Thank you for this major update, Ramza!
I've been following the development on this plugin for quite a while.
I understand the original intentions for this plugin, but this update (as well as the additive traits) will seal the deal for me!
May I offer a suggestion or idea for a feature? I don't want to try to bloat or complicate your plugin, but what do you think about the idea of party members having different crafting 'skill levels' as a optional choice the user can set up and then the player can pick which character can craft it?
For an example, you have Harold, Therese, Marsha and Lucius. Harold has a higher level in Weapon Forging than the others and gains levels faster. Therese is higher level in Armor Smithing, etc.
So naturally, the player will just pick however has the highest level to perform the craft since the chance is higher.
But what if there was a twist to where, if set up, different characters have different traits even if they're not well-versed in that crafting branch? Taking the example again of Harold. Let's say he has a skill level of 5 in Weapon Forging and Marsha is level 1. If you selected Marsha to perform the craft, she could have a passive special trait where if she does Weapon Forging, she has a chance to imbue states on any weapon with +MAT, +MP (or whatever the states do) corresponding to her level (maybe a formula?). E.g: level 1 WF would be a 10% chance for state1. Level 3 would be a 13% chance for state1 or a 5% chance for state2 which is a better version of state1.
Lucius could have a "Careful" passive where he has a +7% chance to craft WF items.
Therese has a +25% chance to craft axes, spears and clubs, but -10% to all other weapons types (that are tagged).
Again, something the user would have to set up so those who don't wish to use this system (and use it how it currently is) isn't forced to use this. Or maybe as an extension.
Would give different reasons to use other characters other than whoever has the highest level.
Not sure how hard this would be to implement, but I thought that I would share this before I forget.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Viewing post in MV/MZ - Recipe List (Crafting System Ext.) comments
While that is a pretty neat idea, it's unfortunately more than a little outside the scope of the plugin as is.
As an extension, it has potential, maybe, but for paid extensions like that I'd have to look at how much work would go into it versus how many people would actually use it, and I'm not sure it's at a point where that's going to be feasible.
Firstly, it'd require a pretty substantial (optional) overhaul to how craft experience is stored, calculated, and handed out. As right now, experience and levels are stored in $gameParty, and with the change of crafting going to an individual, it'd need to be stored on those individuals.
Next, there's really no space currently in the scene to display who is doing the crafting as is. So at least one window would need to be modified slightly to at least contain a name, or maybe a face, or the currently selected actor.
Traits being passed on from the actor to only certain items, and only in certain crafting types is definitely a neat idea, but it'd also require a whole lot of new note tags. Maybe the additive traits tags could serve double purpose here too, but in general, having that many tags is a QC nightmare when it comes to actually testing.
Applying the results of those tags in itself probably wouldn't be too difficult, all things considered, as long as the scene already knew which actor was actually crafting, adding them to the item with a % chance would be pretty simple. The problem is getting to the point where these tags exist and can be added.
Plus, there'd be no good way to even see these actor-effects in game in the first place. One issue I have with the additive ingredients traits already is that there currently isn't a way for the player to see them or know they exist. For this to be intuitive at all, there'd need to be some way for the player to see those actor traits as well, requiring another window somewhere, likely not on the crafting scene itself as it's already pretty full.
Like I said, it's a decent idea, but I don't think it's something I'm going to be able to do here. Though my terms of use do allow someone (say you?) to pay someone else to make it for you, or even make it yourself and then sell it for profit too, as long as it still requires my plugin to function at all.
Thanks for your input, though.
~Ramza