Trait Research Ideas

Evarwyn

So I was talking to my fellow co-host, Dave, today and we came up with a few ideas about the crafting system and for the trait system:

1. Have some way we can research a trait in game w/o having to find an item w/ the specific trait you're looking for. (Example: Somewhat similar to how you personalize your horse's passives)
2. Have a way to add traits to non-crafted items w/o traits
3. Have a way to change traits to an item, crafted or non-crafted, as well

What do you think and what are your ideas that can help improve the crafting system?

Food4Thought

I disagree.

Half the fight is finding these items with the traits you need. I find it part of the crafting challenge to discover them and get them researched.

As for myself, I have researched 187 of them so far and have no shortage of items in my inventory waiting for a slot be researched.

Are there some that are hard to find?

Absolutely. But they are no different that the rare motifs or recipes that are in game that people will give a body part for to aquire.

May be when I am down to the final 20 or so traits I might agree that things need to change, but so far I haven't had an issue getting them. In fact, I would say the game is designed to give them to you in a slow progression. Even at my near Vet level, I still seem to aquire trait items I need in quests.

I have even theorized that some traits you can only get on quest item gear rewards unless you get them from another player.

Evarwyn

@Food4Though Ok, fair enough. So what do you think of 2 and 3?

Evarwyn wrote: »

2. Have a way to add traits to non-crafted items w/o traits
3. Have a way to change traits to an item, crafted or non-crafted, as well

Nestor

I don't think changing a Trait would be a good thing. However adding a trait to a vanilla piece of gear might be cool. I would think that the crafter would have to have the level and proficiencies to work on that material in the first place.

However from a Lore Standpoint, a trait is pretty much built in from the start. It would be like taking a Windbreaker Jacket (good for Stamina) and waving a stone over it and having it become a Parka (Impenetrable)

Coupled with the fact that actually making the gear is pretty easy and does not take that much raw materials if you have any Extraction Passives, it is too easy to make the gear with the trait you want to, as long as you know the trait. I think the only place you would get tripped up is if you found something Purple or better that did not have a trait you wanted as that would be harder to recreate.

Tarukmockto

I agree with @Food4Thought about needing to learn the trait the way it is now. I don't see any real advantage to changing it, since I always have at least a dozen items in the bank waiting to be researched as it is. I also have not had any problem finding someone who will provide me an item I want to research that I have not found yet in the wild.

I like idea #2, the ability to add a trait to a non-traited item. I think it should work similar to how it does in item creation. You must have already done the research for the trait you want to add, and it should take five stones instead of the standard one. A token tribute to having the ability, and acknowledging the difficulty of reworking the item.

I don't like #3, the ability to change an existing trait. That makes it too easy to simply tailor anything to anything. There has to be a cost for making a decision about the trait during initial crafting. Whether that decision was made by a Player crafter or an NPC crafter named RNG. If such an ability were to be added, I would want the cost to be very high, like a full stack of the trait stones.

Hamfast

The only benefit I can see to adding or changing a trait on an item is if that item was using a motif you were unable to make, but motif's, like traits, are something we work to find, that "Crafting Challenge" mentioned above.

by the same token, we can already improve those same items... would not "Retraiting" an item be similar?

I guess if it was a new set of skills added to the existing crafting lines, 1-3 skill points with 30, 60, 90% chance for success, failure means the loss of the piece and the items to retrait it...

Curragraigue

I think idea two could work. You could make it similar to improvements to weapons so if you wanted to add a trait to an already existing item that did not have a trait you need to add so many gem stones for a percentage chance of adding that trait to the item. May be difficult to implement that as a system though.

Agree with @Food4Thought‌ that finding the traits is the challenge of researching traits so don't agree with point 1.

I also don't agree with point 3. I think you need to be careful when choosing the trait you want to add to an item and letting people change it easily defeats the purpose of the thought going in before creating the item. It also lowers the value of the trait system if someone can just change a trait at will for different situations. Similar issue with items found with traits already in them, plus the added issue of ZOS have designed weapons found with traits to be that way for game balance so shouldn't really be messing with that.

Good ideas for discussion though.

AreoHotah

Nr 2 would be nice. But as a dedicated master crafter i would like to say about 1 and 3: No

Pele

I agree with #2.

Azzuria

Personally, I'm completely satisfied with the current trait research system. Not to say I find the 28 day wait to researth the 8th trait all the fun but I understand why it works as it does.

Your second point is rather interesting as it would add value to certain items but it would also inflate the prices of trait gems as you would have people needing them for creation and modification. Not sure it's worth the trouble, economically speaking.