Re: Idea: Plate Mail

[Zakilevo]

I don't keep one myself. Too much of hassle. Not worth the time and gold IMO.

[Indirik]

This thread was split off the Plate Mail idea thread.

[LilWolf]

I've had a few unique items. My experience has been the following:

One item I lost in a random monster battle.

The rest have all degraded away.

I have one item currently and it'll probably end up degrading away as well. The repair aspect is just too much of a hassle unless you happen to have an reliable advy you can call on. Even then the item can degrade away if no sage is found.

So in general I just don't bother with unique items. They're just not worth the effort.

[Darksun]

I completely agree. I stopped buying unique items some time ago. Sure, I'll still steal them from enemies who end up in my prisons, but my characters don't waste money on them any longer.

[Zakilevo]

The repair aspect of unique items should just be scrapped. Instead of unique items being weapon+armor, they should just be changed entirely. With Tom's new armor idea, there is less point on having unique armors around. Instead why not let unique items just grant you prestige as a trophy or antique? Once the new estates idea kicks in, unique items can just be used to decorate the house? -maybe a horrid idea-or let repair equipment fix the item.

[James]

As I said in an earlier post. I like unique items, but do feel that, because of how fast they degrade, that they are not valued as much as they could be.

There's one item I know of that degrades at about a point a day. The owner gives it to an adventurer before it gets to 50% so that the adventurer can actually have the time to find a sage that is able to repair it - this can take a very long time.

If the sage's were not so strict on what items they need to use to make a repair, that might help. At least then all you have to do is find a sage, not find a sage that is asking for an item you actually have. meaning the noble can keep hold of an item for longer before passing it over to an adventurer to get it repaired.

Or, when an item is in the possession of an adventurer, don't have it degrade. That way, as long as a noble finds an adventurer to take it, they know it won't degrade to nothing whilst they hunt for a sage.

That's just a couple of ideas.

[Thunthorn]

My ruler character has been buying items both to support adventurers and to have things to hand out as rewards for truly great achievements, but I agree that they are really not worth the bother otherwise. Prestige is the most intangible achievement in the game and the temporary gain from carrying a special object doesn't feel like real prestige anyway.

What makes me play adventurers is the opportunity to find items and write wiki descriptions of them. Buying scrolls from wizard is interesting as well, but it has so far never happened. The adventurer game should not only be about keeping monsters and undead down, there must be some sort of achievement involved there as well.

I'd say make items more interresting by making them more durable and give them properties that let them affect the game somehow even if it is only in a small way.

[Tom]

Unique items degrade at different speeds, and I think the 1-per-day is an abnormality.

[Alpha]

Unique items degrade at different speeds, and I think the 1-per-day is an abnormality.

I've had 3 UIs. 2 have degraded by 1% per day. I was thrilled to get one that degraded by 1% per 2 days.

[Zakilevo]

I just didn't bother with items I got from searching battlefields. Gave one to Duke because I did not want to bother myself fixing the item. Just stresses me out when I see the item degrade. Better not to be pressured by it.

[Dante Silverfire]

Unique items do need some sort of change.

Either make them easier to repair, or don't degrade as fast, or don't degrade at all. (Can be countered with a higher chance of lost on battlefield or some such. However, if lost on battlefield, there should be a high chance of someone else finding it).

Unique items should be something that sticks around in the game and are worth something more. They should be a symbol of prestige and notability, not a simple tool which causes extra effort from both advys and nobles to keep from being destroyed. If I get a unique item, I want it to stick around and not have to give it up at 40% condition to give it a small chance of being repaired.

There should be incentive to push the unique items to a high prestige, by holding on to them for a long time. However, right now it is simply difficult to do so even though some characters would want to have them for RP or other reasons. If they became perhaps harder to find, but easier to keep, (so become more valuable, but more sustainable) I think the system could be fixed.

[De-Legro]

Unique items do need some sort of change.

Either make them easier to repair, or don't degrade as fast, or don't degrade at all. (Can be countered with a higher chance of lost on battlefield or some such. However, if lost on battlefield, there should be a high chance of someone else finding it).

Unique items should be something that sticks around in the game and are worth something more. They should be a symbol of prestige and notability, not a simple tool which causes extra effort from both advys and nobles to keep from being destroyed. If I get a unique item, I want it to stick around and not have to give it up at 40% condition to give it a small chance of being repaired.

There should be incentive to push the unique items to a high prestige, by holding on to them for a long time. However, right now it is simply difficult to do so even though some characters would want to have them for RP or other reasons. If they became perhaps harder to find, but easier to keep, (so become more valuable, but more sustainable) I think the system could be fixed.

Generally if an item is really hard to repair, it means it has been around for a while. It might not be that YOU have owned it for a long time, but the item itself has been in the game world for a while. It has been intentional that items are harder to maintain the longer they exist to encourage item turnover and prevent them being hoarded by a few characters. If they are significantly easier to fix, or require fixing less often, then yes the chance to loss them from things like battles would need to increase, and in the end the effect is the same, items are hard to hold on to only now people lose them most often from battles. The inverse is then you end up with characters that become battle adverse simply to try and keep their items, which depending on the prevalence of this mind set could result in reduced wars as high ranking players want to keep their items.

[Dante Silverfire]

Generally if an item is really hard to repair, it means it has been around for a while. It might not be that YOU have owned it for a long time, but the item itself has been in the game world for a while. It has been intentional that items are harder to maintain the longer they exist to encourage item turnover and prevent them being hoarded by a few characters. If they are significantly easier to fix, or require fixing less often, then yes the chance to loss them from things like battles would need to increase, and in the end the effect is the same, items are hard to hold on to only now people lose them most often from battles. The inverse is then you end up with characters that become battle adverse simply to try and keep their items, which depending on the prevalence of this mind set could result in reduced wars as high ranking players want to keep their items.

Then those players get kicked out of office by all the low-ranking players who want wars. That is turnover. Items should be in the game to promote conflict, not to have to repaired over and over again.

Conflict is promoted by making items easy to keep (in terms of degrading) but hard to keep in terms of losses on the battlefield or being taken by judges. A foreign noble gets an item of yours during a battle? Declare war, seek out vengence on that character alone, etc...These are all good things.

Having to repair an item which has RP history once a month, and then wait 2-3weeks for the repairs to happen is not beneficial. (Note: Some of these numbers are just thrown out there, as I stopped using unique items a while back for this very reason)

[De-Legro]

Then those players get kicked out of office by all the low-ranking players who want wars. That is turnover. Items should be in the game to promote conflict, not to have to repaired over and over again.

Conflict is promoted by making items easy to keep (in terms of degrading) but hard to keep in terms of losses on the battlefield or being taken by judges. A foreign noble gets an item of yours during a battle? Declare war, seek out vengence on that character alone, etc...These are all good things.

Having to repair an item which has RP history once a month, and then wait 2-3weeks for the repairs to happen is not beneficial. (Note: Some of these numbers are just thrown out there, as I stopped using unique items a while back for this very reason)

Yeah, cause we saw peaceniks get kicked out of office during the EC stagnation didn't we, or the current peace in the south of FEI. The whole reason Tom had to introduce TMP was because it is obvious that we can't rely on peace loving rulers and councils being removed by the knights.

[Zakilevo]

Wouldn't it be better to make owners lose items than let it degrade away? Like losing a battle can make you lose your item while the winner can search the battlefield and claim it themselves as spoils? Or being wounded can cause you to lose your item even if you win a battle - can lose your item if it is a sword and you get your arm chopped off.