Curse

Pkest · Apr 13, 2007, 11:38 PM // 23:38

weapon decay was one of the dreariest aspects of Diablo 2. I'd just as soon not see it return.

Hysteria · Apr 13, 2007, 11:39 PM // 23:39

For a few minutes before I read most of the responces I was thinking that perhaps a minor decay ie, no breakage, just durability and dmg ability that would have to be repaired infrequently and at a minor cost would be interesting. But after a bit more thought and viewing most of the reasoning here I would have to decline to have it added to GW2. There's probably already enough ideas for gold sinks for the new game and it just add's a feature that will start to become very cumbersome and down right annoying after a while.

jkyarr · Apr 13, 2007, 11:42 PM // 23:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShadowsRequiem

The thing that really bugged me was you used the term "Realism" and by that fact it makes you completely hippocritical.... How can you ask for realism when you play a game pitting you against Demons, Dragons, Trolls, and god knows what else?
Not sure if you havent noticed, but I cant shoot a fireball out of my hand.

That's ok with me... I think realism has its place... I guarantee you that the physics (aka spell effects and who knows what else... maybe rag doll effects) will be much more realistic in GW2 than in GW1. I won't shy away from using a buzzword like "realism" just cuz it seems to push some buttons... Heck it seems that its what got you to participate... so GOOD!

I don't pretend to have any delusions about wanting a game that is so obviously deeply steeped in pretend-land to be full of realism in every way of which I can think. My point is that there are good aspects to realism and less favorable/enjoyable ones. Should I not call them what they are?

Chris616263 · Apr 13, 2007, 11:57 PM // 23:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pkest

weapon decay was one of the dreariest aspects of Diablo 2. I'd just as soon not see it return.

Yep. I still play diablo 2 whenever to keep my characters alive on the realms; and the higher-end your items have, the more expensive it becomes to repair small amounts of durability lost on them. Rares with multiple +skill mods as well as others = tens of thousands PER point of durability lost. Let's not even go over the gold penalty from dying at a high level

Of course, gold in Diablo 2 drops by the thousands in Hell mode; and having a cookie-cutter build which can cause obscene amounts of AOE damage in seconds makes gold worthless in that game. The TRUE currency in Diablo 2 is Runes and Perfect Gems. I don't like that economy very much... Let's not revert to something that primitive.

BTW, another aspect of D2 everyone failed to discuss was Ethereal items. Ethereal items have much better mods; but they could not be repaired once they broke! Anybody like that idea?

LifeInfusion · Apr 14, 2007, 01:21 AM // 01:21

Hell no. That would be utterly retarded. Imagine the "You have been playing for an hour, please take a break" turn into "You have been playing for an hour, please repair your weapons, they have half durability"

Darkest Dawn · Apr 14, 2007, 02:47 AM // 02:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by SigurdTheBalmung

If by item decay you mean durability of the item, in a sense that it will break and have to be repaired before it is useful again such as in many other MMOs(WoW, EQ2, D&D Online...) I'm not sure if I would be for it or not.

Repair bills in MMOs are a form of money sink. It is an essential way of removing currency and in effect keeping the value of currency up as all players have to repair and the economy loses money.

With the current Guild Wars system, the economy is tightly controlled by Arena.net in the form of material, rare material, dye and armor vendors as well as the occasional salvage or ID kit. Arena.net's money sinks come in the form of non-required things such as prestige armor, guild halls and upgrades, skills buying. All of which are non-essentials.

Money sinks, such as repair bills, work only in an economy in which the majority of players control and craft materials. With the acquisition of most materials coming from a player grinding for themselves or from vendors and then being returned to the system, repair bills in the system would be more of a burden than just a simple annoyance as they are in say World of Warcraft.

Of course, in any MMO all money eventually returns to the system. But let's look at WoW for instance.(I know ppl don't always like it, but the economies in WoW are very good examples.) All materials(or almost all) in WoW come from the players themselves, with the exception of the most basic of materials(thread for example). The items created in WoW can be resold to any player(as long as they are not bind on pickup). So players are able to charge higher prices than cost for materials in WoW and make profit. In the current GW, you can't craft items to sell and make profit. This means the only income you get comes in the form of drops period. Unless buying a weapon or material from another player, all money returns to the system. There is no room for a large scale player run economy where money changes hand between user and user forcing the system to have a way to get rid of currency from the player base. The system in Guild Wars is predisposed to getting rid of money.

Unless GW2 has a large scale, fully functional economy where the player based is allowed to create and sell items, and the freedom to do so without having to be logged in(IE an auction house of sorts) I see no reason to have item decay, durability, or repairs because the system in its current form needs no more money sinks to keep the economy in check.

QFT - Hit the nail on the head.

juggalol · Apr 14, 2007, 03:02 AM // 03:02

durability on weapons and stuff would be cool, like diablo.

Evilsod · Apr 14, 2007, 03:25 AM // 03:25

Weapon durability was 1 of the worst ideas ever. While realistic, its way too fustrating. It also would be impossible to work into GW been as you can't just cast a 'TP' and go repair it.

Zaganher Deathbane · Apr 14, 2007, 03:37 AM // 03:37

A definite NO!

It's a time sink, requires gold, and therefore requires grind. Anets policy on GW is no grind to less grind as possible. This would be very bad to players who enjoyed a less grind game like GW as it is

Elnai · Apr 14, 2007, 04:33 AM // 04:33

Simple Answer: No weapon decay.

Its a useless and annoying mechanic. Its not gonna help the rarity of items. Green items were just a cheap and simple way for people to get perfect items.

kumarshah · Apr 14, 2007, 04:43 AM // 04:43

No...please no. Weapons are fine they way they are.

How are we supposed to deal with areas that take hours to clear?

