Post:A few tailoring questions - 09/20/2011 - 19:36

Re: A few tailoring questions · on 09/20/2011 07:36 PM CDT	1067
I have been digging into Tailoring while working away at the Barbarian Guild and poking at Cooking. I have an initial plan for the system, and am looking for some feedback on it. Initially the raw materials will be sold at stores, stuff like raw silk, wool and plant fibers. Refining them into processed form will be its own little system, much like ore smelting. It will include the cleaning and spinning of the fiber into threads. The completed thread will have a quality and thickness, and the material itself will have weight/value modifiers, and protection/enchanting modifiers to it. Spinning in the field will likely will be possible with the slower process of using a distaff and spool. A spinning wheel will be faster, but only accessible in the Crafting Society halls. An exception would be felt, which will have its own creation side process from mashing/watering the fibers down. From here you will have thread/yarn, and can proceed to knit the yarn, or weave the thread using a loom into bolts of cloth. Again, we might have portable looms and looms of varying sizes and complexities. Just depends how much time/effort it ends up taking. The looms will be workable in such a way that a thread count for a particular fabric is acheived. Finally, you will study the instructions and then sew the various bolts of cloth together to form a finished piece of clothing. The actual clothing items will be stuff like "a thin cloth cap, a thick cloth cap, etc" Each article will require a certain range of thread-thickness, and number of bolts of material to make. The final stats will depend heavily on quality, material type, and thread count (more is not always better). This should result in clothing spanning a range much like forged armor does. Some heavier, some lighter... and some that is just more fashionable. Heh. So much for it being simple! My time so far has been spent been researching and trying to understand the finer details of medieval tailoring, so as to best reproduce it in game. The real challenge is not trying to code 100 different little side systems for tailoring, and reusing the existing messaging and mechanics wherever possible - without compromising the realism factor too much. Please let me know what you think so far - I'm eager to get feedback!
This message was originally posted in Lore \ Outfitting Skill, by DR-KODIUS on the play.net forums.