Recommendation: Nano programming.
BEFORE I EVEN START: Be warned. You are about to be hit with "Wall of Text" for 9134 damage. Slide your bar to full def, and if you're running "TL;DR", scroll down to the bottom to evade that damage with a handy summarization. If not, make sure you've got a HoT running and the doc is awake, then begin:
Ok. I've got a recommendation as far as introducing a new mechanism with nano programming. Bear with me here, as I'm working the late shift at work now. I'm not used to it and I'm groggy, so odds are pretty high I'll say stupid things / be incoherent / ect.
Nano programming. Right now it means being able to craft stuff. Jam stuff into implants. But that isn't what nano programming <i>IS</i>, is it? When I think of nano programming, I think of Izgimmer and his hopeless but energetic counterpart Enfraam. They create nano programs. Whoever heard of Izgimmer's amazing ability to jam little orbs into an implant? Ok, you got the gist of my line of thinking. Now to my recommendations and ideas, in no coherent order:
- First, all nano programs for all professions will be as is (changed with the rebalance, of course). No changes needed here.
- New Nano programming skill dependent abilities: Nano program decompile and recompile. Nano program code fracture. Nano program recoding.
- Nano program decompile. Let's say I'm on that newbie island, and I'm an NT who intends on nano programming. I got the tools from some magic place, it doesn't matter. I have, in my inventory, one nanocrystal for Ice Flechette. I right click it, learn it, and use it a bit. Now, it's nice and quick, but the damage is kind of lackluster. I want to improve on it. I pick up my nano-program decompiler and shift left click the program I've learned. The program leaves my bar (I lose the ability to use Ice Flechette), and my inventory gets a few new components. First, the base program, which we'll call "Nano coding - Ice Flechette". Depending on our nano programming ability, it may drop other items relating to damage strength, recharge, cast speed, or range.
- Nano program recompile. Let's say I luck out and besides the base code item, we get a "Minor damage optimization code fragment." Whee! We pick it up, shift left click over the "Nano coding - Ice Flechette" and we get a "Modified nano code - Ice Flechette." Then we cross our fingers and pick up our nano program recompiling tool and shift left click the modified code. Now, if we roll just about even, we'll end up with a nano crystal for "Ice Flechette - Modified" that has a miniscule addition to damage. Like from 13-17 to 14-19. But let's say the game decides I suck at the moment. I'll still get a "Ice Flechette - Modified", but on right clicking and learning it, I see the damage is now 9-10! Oh noes! My clumsy attempt at mimicking Izgimmer has weakened my nano! I should have turned error logging on, darn it! At the same time, maybe the game decides I'm lucky for once, and I'll get one that has 15-20 damage, or perhaps a slight improvement in another area.
Just for laughs, we can also make the shift-click info for the item specify what had been done to the nano. "Programmed by (player)." And we can list what had been done to it. "Minor damage recoding - slightly beneficial / detrimental". And for the serious benefits and detriments, we can put some amusing labels in there. For example, say I have an epiphany and code a marvelous piece of work. "Ice Flechette - Modified. Programmed by Whackjob. Major damage recoding - majorly beneficial - 'Glimpse into the mind of Izgimmer'." and "Ice Flechette - Modified. Programmed by Whackjob. Major damage recoding - majorly detrimental - 'Enfraam's secret shame.'"
- Nano program code fracture. This will be the meat and potatoes of where code fragments come from. Let's say I've got Ice Flechette again. I decompile it, and only get the base code item. I figure I can get another crystal of this again cheaply enough, so I fracture the code. The base code is lost. With what I've got left, I cannot recreate Ice Flechette. Instead, I get one or more (Or none, if the game decides I'm terribad at that moment!) code fragments relating to one of the properties of that code fragment. I then scoot over to a shop and get a new ice flechette crystal, which I decompile, giving me a new base code set, which I would then combine and try to recompile as usual. Now, using this code fragment doesn't have to be on ice flechette. I could instead try to combine it with the base code for minor toxic barb, for example. it will be more difficult using a lower QL code fragment on a higher QL base, and the effect will be less, but it'll let you do it.
Ok, so what does this mean? I can best explain with scenarios. Let's say I'm late in the game. My buddies ask for me to come along on a raid somewhere. "Great", I think. But the place we're going to has critters who are weakest to fire damage, and my most recent fire damage type nano was 15 levels ago, and the damage on it isn't that great. If I have or can get another crystal or two of that program, I can try to recode it, possibly giving me a better version that I can use on that battle.
