Re: Idea: Plate Mail

[Dante Silverfire]

Have you had a new item with the new durability changes? Cause that is exactly what they aimed to do, and I believe are relatively recent. If items last longer, the work required is reduced yes? Once people are actually providing feedback on the change, then we can examine if the change fixed the problem, if further tweaks to durability are needed or if the system needs to be rethought. There is little point to changing the system as is until it is determined that the most recent changes haven't had the intended effect.

If you haven't played as a advy, are you really all that confident in saying they are hard to repair? I certainly can't say much because I haven't tried repairing under the new system. Under the old system I never found it that hard, but then I spent considerable time gathering, so when I needed to repair something I had damn good chances of having the items and I was part of a advy group, so if I didn't have the items someone close by probably did. The new sage code means I can't really comment now, cause I have little experience with how easy/hard it is to find sages.

I've played an advy. I said I have had only slight experience from that side though. Yes, I have items from the new system, and at least one of them (if the system was implemented within the past two months) deteriorated very quickly. At least one other hasn't as of yet, but I only just recently got it. Even if they deteriorate slower, I still think under the new sage system, assuming the complaints I've heard are correct, then it should be a bit easier on their side. I cannot yet say what the new changes have done, but under the old system it wasn't working well imo.

[Velax]

In Arcaea the Duchess of Lasop was famous for her Sabre of Flames. Hell even Arcachon returned the item to her DURING the war when the advy that was repairing it ran off with it.

Yes, which she then let decay because it was too much hassle keeping it repaired.

I kept an item once for five or six months. I RPed about it, kept it regularly repaired, spent quite a bit of gold making sure it didn't decay. Fought a battle, took a light wound, lost the item. It was picked up by a realm mate and given back to me. Next battle, took another light wound, lost the item again and another item I'd had for about four months. Never saw either again. Fact is I'm just not going to bother putting much effort into unique items when I can lose them just by getting a bad result on the Random Number Generator.

[Tom]

Fame boost doesn't sound good. I think items should steadily become more prestigious

They already do. They always have.

[Tom]

I have never seen a unique item with a skill boost, which makes them worthless 90% of the time.

In your opinion.

Apparently, lots and lots of players disagree. I recently saw an adventurer asking 150 gold for an item - and a noble telling him that was too much, he would be willing to pay no more than 50 gold.

There are tons of items in the game. Lots of people seem to enjoy them just fine.


So if you don't - just ignore them. No harm done.

[Tom]

That is only true if the player base UNDERSTANDS the mechanics. Which from this thread they obviously don't. What is the point of changing the mechanics to fix a problem that is observer bias?

Why do players have to understand the mechanics? Especially with something rare and special, why can't you simply take it for what it is instead of having to figure out the micro details?

Someone offers you an item that gives you a bonus. Decide what it's worth for you and buy it or don't. Stop worrying about every technical detail and enjoy the game.

[Sypher]

I like unique items, I have had some fun RP with an Adventurer because of them. And my character has used them as gifts to other players to suit his own purposes. But, I think Unique items degrade too quickly still and I have several unique items that should fall under the new rules. (both Beluaterra if that matters)

I got a ring (Mysterious Band of the Undead +1) 99% two weeks ago. Now it is 90 %. Also have another item (Long-lost Flute of Warding +4) which has degraded from 97 % three weeks ago to 85%. 4-5% a week seems pretty high for a +1 item. I realize its different for each Unique but a Ring that degrades that fast? 

I would support changes to have easier options for repair, even if they are more expensive (such as using gold instead) or for Sages to offer more flexibility in what items are needed to repair items. I also like the idea of items that reach 0% durability not disappearing. Perhaps as a tradeoff, when items are in poor repair, say below 10-20% condition, they would no longer provide the holder any bonus?

[fodder]

In your opinion.

Apparently, lots and lots of players disagree. I recently saw an adventurer asking 150 gold for an item - and a noble telling him that was too much, he would be willing to pay no more than 50 gold.

