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Gem cutting - Degree vs. Outcome

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Gem cutting - Degree vs. Outcome

Postby arriend » Mar 31, 2003 (1:13 am)

Hail,
I've been toying with the gemcutting all too much it seems, but have some confusion with the practicality of training to such extent. It's nice to have something to do while about the square with others, and this is by no means a complaint, more of an inquery, so to say.
After about 3 degrees the skill becomes increasingly difficult and experience is drawn slowly, but no obvious change is observed in selling price or general appearence of the gem, even after 20 it seems to be the same case, save for a number of more costly gems able to be shattered to obtain experience in the trade skill.
However, this tradeskill has much promise and is addicting to say the least. Perhaps when fletching, forging and such skills become available finely cut gems may be inset to raise value, or be enchanted by a mage then inset to bestow some advantage to one blade or hide above the next.
Not exactly sure what I'm getting at so this probably appears to be no less then mindless bable and ramblings, but I suppose it may at the very least spark an idea in others as to what to question on... :idea:

Cheers,
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Postby GDALDANON » Apr 1, 2003 (7:09 am)

I assure you ...we've been heading in that general direction since the concept began. :wink:


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Postby sweetfae » Apr 1, 2003 (10:09 pm)

He's seriously addicted!! I can testify to that!!!


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Postby GDEXXY » Apr 2, 2003 (11:34 pm)

Learning does drop rather quickly after a few ranks and then after 10, 25, 100, etc. This is just a natural reflection on how learning a skill actually works: the more you know, the less there is to know and master. You may want to try your hand at harder gems. Each gem has a different difficulty setting.

The cost of gems does increase, but you won't notice it on most of the cheaper gems. From your descriptions of both price and experience drop, I can tell that you're still trying to cut the same ol' gems. Time to upgrade.

As for your comments about shaping (an advanced feature that we will change a little to add more flexibility and control) without revealing too much about how gemcutting works, let's take the easiest gemstone possible: a greenish-black epidote stone.

The epidote stone has a difficulty check (D.C., a rating to determine how hard something is to do, the higher the number, the harder it is) of 1. To cut it, your skill in Gemcutting, plus a random factor, must be better than 1, which is rather easy to do (because of the size of the random factor).

Each time you cut a gemstone successfully, it becomes exponentially harder to cut the next time. At grade level 9, the epidote stone is +45 D.C., which means that your skill, plus a random factor, must be MORE than 46 to successfully finish just that last step. Successfully cutting a gemstone at grade level 9 perfects the gem and automatically shapes it (in the future, we'll let you determine what kind of shape to make it into).

Currently, the system will choose one of three shapes: a perfect pyramid, a glittering orb, or a dazzling cube.

If, however, you succeed your difficulty check (D.C.) cut by 10 points or more, instead of geometric shapes, you will cut the gemstone into an animal shape. There are currently five shapes: a howling wolf, a delicate spider, a graceful dove, a sleeping cat, and an awesome dragon.

So if we succeeded our final cut D.C. by 10 or more points and the system picked the sleeping cat (randomly, for now), we would end up with: "a greenish-black epidote stone carved into a sleeping cat".

Now accomplishing this alone would be hard: you have to succeed 10 difficulty checks (grades 0 through 9) ranging from 1 to 46 for just the easiest gemstone. But what makes it even harder is that if you fail your D.C. by 10 or more, you actually damage the gemstone and lose 2 grades of perfection, taking you a few steps back in progress. If a gemstone has been damaged too many times, it can no longer be cut.

In fact, if you fail your D.C. by getting a particularly bad random number, you can destroy your gemstone altogether, leaving you empty-handed.

I hope this helps you understand the Gemcutting trade skill a little bit better. Some gems are radically more difficult, like diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and ensyiatite. Anyone with less than 150 skill ranks shouldn't even try some of them as they are incredibly difficult.

Enjoy!
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Postby Rob » Apr 3, 2003 (12:35 pm)

Does any skills or stats factor in to the equation. Like Intelligence, wisdon, craft skill, ect. Or is the trade all by it's self.
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Postby GDEXXY » Apr 3, 2003 (2:23 pm)

Just Gemcutting.

If we factored in any other ability score, skill, level, race, etc. then the trade skills lose their meaning. Trade skills are equally fair to learn and use from person to person.
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Postby Rob » Apr 3, 2003 (2:44 pm)

That sounds good to me!
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A cubic zirconium carved into a glittering orb

Postby Rob » Apr 8, 2003 (10:57 am)

I finally cut a custom gem into something! Yahoooo :D

But I went and got it appraised and it's worht the same 2 gold as it was before I made all them perfect and inproved it. So I didn't make it any better just gave it a new look. :cry:

I would think after all the work put into it, it would be worht more, heck even 1 gold more, something!
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Postby Rob » Apr 8, 2003 (8:07 pm)

Plus when you look at the gems they don't have the special look to them. You see nothing unusual. Think they should have the new look to them. When you tap they have look You tap a greenish-black epidote stone carved into a sleeping cat.
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Postby GDPALLIDAR » Apr 9, 2003 (8:40 am)

While it's possible for us to add a special look to them, I should note that the "tap" description as you called it is a completely different description as the "look" description, which is also completely independent from the "read" description and so on.

