Quote from: Kaballah on April 23, 2015, 05:32:11 AM
You should probably look at the trade value or what it would cost to buy a finished a finished weapon, vs. the cost of materials to make it. For example a trader sells you 1 unit of steel for $1.47 (which is 1.47 units of silver), and a finished charge rifle of normal quality for $1,414.00, 1414 units of silver. Basically the game values a finished, normal quality charge rifle at about 1000 units of steel. I'm not saying the recipe should require that much, ok the labor required to gather the materials and to craft it has value, and of course 1000 steel is a silly amount of metal to craft one weapon. I'm suggesting plasteel because what else are you gonna do with it besides make statues or swords (I doubt very many people make a lot of melee weapons) or sell it.
no, don't do that. there should not be a 1:1 relationship between cost of raw materials and cost of crafted items. consider clothing as a comparison. you significantly increase the value of your textiles by turning them into clothes. so it should be with weapons.
instead of requiring a lot of (sometimes exotic) materials, the job should require a lot of labor and a relatively high crafting level. if you can also make it more difficult to craft higher-quality items, that would be another good method of balancing, if it's possible.
i have to wonder about a player who calls crafted items "free". setting aside the time and infrastructure to craft anything (especially very big jobs) on a (powered) work bench--that isn't free at all. if you find that process easy, consider playing on a tougher difficulty level, or not using the prepare carefully mod if you do.
oh, and i typically make turrets and exterior doors out of plasteel. i find it's pretty rare stuff until late game.