The question says it all and as a crafter at heart I personally think 100% yes. A decaying item world makes a truelly player driven economy, gives crafting real purpose and creates a fantastic atmosphere among the players (those who were in Coruscant during SWG glory years will know what I mean). So what do you guys think?
 

Sure. Also depending on the ingredients the rate of decay could change.  As well as uses.

Items need to recieve damage/decay to have an economy, theres none otherwise,.

What happened to basic rpg mechanics, this game loosk to bring back all the good stuff that seems to get watered out, i hope that includes decay.

I hope so.  Without item decay and destruction crafting ends up being pretty pointless.

I agree after playing a game like Darkfall as well as WoW and comparing the two, it would seem that the economy is much more vibrant in Darkfall even with its lower player base.

If you look at wow, you dont see people buy more than one of a crafted item unless they are using each for a different purpose, which as a crafter ends up leaving you with little work.  So if you have little work and a lot of supply from all the crafters, you end up with a very stale and pointless crafting economy.

Now on the other hand, if the best items are drops and you have decay, that becomes tricky.  Though giving these items a higher durability so they last longer would solve that.  Basically you would end up with people using their badass weapons on higher end, harder content and then their crafted weapons on everything else.  That would keep crafting in demand, and the need to go out and do that upper end content, allowing there to always be groups because the items are always in demand.

Originally posted by marinrider

I agree after playing a game like Darkfall as well as WoW and comparing the two, it would seem that the economy is much more vibrant in Darkfall even with its lower player base.

If you look at wow, you dont see people buy more than one of a crafted item unless they are using each for a different purpose, which as a crafter ends up leaving you with little work.  So if you have little work and a lot of supply from all the crafters, you end up with a very stale and pointless crafting economy.

Now on the other hand, if the best items are drops and you have decay, that becomes tricky.  Though giving these items a higher durability so they last longer would solve that.  Basically you would end up with people using their badass weapons on higher end, harder content and then their crafted weapons on everything else.  That would keep crafting in demand, and the need to go out and do that upper end content, allowing there to always be groups because the items are always in demand.

I wish theives could steal.  How awesome would it be to be able to rob someone ,undetected, of all in their bags?  However you would have to limit it by having your odds of being detected increased by every item you steal, and then if you are detected, you should lose some HP and the victim shoud get an increase on their critical hit.

Originally posted by honoursword

The question says it all and as a crafter at heart I personally think 100% yes. A decaying item world makes a truelly player driven economy, gives crafting real purpose and creates a fantastic atmosphere among the players (those who were in Coruscant during SWG glory years will know what I mean). So what do you guys think?
 

I really really REALLY hope they do this. I was hoping for this in Guild Wars 2/SWTOR, but it seems both will stick to the themepark formula.

Its this Issue more than anything else that stops me from getting too excited about MMO's these days. Who wants to be a crafter when everyone is creating/looting everlasting items, especially when you join a game post launch. Everlasting items only relagate crafting to something done in your spare time between PvE or PvP because there is simply not enough demand to make it your primary focus.

I hope ArcheAge is different.... *Crosses fingers*

Everyone says (Insert feature here) would truly make a player driven economy.......I dunno who to believe anymore.

You really should have a don't really care option, as a non-crafter, I'll probably prefer a repairable system.

Someone can only hope that at least one MMO chose the path of being "adult" in every meaning. I dont blame Blizzard and Co. for creating ThemePark MMOs, those have their own fascination but are also limited.

I like to see sandbox-based mmo's, with decay, with consequences which are hard or even impossible to undo, i mean such thinks like bad faction due to (mass) murdering an entire vilage of innocent citizens.

I also like the idea of permadeath, i like the idea of xp gaining NPCs, who get stronger and powerful. Starting as, lets say, a normal "bear", who killed a weak fighter and gain some kind of xp, evolving to be smarter and stronger in some kind.

And if you need to "Kill 10 Wolves", those should stick together and act like a group of wolves would do.

Another idea would be the have some NPCs controlled by "veteran" players with good standings. This would be awesome, there can be some kind of NDA about that they arent allowed to inform anyone about their role in the game, also they should be monitored well, what they do as NPCs and what actions they took.

There shouldnt be some kind of "send us your best hand-painted picture of your fav pet to become a NPC controller" event or something. It should be a mixure of community activity and in-game acting. Imagine some staff members who "slip" into the role of a new player who ask players to help them on a easy task and as reward they get onto list of possible "NPCs" controllers. Some kind of this.