There are tons of items in the game. Lots of people seem to enjoy them just fine.


So if you don't - just ignore them. No harm done.

strange enough.. 50 seems to be the bog standard price. don't know why.

[Tom]

strange enough.. 50 seems to be the bog standard price. don't know why.

Yeah, I have no idea why someone would throw that much money at a dirty commoner.

[Sypher]

50 gold? I've been buying items for between 10 and 25 gold.

[James]

I have found the name of the item can be a big incentive for the amount it's sold for. Sold one recently (just 1 prestige) for over 100 (on the Colonies...)

I love unique items but it does seem as if the majority of them are bought with the intention of keeping them until they are useless, then go an buy another one.

Don't let adventurers get any of the bonuses from the item and don't have them decay in their possession and I think that could make a difference to people wanting to make the effort to keep them more.

[vonGenf]

Yes theoretically. I haven't seen a single person who managed to hold the same item over a year. Maybe one or two person managed it but once you lose the item people forget about it. Characters last for years and remembered by others for years after their death, why not have some items which will have deeper and richer history like characters?

I don't mind that most items decay at the rate they currently do. As as been mentioned elsewhere, the total number of items on an island should not be growing with time - and advies must have something to find, so items must disappear.

However, I would like to see a few items have a really long lifetime. I can imagine maybe 3 or 4 items per island having lifetimes of 10 years or more. Those items would become the basis for serious RP, be adopted as a crown for a realm of something.

This could easily be achieved by having a very small chance of an item decay rate being seriously lowered on repair (divided by ten?). Then some items would become more durable with time - not infinitely durable, and most items would still decay faster and faster.

[De-Legro]

Why do players have to understand the mechanics? Especially with something rare and special, why can't you simply take it for what it is instead of having to figure out the micro details?

Someone offers you an item that gives you a bonus. Decide what it's worth for you and buy it or don't. Stop worrying about every technical detail and enjoy the game.

Sorry Tom, my point was if they are going to argue that a certain mechanic is broken or no good, they need to have more then a passing familiarity with what they are referring to. So much of this conversation has been started with people saying, I hear this, or I was told this.

Yes, which she then let decay because it was too much hassle keeping it repaired.

I kept an item once for five or six months. I RPed about it, kept it regularly repaired, spent quite a bit of gold making sure it didn't decay. Fought a battle, took a light wound, lost the item. It was picked up by a realm mate and given back to me. Next battle, took another light wound, lost the item again and another item I'd had for about four months. Never saw either again. Fact is I'm just not going to bother putting much effort into unique items when I can lose them just by getting a bad result on the Random Number Generator.

Yes that is always going to happen, items by design are not meant to last forever. It should be evident from the weird things needed to repair them that they are something unusual, not quite of this world and rather fragile.

[Velax]

I know what they are meant to be, I am saying I disagree with it and will not overly bother with those items in future because they are simply too much of a hassle. And from the sound of it, I'm not alone.

[De-Legro]

I know what they are meant to be, I am saying I disagree with it and will not overly bother with those items in future because they are simply too much of a hassle. And from the sound of it, I'm not alone.

Yup, and other people will bother with it. It is always a mistake to try and make a feature like this that suits everyone, cause it just doesn't happen. Like Tom said, if they don't interest you, ignore them. Given that I've never struggled to sell items my advies find there are certainly enough players will to buy.

[Gustav Kuriga]

I will add my voice to the growing number of people unsatisfied with the item system. I remember trying to even make sense of how to even go about speaking to Sages, let alone getting an item to them for repairs, and having to have the right stuff from gathering. Combine this with a degradation system where items disappear when they reach 0%, and it really gets frustrating. No one in any of my realms does role-plays of Unique items. De-Legro seems to be the exception of all of this, and considers himself the rule, no matter how many observations to the contrary.