The idea of having a few legendary items is interesting. But neither a fixed limit nor total item immortality will work. As has been said: That is exactly what the system is designed to prevent: Hoarding.
However, I have updated the code so that some items (big random factor) will over time become more resilient. Give it time, several months at least, and you will start to see a low number of legendary items that last for longer before they need repairs, but won't last forever.
As I see it, the game consists of two layers. The foundation and somewhat fixed layer includes the maps and the game mechanics. This layer creates the boundaries for the stories that we the players create for ourselves and the other players. On top of this foundation is the somewhat fluid layer of meaning that consists of player characters, realms, guilds, religions and unique items. The stories we create center around those aspects of the layer that are the most durable. The most important stories are about the most durable element, which is the characters we play, but there are beautiful stories created about the realms and religions as well, and to some degree the guilds too.
A good deal of these stories center around the struggle of growing influence and sometimes it becomes a struggle for the very existence of something that is dear to the player. Some characters grow stronger in power while others lose reputation and diminish. Diminish enough and end up executed. Realms battle for influence and territory. Old realms diminish and get destroyed, and new ones founded. Guilds, religions and associations expand and battle for influence. The weak ones diminish and vanish. The story keeps evolving and never stagnates. When enough players decide that something in the game is worth keeping around, it will be kept around if they display sufficient skill and determination. When an object in the game is not supported by enough determined and skillfull players, it will inevitably eventually vanish. And that happens when an element in the game is no longer interesting enough and ceases to be something about which meaningful stories are created.
That is the beauty of it all, and i absolutely LOVE the design behind it and appreciate it very much. This is what sets Battlemaster apart from everything else I have ever encountered in the web. The only thing we lack here is lifting the unique items to the same layer with the rest of the elements. Right now they are interesting and fun trinkets, but what I would ask for them is this:
When enough players with sufficient determination and skill find an item interesting and worthwhile enough, they could, if they so chose, keep the said object alive indefinitely so that they could keep building more stories around it and the item would grow in its significance in the minds of the players. The item would be truly legendary, not due to some random stat it happens to have, but by its true reputation as an emblem and symbol of what it has come to represent.
Sure, make it hard, make it cost time and gold, make it cost a war to regain it, make it cost the life of my character, but make it possible to keep it in, and you see amazing stories centered around something that was meant to be a minor curiosity in the game. And you will see conflicts between characters, realms and religions never seen before.