Moral55 · Apr 14, 2007, 05:03 AM // 05:03

I know.

Item decay as a deterrent from playing to long, say after a good healthy 2 hour dose of playing, your armour starts losing 5% of it's base protection, and 5% every 30min there after, and the same for weapon damage too!

then when your off, after ( 5? 10? ) hours your stuff is back as good as new.

It would mean farmers would have to buy more then one account and keep people from playing to long!

Disclaimer: I do not mean what I say.
and to answer no I hate item decay.

wingzro · Apr 14, 2007, 05:26 AM // 05:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moral55

I know.

Item decay as a deterrent from playing to long, say after a good healthy 2 hour dose of playing, your armour starts losing 5% of it's base protection, and 5% every 30min there after, and the same for weapon damage too!

then when your off, after ( 5? 10? ) hours your stuff is back as good as new.

It would mean farmers would have to buy more then one account and keep people from playing to long!

Disclaimer: I do not mean what I say.
and to answer no I hate item decay.

Not too many games I've played had item decay working like that. More along the lines of durability through use, not amount of time held idle in your hand.

Elena · Apr 14, 2007, 05:48 AM // 05:48

no youre pun as making it more real ? hmm yeah cause in real life i can invoke earthqaukes with waving my hands in the air a little a bit in real life i yust map travel to school everyday

only thing this will do is annoy people
imagine:

youre in the end of game you yust got youre self a decent group who will listen and the warrior is offcourse tanking

now imagine if half during the mission/quest the warrior in the middle of tanking monsters screams: omg! my armour is about to break! sorry guys gtg! *leave*

you: damn you armor decay!!! damn you!!!
*you gets eaten alive*

erkun · Apr 14, 2007, 05:53 AM // 05:53

So many people wants realism in fantasy games... If you really want to simulate the real world, maybe games like Sims/Flight Simulator are the ones you're looking for.

I say NO to Item Decay. Senseless and annoying. Next thing we know, people will be asking for a crafter/merchant class too.

DutchGun · Apr 14, 2007, 06:34 AM // 06:34

Item decay would only make sense if it was integrated as part of a strategy to prevent hyper-inflation of player-crafted items. Think about the way the economy works for a bit:

Players go out into the world and harvest gold and raw materials. If GW2 has a crafting system, then for it to be of any use, it would need to be useful to players. However, if items never decay, then there would eventually be a glut of crafted items on the market, eventually destroying any sense of balanced economy.

In general, I think I haven't seen a decay system that wasn't horribly annoying. If I were to design one, here's a few basic requirements:

The item should never be completely destroyed or unusable. It would cap at a minimum percentage of effectiveness.
Item decay should be very slow - as in, "you can play for weeks before needing to repair your items" slow. And, a drop in effectiveness (damage output, armor rating, etc) would only start occurring at the end of the decay cycle (like the last 10%).
Only player-crafted items should need repairing. The upside is that they tend to be better than equivalent non-crafted items (maybe a 5 to 10% bonus).

Here's an alternate idea... Instead of items degrading, how about giving crafters the ability to provide degradable weapon, armor, or item enhancements? Blacksmiths could sharpen weapons, enchanters could provide temporary buffing spells, woodworkers could sell "arrows" that give any bow skills damage (it the same decay mechanic). This provides a bit of extra bonus to those willing to pay a crafter for it.

My guess is that Anet will probably stay far away from this concept regardless. It's really not something I could see them doing, given the tone of GW (insta-map travel, infinite arrows, etc).

Not A Fifty Five · Apr 14, 2007, 10:45 AM // 10:45

Well I'm gonna be the rare exception and not support it but answer #2 >.>

The problem is if I supported it, it might help to get it implemented. But while game devs (for all games) seem very adept at listening to the players they always put their own quirks on it, so supporting it with a given idea for implementation.. not doing it lol, they'd just make it whatever they want.

How I think it could be implemented in a non-frustrating way... eh just balance really. Someone here said make it too strong and it'd reduce customers, make it too weak and its just an annoyance. Realism ftw

Swords etc. last a long time, much longer than the decays given in most video games. I think a very slow decay rate with no option for repair is a nice way to implement it. Enough so you'd use a white, or purple, whatever for common battles. Would you really waste an uber sword fighting moa birds?

silvershock · Apr 14, 2007, 11:19 AM // 11:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkyarr

Obviously if you're absolutely against item decay in any form, there's no point in answering #2.

Well isn't the point to show a good estimate of what people think of this? If only people who are agreeing with it post on the subject people might think every1 likes it.

So hereby: No item decay is annoying. I played 3 MMO's who had the item decay feature and it sucks when ur out fighting monsters and your bow stops working and needs repair. The border to obtaining realistic features in a game and f*cking up the gameplay has been reached there.

=HT=Ingram · Apr 14, 2007, 11:27 AM // 11:27

I personally think this is a good idea... If an item is new it performs better if its old it should be a little less effective. Especially if used a lot. I would however cap the decay to -10% dmg reduction. That way a Customization to account (any character or companion can use on the account) will recover its quality Plus some... If you want to KEEP it!!

I encourage equipment for you to use and keep and Always, always, discourage anything that would buff a resell value on an inflation scale. As such a decaying weapon is weaker compared to a new weapon freshly crafted.

Greens and Reds would not be decayed because they are magically enhanced.

I should note that I also believe that every green and red should be forced customized so it can not be sold to others. But that's my opinion... It should stand as a reward for achievement, not as an item to be over farmed. Otherwise anet will fall into the same old exploited inflation market spam meta game again in GW2.

Dj Tano · Apr 14, 2007, 12:39 PM // 12:39

I think that such things totaly depend on how the actual gameplay is going to be, and since we have no clue yet, lock this shit...