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Item Decay is the bullet that must be bitten.

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  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910

    There is no 'magic bullet' for fixing games. Nearly every aspect of a game ties into every other aspect of a game in some way. Item decay is a feature, but it's not going to magically make crafting more important or even necessary. For instance, you can use item decay to make raiding more important because your items decay as you raid, meaning you have to raid some more to replace the items before moving on to harder content.

    Making a game better or more involved requires a whole series of mechanics all working together to create a single experience for a game.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • YizleYizle Member Posts: 517
    Characters should decay too just like the items. You character should age and lose abilities and stats then die off. Maybe introduce random heart attacks and every few battles see if your character has a heart attack. Permadeath for characters and item decay. Those 2 should go hand in hand.....
  • BadSpockBadSpock Member UncommonPosts: 7,979
    Originally posted by lizardbones

    There is no 'magic bullet' for fixing games. Nearly every aspect of a game ties into every other aspect of a game in some way. Item decay is a feature, but it's not going to magically make crafting more important or even necessary. For instance, you can use item decay to make raiding more important because your items decay as you raid, meaning you have to raid some more to replace the items before moving on to harder content.

    Making a game better or more involved requires a whole series of mechanics all working together to create a single experience for a game.

    Really, really wish this site had an upvote feature.

    If people understood this, there would be a lot better discussions going on on this site.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by BadSpock

    Originally posted by lizardbones There is no 'magic bullet' for fixing games. Nearly every aspect of a game ties into every other aspect of a game in some way. Item decay is a feature, but it's not going to magically make crafting more important or even necessary. For instance, you can use item decay to make raiding more important because your items decay as you raid, meaning you have to raid some more to replace the items before moving on to harder content. Making a game better or more involved requires a whole series of mechanics all working together to create a single experience for a game.
    Really, really wish this site had an upvote feature.

    If people understood this, there would be a lot better discussions going on on this site.



    Not sure about other countries, but I suspect it's a cultural bias in the U.S. "If we could only fix this one thing, then everything else would be better." It's probably because all our movies and television shows have one bad guy that gets killed and the entire world gets better as a result.

    When you're talking about complex software, fixing "this one thing" almost never works. MMOs are definitely complex software systems.

    Anyway, thanks. :-)

    ** Also, I don't disagree that the type of game where item decay makes sense is a fun type of game. It's just that there's so many other things about a game that contribute or take away from the fun that it doesn't make sense to single out any one feature to me.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • BadSpockBadSpock Member UncommonPosts: 7,979
    Originally posted by lizardbones

    Originally posted by BadSpock

    Originally posted by lizardbones There is no 'magic bullet' for fixing games. Nearly every aspect of a game ties into every other aspect of a game in some way. Item decay is a feature, but it's not going to magically make crafting more important or even necessary. For instance, you can use item decay to make raiding more important because your items decay as you raid, meaning you have to raid some more to replace the items before moving on to harder content. Making a game better or more involved requires a whole series of mechanics all working together to create a single experience for a game.
    Really, really wish this site had an upvote feature.

     

    If people understood this, there would be a lot better discussions going on on this site.


    Not sure about other countries, but I suspect it's a cultural bias in the U.S. "If we could only fix this one thing, then everything else would be better." It's probably because all our movies and television shows have one bad guy that gets killed and the entire world gets better as a result.

    When you're talking about complex software, fixing "this one thing" almost never works. MMOs are definitely complex software systems.

    Anyway, thanks. :-)

     

    That is a great point.

    Most people in this country (USA) point and scream at one thing like it is going to fix everything. Tax the rich! That'll fix everything! No, not it won't. Take away assault rifles, that'll fix everything! No, no it won't. etc. etc.

    My favorite - "Just balance the budget! Stop spending more than you take in!" They make it sound so easy. They have no idea what kind of country that would look like.

    I don't think the vast majority of people on this planet are capable of critical thinking and understanding complex systems at any kind of logical level.

  • adam_noxadam_nox Member UncommonPosts: 2,148
    To say its not the answer to all problems is to implicitly make a strawman argument. I never said magic bullet. Learn some reasoning phrases. SMH
  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247
    Originally posted by adam_nox
    To say its not the answer to all problems is to implicitly make a strawman argument. I never said magic bullet. Learn some reasoning phrases. SMH

    "Do you want crafting to play an important role in an mmo?

     Do you want to be able to give items to your friends?

     Do you want your mmo to have a functioning economy?

     If you answered yes to all three (or maybe just 2), then there is only one solution.  Item Decay."

     

    You did, however, say that if you want 3 or even just two of the items on the list you gave, there is only one solution.