Just my ideas what a good company could build into a MMO to create a  unique one, not just another WoW clone (# 453 in the row)

Item decay only if you can get an NPC for basic maintinence/repair. Rather, that item decay serves a different function - you get a lot of use, but eventually it just can't be repaired after a while. How long it could be would be determined by how well it was made. World drops and some crafted could very well have indestructible properties that could be found/added.

Yeah, but only if they can be repaired...

That would provide the necessary resource sink without making you go through the pain of seeing that fantastic mega-sword of dragon slaying you got in the nether pits of hell inexorably being destroyed by something you have no control over.

In fact a double-decay system might be the best imo. In short, every time you repair an item its repair cost rises a bit. This would make you have more control of how you utilize gear but, at the same time, push you toward replacing older stuff that you're not that attached to.

Just to clarify what I mean by decaying. I wouldn't want it to drastically hamper how people play the game. Like for example if your carrying a weapon that is brand new you definately shouldn't need 3 or 4 other weapons just in case. The devs would need to do some playing around and some testing perhaps on what the correct rate of decay should be but I was thinking something like two indicators on a weapon. One would be condition, the other perhaps durability. As you use the weapon and it's damaged it's condition would drop to a point where you obviously need to repair it. Once repaired, this would return the condition of the weapon back to say 100%, but durability would be reduced by say 5% to 95%.

Durability would take a hit whenever you repair the weapon until finally durability would reach 0% and the weapon would then break beyond repair. The rate of durability reduction could also depend on the quality of materials used to make the weapon and the skill of the crafter. This way the player gets a good idea of the condition of their weapon and they also know how long they have until it needs replacing. It's realistic, it's good for crafters, good for the economy and creates a good money sink to avoid inflation.

I trust the devs would look at this more closely and obviously hammer out the details but I personally would love to see decay in the game. Especially for crafters.
 

Originally posted by lectrocuda

I wish theives could steal.  How awesome would it be to be able to rob someone ,undetected, of all in their bags?  However you would have to limit it by having your odds of being detected increased by every item you steal, and then if you are detected, you should lose some HP and the victim shoud get an increase on their critical hit.

 

Do you like people stealing from you in real life?  What make you think people would pay to be stolen from?  And yes I was around UO when this was possible, the I'm roleplaying a thief goes about a far as I'm roleplaying a murderer.

If you create such discussions and polls here - aaportal.net, you can be sure, that XLGames will recieve the results!

Originally posted by Romtim

If you create such discussions and polls here - aaportal.net, you can be sure, that XLGames will recieve the results!

Cheers mate, just added it to their forum under 'crafting'. I like the fact that polls and information like that will actually go to XL to review and hopefully effect their decision making. 

In an interview its confirmed that item decay and repair is in the game, but to what extent is uncertain...

"We've also heard that there are no armor or equipment restrictions in the game. For example, someone with mage skills can don a chest plate and it will provide them with some amount of protection. Can you elaborate on this, as well as talk about gear and equipment in general? Is gear crafted or looted (or both)? Is there any sort of item decay, and if not, what sorts of money sinks will exist?

We do not want to enforce any restriction in equipment but instead would like to enable and encourage users to choose to wear appropriate equipment by giving benefits and penalties at the same time. For example, mages can wear plate mail, but then, as a penalty, its casting and movement speed will decrease, and thus they will tend to wear cloth.

Gears are both crafted and looted. The durability of items will decrease with usage, and users will have to pay a certain amount to repair them.

For some items, we are considering separating their function and look. For example, a dragon defeated through a raid will not drop a sword with very good stats; it will drop something like a magical essence. The user can take this to the blacksmith and combine it with a sword that has a look that he/she likes.

There will be all sorts of money sinks, from construction and leasing of houses, ships, and castles, to using all sorts of consumables for castle sieges, and so on.

Quoted from: http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/11/02/massively-exclusive-jake-song-talks-archeage/

I have to say I used to be a huge proponent of item decay until recently. Maybe it's because the game that ruined me on it had a bad system, or maybe I'm just lazy about it now. I understand the benefits, making it more realistic and such but I just don't want to be bothered with that stuff anymore.

Now if they do have a system I hope it's just a small fee from and NPC to go ahead and remedy it. I hate when I need an item repaired that's not apart of the one of my crafts.