FIRST DRAFT

Engineer/Tinkerer Class
Class item - Toolbox
armor restriction - Chain or lesser
Weapon restriction - 1h axe or 1h clubs
Higher chance of failure if using skills while drunk

Level 5 skills:
Mining - similar to druid foraging, different terrain give different minerals. 
Harvest - similar to druid foraging, different terrain give different flora which can be refined into chemicals
Refining - via use of a forge or engineer station the player is able to refine gathered minerals or flora into reagents.  Items refined will be have 5 possible qualities - Rough, Coarse, Fine, Good, Great.  Refined quality can be either level based or as a trained skill.
Combine - Refined minerals can be alloyed together, or chemicals mixed.
Dismantle - player can take items apart for their core components.
Control - Allows the player to command mechanical pets.  Pets address later.
Craft - At lvl 5 the player gets the following recipies - Rough powder, Rough dynamite, Rough Shot, Tube, Rough Boomstick, Cogs, Springs, Bandages, Mechanical Rat.  Using refined goods they can make these items.

At level 7
Tinker - Using their skills and tools the tinkerer can attempt to increase the ac/wc of an item.  Random results
They get the additional recipies:
Coarse Powder, Heavy shot, Coarse dynamite, Crude scope (scope allows for spying on players or to see into the next room, coders preference), bronze tube, Mechanical Squirrel

At level 9:
Sharpen - Using rough stone (refined item) they can <sharpen> a weapon resetting its durability but reducing its overall lifespan
Adjust - by taking away or adding material the player is able to adjust armor (chain or less) to fit them.
Recipies gained:
Minor fire bomb, Minor Ice bomb, Coarse boomstick, Mechanical Hawk, Rough dynamite

At level 10:
Rigging - Using their skills and chemicals the player can attempt to increase a piece of armors resistance to specific damage types.
Imbuing - using their skills and chemicals the player can attempt to imbue a type of damage to a weapons
Recipies gained:
Minor Disease bomb, Minor poison bomb, Advanced bandage, Coarse Scope.

At Level 11:
Nightvision Goggles, fine dynamite, Smoke bomb, Mechanical Sheep, Blunderbus, Mechanical badger

At level 13:
Fine powder, Steel tube, Good dynamite, Flash bomb (stun), Fine shot, Rough Scope, good bomb, mechanical dog

At level 15:
Coarse Grenade, Grenade launcher, Good powder, Fine Scope, great bomb, mechanical wolf, Musket

At level 17:
Rough Grenade, Mithril tube, Good shot, Great Powder, Good Scope, Mechanical lion

At level 19:
At this level the player is able to create grenades that inflict a specific type of damage by adding an optional component during creation.
Recipies:
Fine grenade, Great shot, Land Mine, fragmentation bomb, Mechanical Tiger

Level 21:
Good grenade, Mithril Grenade launcher, Mechanical Bear

level 23:
Great Scope, Adamantite Tube, Rifle, Cloaking Device

Level 25:
Mechanical Dragon, Great Grenade, Mortar, mortar launcher

Level 28:
Mechanical Golem

Pets: Pets will follow and defend the engineer, beyond that their abilities are limited.

Nice ideas.  Overall, I definitely like the sound of that.  I do have a few comments based on your draft though.  Firstly, I think daggers/knives should also be usable.  I would think that engineers would need to use those type of “weapons” as well - something of a screwdriver type?  Perhaps reverse the order of the top 2 created pets?  Dragon sounds better than a golem, unless of course, a stone dragon does not have all of the same benefits of a living, fire-breathing one.  I’m also very curious to see some “explanations” what all of those chemical compounds and mixtures do.  I really like the idea of this class.

Well my idea is that recipies will work like this

Rough Dynamite:

2 units of Rough powder or better
1 unit of fuse (fabric soaked in accelerant)
1 unit of cloth (or some sort of casing)
2 units of wax (to seal it

So a recipie can be made with poor quality items, but that poor quality will be reflected in the final product

Dude, I’m digging this idea.

Perhaps it is a bit stereotypical, but I think the idea of a pocket protector (wearable shirt) or taped glasses - possibly even with a fork, Blankman style, (wearable mask) should also be included.  Either as a class item or one of the refined items that can be made.  And if they were to be one of the refined items they could be an AC boost or resistance to the armor covering that part of the body.  Because we all know that ink stains provide the most lethal variety of damage over time.

Based on quality, the “grenades” would have a chacne to blow up upon creation or if dropped out of your inventory....

I just like the idea of random damage....maybe I should have wizzed long ago.

They feared my mispelling though....

yea and they each have difference applications

Dynamite - you place it and light it and hope it goes off.  You could light it and try to slip it into a targets inventory and hope they don’t realize it.
Grenade - you light it and toss it and have a few rounds till it goes off
Bomb - explodes on impact.  Could include an oil bomb that coats the target or the targets body part with oil that is then ignited the next round
Land mine - a trap set by a doorway
Mortar - you can fire from the next room at a target, but you’d need a scope or goggles to verify the target is there.  But limited use to avoid abuse.

In the days of rampant playerkilling this would have been a fun class to have.

While intriguing, I have two objections that temporary prevent much consideration on my part of this idea:

1) I (me, personally) have concerns about introducing “technology” into MD, which has been traditionally based in and on high-fantasy.  Gunpowder is advanced science; mechanical beasts are very advanced technology.  I worry about changing the theme of MD so dramatically by introducing these elements.

2) I want to focus my own efforts, and those of others, on a single issue at a time.  Right now, I’d like to see the playability and enjoyment of Clerics improved.

hmm as of right now, clerics have 3 votes for most enjoyable class.. necros 4.. and monks 2.. mage/fighter/druid/barb/thief have 0 votes.

http://www.moraldecaymud.org/index.php?/forums/viewthread/32/

and I agree with you in the Technology/advanced science deal.. while it would add alot to the mud, i think it might be to much of a change

Well gunpowder is not advanced technology, its been around for several thousand years and since most fantasy has a medieval theme it is ‘period’. 

The idea behind introducing the technology is that there is a group that is either non magical or shuns magic as being evil.  But to compete in a world with magic they create technology to simulate magic.  And to fit within a magical fantasy world you just make the technology a little more ‘colorful’ with really big cogs and stupid machines that do pointless things, automatons that do silly chores, etc.  We’re not talking lasers here, we’re talking someone strapping a pipe to a piece of wood and dumping some powder into it.

And whats a grenade? clay jar full of oil with a wick?