You might've been aware of this and just suggesting we add look descriptions in addition to the "tap" description (what we actually call a "short" description), but I wasn't sure. :)

Also, on value... Exxy or someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I think modifiers for value are percentages. Given that fact, the main reason you saw no increase is because we use whole values (i.e. you can't have 2.56 gold, just 2 or 3) and when you add a percentage to 2, unless the percentage is exceedingly high, it will not be enough of a gain to reach 3. On a more valuable stone, the increase should certainly be noticeable.
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Ideals for gems!

Postby Rob » Apr 9, 2003 (4:49 pm)

The ones that we can do now are a howling wolf, a delicate spider, a graceful dove, a sleeping cat, and an awesome dragon.

People have asked for more items. The ideals are a venomous cobra, a swooping falcon,Crouching Tiger,owl,griffen,owlbear.

Then there are items too like Rose(and other flowers),pendants.

Also in time maybe be able to hang then on chains or necklaces.

Maybe fruit like pear,apple,ect

Also added more gems to treasure system like emeralds,quartz(rose and other colors),oynx.


Please people add to my list to get some things in though and in game in time .

Robkin (enjoying cutting gems) :D
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Postby GDPALLIDAR » Apr 9, 2003 (7:04 pm)

I'll check into the possibility of more shape and/or gem types. :)
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Postby arriend » Apr 9, 2003 (9:59 pm)

Hello again.
On the idea of additional shapes, I'm sure it will come with time. Right now, however, the system is incrediably advanced and we are just scratching the tip of this tome that's been put before us. And for those who have just discovered this addictive act, don't be discouraged, with a little time you'll soon start to see shapes evolving from lesser gems, and some animals shortly there after.
Sorry for the tangent, back to shapes. I think aditional animals would be amazing, especially with the progression of the skill into choosing what it is you carve. Perhaps sticking to what is familiar to the realm *ie: goblins, rats, trolls, giants, ogres, jungatha, griffins, owlbear etc...* and more so then fruit, the track of actual gem cuts may be more descriptive, such as with the suggested "pear" as fruit, it's also a cut, as is the brilliant round, princess cut, heart shaped, emerald, bagette, oval and so on.
However, this is certainly not a trek to embark on and charge into. The staff has been incrediably busy with work and they effort put forth is shining through. Perhaps a more realistic task at hand is the development of feats for the guilds which have been presented, but yet to be implimented.
It's incrediably encouraging to stick around with the post of Exxy assuring the progression of the realm through the comming years. The staff has been doing a wonderful job and it's nice to have an affordable price along with the attention the individual still recieves.

Best of luck with tasks to come.
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Postby GDPALLIDAR » Apr 9, 2003 (10:29 pm)

<nod> I should probably also clarify something too, regarding posts I've made recently.

In addition to the obvious fact that while I've posted considerably and others on the staff have less, this shouldn't at all be taken as a sign that others are doing less work. Some simply either visit or post less by choice, or dedicate more of their time to working and less to socializing. :)

Also, I'm by no means discussing all of what I am working on personally. In fact, I rarely post what I'm working on until it's released. <grin> I am working alone, and with others, on projects ranging through most of the spectrum of Eaxia's dev schedule really.

That said, I would be most interested in hearing what folks desire most at this time, in terms of things like critters, combat stuff, spells, feats, trade skills, other misc. systems, etc.

Lots of really cool stuff is being worked on by the staff. I think there will be some very pleased people in the weeks and months to come.
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Postby GDPALLIDAR » Apr 10, 2003 (7:20 pm)

FYI, nearly 30 new gems have been added to the treasure system. These all vary greatly in value, rarity and difficulty to cut.
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Postby Rob » Apr 10, 2003 (7:35 pm)

Thank you , thank you! Looking forward to finding them!

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Postby arriend » Apr 19, 2003 (6:09 pm)

Hello again...
I'm not sure if it's my imagenation, but several attempts have shown similar results...When working lesser gems I find that it takes far less then 9 successful cuts, as was previously posted. In fact, I've found that in 3 perfect cuts a smaller gem can be shaped. Actually, I don't remember having nine sucessful cuts to shape a gem, never seem to take more then 6 or so. In reguards to the failed cuts *chipping or scratching a gem* it seems they take away two cuts, but a perfect cut *with great perfection, or working dilegently* only gives one cut, as does the other cuts which aren't perfect *pass the DC check by less then 10*...so the only benifit of a perfect cut would be if it falls on the final cut, and then you'd find the gem being an animal shape instead of a geometric figure...
Just checking my records against what's been put before us, not sure if this is all intended or not...anyone else find some interesting through their trek of cutting? Perhaps we can make some sense of what is still very forign.
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Postby GDEXXY » Apr 26, 2003 (1:33 pm)

Thank you for your feedback on gemcutting. We're looking into this to see if there are any problems with the system and/or if I was simply wrong about how long it should take to carve a gem into a shape.
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