Magic Item Crafting
Crafting Magic Items
On UO Darwinism there are practically limitless combinations of magic properties available on magic items, allowing for a greater level of rarity and a wide range of new abilities and effects. By mixing and matching gear, players will be able to fine-tune their characters better than ever before.
Not only will you be able to find magic items on creatures, but if you have a blacksmith or tailor, you'll be able to craft them as well!
We have added custom magic cloth rewards which can produce skill bonus clothing.
All types of armor will have base resistances associated with them (for example, all Leather Armor Tunics start with 2% Physical, 4% Fire, 3% Cold, 3% Poison, and 3% Energy resistance). However, when crafting with colored metal or one of the special leather types, the items that tailors and blacksmiths create will get an additional bonus to certain properties depending on the material that is used.
For example, when used to create armor, Valorite adds 4% Physical, 3% Cold, 3% Energy, and 3% Poison resist to the piece of armor, as well as a 50% durability bonus. When used to create a weapon, Valorite converts some of the Physical Damage % to Cold, Energy, Fire, and Poison damage.
Each type of colored metal and special leather will have its own set of weaknesses and strengths when it comes to elemental damage (weapons) and resistance (armor). So, you wouldn't necessarily want to wear the same suit of armor to fight a fire-breathing creature that you would if you were faced with one that attacks with cold damage. The same applies to weapons. A sword that deals more cold damage than fire would be more beneficial against an opponent with a weakness to cold.
In addition to the standard metals we have added custom ores and custom leathers that have even more properties and can be used to craft exceptional items.
For example:
Bronze armor would give its wearer a relatively high defense bonus against cold attacks (+5), but would add a fairly low defense bonus (+1) against energy attacks. Alternatively, shadow adds no extra bonus to cold resistance, but adds a high bonus (+5) to energy resistance.
The same applies to leather armor. Barbed leather adds a higher bonus (+4) to energy resistance than spined leather; however, spined leather adds a higher bonus (+5) to physical resistance than barbed.
This will allow warriors and mages of all types the ability to experiment with a wide variety of equipment combinations with only a visit to their friendly neighborhood tailor or blacksmith.
Runic Crafting Tool
By using a Runic Crafting Tool to craft an item, tailors and blacksmiths will be able to craft more powerful artifacts.
Items created using a Runic Hammer or Runic Sewing Kit gain additional bonus properties, generated from the list of magic effects.
The number of properties and their intensities (relative strength of the property) are determined by the type of Runic Tool used. For example, a Valorite Runic Hammer has the chance to add more bonus properties to an item than a Shadow Runic Hammer, and any properties added to the item have a higher average intensity rating.
Unfortunately, this new way of crafting is ill-understood by even the most accomplished crafters, and the results tend to be quite unpredictable. While the crafter is certain to get a better item from crafting with a Runic Hammer, they cannot choose which bonus properties will be applied to the item.
Exceptional Items
Creating an exceptional item also adds a bonus to both armor and weapons.
When crafting armor, this bonus comes as an increase to the armor's Durability, as well as a six percent Resistance bonus that is randomly distributed among the item's elemental Resistances.
For instance, creating a pair of exceptional plate gloves could add +2 to the item's base cold resistance, +1 to its energy resistance, and +3 to its poison resistance, or any number of other random combinations. It's even possible to have the entire bonus applied to one property, which would add +6 to its original value - crafting such an item would be quite a feat! This random scattering of the +6 bonus means that being able to craft Exceptional items will be an even more sought after skill for armorsmiths.
For weapons, the Exceptional bonus increases the weapon's Durability, as well as a Damage Modifying bonus that increases the amount of damage dealt when a successful hit is scored with the weapon.
We have also added a custom crafting feature called the Weapon Leveling System. If a blacksmith can forge an exceptional weapon it can be leveled. The base weapon has 15 levels which can add many additional attributes and abilities.
Enhancing Items
While items made out of iron or plain leather, either crafted or found as loot, lack the special material bonuses applied by using Colored Ingots or the unique Leather Types, a skilled Craftsman still has the ability to enhance the item after the fact.
Plain weapons or armor can be imbued with Colored Ingots or special Leather through the process known as Enhancement. Success will add the metal or leather's fixed properties (bonuses) to the item.
This means that once you've been lucky enough to find a superior item as loot on a monster, you can seek to improve it by imbuing it with special materials. However, imbuing an already existing item with Colored Ingots or unique Leather Types is difficult to say the least.
Failing an Enhancement attempt will cost you some of your materials, but there is also a very good chance of destroying the item. Once imbued, the item is considered to have been made out of the special material infused into the item, so it can never be Enhanced again.
The inherent difficulty in Enhancing an item works as a balancing factor, since you already have a superior item with magical properties you undoubtedly desire, and you are seeking to even further increase them. Enhancement is definitely not a choice to be made by a squeamish Crafter, for the chance of destroying your prized possession is high. But the rewards can be well worth it!
