Hello you lovely deviants,
I wanted to discuss how I am currently planning on using Materials in the gameWhen I say "Material" I mean anything that is used for crafting potions, weapons, armor.
For Equipment, these will have the "rarity" identifiers common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary
For Material though, I didn't want to use the same words, as it may get confusing, so the rarity of these items will be Petty, Unusual, Valuable, Precious, and Priceless - and the purpose of this is that each "region" will use and benefit from all 5 of these rarities
For Gear (Weapons and Armor) - Petty, Unusual, and Rare are used for the base crafting of said gear - with the "rarer" material yielding better base stats. The Precious material will allow you to level up the gear (i.e you craft a level 5 bit of gear, and you will be able to make that gear a +1, +2, up to +3) bit of gear which will then cap at +3 and require a new bit of gear to be made. Where as Priceless will allow you to increase the "rarity" of the gear ONCE which would add a bonus stat modifier.
Noting that the "base rarity of the gear will be higher in each region. (for example in the first area the base common, the second lowest craftable would be uncommon etc.
For Potions - I'm not entirely sure yet i'm sorry. What I am thinking is that Petty, Unusual, and Rare would be used for more common potions like health, where as Precious and Priceless would be components of rarer more valuable potions like temporary stat boosts etc.
From there, there are "4" categories of Materials
Weapon Crafting Materials - That come from Ore/Mineral Deposits and Enemies
Armor Crafting Materials - That come from Ore/Mineral Deposits and Enemies
Potion Crafting Materials - That come from Flora and Enemies
Maiden Summoning - I will talk about this another time once I have the details more thought out.What can you find it each Region (i.e areas based around the different Villages)?
Ore/Mineral Deposits - There will be 3 different types of "Ore/Gem/Mineral Deposits" that benefit the different subclasses (for example, Heavy Metal Ore for Warrior, Gemstone for Sorcerer, and a light Mineral/Glass for Rogue) They will contain a Petty, Unusual, and Rare These ore deposits will then also contain 1 Precious Material, and 1 Priceless Material that can be found.
Flora - Each region will have 5 different types of flora that can be found with RNG on spawning whilst you are out exploring
Enemy Materials - Enemies will contain 7 possible items - and the rarity of these will depend on the rarity of the enemy. (2 items for each subclass, 1 that is for armor, the other for weapons, and the 7th item is "Lustful Essence - which is related to the Maiden Summoning" For example, a common enemy will only drop "Petty" versions of the materials, an Uncommon Enemy, has a chance to drop both Petty and Unusual materials, Rare Enemies could drop Unusual and Valuable" etc.
I'm hoping this gives a good snap shot of how I am currently planning on rolling out Materials.But am happy to answer questions you may have :)