Customization question.

[miltonyorkcastle]

What is the reason why it costs gold to alter armor and weapons?  If this has been discussed before, please direct me to the discussion, but it seems a little unrealistic that the customization "machines" magically take your gold when you alter your stuff.  Is this supposed to represent something IC?   or just be a money drain?  and if so, can  we just pretend IC that it doesn't happen?  Or do characters know IC how the money's taken and where it goes?

Could not the cost be set to zero all across the board?  In addition, I have known a few who've advertised themselves as designers, and I think that is a nifty and fun RP occupation.  Getting rid of the nonsensical cost to make the design changes would help that profession along, at the very least.

It just doesn't make sense to me to have the cost.  Though I admit never having a problem to pay for it, even when some of the items I've changed cost an excess of 600 gold per torso change.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

The cost has to do with the cost of tools and materials to alter the actual item.

[Dorganath]

As a real-life example: A tailor doesn't make alterations to clothing for free.
  But essentially, you're paying for equipment and materials. The devices for customization are not "magic" as such, but even if they were, there'd still probably be some sort of maintenance/upkeep, and wizards don't work cheap.
  The more expensive/exotic the materials, the more expensive customization will be.

[Chuckles_McChuck]

another question ontop of that.  Some of the colors dont show the name of the color on the top of the dialog screen as your looking through to see what looks good.  How can I tell what dyes to buy if I dont know the name of the specific color?

[Dorganath]

There are colors supported by NWN now that are not yet supported in our dyes. On top of that, there are some technical issues that need to be resolved for the extra colors/dyes to be available.

[Chuckles_McChuck]

okay, so basically be patient, thanks for your help

[miltonyorkcastle]

Dorg, I undertsand that.  What I don't understand is why we have to handle it through the device automatically taking the gold.  It would make more sense IC to pay a fee to a vendor up front to be allowed to use the deives then to have the money magically disappear from your pocket.

I'd suggest losing the monetary cost, and upping the DC's so that designing could be a viable trade for PC's.

[Gulnyr]

I've suggested the exact opposite before, raising the cost and lowering the DCs, but for a different reason.  I would much rather be out doing something than hanging around the customization equipment failing again and again, wasting that time.

I understand that is a possible point for the argument to have it become more of a viable trade, since I could dump that onto someone else and pay them for it.  How many players are going to make characters who max the Bioware armor and weapon crafting skills, though?  I would hate to have a new set of clothing to customize, but be unable to find a loom operator with enough ranks.  

I actually imagine that Jennara makes her customized clothing straight off the tailoring dummy; the time spent in front of the loom is ooc.  

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Gulnyr - 5/24/2006  5:25 PM

I actually imagine that Jennara makes her customized clothing straight off the tailoring dummy; the time spent in front of the loom is ooc.  

Ditto, here.

But [big]Milton[/big] (lookie look, MYC)... As I said before, the real answer to your question about the gold cost is that the money goes towards materials to actually make the changes. If you've ever tried to alter a shirt a few dozen times, you know you have to add more cloth in, at some point. With metal, it just gets more expensive.

[miltonyorkcastle]

it's not the gold loss, but the manner in which it is taken that bothers me.  *shrugs*

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

If you were doing it without the tools, the gold would still be lost; we only have little things so that we can fill up another corner of the crafthall. ^_^