Items in MMO

[Blackguy]

Will Items be limted to the player that is using them?

Meaning, will we see items that are bound on pickup, bind on equip and so forth? And what about durabillty, will items need repair or can they be destroyed if not maintained?

[Pankoki]

There will be several degrees of item to character bindings, depending on the item, its use and quality. You can expect mechanics similar to the ones you mention.

As far as repairs go, yes, we most certainly will have repairs on items that can be equipped and if they go for a while without repair they will become unusable. Whether or not they will be permanently destroyed is still being discussed, the issues surrounding such decision need to be carefully analyzed before jumping to any hasty call.

[Eight-Bit]

Breakable weapons have never been fun in any game it was implemented in thus far.

[Marswipp]

In the games I've played where items have durability, the item can be in top shape (n/x where n is a number equal to or less than x as long as x is not zero) to broken (0/x) and ruined (0/0). The denominator of the fractional representation is item quality.

[vgn]

I've never been a fan of things that last forever.

My favorite/ideal system goes something like this:

Item starts at X/X durability. There is a chance it can be damaged each time it is used or under "attack." As it is damaged it goes down (X - 1)/X, (X-2)/X, etc.

Anytime the item is at 0/X, it is unusable and must be repaired.

It can be repaired, either using your own skill or hiring someone with the skill/ability. Everytime it is repaired, X gets knocked down by one. So after the first repair, it will be in "new" condition, except now it is (X-1)/(X-1).

Eventually X goes to 0 and the item is completely worthless and can't be repaired any more.

Depending on the values you use for X and the percentage change things can get damaged you can finely tune how durable items actually are. And some can of course be more durable than others.

A ring for instance might have high durability and a low chance of damage. Leather armor on the other hand might have low durability and a high chance of damage.

[Honora]

I agree with vgn, I'm excited about item repairs. From a crafting perspective, it's wonderful because items will need to be replaced and no more will the crafter rely on new players and new alts as a sole means of customers. And, the economy will be less stagnant.

I'm all for it.

[Pen N Popper]

As long as it's still fun.

Broken shovels, picks, and chisels are some of my least fun things. They can be replaced easily enough, though, at an NPC shop. No harm done.

Imagine a weakened oak shortbow. Everyone knows the joy of hunting down a crafter to make you that item for the static quest. Now imagine trying to get it repaired when there's no one else online. Will there be NPCs to help you out for a price?

A more dynamic economy is great but let's have it reflect what the player base can support.

One notion that is sometimes overlooked is not of weakening, but of strengthening. Perhaps the lowest an item can be is just "normal." If you bring it to a crafter with skill, they can strengthen it (more damage, better attack, more xp per use?). The weakening with use just returns it to normal.

If you must have breakage, consider that once it's strengthened in some way it becomes immediately subject to weakening beyond "normal" and breaking completely. Imagine this system as an "opt in." Those that don't want to deal with breakage pay the price of generic items.

[lonnarin]

While I could see investing into durability a nice added effect, completely breaking an item shouldn't make it totally worthless and unrestorable. Otherwise Aragorn would never have been able to reforge his kingly sword, and nobody would have to have travelled to Mt. Doom to toss the ring into the magma and destroy it, as they'd simply had to have let Gimli wear it into battle too many times.

Maybe when it reaches 0 durability, it's considered so fractured that you can no longer use it at all until fixed and need to pay a much larger amount to re-set or reforge an item, you need to find its base components again to replace things like an axe-handle or hilt, or you need to completely melt it back down again.

Of course we could just let the thing completely break, but then let broken items be recycleable. Matter is neither created nor destroyed, just warped out of shape until its unusable in its present form. You would not however be completely lacking new mithral if your mithral sword broke, you'd just have to melt it all down and start over from scratch, perhaps adding another ingot or two to make up for the amount burned off during forging.

I was a big fan of the repair skill and repair hammers in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Their item recharging was a bit too expensive compared to the original cost of most items, but their repairing skill and methods was spot on. In our version, we should make repairs for each item based on the CNR crafting skills of the type of item. So armorcrafters can deal with metal armors, tailors can mend lighter armors, weaponsmiths can reforge swords, gemcrafters can reset rings, etc. That would make them able to expand from base sales to maintanance, and if we allowed CNR authoring, where a crafter could sign their name to an item to indicate their works, we could even add maintenance and warranty service plans along with the original sale. "Iffn this armor breaks on ye in the next 30 days, ah'll fix it fer ye for free?" or "Lifetoime guaruntee lad... ah sold ye it, ahll fix it fer ye or replace it as need be". I could see Dorandites proudly offering such warranties to testify to their workmanship, and make themselves known by signing each piece of equipment with their signature.

