Guide to Crafting

Introduction to System 4.0 Crafting
With our System 4.0 virtual objects crafting system, Chiaroscuro players are able to grow crops, raise farm animals, bake bread, make clothes, forge weapons and armor, and create priceless works of art.

All you need are the right skills, tools, components, available crafting minutes and, in some cases, the appropriate craftlevel, and these objects can be made instantaneously.

NOTE: The quality of the item you create is determined based on your level of skill, the quality of tools and components used in the process, and any modifiers on your crafting roll due to hunger level or injuries (or, on the positive side, modifiers due to your ranking in the +experts list). Be sure to heal any injuries and +consume food until your hunger level is above 1,000 or so in order to mitigate any impact from those factors in your crafting efforts.

How to Make Things
Using a selection of simple commands, players are able to work alone or with their peers to craft goods that can help improve their craftlevel rating and earn them in-game money.

Basic Crafting Commands

 * +consider (item): Provides information about what's needed to make the item.
 * +craft (item): Makes the item if you have the proper tools, components, craftlevel and minutes.
 * +craft/list: Gives an in-game list of craftable item categories.
 * +craft/list (category): Gives an in-game list of craftable items in a specific category.
 * +craft/team (player name)|(player name)|...=(item): Allows more than one player to work on crafting an item, improving the chances of success and splitting the crafting minutes expended.
 * +drop (item): Drops an item from your +inventory.
 * +get (item): Gets an item and puts it in your +inventory.
 * +give (player name)=(item): Transfers an item from your +inventory to another player's.
 * +improve (item): If you've got enough minutes, this improves the quality of a crafted item.
 * +push (item)=(destination): Moves a crafted item from one room to another.

Equipment
Tools needed for crafting on Chiaroscuro can vary from hammers to rock quarries. Many of them are craftable items themselves, which you can pick up in the Market District Emporium or from other crafters who sell their wares. It's worth noting that the quality of equipment used in the process of making an item affects the quality of the item you're crafting. So, it's always wise to use the best quality equipment you can find.

Components
Components for crafting are often basic resources such as timber, mineral, textiles, crops, animals. Sometimes, however, components are more complicated objects that are from a previous crafting effort.

As with equipment, you're always better off using higher-quality components to improve the likelihood of getting a decent crafting effort.

Many basic resources are available at the Market District Emporium, but may also be acquired if you've got access to animal habitats, mining interests and other useful areas of the IC grid.

Craftlevel
Every time you craft an item of Good or better quality that requires at least 100 crafting minutes to make, you improve your craftlevel. Your craftlevel determines a couple of things. First, after reaching a certain point, it will place you on the +experts list - anywhere from a novice to an adept. As your craftlevel increases, you receive bonuses on crafting rolls. So, the higher you are on the list, the more likely you are to keep making high-quality items to nudge you further up the list toward adept status. Only adepts can serve as guildmasters in Fastheld.

Although many basic items do not require a minimum craftlevel, many of the more complicated items do.

Quality of the item you make determines the number of craftlevel points you receive for the effort:


 * Good: 1 point
 * Great: 2 points
 * Superb: 3 points
 * Legendary: 4 points

Warning: Leaving your character unused for too long will eventually lead to a degradation in craftlevel. If you leave a character offline for 14 days, the clock starts ticking, deducting 1 craftlevel point each day. So, it's in your character's best interest to log on at least once every two weeks.

Crafting Minutes
All items require at least a token quantity of crafting minutes before they can be created.

If your character is online and in-character over the course of 24 hours (they need not be consecutive), you will naturally accrue a maximum of 1,440 crafting minutes that can be applied toward making or improving items with System 4.0.

To see how many crafting minutes you have, you can type either of the following commands:


 * +craft/minutes
 * +sheet

How do you acquire more than 1,440?


 * Get minutes from alts: It's perfectly fine for you to accrue minutes on your own alternate characters and then share them with another of your characters. The command to do this is +transfermin (character name)=(amount of minutes).
 * Get minutes from other players: Sometimes, crafters ask their customers for crafting minutes in addition to other compensation for the creation of valuable items. This also uses the +transfermin command.

How to Customize Things
Although System 4.0's craftable items already come with an array of potential quality-based descriptions, it is possible for players to customize a specific item, with engraving, a name or even a totally new description devised by the player-crafter.

Engraving
For jewelry, furniture and clothing, if you've got the proper tool, you can sometimes add an extra customized touch using the +engrave command. Engraveable objects have a limited amount of text they can display and charge crafting minutes depending on the length of the engraving.

The syntax: +engrave (item)=(text)

Custom Naming
Let's say you're a blacksmith crafting a sword for yourself. Perhaps you want to give this weapon a backstory and a name, similar to King Arthur's Excalibur. On Chiaroscuro, it's possible to customize weapons and other items with a name.