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
    "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre

  • YizleYizle Member Posts: 517
    Originally posted by Loktofeit
    Originally posted by adam_nox
    To say its not the answer to all problems is to implicitly make a strawman argument. I never said magic bullet. Learn some reasoning phrases. SMH

    "Do you want crafting to play an important role in an mmo?

     Do you want to be able to give items to your friends?

     Do you want your mmo to have a functioning economy?

     If you answered yes to all three (or maybe just 2), then there is only one solution.  Item Decay."

     

    You did, however, say that if you want 3 or even just two of the items on the list you gave, there is only one solution.

    The funny part of this whole topic is the OP is completely wrong. Only the 1st one would be changed by his supposed item decay change. I am glad he is full of himself though.

    In MMOs I give crafted gear to my friends quite often. Actually yesterday gave out 2 sets of armor to a friend and a bunch of bags to our guild. And our economy is fully functioning as I just made a few 100pp off my broker.

  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
    Originally posted by Loktofeit
    Originally posted by Iselin
    Originally posted by Loktofeit
    Originally posted by Iselin

    MMOs are about fighting the bad guys. Sometimes alone, sometimes in groups of varying sizes, sometimes here and sometimes there...that's it

    Everything else... crafting, buying and selling, cooking, fishing, building and outfitting houses...those are just side activities that, at best, can support the "fighting the bad guys" part and at worst are just time-sinks to keep you from looking too closely at the defficiencies in the core gameplay.

    The EQ/WOW design is one way to build an MMO, not the only way.

     Technically, you're correct. World of Ping-Pong is yeat another way...you could even craft your own decaying paddles. image

    You really don't know that MMOs outside of the EQ/WOW formula exist? Really? Here are a few.

    • ATITD
    • Tales Runner
    • Project Powder
    • Crazy Kart
    • Free Realms
    • Gaia Online
    • IMVU
    • Muxlim
    • HKO
    • Furcadia
    • OnVerse
    • Red Light Center
    • Sociolotron
    • Garden Party World
    • vMTV
    • Kaneva
    • Second Life
    • There
    • Habbo Hotel

     

     

    There's a difference between knowing and not giving a shit. Some people enjoy collecting shovels...good for them!

    There's a real problem when the secondary, optional parts of MMORPGs become the dominant topic for discussion...a phenomenom seen here every day.

    And then there is the seemingly egalitarian philosophy of this and many other discussion forums of including everything that remotely resembles an MMORPG due to having an online component in the description.

    Btw, that's quite the lists of time-wasters I would never willingly have anything to do with you have there.

    I play MMOs to adventure, explore, kill and loot. In real life I fish, cook and even do a bit of leather crafting. I want to simulate that in an MMO about as much as I want to simulate actuarial risk assesments there.

    "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”

    ― Umberto Eco

    “Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” 
    ― CD PROJEKT RED

  • MajorBiggsMajorBiggs Member UncommonPosts: 709

    I think all of us are getting a bit too big-headed. I stopped coming to mmorpg.com and even posting in general due to the insignificance of starting a discussion in the first place.

    We all have our opinion on what a MMORPG should be (KEYfuckingWORD "a mmorpg", not all of them). An opinion on how realistic the economy should be, how it will churn and work like SWG, UO, EQ, RYZOM (people have forgotten this one). Maybe a mmo's community could be able to come  up with something like in PoE, AC, Bonetown, whatever...their own currency style. Maybe the devs want the economy somewhat enclosed like how most themeparks are today (not saying that's bad either okay?)

    Maybe. JUST MAYBE.......We could discuss this with a bit more weight than we currently are. Half of us are  posting with our heads up our asses and the other half seem to want to say "hey how bout this idea, hey wuts ur idea? eh not bad it sounds like a solid concept. not my cup of tea but ok". A DISCUSSION.

    We are talking about Item decay (or the worth of items in an mmo) which is a game mechanic.  To say whether it is boring/stupid/crafting is homosexuality with an anvil is shoving your head in the ground and acting like an emu.

    ----

    Most of us here can agree that something is terribly off on how MMORPGs are being developed and handled nowadays. To say "well the market is changing so thats whats made" is basically saying "ya well wut u gonna do bout it"  Well fuck you, we're trying to help developers with what alot of us want. Okay maybe not want, but just freaking consider something different since we cry for something different all the damn time.

  • BanaghranBanaghran Member Posts: 869
    Originally posted by Iselin

    There's a difference between knowing and not giving a shit. Some people enjoy collecting shovels...good for them!

