This is a feature I have really hoped to see in an MMO for a long time to make crafting actually meaningful.
I’ve checked the forums briefly and seen similar suggestions but not this exact idea.
TL:DR Make a weapon skin editor that allows players to design the appearance of weapons, rather than just crafting stock weapon skins.
The following is one suggested implementation:
Upon reaching lvl 400 in a crafting profession (this might include armors later, but I’ll stick to weapons for now), the crafting stations feature a new tab. This allows entry to the weapon skin crafting editor.
The tab will have a bar of crafting tools that the player can use to modify the design, this may look like the tool bar in Photoshop, but with themed tools. There can be a hammer to add more material (brush), saw to remove (eraser), etc. I’m using Photoshop as my example, since it’s more familiar, but 3D modeling tools like SolidWorks or Sketchup might be a better place to start from. Regardless of the exact layout, the idea is to give players the tools to design weapon skins in whatever form they want.
Every type of raw material will add a different effect. These will be like a color palette. Some materials may add different textures, colors, or even particle effects. For example you could take a basic sword, add soft wood planks to make it appear wooden, then add features made of obsidian shards along the blade to make an Aztec “sword”, then add molten lodestones to add a flame effect. You actually have to collect raw materials if you want to use them, this will create some market for lower level materials.
After creating the design, the user can choose to save it or apply the shape to a crafted weapon. The player can use their own crafted weapons.
This of course leads to a number of issues, primarily what if people make inappropriate, offensive, or copyrighted designs. The simple solution is that crafted weapons are only visible to their user and possibly their team (if the other players choose to view player generated content.) If a player wants to make their skin visible to the world they will need to purchase an upgrade from the Gem store. The upgrade will allow them to submit the design to ANet for a quick inspection and add the skin to the game for all to see. This will keep people from running around with swords that look like giant kittens (or puppies).
I would like to see player generated weapons made tradeable, but without a preview option in the trading post, this would be complicated. Also, prices could be highly inflated and this could create a whole sub-economy of people crafting and trading skins. This could make some crafters incredibly wealthy. The simplest solution is making the weapons account bound (and not allowing the transmute trick to get around soulbinding). However, if it goes well, skin trading could actually keep the economy from stagnating.
There are also copyright issues with player generated content and I’m not sure ANet would want to deal with that, but I don’t claim to understand how those things work.
Still, there are many games with player generated content, and many existing examples of how to implement such a system in a good way.
Benefits
-Give creative players a way to contribute to the game
-Additional end game goals
-A new source of revenue to support the ANet (selling upgrades in the gem store)
-A new market for low level materials and give players reason to farm all areas
-Attract new players
-Allow more customization of player appearance
There are a lot of details to flush out, but I think this could be a great addition to the game.