Yes I know minors aren't worth recharging, I'm just saying that each runestone shouldn't take the same amount of resources to charge. Also with the other part of my suggestion it would allow players to decide how many charges they want to put on a runestone. Eyes of enders won't be difficult to obtain once the nether comes out, so I don't see it being too expensive costing 15 eyes of enders to fully recharge a Gigantic.
The reagent system we use for most skills doesn't really let you change the cost of the skill based on the player's desires. It would require a re-code to allow it to work that way. Not saying it would be hard, but I'm too lazy to really do anything and I don't know anyone else that is actually willing to bother these days.
I'm having trouble understanding your suggestion Though. Are you saying that you want this?
You want to be able to only spend the amount of Eyes of Ender that you are actually using to recharge. So if a Major Runestone had 6 out of 7 charges, it would cost 1 Eye of Ender to recharge, but if it was 0 out of 7 charges, it would cost 7.
To be honest I see this doing more harm than good for you in the long run. You're essentially saying, "Right now I always pay 4 Eyes of Ender. Sometimes I want to pay 1 Eye of Ender. Sometimes I want to pay 15. The more useful the item has been to me, the more money I want to throw at it."
This change also devalues the Major and Gigantic Runestones as they are now more expensive to repair. This would lead to you replacing your Runestone more than repairing it (Unless the creation costs are really bad this map). Is that really something you, or anyone else, wants? This change literally only has benefits to people that want to "top off" their Minor Runestones, which only carry 2 charges to begin with.
Or this?
You wish to specify just how many charges a Runestone has from the get-go, and have repair costs reflect that value.
IE: Instead of Minor, Major, and Gigantic Runestones, there is simply "Runestone". This runestone has as many charges as you decided to give it. So if you gave it 12 Eyes of Ender, it has 12 Charges.
If so, I still kind of have the same response as in the previous scenario. However, this specific suggestion totally destroys the "Tiered Runestone" system we have, making the profession very unappealing to level, as it doesn't get anything special until the end. Additionally, you would have to rework the Recharge skill to cost the same amount as the Runestone charges, which I don't agree with.
The "Recharge cost" is meant to be directly compared to the "Construction Cost"
What you are suggesting would terminate that relationship.
Like I said, I don't know the current reagent costs for items, but I am going to lay down a theoretical situation.
I'm going to use "Eyes of Ender" as a resource for everything in my example. I am also assuming that each eye of ender is worth about 20 souls.
Current System:
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Minor Runestone Construction Cost: -- 1 EoE / 20 Souls.
Minor Runestone Recharge Cost: -- 4 EoE / 80 Souls.
Total Cost In Reagents For One Construction and One Repair: 5 Eyes of Ender.
Total Cost In For One Construction and One Repair: 5 EoE / 100 Souls.
Net Gains/Losses Per Repair (-3 EoE / -60 Souls).
Major Runestone Construction Cost: -- 3 EoE / 60 Souls.
Major Runestone Recharge Cost: -- 4 EoE / 80 Souls.
Total Cost In Reagents For One Construction and One Repair: 7 Eyes of Ender.
Total Cost In For One Construction and One Repair: 7 EoE / 140 Souls.
Net Gains/Losses Per Repair (-1 EoE / -20 Souls).
Gigantic Runestone Construction Cost: -- 6 EoE / 120 Souls.
Gigantic Runestone Recharge Cost: -- 4 EoE / 80 Souls.
Total Cost In For One Construction and One Repair: 10 EoE / 200 Souls.
Net Gains/Losses Per Repair (2 EoE / 40 Souls).
Your Proposed System:
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Runestone Construction Cost: -- 1 EoE / 20 Souls.
Minor Runestone Recharge Cost: -- 1 EoE / 20 Souls.
Total Cost In Reagents For One Construction and One Repair: 2 Eyes of Ender.
Total Cost In For One Construction and One Repair: 2 EoE / 40 Souls.
Net Gains/Losses Per Repair (N/A).
The idea of the repair skill is to provide a small "gain/loss" scenario for the player and allow them to make a decision based on their situation. Maybe they want to spend a little bit more money because they really need this specific Runestone. Or maybe they want to buy a Gigantic Runestone, and carry the risk of losing it, just so they don't have to spend as much money. The major is supposed to be a nice middle ground for someone who isn't really committed to a specific situation.
I like the Gain/Loss factor when recharging runestones, and I like that it has the potential to encourage more Runestone creation over Runestone recharging. More Runestones in the world means more Runestones to steal/give/repair for the rest of the server.