saying that's completely wrong, I see your point), think of it less like a normal purchase and more like... well, ordering a pizza. You tell them what kind, how big, and what you want on it, then you go and pay for it.

If you want to think of it like that.