For item decay but in a game where all armor and items are from crafters and monsters only drop money and materials and without bop drops or soulbound items.

IF rest of game is build with that in mind. Like player made economy, gear coming mostly from crafters and so on then yes.

Putting this in instance gear grinder game like WoW, Rift or Lotro(now)  would not be good idea.

Item decay itself wouldn't have made SWG's what it was.

You also need the variable stats on items, and also the variables in harvesting/crafting which greatly altered market position. That harvesting system was GREAT. You had to go out and hunt for spots and plant down harvesters.

Crafting is really lame in every other game in comparison. Not even worth it anymore.

Originally posted by Baseline

Item decay itself wouldn't have made SWG's what it was.

You also need the variable stats on items, and also the variables in harvesting/crafting which greatly altered market position. That harvesting system was GREAT. You had to go out and hunt for spots and plant down harvesters.

 

Crafting is really lame in every other game in comparison. Not even worth it anymore.

Even EVE's?

Originally posted by Castillle

Sooooo....Really simple.  Will you support SWG style item decay (aka they friggin break) or will you go against it? 

 

Has anyone proposed it?

Breakage.  The Argument from 1994, for me...heh.

Originally posted by Malcanis

Originally posted by Baseline

Item decay itself wouldn't have made SWG's what it was.

You also need the variable stats on items, and also the variables in harvesting/crafting which greatly altered market position. That harvesting system was GREAT. You had to go out and hunt for spots and plant down harvesters.

 

Crafting is really lame in every other game in comparison. Not even worth it anymore.

 

Even EVE's?

Crafting in Eve is like a second job. Get blueprint, get materials, find a place to manufacture and then wait forever... sorry but most people got limited time and cant wait hours, even days, to have something produced.

Originally posted by dustyhayes

Originally posted by Swollen_Beef

Originally posted by Slapshot1188

I think DAoC had it right.   Item decay (greater depending on how much higher the item was than your level) but allowing you to repair it.. but repairing lowers durability and eventually your item would be unrepairable.

 

 

Preferably with player professions able to do the repairs though.... the higher the skill of the player the greater the success and the lower the durability hit.

 

 

This.

In a crafting based economy where player created items are superior to those found in the world, to promote continued crafting, item decay needs to happen.

couldn't put it better myself

 I fully agree. Daoc had the best system yet (didnt play SWG).

I'm against decay, at least when we are talking the AAA mmos here.
It serves no immersion, it's just annoying and a money and timesink, in fact it works against immersion.

Now if Armor and Weapons start to become tools for my charactersand the game design is not "item centric" (the purple, blue, orange, golden epic, legendary) but character building is about the character and not the epic he wears....

I'm all for breakable and salvageable armor and weapons, even to the extend to be not repairable at all. Humanoids would drop all their gear and i could pick it up midfight. (swords and shields).

I'm for it.  It just makes sense to me that if I beat on a bunch of stuff with an axe or sword or whatever it will become worn and need repair.  Eventually all the sharpening will whittle down whatever blade you have to a tooth pick and will render it rather useless as a sword.

Then again... I'm for a crafting based game as well so that kind of goes hand in hand.  As others have pointed out DAoC I think had it pretty good.  Items lasted quite a while but eventually had to be replaced.  It was a length of time that often gave you a chance to see what else is out there and you were looking for a change anyways. 

Generally speaking I am in favor of item decay, with the caveat that the items can be repaired using resources.

Originally posted by maplestone

Originally posted by gordiflu

Item decay is about that. Eventually you will need a new item becouse you won't be able to fix your present one.

You don't find that item decay makes it feel like you are being punished for actually playing?

 

Nope, it ads to the sense of realism as another poster said. That's what's MMORPG ....use to be about....I already play plenty of "GAMES"

So obviously I vote FOR item decay.

SWG showed me how well that worked in a virtual world, having a economy in a MMORPG is kinda pointless if there is no item decay but that was with a different generation of gamers. Problem with today's generation of people playing MMO's as soon as crafters reached a certain stage to beneficial towards the combat player the combat player has already left the game because he/she needed a master crafter to craft him/her best gear/weapons as they already reached cap lvl.

That's kinda the overal problem with full player run economy MMORPG's...The masses seem mostly into combat while a minority is more into exploring/crafting/mining/harvesting/socializing and the later isn't at the same leveling speed as the pure combat player.

So in short item decay might work in a niche type of MMORPG, but I don't think it will appeal to the masses.

In terms of the example you give where essencially items are used 'temporarily' rather then acting as some hard earned loot you spent ours and ours of work to gain, then yes I'm for item decay. Heck, in games that do have that gear grind, I can see item decay potentially being used in order to keep relevance to doing something like a 'raid' though its a much more iffy place and would be far more difficult to really take into account.

Item decay as a whole, specially when it involves a crafting system which much of the good gear is made, allows for far more player control in the economy, giving players the ability to do work on creating things like weapons and keeping it relevant without needing to just give off to alts or wait for a newer piece to come out. There needs to be a good balance between decay and use as you don't want it decaying to quickly, though you want the decay to be enough to bring forth a user buying another item from another player at some point.

I'm fine with it to a certain extent, where gear can get damaged and be less effective until repaired or replaced.  I oppose gear just wearing out without use or gear which cannot be easily fixed, either at a shop or through your own repair skills and must be entirely replaced.

If well maintained, gear should last forever.

Originally posted by Slapshot1188

I think DAoC had it right.   Item decay (greater depending on how much higher the item was than your level) but allowing you to repair it.. but repairing lowers durability and eventually your item would be unrepairable.

 

 

Preferably with player professions able to do the repairs though.... the higher the skill of the player the greater the success and the lower the durability hit.

 

 

completely agree.