It could work...?

[XenoDrake]

So, having been gone for a long time, I come back to find myself looking at my Formula and Tech windows in wonderment. How on earth did I ever remember what I had and what I needed...

I am not sure that I ever did, and this is a problem that It would seem many people have. Well I thought of an elegant solution. Have the formula window, and tech window, display every formula and tech, and just grey out forms and tech's you don't have, and highlight forms (and techs?) you have duplicates of (beginner/jaman/expert/master) - as in, if you have the Jman of the form and the Beginner is still scribed, it will be highlighted to show you have tier 1 and 2 duplicates. Allow a new sort option to show only forms and techs you have, so new players windows wont be cluttered with hundreds of grayed out items. Set this filter default on. ((Taking the idea farther, if possible, color code Grayed out items with, Gray = do not have, can not use, *another color* = do not have, but can scribe, *another color* do not have, but have something higher, like deleted a beginner because you have the jman. *another color* = do not have, cannot get anymore, so you don't waste time looking for it.))

I would think that this would be a useful tool for those of us who are obsessed with getting every formula possible. (it's like poke`mon, gatta catch em all!) And it would also be a way to set goals, if you are missing a tech or form.

Thoughts? Comments? Ice Cream?
~Xeno

[Megadread]

I like the general idea.

A list of all forms/techs, with the ones I don't have greyed out.
Filtering the list in a few different ways would be nice, but if there are too many colors in front of me, my little brain might explode.

Having a full list of what's available might bring to my attention something that I might want, but didn't know existed.

[Velea]

I'm sorry, but this won't work. The list of techniques and formulas in your character's book is generated based on what you have, not a complete list.

There are numerous websites out there which have full lists of formulas and techniques, however, that you could consult.

[Megadread]

I'm sorry, but this won't work. The list of techniques and formulas in your character's book is generated based on what you have, not a complete list.

There are numerous websites out there which have full lists of formulas and techniques, however, that you could consult.

Two quick comments:
It could be made to work. It would just take some coding to pull the list of forms/techs from what exists in the world, and then bump it against what the character has. However, the developers may feel the cost of doing this is not justified.

There are numerous websites, but I feel information should be provided in the game. It might mean speaking to a trainer, who would say "If you want a list of all the formulas available for this class, I can give you one". Like the shopping list quests that already exist.

[AmonGwareth]

Two quick comments:
It could be made to work. It would just take some coding to pull the list of forms/techs from what exists in the world, and then bump it against what the character has. However, the developers may feel the cost of doing this is not justified.

There are numerous websites, but I feel information should be provided in the game. It might mean speaking to a trainer, who would say "If you want a list of all the formulas available for this class, I can give you one". Like the shopping list quests that already exist.

Loading that huge of a list and transmitting details of each so that the client could do filtering would be big concerns. So yea, probably not cost-effective.

From a design point of view, discovery is a good thing for games. It keeps people interested and playing. What is around this corner, what more is there for me to get, etc.

[XenoDrake]

Loading that huge of a list and transmitting details of each so that the client could do filtering would be big concerns. So yea, probably not cost-effective.

From a design point of view, discovery is a good thing for games. It keeps people interested and playing. What is around this corner, what more is there for me to get, etc.

The list could be pushed out with a client side patch as to cut out the in game downloading of the list, and to allow for client side player mods to access it.

As for discovery, exploring the land is fun, finding new caves or rocks to scramble over is fun. Finding out you just tecked all your gear with something inferior because you simply didn't know there was something better is not fun. Think of going to a grocery store and all the cans have no labels, the thrill of discovery falls off quick when you know someone out there could have labelled it for you, but thought you would have more fun finding out on your own.

Consider how other games have lists of spells and ability's the character will gain at higher levels, This gives you something to look forward to. Istaria right now more or less surprises you with new stuff when you level. But those are adventuring skills. With form's and techs, the surprise comes when you happen to loot something you have never seen before. Fun in it's own right, but what it leads to is people looking for what they are missing, which goes to what Velea was talking about, third party data bases with potentially out of date of just plan wrong information. If not an in game solution, perhaps just a creditable source from the game developers. Again I don't think that it would be so hard to push out, and update from time to time with little tweeks as needed, a client side list of the forms and techs. One big patch, with future little updates and fix's.

And if that would make the client foot print too large, or boost the install package by gigabits, then some official section of the game web site with a list, perhaps in some format that a game mod could make use of. Or just organized in some check list fashion. At this point I would be willing to accept a printable PDF so I can mark them off with a highlighter as I go.

~Xeno

[Garfonso]

There are quite some formula (and also techs, iirc) that can't be acquired any more, but are still in game for old people... I think dev's don't want to spit that into the face of every new player...

If you are really into crafting, just download and install the horizons crafting calculator. You won't get very far without it anyway. :P

[Northwind]

Well, from time to time, in game appear some of those "old people" that like to show off their "you cant have this anymore" stuff.
So this is not really a reason for the Devs to not introduce that list XenoDrake is mentioning.

[Garfonso]

But that makes any list of all formula quite inconsistent.

I'm also not so sure that other games really have this... at least not in the usual game content... the usually have a list of abilities or skills you will learn with higher levels (and if you invest the right amount of "points" in the right places). That would be missing in istaria and maybe it would be a nice thing to add that...
But they usually do not have a complete list of formulas and formulas need to be looted in those other games, that I know of that have something comparable, in the same way as here... also spells, if there is something like spells and not just a handfull of "magical" abilities, are not included in some list that just keeps track of what you have and what you don't have. What I know are lists of what I have...

And, that is where you have to give credit to the devs, the system in Istaria is quite logically today... you have the tier system, usually with "half"-Tier steps, i.e. every 10 level you have an updated form of something you already know. Then the forms themselves are not that surprising either (all types of weapon, all types of armor, scales, ...).

The same goes for spells. If you learned a Lightning Bolt I at level 1, you can get the Improved Lightning Bold I at lvl 10 and then get an updated version of the spells every 20 lvl.
There are only few things that don't fit into this system. Even the new confectioner forms follow that system. And the old confectioner forms on the other hand are a very good example of why you do not want a list of all possible formula in the knowledge window...

If you really think it is necessary, Amon explained how to create some encyclopaedia style stuff, where you can look up things in game in another window (if I understood that correctly)... Maybe, if people do it right, they could integrate it into the client at one time... but don't put all that unnecessary stuff into the knowledge window. Even now, with only the stuff that my char knows in it, I am painfully missing a whole lot of filter options.