Randomly decided to check in after years and see talk of Doordie and Amel. Lots of fun memories! Arguably my first long time character, Narwyn, ended up closely aligned with Amel as his protege.
Doordie was one of the best RP's I ever played with. His stories, with his character Amel, were amazing. Rich, deep, complex. I hope Doordie is doing well! You have a really great Uncle!
Gold has no end-game value in most circumstances. Once a character is fully equipped there is little reason to go out and get loot. One can buy consumables from vendors to a point and one can buy consumables from players, which tend to be more expensive. However, buying consumables from players move gold into the pocket of a crafter – crafters in most cases have no gold sinks of their own, this little motivation to get XP to trade for useless gold.
Purpose
The purpose of the idea of durability is first, to provide a reason to get the economy going for fully geared, top level players. The secondary purpose is to increase the player-driven economy, since vendors and monsters tend to be the source of equipment. Player activity will be required for maintenance of gear.
Idea
Durability The first part is to add durability to a few equipment pieces. The proposed system is aimed at weapons and armors. Durability would be based on equipment type and enchantment level. For example:
A Plate of Potency with the armor upgrade has +3 AC and +1 STR, making it a top tier full plate. The durability for a top tier full plate would be set at 100. Every time the player takes damage while wearing a top tier full plate there is a 1% chance that it loses 1 durability, making the armor useless after, on average, 10000 hits. The numbers can be tweaked if they are too severe or too lenient. After a piece of equipment hits 0 durability it becomes unequipable, but is not ”broken” in the sense that it is removed from the character or game world. We all use items that can not be replaced – there will be no risk of permanent item loss.
Repairs The second part concerns repairs of broken items. Repairs can be performed by characters with the required skill level in Craft Weapon or Craft Armor. The suggested levels are:
These are loosely based on the already existing system for determining the ”+X enchantment equivalent” that Thain uses to balance item properties like skill boni, elemental damage, ability boni etc. Completely unenchanted gear will simply not be worthwhile to repair.
To repair an item will require gold and reagents. The goal is to make more expensive equipment that breaks rarely also be more difficult and expensive to maintain. Following the previous example of the top tier full plate, a sample might look like this:
Imagine scaling that down based by armor type and enchantment level. For a +2 Chain mail it might look like this:
• 1,000gp • 1 mithril bar • 1 magical reagent
Like previously mentioned, the numbers are not set in stone, but put in place to illustrate the logic of this concept.
Requirements
Scripting If this is possible to script, I have no doubt it will take a lot of work. Beyond actually scripting the system itself with regards to durability loss and gain, items will have to be indexed for their durability and numbers will have to be tweaked. Finally a ”crafting conversation” aimed for repairing gear has to be scripted.
Item creation Items for repairs will need to be created. Similar to how elemental ammunition is created by reagents, repairing enchanted gear will require these things – potentially several variations if different qualities are to be used for different tiers of gear. Materials also need to be looked into, mithril and adamantine are used as proxies for high quality metals above, but we may want to diverge here if there are strong feelings that these two should only be used for certain item types already in game.
Benefits
The first benefit will be that characters at the max level with lots of gold on their hands have something to spend it on.
The second benefit will be that player-to-player economy will get a boost. To keep armor and weapons in shape will require high quality metals and magical reagents. The metals should be mineable in high-level areas and the magical reagents dropped as loot in high-level areas. These areas should be low on loot and the repair materials unsellable to vendors, thus creating a market for players to go out and get these things and sell to other players – who either bring them to crafters for repairs, or buy them and offer repairs to others at a profit.
The third benefit will be that multiple sets of gear may finally be useful. Clearing bugbears on your level 20 with a lowbie group, with the RP purpose of protecting Hamley’s borders? Might not want to take your elemental sword and +3 plate mail, but rather some affordable gear.
Once set up the system will run without DM involvement.
Registered Member #1556
Joined: 5:54:38 am GMT 03/18/10
Posts: 290
I think this is an awesome idea.
One of the biggest drawbacks to reaching the level limit becomes zero incentive to get up and go. Sure, we help out the lower level and new players, RP our hearts out and what not, but the "going to market" fun that you have when you're low level just isn't the same after 16 lvls. All I ever really buy for Idunna is potions and healing kits for when she's out with a group who is, more than likely, going to need healing.
