The Repopulation Crafting Attribute System Detailed

The guys over at Above and Beyond Technologies have cranked out a detailed overview of the new "attribute system" they are implementing into the crafting system in The Repopulation. Here's a sampling of what to expect:
As many of you might be aware, The Repopulation has no levels. Instead we offer over 70 independent skills. For Trade Skills we offer a mix of resource collection and crafting skills that intertwine. In addition, some crafting lines include collection skills. The trade skills also include skills for creating fittings which are like sockets, stems which are like boosters, traps, robotics, vehicles, and so much more.

Without levels, we have no artificial restrictions placed on crafting by other aspects of the game (such as needing to be level 30 to craft something even if your crafting skill is high enough). Naturally, you cannot create the biggest and best stuff early on. You will need to hone your skills over time. If you want to make a name for yourself as a crafter in The Repopulation you will be able to do so without other barriers restricting you.

We have a rather distinct configuration for our equipment using what we call (shells) and (fittings). The armor, handguns, rifles, and swords are simply basic shells that have basic stats. Weapons all have base stats and different uses such as automatic weapons are best against lightly armored foes where sniper rifles and heavy impact weapons do the most damage against heavily armored foes. However, there can be multiple visual representations of this rifle or that piece of armor, which have the same core stats. This lets you choose your equipment based on a certain look and then you can customize the armor to match your play style.

Each piece of equipment holds a specific amount of modifications slots that we call fittings. These modification slots are similar to a socket system where you can place certain types of fittings in an item based on their major attribute types. The fittings have a letter label ((A), (C), (E)) and based on the label, their attribute type will make them modify damage resistance, accuracy, energy regen, and other stats associated with a shell. This lets you modify the base shell of your armor however you see fit without having to choose specific weapons or armor because of their stats.

Now that we have taken that minor detour lets look at the new change we implemented, the attribute system. Our crafting system already featured a flexible recipe component system where putting different parts into the recipe produces different results. We also have a quality/grade system to differentiate the results of beginning crafters and experienced crafters. We wanted to add a bit more flexibility to the system by allowing more control over some of the stats associated with the fittings. To overcome that hurdle we introduced the attribute system.

Each resource in the game used for fittings has primary stats that are directly associated to that resource in some fashion such as Physical Resistance, Accuracy and so on. These resource attributes are not randomly assigned. Each material has multiple attributes that are assigned into 3 categories: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary. Primary attributes have the highest values (typically 7-10) with secondary in the middle (4-6) and tertiary at the bottom (1-3). These values are static so a chunk of calibrite will always have the same attributes, but it can have a random grade value associated with it that impacts the rarity and significant worth of the material (grade A being the best).