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Item repair and endurance.

Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 2:37 am
by aliora
I once had a list of things that I would change that I may or may not have posted on the Live forums. But this is the one thing that I recall.

I was always bothered by the fact that crafting was rather static. If I recall, back in the bad ol' days of very early Vanguard, items could be traded to crafters so they could be repaired. Once most everything became soulbound, that was no longer possible and the crafter that once expected to always be in demand suddenly became less busy. Because once you crafted an item, you, or the person you sold it to, had it forever or until the user leveled beyond it's use. This made for a buyer's market as generally no one needed more than one of an item per character. Yes, bags were three, and the consumables were exceptions. But that is beside the point.

So I would have liked to have seen item degradation come into play. If you let an item get too worn, its endurance would be permanently damaged. Which would require more frequent repairs to keep it in top condition or, if one were really careless, have the max condition lowered to such a low number that it was only good as wall decor as it would otherwise be falling apart in just a few hits. But as long as you were on top of it and always repaired frequently enough, you could maintain it's original endurance indefinitely.

For instance, set a percent of an items max endurance to be the threshold for degradation. Say, 90 percent. Make a server rule for it and you could be as hardcore or forgiving as you like. But whatever the percent, for every percent point below that threshold adds an increasing risk of losing a point or two (or more) of an items total endurance.

It's not as harsh a system as the one that existed for Star Wars Galaxies where items always degraded both their condition and quality and their repair being very chancy, for instance. But it would allow for crafters to be on greater call to replace those items that were treated a bit too harshly. Plus, it could give a new dynamic to the game as players suddenly realize that their great and powerful artifact that was pried from the grip of the cursed death-whatever might actually rust if they don't take proper care of it.

~A