what is tinkering? [Archive] - Asheron's Call Forums

Ellen_Ripley

08-08-2005, 04:05 PM

Tinkering was introduced to Dereth during the "Repercussions" event (July, 2002). Tinkering takes crafting to a whole new level and brings a completely new dynamic to our world.

The most unique aspect of the Tinkering skills is that it is a trade skill that is not entirely based on focus and coordination. Armor tinkering requires focus and endurance, while Weapon tinkering requires focus and strength. Items themselves will be limited to a maximum number of ten (10) modifications (with the exceptions of Ivory and Leather), and a maximum of one (1) imbue.

Tinkers will have to look at items in a new light, and pay careful attention to the details. The material the item is made from will suddenly play a part in an items value. The quality of the item will be important to treasure hunters and tinkers alike! These previously overlooked details will be key factors in determining the difficulty of modifying an item.

Traditionally, treasure hunters have kept only the loot of value: the high damage weapons, the lightest armor with the best protections and the item worth tens of thousands of pyreals. Now, explorers will have to look at our plunder with a more precise eye... a more trained eye. Adventurers are tasked with keeping items worthy of salvage, and reducing them to their basic elements with an Ust.

Do not fear all these changes, for there is one thing that remains constant.... Modifying an item involves the usual trades risk - only this time, the price is higher. If you fail, you will destroy the item. All the little details will contribute to the the success of the attempt: the material the item is made of, the craftsmanship, the type of enhancement attempted, the number of times an item has been tinkered, and the quality of the salvaged materials.

May the dice be merciful to you in your new endeavors as a Tinker!

Salvaging

Before you go any further, you need an Ust. The Ust can be purchased in the Nexus Towns, and in Capital Cities. Once you have an Ust, you need to familiarize yourself with the basics of salvaging: materials and workmanship. Each salvaged material has unique properties which allow it to be used to change certain aspects of an item. The Armor Tinkering, Item Tinkering, Magic Item Tinkering, and Weapons Tinkering pages have information on each modification and the salvage required. Ivory has its own uses, and has it's own page. In addition, Leather has it's own use: "Retain". This special tinker will prevent an item from being salvaged or sold accidently. Leathering does not count toward tinkering or imbues, and cannot destroy the item.

Workmanship
Salvaging forces us to suddenly pay attention to the workmanship of an item, and plays a large part in determining the success of a tinkering operation. Treasure generated items have a workmanship quality on a scale of 0-10; with 0 being lowest and 10 being highest. The higher the workmanship, the better!

Workmanship --- Quality
Poorly Crafted --- 1
Well-Crafted --- 2
Finely Crafted --- 3
Exquisitely Crafted --- 4
Magnificent --- 5
Nearly Flawless --- 6
Flawless --- 7
Utterly Flawless --- 8
Incomparable --- 9
Priceless --- 10

There are a few things to be aware of when combining salvage:

Adding lower quality salvage to high quality salvage will reduce the overall quality of the salvage.
Stacks of salvage can be combined up to 100 units - any excess units will be lost. For example: combining a stack of 90 Ivory with a stack of 11 Ivory will result in a stack of 100 Ivory. There will not be a new stack of 1 Ivory in your inventory; the extra unit is lost.
Stacks of combined salvage will be valued at the sum of the values of the stacks (minus any lost due to going over 100 units.)
It has been confirmed that you will gain more salvage if you ust items individually and then combine them rather than usting all of them in a single large batch.

Materials
Salvaged materials retain some of the value of the items salvaged, but not the entire value. The burden of salvage is 100bu, no matter what the weight of the original item was. This knowledge might come in handy for travellers that find a heavy item that is perfect for salvaging. Reduce the item with your ust, lose the major burden, and continue on in your search for Flawless items. Another handy piece of information is that salvage can be sold to vendors.

Special Tinks
Ivory - remove no drop
Leather - No sale, no salvage

Armor Tinks
Steel +20 AL
Marble - +.2 bludgeon
Alabaster - +.2 Pierce
Bronze - +.2 Blade
Ceramic - +.4 Fire
Wool - +.4 Cold
Armoredillo - +.4 Acid
Reedshark - +.4 Electric

Item Tinks
Linen - -25% burden
Pine - -25% value
Gold - +25% value

Magic Item Tinks
Moonstone +100 Mana
Opal - +1 Mana C

Armor Imbues
Yellow Topaz - +1 missile d
Peridot - +1 melee d
Zircon - +1 magic d

Minor Imbues
Red Jade - minor health gain
Lavender Jade - minor mana gain
Citrine - minor stam gain
Hematite - Warrior Vitality
Azurite - Wizards Intellect
Malachite - Warriors Vigor
Carnelian - minor str
Bloodstone - minor end
Smoky Quartz - minor coord
Rose Quartz - minor quick
Agate - minor focus
Lapis Lazuli - minor will

Critical Imbues
Black opal -critical strike
Fire opal - crippling blow

Rendering Imbues
Sunstone - armor rend
Aquamarine - cold rend
Emerald - acid rend
Black garnet - pierce rend
Red garnet - fire rend
White sapphire - blud rend
Jet - lightning rend
Imperial topaz - slash rend

Weapon Tinks
Iron - +1 Damage
Granite - -20% variance
Velvet +1 Attack
Mahogany +4% damage on missile
Brass - +1 Defense
Oak - -5 Speed

Activation reqs
Silver - melee to missile req
Copper - missile to melee req
Silk - remove rank req.
Ebony - change race req't to Gharu
Porcelain - change race req't to Sho
Teak - change race req't to Aluv
Satin- change race req't to Viamontian

Armor Tinkering
Armor Tinkering allows a player to modify two facets of an item: armor level and protections. This skill challenges our previous trade templates by using the Focus and Endurance attributes, instead of Focus and Coordination. Armor Tinkering costs 4 skill credits. Once you have salvaged 100 units, you are ready to modify an item.

Item Tinkering
Item Tinkering allows a player to modify various facets of an item. Originally, those facets were burden, value, and mana capacity. This skill follows the footsteps of Alchemy, Cooking, Fletching and Lockpick and is based off of the Focus and Coordination attributes. Item Tinkering costs 2 skill credits, while all other tinkering skills cost 4. Once you have salvaged 100 units, you are ready to modify an item.

Magic Item Tinkering
The process of tinkering an item in this fashion is perhaps better described as "Imbuing". This skill uses just the focus attribute, and costs 4 skill points to train.
Magic Item Imbuing enhancements can only be applied once, and do not layer. Thus, you can not apply all three effects to an item and count on them all being active. The way that Magic Item Imbuing behaves is somewhat similar to the totems of Palenqual's Living Weapons.

Weapon Tinkering
Weapon Tinkering allows a player to modify five facets of a weapon: damage variance, damage/damage modifier, speed, attack modifier, and defense modifier. This skill challenges our previous trade templates by using the Focus and Strength attributes, instead of Focus and Coordination. Weapon Tinkering costs 4 skill credits. Once you have salvaged 100 units, you are ready to modify an item.

All of this and more can be found here including Magic Item Tinkering, Leather & Ivory etc etc...
http://ac.warcry.com/index.php?content=compendium/tradeskills/tinkering