The skinned leather should retain the level of the mob/player it came from as well as the race.
I do really like the idea of the leather keeping certain qualities of the corpse you skinned it with, but as Harold has stated this will require a whole re-do of the corpse system. This is a VERY good idea, but for this project (make leather actually used) this will not be done (for now...) as I believe what we have in place is good enough to get leather started and used for now, it just needs kick and some tweaking.
there is a relatively low maximum "level" placed on the leather armor. Therefore, leather armor might be competitive with some mineral armor at lower levels, but leather armor would never be ideal for very high level players.
I also agree, my thoughts exactly
The problem with leather craft currently is that it is never a useful product. I don't see a need to make leather armor something desirable to a high level player.
Again, right out of my mouth, I fully agree and this is what I am aiming for.
* Instead of having a skin level, have a skin grade. Each grade would have a minimum leathercraft requirement. For example:
o Rough leather sheet -- min 0% LC
o Fine leather sheet -- min 25% LC
o Carefully cut leather sheet -- min 50% LC
o Masterfully cut leather sheet -- min 75% LC
o Perfectly cut leather sheet -- min 100% LC
Very good idea, would make it worth getting a higher % in skin corpse. I am contemplating this and I am really thinking about using this idea, I have seen it successful in many games. Only thing I am worried about is too many variation in the amour will be hard to make consistent decent amour. So it would be with this ((Skinned corpse level + Skin grade + leather craft skill + runes (if I decide to use these) + min fort + Maj fort = Overall AC)). It could definitely work, but I have to do some serious math to get it right (and I will take the time to do this math properly the first time). Also I want to make sure we do not get TOO many variations in one piece of leather to an other.
* Instead of having different skins for each race, maybe make some general types:
o Scales from dragons/reptiles
o Fur from mammals
o Hides from humanoids
* And is sorta like the idea that leather armor could give a bonus to dodge, thanks to lighter weight/improved flexibility.
Again great idea for the future bit a little too far reaching for this project right now. But is a great idea.
I've seen people say on chat that leathercraft's advantage should be its "quick to make" nature. I strongly disagree. If we were trying to recreate modern Chinese industry, then maybe, but as a leathercrafter I am dedicated to my craft -- I spend time on it; put effort into it to make something that will endure. I don't want to see leather armor go from mostly useless to a mass-produced, disposable piece of junk. Similarly, I don't like the idea of reduced speed runing/enchanting on leather
Not what I am trying to do. The thing we have to figure out is what will make leather more attractive than mineral amour at what point. If we make it too crappy, tinkers will not train it. I am not interested in making it as good as laen is, this will not happen. So we have to make it worth using this amour, figured quicker enchantment, maybe tweak up the dev cost and tinkers will train it at low levels to level on (instead of a low level rune) and overall will not be disappointed they trained it.
** Other good idea, if I decide to use runes just keep the skill as runes simply make it while your doing them instead of saying "inscribe" maybe say "branded"