[Script Wrecked]

Originally Posted by Pen N Popper

Broken shovels, picks, and chisels are some of my least fun things.

Indeed.

And because they break randomly, people tend to run around with half a dozen of each of them, contributing to inventory bloat and server lag.

Having charges (or durability) smoothes out the random breakage factor. However it will still break at some point, necessitating carrying (at least) a backup.

Repairability can remove the requirement for multiples if the durability exceeds the amount of damage likely to be done to the item between repairs. The player only has to carry around one item because they know they will always (usually) be able to get it repaired before it breaks.

This reduces inventory bloat, and gives the crafters something to do.

Of course, if repairs are allowed to be done by crafters, this removes the potential for repairs to be used as a means to take gold out of the economy. Instead the gold is being transferred from one player to another.

The only way round that would seem to be... taxes.

Yes, after all, the crafters are now earning an income, must be time for income tax, or value-added-tax, or window tax, or sword tax.

Regards,

Script Wrecked.

[miltonyorkcastle]

We hereby announce... **drumroll**

The Adventurer Tax!
If you wish to become one who lives off the exploits of monsters and ruins, or have some other non-coventional, exceptionally dangerous means of obtaining a living, you are hereby charged an annual fee of 2000 True. Failure to register and pay the tax will result in imprisonment.

Sincerely,
The Trelanian Nobles.

Disclaimer: The above is completely false and is meant as a joke.

[Marswipp]

Every time [sic] it is repaired, X gets knocked down by one. So after the first repair, it will be in "new" condition, except now it is (X-1)/(X-1).

In the game I've been playing most recently, the denominator stays the same unless a "mistake" is made during the repair, in which case x becomes (x-1).

Eventually X goes to 0 and the item is completely worthless and can't be repaired any more.

Maybe when it reaches 0 durability, it's considered so fractured that you can no longer use it at all until fixed and need to pay a much larger amount to re-set or reforge an item, you need to find its base components again to replace things like an axe-handle or hilt, or you need to completely melt it back down again.

Of course we could just let the thing completely break, but then let broken items be recycleable. Matter is neither created nor destroyed, just warped out of shape until its unusable in its present form. You would not however be completely lacking new mithral if your mithral sword broke, you'd just have to melt it all down and start over from scratch, perhaps adding another ingot or two to make up for the amount burned off during forging.

This should have a chance of making it more durable than before.

[Gulnyr]

In one of the threads about breaking items a long time ago, there were representative posts similar to some of the ideas above. Some people wanted the chance for permanent breaking (which is great for the economy and crafters) and others were against permanent breaking (since it could lead to the loss of rare or even unique items that can't be replaced, like plot goodies).

I can agree with both ideas and I'm not sure why they can't coexist. So, most mundane items can be repaired, but can also break and need to be replaced (though not with the insane frequency of our current shovels and chisels and needles). Meanwhile, magical and special items are generally less and less likely to break permanently as their power and/or rarity increases. Unique (or very limited production) items would only be permanently breakable under very special conditions, depending on the nature of the item. So, to use a paraphrased version of Lonnarin's examples, a sword, magical or not, reduced to zero durability can be repaired (as long as it wasn't totally melted or something), though it may permanently be destroyed at some point (like by melting, heh), with magical swords getting less chance to do so. Meanwhile, a unique, powerful ring is an artifact item that's too powerful to just be destroyed by common means, meaning it could be damaged, maybe, but not destroyed permanently except under specific special conditions.

As unpleasant as losing cool stuff is, there should always be some way, however unlikely, that any item can be destroyed. That's the consequence of putting the item in harm's way. I'm not saying that the "best" stuff should just be plucked off characters at a whim, because that sucks, just that even the most amazing things can still be lost somehow, even if it's less than 1% chance per character lifetime.

[stragen]

Of course we could just let the thing completely break, but then let broken items be recycleable. Matter is neither created nor destroyed, just warped out of shape until its unusable in its present form. You would not however be completely lacking new mithral if your mithral sword broke, you'd just have to melt it all down and start over from scratch, perhaps adding another ingot or two to make up for the amount burned off during forging.

I like this idea. That crafters can recover some of the raw materials from an item. Find an emerald set in bronze... useless right? Nope try and unset the emerald. Enchant it and reset it in Gold. Brilliant a ring of Bull Strength III.

In fact some epic and unique items could only be made from dropped items. Find the broken great sword of the Pirate King Gaunt Vodoon. Add a little miithril and a Lich skull. Presto you are now the proud owner of the Sentient Great Sword of Vaunt Vodoon.

[Marswipp]

And if these unique items break, in the case of metal objects, the cost of reworking is going to be insane if they are meant to be kept.