There are many professions within SL Colonies. All professions have particular tasks which they specialise in when it comes to gathering, farming & crafting. No one profession can do absolutely everything.
One problem we saw with a lot of systems out there in Second Life is that people with a lot of L$ and a lot of time up their sleeves could setup mass production farms and make everything a system has to offer on their own - flooding the markets and drowning the economy with inflation and over supply.
SL Colonies aims to fix this issue by requiring players to pick a profession and earn their way up by crafting and doing tasks in that profession. As you work in your profession, you will gain skill points, known as Crafting Experience (CXP) which will give you new abilities within your craft, e.g. access to new recipes, faster crafting times, higher yields, reduced trading & travelling costs just to name a few.
Should you find that you wish to change your profession, you may do so at a cost of half of your current CXP. You will no longer be able to craft anything beyond Level 1 in your previous profession and you will gain CXP only within your new profession by crafting or performing tasks associated with it. Any recipes that you had learned, will still be stored in the database; so if you change your mind again and do decide to come back to your profession, all you need to do to be able to craft those recipes again is raise your CXP level high enough - you won’t have to do the guess work of all your old recipes again.
This also opens the game to lots of roleplay and trade potential. A new RPG sim will have positions vacant for players to take on, people will have to travel from place to place in order to get the materials they require to produce for their profession. Or, a sim may focus on what they have the best abilities for. Perhaps your land will focus on minerals from mining, or farming various crops. Or focus on crafting from the produce made and gathered by others. Or, you may enjoy travelling from land to land and see yourself more as a trader, seeing what’s available in the various markets - buying low and selling higher elsewhere to seed places that do not have access to other materials or do not know where to find them.
Base Skills
All players have base skills regardless of profession chosen. This is to enable everyone to make the starting tools required to actually get started in the game if they are not available elsewhere. These are basically your base survival skills to get out and about and actually survive. Basically, any recipes regarded as Level 1, any profession can jump in and craft. You will not gain CXP from another profession’s crafting table however.
Brewer
The brewer will have access to the pressing of juices, mashing of seeds, fermenting of wines and beers as well as distilling whiskies and various other spirits. They will also be able to further mature and age drinks produced before making them available to market at a higher level.
Butcher
The butcher will work with the various meats brought to them by hunters and farmers. Butchers will be the only profession that can transform a ‘meat carcass’ into their various edible counterparts. Not limited to steaks, sausages, minces and other meat based delicasies further used in cooking and baking.
Carpenter
The Carpenter will have access to many recipes. Probably one of the top two available professions in terms of crafting recipes next to the smithy, but it is very complex much like the blacksmith as well. Carpenters will have access to making a lot wood based materials by combining items from various crafts such as metals from the smith to make some tools, barrels. Carpenters can even craft various quality beds and seats to regenerate fatigue and energy. Various items of furniture and decorations and even all the way up to actually making other crafting stations used by the crafts.
Cook
While everyone will be able to cook basic recipes in cooking ovens within their homes, only cooks will have access to the more advanced recipes that you would expect to see in a restaurant or tavern. These recipes not only get to affect more stats when eating, but many of these higher level recipes will have in-world rezzable foods which can be rezzed in world for functions, parties and feasts.
Enchanter
The enchanter works with various herbs, gems, stones, minerals, foods and more. They can learn to use their energies to place special effects on items which can also be further infused and crafted into other items. For example, an enchanter might be able to enchant a special gemstone to cause %crit chance or %fire damage. When this gemstone is infused into the hilt of a sword, that sword will be given those effects while hunting and raiding for monsters. Blades could be enchanted before being placed on a sword by weapon smiths.
Farmer
Farmer’s are the staple of any surviving civilisation. Without the farmers, there would be no people. This is true even within SL Colonies. Farmers will focus on farming the various available fields of grains, plants, animals. They are also able to make basic items such as woven baskets, pottery. They are the only profession with access to the flour mills to produce the flours needed to generate foods used in baking and cooking.
Herbalist
The herbalist is one who enjoys collecting and mixing various herbs, fungi and other plants to create various concuctions and potions. From basic healing potions, buffing potions and even potions that can debuff and poison players, possibly even kill. Cooks can add certain potions to foods to create foods which could be poisoned, as an example.
Merchant
The Merchant is the trader class. For players that enjoy travelling region to region in seek of trade, buying low and selling high in regions that are in deeper need. With access to marketplace HUBs, Merchants have the ability to place multiple buy and sell orders in markets. Merchant will earn CXP for successfully seeding certain regions and other means. The higher a merchants’ CXP, the more open orders they have the ability to create.
Ranger
There are many animals in the wild of SL Colonies regions. Some will run from you on appearing, which will require you to act quick to get their rare hides, whilst others will attack you on sight. Hunters gain CXP per kill in a hunt and with those skills will obtain rarer loot and be able to work with animal carcasses in various ways to obtain rarer materials for trade. Rangers are also the experts of the dungeons and monsters in the system. Rangers will create various leathers and parchments from animal skins used by other professions as well.
Seamstress
The seamstress works with various wools and cottons, converting them into strings. They are able to create unlimited choices of coloured dyes to apply to their materials and then create patterns in the loom for rolls of materials. These materials are then made into different types of bedding, pillows, cushions and table clothes that can be applied to furniture owned by a player. They’ll even be able to make various items of clothing that players can wear in-world!
Smelter
While anyone can mine, only the smelters have the knowledge of how to smelt the ores into their precious metals. Only the smelter knows which metals to combine together to infuse into even rarer metals. Smelters also have the ability to cast directly into certain moulds as well. Their metals are highly sought after by the many smithies spanning all lands of SLColonies.
Smith
Smithies traditionally did not also smelt their own metals. Smithies are too busy using their precious metals which they have purchased at market to keep up with demand for all the required tools, equipment and weapons that many lands require. Their skills are highly sought after, and high level smithies can focus further on weapon smithing, putting various weapon parts together to create powerful weapons with magical stats!
Woodsman
Every civilisation is in need of wood. This is where the woodsmen come in. Logging communities are a necessity, and these men and women know how to size logs and planks to meet specific needs. Wood supplies are highly needed by carpenters who will be able to create tools, equipment, furniture and decorations for the many peoples of SL Colonies!