- Random nano program bugs / "Undocumented Features"! Say your new modified crystal was done really poorly / expertly. Proc effects! Example: You took the time and the trouble to modify your rudimentary humidity extractor to give you a little more nano. You do an excellent job! As a result, there's an invisible proc on it that you won't see with a shift-click. When you run the program, every tick has a 10% chance of giving you an extra 5 nano. Whee! But your buddy over there did the same thing, and he forgot to put points into nano programming. He did a really bad job! He can see on his crystal that he's going to get less nano than the standard program because he did a bad job, but since he doesn't have another crystal handy he right clicks it, learns it, and runs it. A reduced flow of nano comes in, all right, but there's some serious segfault-level problems with his coding! There's an invisible, five percent chance he's going to proc a small fire-damage-over-time on himself. His coding is so bad, as it refreshes his nano, it occasionally sets him on fire! Ack! Enfraam smiles at the familiarity of his misfortune.
Couple of balance concern issues I want to throw out there as well:
First, using very high QL code fragments on lowbie nanos in the attempt to make a level 7 NT a god. Let it be done. You majorly invest in recoding the damage of Ice Flechette and you get the damage up to the level of, say, "Warmth of the Grave". Great! Your lowbie friend is ecstatic. Unfortunately, it's now such an awesome piece of coding that the nanoskill requirements of that code are also comperable to "Warmth of the Grave". The nano costs have also ballooned greatly. He can't use it, but you can, and you've got better nanos to use anyway. Highly modified Ice Flechette crystal becomes vendor candy / paperweight.
Second, concerns over making the top tier nanos even more powerful: Yes. Can be done. That top level nuke can be seriously enhanced, but at a cost. One, they may improve it to the point where they cannot run it. Two, the nano costs on it can be extremely prohibitive (Sure, I can do 7,000 damage in one hit, but it takes all of my nano bar, and I can't be sure, but I think it has a temp proc debuff to my nano skills on top of it!) And three, it would require them to get multiple copies of amazingly expensive / hard to get nanos, with no guarantee of success.
The "It'll cost you" factor. Let's put in a threshold on nanos as well. Let's say, for each attribute of a nano, there's a certain point that increasing / improving the nano any more on that attribute begins to make the nano too powerful. Instead of doing a "Can't do that, maxed out" glass wall, let's do an "Yeah, okay, but it's gonna cost ya. Reaally, really cost ya!" bit, just to make things interesting. Ok, example time, so I can explain to you what I mean here. You modify, with great success, "Izgimmer's Last Word". Instead of doing 4118 to 8907 damage, it now does 7814 to 15012. And instead of an attack/recharge of 20s and 8s, you got it to 2s and 1s. Awesome! Nuke-tacular! Sure, but... it'll cost you. For going so far above the threshold of what the code can do, it now has various detrimental additions. 1079 nano cost? Not any more. You're looking at 3550. Additionally, casting that bit of coding stresses out your hardware so badly that all of your nano skills are reduced for ten seconds at -223. On top of that, the amount of destruction going outbound is so high, that it procs a DOT on you and nearby team members. Ouch, you need to be more careful with that bloody thing!
Well, that's my ideas. Again, I'm sleepy and not being terribly coherent at the moment, so when I wake up tomorrow, I'll reread what I've put in here, and touch it up / clean it up / recompile it.
=== TL;DR SUMMARY ===:
Nano programming doesn't actually program nano programs. Let's let nano programmers do that. They can take apart a crystal, combine different stuff, and recompile it and try to make it better. Sometimes they can, sometimes they make it worse. Really good coding procs nice effects, bad coding and bad stuff randomly happens. Old nanos for your profession, whatever it is, can be taken (in crystal form, get another one!) to a friendly nano-person, and they can work on it and see if they can improve it enough to make it more viable for you.
Every NT out there aspires to be the next Izgimmer. We all want to recode something and fire Enfraam an email mocking him (He tends to fly into an amusing rage... accompanied by minor brain damage). Let's put in a mechanic like I mention where we can do just that.
That's it. That's what I've got. Good idea, stupid idea, would look better on toast? Let me know what you think. All recommendations / criticisms / generalized mockery welcome.
