Books and notes for lore and recipes?

ArchivedUser

I have returned! basically i wanted to propose that we have a book system that is a mix of ESO and divinity original sin. In ESO there were lots of interesting books explaining lore, myths and general story, i think that could be a really cool way to tell the story through the game, and it can be made into a collection system where guilds or personal owners can make small libraries with books to read. The second more interesting use of books is from DOS, In the game there is a crafting system where you have to guess which things can be mixed to craft items, however what is cool is that within the game there are books and stories where there are hints to crafting, forexample a story of a survivor in the woods using a knife and sticks to make basic arrows tells the player that you can use knife and sticks to make arrows, it doesnt "Unlock" a recipe, you actually have to read through it, since the team has talked about experimentation with crafting i saw this it as a cool potential way to give some ideas or hints, while also allowing players to explore lore.

What do you guys think? good? bad? useless?

ArchivedUser

I'd also like to see books giving you extra damage against mobs.  So say you've read a book about skeletons, and head off to the haunted cemetery, you'd get a +1 attack against skellies, etc.

This would be quite cool, as you could advertise your services as an "Expert Undead Killer" or casters could advertise that they have +2 fireball damage, due to reading a certain book.

Of course this books would be "boss drops", hidden chests, quest lines etc.

ArchivedUser

Books relating to crafting would be cool. 

I've heard somewhere crafting would be a mix-and-match kind of system? Maybe books give certain choices when crafting instead of the whole recipe itself?

ArchivedUser

Aye reading recipes would be nice Also once read you could either destroy the book, or transcribe it, like if you wanted to keep the rare recipe for yourself.
Would go well with the library idea thats floating around.

ArchivedUser

It would be interesting if you could destroy said book or recipe. Alot might said well how would it be passed on. Add a ancient library hidden/lost and when a player was to find this they could transcribe a new one and put it out there again.

ArchivedUser

Julemanden said:

Aye reading recipes would be nice Also once read you could either destroy the book, or transcribe it, like if you wanted to keep the rare recipe for yourself.
Would go well with the library idea thats floating around.

I think make it one-time use and spawn from a random short-term dungeon or event? 

Enough for it to be uncommon but not commonly rare-ish. And a lead up quest to create a notification for the event would be cool. So the books are not immediately available to everyone, but people who work for it may get an edge over other players.

Like you befriend a pawnshop owner and when the dungeon or event pops, he send you a mail or something. 

ArchivedUser

That'd definitely be a nifty system!  I love finding hidden lore out and about enough already, and even more so if you can also glean secrets from it by reading between the lines.
^.^

ArchivedUser

I believe the point of the original post was misunderstood, books that insta learns the recipe or boosts a stat is nothing but an item with another name, like how skyrim does it is bad, the point was that it was THE TEXT that gave you hints, meaning you cant just open and close the book, you have to actually read and understand what is in it, you know, like an actual book, it would also allow for things like puzzles to be hidden within the pages, like instead of giving you a point on the map you have to read about the story of a sailor and where he hid his stuff and actually try to follow his steps.

It seems we already have a recipe *click to learn* system so its an alternative to that

ArchivedUser

@Zouls hmm okay, I had the pretense of the recipe system in mind When i posted. My ideal system would be like what you posted, but with another system in play they would have to co-exist some how. (Look above for that)

ArchivedUser

@Zouls I understand what you mean, and really like the concept. An example of something like this would be as followed:

Journal of the Mad Mixer

Experiment 626 has come to completion. By adding the Wolfsbane with the Black poppy, my own adaption to fairy dust  has had great success. Thus far I have tested this neutralizing agent on a total of 30 creatures, starting with a frog and now have worked up to an owlbear. It is unclear if intelligence or size is a factor for how long the paralysis works, as all test subjects have remained immobile for the same amount of time. I will begin sentient trials this coming harvest. New arrivals has begun building a village. I have all the test subjects I need.

With this example shows that there is a type of alchemical recipe a player might find in the world. It doesn't say something like: Sleeping Powder, or Fairy Dust, but instead is a page from a master alchemist's own journal. Reading the text, you understand how the recipe works, or where to start. There may be other ingredients you are unaware of, and will have to experiment on your own, but something like this has taken you a huge step forward in making this special dust.

ArchivedUser

I like that idea. I think it'd make a fun sub-goal for guilds and players to collect books to add to libraries in order to extend the guild's knowlage on how to make different things or books related to information on different monsters for a small damage boost. It would give us a reason to save any books we come across since they actually may have a use and take it back to the guild's library (or personal library) to see if you have the book already.

ArchivedUser

I would like to revive this thread as I would like to see the opinions of people who have recently join. This idea is quite impressive and hopfully they will enrich the game by includings the idea or some form of it.

ArchivedUser

Yes I like this idea.  Intrepid are looking, ultimately to create a franchise including books with stories based on the game it's characters and history.  If you have writers capable of creating this sort of material there is absolutely no reason that really compelling in game lore and collectable reading material should not be a thing.  I would say however that in a lot of cases in game books etc have been a snore fest which although being a completionist I have bothered to collect but never managed to learn from. On several occasions having fallen asleep at the keyboard trying lol.

ArchivedUser

Maybe you could collect scrolls or paper parchments and then put them in a book or like a folder

ArchivedUser

Iscoed1815 said:

I'd also like to see books giving you extra damage against mobs.  So say you've read a book about skeletons, and head off to the haunted cemetery, you'd get a +1 attack against skellies, etc.

This would be quite cool, as you could advertise your services as an "Expert Undead Killer" or casters could advertise that they have +2 fireball damage, due to reading a certain book.

Of course this books would be "boss drops", hidden chests, quest lines etc.

And what penalty would you invoke to balance that ?

ArchivedUser

Ooooh i really like the idea of Guilds 'fighting' over these tomes of lore, and keeping recipes secret-ish from each other. 

ArchivedUser

As someone who went after all the books in ESO and DOS for the exact purpose that the OP listed I am 100% for this type of feature.  I loved reading the stories, and loved the *hints* to how to craft items.  I'll have to look back on the videos showing the inside of the home area of the free hold, but, I'd love to have my own personal library. 

As far as adding bonuses and learned recipes.  I'm with the OP.  Not insta-learning a recipe, but, actually reading through it and discovering the right ingredients for a certain meal or potion.  As far as giving a bonus for killing a particular mob after reading a book... I think instead, maybe giving information on a more effective way to kill them.  Of course, that can be discovered through just fighting one.  But lets say that some books may contain information about a mob or mini-boss that is unique to an area or dungeon.  Like a journal of some adventurer who just barely made it back after encountering some beast that almost made a meal of of them.  In their notes they may have what they observed the beast to be weak against.  Of course, as I said, it could be discovered via trial and error, but, if someone had the knowledge before hand from reading about the mob, then they can prepare ahead of time. 

ArchivedUser

All great ideas!

the only thing I would add is... Make it background audio books so I can stay  engaged doing stuff.

Knock out an audio book while you run that dungeon for the 10th time...