Broken, cracked, ripped

[Rewde]

Just catching up on the last couple WTF comics and a thought came to mind.

Why is it that the only thing, besides text, quests and recipies, that can get broken in game are fishing poles?

Wouldn't it make tradeskills more interesting if things like your leather armour could actually get ripped, and you needed a tailor to fix it. Say when it got ripped, the stats on it got cut in half? Or your non-stick frying pan got chipped, or cracked, you would either throw it away, make a new one, take it to a tinkerer to get it fixed, or use it and risk getting whatever it was being made, burnt. Or pehaps you were in combat and your uber xyz sword got broken, you would have to take it to your local smith to get it repaired.

Granted, it might make some thing a PITA, especially if you were in one of the higher-end zones and your armour got split, or your sword broke in mid battle and you had to run and get it mended. Perhaps it would prompt SOE to introduce something like a portable smelter for smiths so that they could repair items in the field.

Of course, then the cost of certain items in the bazaar would increase, such as silk threads, swatches, BDs(because you might have to re-imbue that plate mail).

And if you failed to mend the item, you would just lose the items that you were trying to mend with and not the actual item that needed to be mended. As for No-Drop items, it would be a little tricky, either they would have to implement a tag so that once it was broken that person could give it to someone else to get it repaired, and only the person that gave it could get it back and be the only one to equip it. Or something like that.

[Tinile]

Item deterioration will be in EQ2, no thanks.

[lonewylfe]

Heh, you want item deterioration, go play Morrowind

But yeah, it's a "feature" of EQ2, and to get it into regular EQ would probably require some major code overhaul. Not to mention the ripoffs that would probably happen in the bazaar...

[Rewde]

Well, when I played Diablo, that was a part of the game. I just thought it would be interesting here. I don't plan on getting EQ2, as I have just started playing this, and have spent enough money upgrading my computer and getting all of the expansions.

[kiztent]

Item deterioriation would suck.

No thanks.

I've been happily wearing the same set of legs (dark runed) for 15 months. I'd hate to have to replace them because they wore out.

[Rewde]

I've been happily wearing the same set of legs (dark runed) for 15 months. I'd hate to have to replace them because they wore out.

I'm not saying worn out. That would suck.

Broken, cracked, or ripped. Things that could be mended by tradeskillers(you would have another use on a raid). I mean, really, how many time have you gone into a fight, and your weapons and armour come out of the fray looking brand spanking new, while you, on the otherhand, have suffered countless points of damage.

Realistically, something, it the fray of battle, is going to suffer some kind of damage and be in need of repair, not just the flesh of your character. I am not saying that it should be implemented, just that it could be, and would make some situations more interesting, to say the least.

[GreatGoldenGod]

What everquest is about.

In a game that has no ending, caps it's skills and max level, the only real way to show what you have achieved is by loot, or making your own guild, or doing something that people will remember your name. However, lets focus on the loot.

Awsome equipment is to hard to come by to be cheapened by loss of integrity. I personnaly would be kind of mad if I lost my clerics epic to Fippy Darkpaw. But thats just one example.

You could say "But you could make certain thing unbreakable!" but then, that would just make everyone ignore quests that didn't yield indestructable items as their prize.

Everquest is not the type of game you want your equipment to be breakable in, because if your armor breaks or your sword snaps, you don't just run to zone. You Die.

[kiztent]

I've been happily wearing the same set of legs (dark runed) for 15 months. I'd hate to have to replace them because they wore out.

I'm not saying worn out. That would suck.

Broken, cracked, or ripped. Things that could be mended by tradeskillers(you would have another use on a raid). I mean, really, how many time have you gone into a fight, and your weapons and armour come out of the fray looking brand spanking new, while you, on the otherhand, have suffered countless points of damage.

Realistically, something, it the fray of battle, is going to suffer some kind of damage and be in need of repair, not just the flesh of your character. I am not saying that it should be implemented, just that it could be, and would make some situations more interesting, to say the least.

Call it what you like, there's enough retarded timesinks in the game - no need to add more. And if I wanted reality, I've got reality already.

[Anaxo]

Item decay in the current form of EQ - BAD!

For one, it's already enough of a timesink to raid X number of hours to get Y piece of uber loot. But to lose that piece to random chance? No thanks!

For item decay to be viable, compoarable drops have to be easily accessible, enough that losing one piece won't set you back weeks of work, only a couple days at most. I don't see that ever happening in Everquest, since your current power is dependant on your gear and not so much your class skills.

[Tinile]

I played Realm prior to EQ, it was an online game of the same type, although on a much smaller scale. Armor deteriorated in that game. It sucked. You could cast armor invul spells which prevented decay, but they would wear off and sometimes you found yourself shirtless in the middle of a battle. It deteriorated by percentages, and you could repair it back in town for a fee.

[Pojodan]

DAoC has item degredation and it tends to commit segregation.

WHy?

Every time something hits you your armor takes damage.
Every time you swing your weapon it takes damage

After so many swings and hits the item needs to be repaired

Thus, tanks have to repair both weapons and armor
other melee only really need to repair their weapons
And all casters don't have to do either.

I found it particularily amusing that after dying some hundreds of times my cleric's armor was all still at 90%+ in condition.

DAoC has epic armor quests, too, that are actually quite interesting and net a full set of armor for every slot.
If you're a non-tank you can wear it practically all the time.
If you're a tank you basically never wear it except when showing off or when fighting really big targets for the bonuses.