The syntax: +craft/name (item)=(name)

It costs 10,000 crafting minutes to add a customized name to an item. This is to prevent abuse of the system.

WARNING: Use this feature wisely. Players found using unthematic names for a crafted item will lose the item without a refund of the crafting minutes expended. When in doubt, ask a staffer via staff request or via page whether a name complies with our theme.

Custom Descriptions
Not satisfied with the standard descriptions that come with crafted objects in System 4.0? Want to make it more befitting your personal style? You can add a customized description to an item.

To prevent potential abuse, it requires 10,000 crafting minutes to accomplish this.

The syntax: +craft/desc (item)=(text)

WARNING: Use this feature wisely. Players found using unthematic descriptions for a crafted item will lose the item without a refund of the crafting minutes expended. When in doubt, ask a staffer via staff request or via page whether a description complies with our theme.

How to Sell Things
Sometimes, crafters make things for themselves. But, more often, they craft items to fill their coinpurses with jingling currency. On Chiaroscuro, it's possible to sell your goods to other players, to non-player-character shopkeepers or through the intermediary NPC auctioneers.

To Other Players
The ideal situation on Chiaroscuro is for a crafter to meet with another player in their shop, engage in a roleplaying session, and during this RP session make arrangements to sell an item to the other character. The crafter either make the item immediately, if ample crafting minutes, components and tools are available. However, if it's going to take some time to accrue the needed materials, the crafter can end the RP session and go take care of the acquistion of materials. Once the object is made, the crafter can deliver it to the other character in person or send the crafted item to the customer via our NPC courier system. The customer may be expected to pay in advance or upon delivery.

Syntax: +pay (name)=(amount of money)

To NPC Shopkeepers
In some shops, NPC shopkeepers not only sell items to players, they also buy them! To see what you might be able to sell to an NPC shopkeeper, you must be in the room with one and type: +sell/list. This will bring up a list of items the shopkeeper is able to purchase from players as well as the value of those items to the shopkeeper. If you've got something the NPC wants, you're all set.

The syntax: +sell (item)

To NPC Auctioneers
The third way to get your goods on the open market is the NPC auctioneer. Auctioneers are found in major townships throughout the realm of Fastheld and on the Weeping Stones Islands.

Items that are accepted for auction are set up with minimum bid amounts. Sellers using the auctioneers are able to put an eBay-style buy-it-now price on an item so that buyers don't have to wait for an auction to close before getting the goods. If a seller doesn't put a buyout price on an item, then it is the seller's responsibility to eventually close the auction.

Once an item is sold, via buyout or closeout, it is delivered to a warehouse chosen by the buyer. The buyer then goes to that warehouse to pick up their goods.

The following commands are used with the NPC auctioneers:


 * +auction (item)(= ): To auction off an item. The item must be in your inventory. If you wish to set a 'buy-it-now' option, add the optional price when setting up the auction.
 * +auction/close (index): To close the auction on item #(index). You must be the same person as the one who had placed the item for auction.
 * +auction/list: Lists the items that are currently up for bid and their current stats.
 * +auction/warehouses: Lists the warehouses that the auctioneer can have items delivered to upon their purchase by the winning bidder.
 * +auction/bid (index)=(amount)/(warehouse index): Places a bid of (amount) for item #(index). (warehouse index) is the place where the item may be picked up if your bid is the winning one. The index is referenced from +auction/warehouses.
 * +auction/buy (index)=(warehouse index): Allows you to purchase the item for its 'buy-it-now' price, ending the auction immediately.
 * +auction/cancel (index): Cancels your bid on item #(index) if it is the latest one. You may not cancel a bid after an auction closes on the item.
 * +auction/details (index): Lists the details and bidding history on item #(index).

What You Can Make

 * Agricultural
 * Alchemical
 * Alloys
 * Armor
 * Artistic
 * Butchery
 * Clothing-Female
 * Clothing-Hats
 * Clothing-Male
 * Clothing-Shoes
 * Clothing-Unisex
 * Containers
 * Contraband
 * Food
 * Foraging
 * Furnishings-Beds
 * Furnishings-Chairs
 * Furnishings-Decorative
 * Furnishings-Misc.
 * Furnishings-Sofas
 * Furnishings-Tables
 * Jewelry
 * Kin
 * Magic
 * Miscellaneous
 * Natural-Animal
 * Natural-Botany
 * Natural-Mineral
 * Natural-Misc.
 * Natural-Timber
 * Natural-Vegetable
 * Retainers
 * Shields
 * Structures
 * Textiles
 * Tools
 * Torture
 * Toys
 * Weapons-Axes
 * Weapons-Blades
 * Weapons-Bludgeoning
 * Weapons-Polearms
 * Weapons-Ranged
 * Weapons-Whips