What Mike is proposing is not only a great way to keep folks actively involved in adventuring, but it's putting to use the heart and soul of this server - our skilled craftsmen who have a very limited number of custom jobs they can do. With the Durability option, all of those Armor and Weapon smiths will become a majorly vital part of the player base and the RP will explode.
FEAR the Moorhen of Death (tm). Registered Member #26
Joined: 4:31:20 pm GMT 02/25/04
Posts: 3209
Hmm. Honestly, I'm not that keen for several reasons, to the point that I think a system like that described would actually put me off playing.
1) I don't find that a level cap is that big of a deal for me personally. I like exploring and roleplaying with people and developing my character. I'm not that fussed about getting more stuff or having a use for my characters' (not huge amounts of) gold. I don't explore Thain "to go out and get loot" - I explore 'cos I like roleplaying.
2) Not all characters are high level and although I appreciate you are saying that it would scale, even a few hundred gold can be quite hard to come by at the low levels.
3) Not all high level characters are that rich in gold to be able to afford to repair their armour with any kind of frequency. Lia's got enough to keep her in potions and be able to give potions away to other travellers she meets, but I'd be worried about her ability to replenish it sufficiently frequently and it might put me off travelling around as much because of the cost of repairs.
4) At some times of the day there are very few people on the server and if you are only able to play at those times it would become quite awkward to get repairs done. This could, however, be solved by having an NPC repair setup.
5) Possibly the most important factor for me - I just don't see how it would add fun to the game. It just adds another reason to go farming for gold.
Registered Member #267
Joined: 5:31:12 am GMT 09/21/04
Posts: 1253
Yea.. Not much of a fan of this either, mostly because I have never seen these masses of gold that everyone seem to think is a problem. Up to this point collecting 20k gold is a problem for my characters. Granted most of my characters are weak builds and does not gain anything on going on solo trips as they would spend more restocking on healing stuff then they would gather.
Registered Member #1313
Joined: 4:36:48 pm GMT 06/06/08
Posts: 175
I like it. Creates a whole bunch of fun possibilites. The value of crafting material increases and the value of gold itself (Which is little or no value at all). The RP part is the best. I find it kinda ridiculous that armor and weapon never breaks or is worn down. Ofc its possible to RP it now but its funnier when the system backs you up. Would be fun to see player made smiths up and running with an actual purpose.
arrivederci, megido Registered Member #1403
Joined: 3:11:09 am GMT 02/26/09
Posts: 1864
I agree that it would make sense RP-wise, but thinking on it practically, I'm against it.
As Katana said, it might be a lot of builder work, and as Yas said:
Yasmyn wrote ...
5) Possibly the most important factor for me - I just don't see how it would add fun to the game. It just adds another reason to go farming for gold.
It just seems like something that not everyone will agree on; It seems pointless and needlessly realistic to have our armor break down. Like the others who are against it, my higher level characters(s?) does not have a lot of gold at all - barely enough to keep sufficient medical supplies on her. That being said, that has to do more with play style.
If you really want to be using different armors, or RP that your armor breaks and it needs repairs, you're free to do that without an extensive system. I understand that the idea is to influence other players to also RP this, but I feel like it would rather become a burden that people overcome by farming for gold and building supplies.
Also, in high levels, there seems to be a very good player-to-player economy, from what I've seen, in the examples you gave. (Wands, scrolls, gems, etc. The motivation for crafters to get gold for losing xp is the RP.)
I think there are already player-made smiths that have an actual purpose, and that maybe you don't really need a game system like this in place to achieve what you have in mind? (Especially since many people won't agree with it, likely.)
Registered Member #140
Joined: 12:40:52 am GMT 06/16/04
Posts: 4311
I like the idea of looking for these types of things, but I don't think it practice that it works very well. Every hit on and by a PC will require a onHit script to fire and too many can crash the server (as I've seen recently).
The method that Gears posted is a lot better, but I think it would require a lot of work to fix up.
I honestly don't see this adding anything but annoyances. Yas summed them up pretty well.
[ The Island of Thain ]
Durability