Having that breakage factor can add a certain ammount of dynamics to a game... say you get a particularily good crafted sword before heading off to a dungeon. Halfway in the thing snaps forcing you to pick up one of the weaker weapons that the stuff you're fighting were using. Over the rest of the time in the dungeon you end up going through a number of weapons, increasing your skill in several areas (Maybe even have a skill revolving around the use of broken things or other objects around you as weapons

You attempt to crush an_orc_centurion with a chair
an_orc_centurion is stunned!
an_orc_centurion takes 45 points of damage
You attempt to crush an_orc_centurion with a chair
an_orc_centurion takes 37 points of damage
The chair shatters into splinters!
You attempt to break a leg of the table and fail!
You attempt to break a legg of the table and now weild it as a weapon!


etc, etc.

This would take much more dynamic environments to work, though.

[Hobbun]

I am surprised by the number of you that "don't" want the item deterioration in EQ2. I don't know how many threads I have seen on these boards about the ruination of the EQ economy because once something is made, it is there. And it eventually floods the market and the next item a tradeskiller will make money in is something "new" that will come out. But then that only lasts so long and THAT item floods the economy as well as the price goes down and down and down...

With item decay, they will need to be replaced or have it repaired. Either way, keeping money flowing in the economy and prices not bottoming out for made items. I am looking forward to trying EQ2. I like the item decay in it and think it will be good for it.

Hobbun

[Saleani]

I spent a year getting a girdle of faith, going to every PoSky raid I could get into. And you want it to break. :x

I spent more than 200 hours of my life questing for a sword that is really only good for one mob in the game (and that guy is immune to normal melee weapons). And you want it to break. :evil:

It took the combined efforts of about 30 people several hours of their life to take down the mob for the breastplate I wear. And you want it to break.

Monks frequently spend hundreds of hours camping Raster and the pipes for their epic fists. And you want them to break.

Item decay will only work when the game is built around it. Item decay cannot be added to EQ because of the horrible timesinks already in the game. To make item decay work, one will need to make tradeskills work and significantly raise the drop rates of items. If you want item decay, have fun in EQ2 and Morrowind. It does not belong in EQ.

In case you cannot think of one, here is a quick scam that folks will be doing within days of item decay being added to EQ. Player 1 has a funji tunic that is about to fall apart, they sell it in the bazaar for 60kpp. Player 2 buys this tunic and it tears or breaks the next day. Who can Player 2 turn to for recourse? Answer: Sony has just permanently lost a customer, Player 2.

And here is another new variation on an old scam that enterprising crooks will do in the future, should item decay be added to EQ. Player 1 claims to be able to repair items (because some players will be able to, who is to know who cannot). Player 2 hands broken item to Player 1. Player 1 /q out of the game. Oops, Player 2 is screwed again. Sub-variation, Player 1 hands back something else rather than the repaired item, cloth shirts look a lot like funji tunics. Another sub-variation, Player 2 hands Player 1 a cloth shirt and claims it was a funji tunic.

How can you repair no drop items? Will all servers turn into FV? How will you repair that no-drop armor? Hand it to some quest npc that wants lots of plat to repair it? Now this has turned into another money sink. Oh? Everyone has to repair their own no-drop armor and weapons? How much time will everyone have to devote to learning tailoring and smithing? Great, a new time sink that everyone will have to devote hundreds of hours, just to maintain their own gear. Every day you play EQ, you will have to devote half an hour to fixing your own stuff. I don't know about you, but I play this game to get away from the real world. I don't like getting stuck in traffic, and item decay will just make this game more miserable than what I am getting away from by playing it.

To add item decay to the game will require something that has been lost from the game, trust, as well as add something to the game that has never been in the game from the beginning, accountablity. In the real world, when someone screws you, you can take them to court. In EQ, if someone screws you, you have almost no recourse at all. If you cannot, did not or will not /report the text where they agree or promise to do something, you are out of luck and have lost whatever it is you pressed trade on. To make item decay work in EQ you will have to change EQ so much that the resulting game will not be EQ. Maybe it will be EQ2 or UO or DAOC or Morrowind, it sure will not be Everquest.

[Dunthor Warsmith]

Item decay is good for the health of the game, maintaining the economy, and slowing mudflation. In that sense, as a tradeskiller (and therefore seller of products) I like it, as it enhances the value of produced items (as the need is continuous, or at least greater, than the "buy once and forget it).

However, as a player of the game, I hate item decay. Do you use your uber sword, knowing that you only have 100 swings left until it breaks (either permanently, or at which point you have to spend more than your entire bank account to get it fixed) or do you use your little sword that is easy to replace/repair but doesn't work nearly as well? I *hate* making that type of decision - its essentially a game where every single weapon/armor/item works off "charges", like potions in EQ ... and I've never liked that, in any game :P

As I see it, item decay is good for the *game*, is healthy for the game, but as an individual player it is a pita, a royal pain, and a major detraction. That's basically the entire principle behind the much-malligned and now-dead "The Vision" of EQ, but item decay is far far worse than anything that actually was a part of "The Vision", in my opinion. Thus I really don't want item decay in any game I plan to play, but I understand people wanting it, and devs deciding to include it.

(I did like "The Vision" though in general ... but that's another rant :P)

[Aandaie]

Fishing poles can break because they are on many vendors and cost like 1.4 gold pieces.

If EQ has item deterioration, it will probably be similar. It would either be mundane items or things just state that they need "repair" whereupon a player (possibly yourself) repairs it to the same state it was.

This would have to be balanced somehow, so it is too early to just make a blanket statement that the game will "suck" because of it. Obviously you won't be getting some rare item like a cloak of flames from some uber dragon raid then have it "break" the next day. Such things might never decay at all, if they even exist.

I really prefer a system like Anarchy Online's where YOU constantly upgrade so even if things did break, which they don't, it would be moot. In AO you get something great then replace it with something a few quality levels higher the next day, until you reach level 200 that is (though now the game will have "shadow levels" as well)