    There's a real problem when the secondary, optional parts of MMORPGs become the dominant topic for discussion...a phenomenom seen here every day.

    And then there is the seemingly egalitarian philosophy of this and many other discussion forums of including everything that remotely resembles an MMORPG due to having an online component in the description.

    Btw, that's quite the lists of time-wasters I would never willingly have anything to do with you have there.

    I play MMOs to adventure, explore, kill and loot. In real life I fish, cook and even do a bit of leather crafting. I want to simulate that in an MMO about as much as I want to simulate actuarial risk assesments there.

    Why should your reasons to play a mmorpg mean more than mine? Because they are shared by the arcade mob that plays these games by accident? The populist shouting "catch the egalitarian!!!" ? :)

    Flame on!

    :)

     

  • MegatronicMegatronic Member Posts: 35
    Originally posted by MajorBiggs

    I think all of us are getting a bit too big-headed. I stopped coming to mmorpg.com and even posting in general due to the insignificance of starting a discussion in the first place.

    We all have our opinion on what a MMORPG should be (KEYfuckingWORD "a mmorpg", not all of them). An opinion on how realistic the economy should be, how it will churn and work like SWG, UO, EQ, RYZOM (people have forgotten this one). Maybe a mmo's community could be able to come  up with something like in PoE, AC, Bonetown, whatever...their own currency style. Maybe the devs want the economy somewhat enclosed like how most themeparks are today (not saying that's bad either okay?)

    Maybe. JUST MAYBE.......We could discuss this with a bit more weight than we currently are. Half of us are  posting with our heads up our asses and the other half seem to want to say "hey how bout this idea, hey wuts ur idea? eh not bad it sounds like a solid concept. not my cup of tea but ok". A DISCUSSION.

    We are talking about Item decay (or the worth of items in an mmo) which is a game mechanic.  To say whether it is boring/stupid/crafting is homosexuality with an anvil is shoving your head in the ground and acting like an emu.

    ----

    Most of us here can agree that something is terribly off on how MMORPGs are being developed and handled nowadays. To say "well the market is changing so thats whats made" is basically saying "ya well wut u gonna do bout it"  Well fuck you, we're trying to help developers with what alot of us want. Okay maybe not want, but just freaking consider something different since we cry for something different all the damn time.

    Damn straight!

  • troublmakertroublmaker Member Posts: 337

    There's only so much item decay that will work and so much that will not.  Item decay will work in games like DayZ and DOTA2 because you can purchase new items and you don't exactly have a lot of items anyway.

    The idea that you have to regularly replace 20 item slots does not entice people.  Generally speaking crafters end up being pretty powerful in games like World of Warcraft.  Since gear is so easy to get it becomes those enchants, gems, leg stitchings, and whatever other thing they've come up with in the mean time that are in high demand.

    I can't really remember a time when professions were more important than they currently are... and I raided in vanilla.  If I remember correctly the only "real profession" in vanilla WoW was.... alchemy.  All the other professions went to the wayside.  Blacksmithing had it's cool legendaries but only if you are a weaponsmaster!  The remainder of the profs were useless junk (except enchanting).

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by Banaghran
    Originally posted by Iselin

    There's a difference between knowing and not giving a shit. Some people enjoy collecting shovels...good for them!

    There's a real problem when the secondary, optional parts of MMORPGs become the dominant topic for discussion...a phenomenom seen here every day.

    And then there is the seemingly egalitarian philosophy of this and many other discussion forums of including everything that remotely resembles an MMORPG due to having an online component in the description.

    Btw, that's quite the lists of time-wasters I would never willingly have anything to do with you have there.

    I play MMOs to adventure, explore, kill and loot. In real life I fish, cook and even do a bit of leather crafting. I want to simulate that in an MMO about as much as I want to simulate actuarial risk assesments there.

    Why should your reasons to play a mmorpg mean more than mine? Because they are shared by the arcade mob that plays these games by accident? The populist shouting "catch the egalitarian!!!" ? :)

    Flame on!

    :)

     

    Did he say that? He is just stating his preference. And at the same time, your reasons do not mean more than his or mine. Not in a fundamental way.

    And the market decide which demand is filled depending where the money is.

  • BanaghranBanaghran Member Posts: 869
    Originally posted by nariusseldon
    Originally posted by Banaghran
    Originally posted by Iselin

    There's a difference between knowing and not giving a shit. Some people enjoy collecting shovels...good for them!

    There's a real problem when the secondary, optional parts of MMORPGs become the dominant topic for discussion...a phenomenom seen here every day.

    And then there is the seemingly egalitarian philosophy of this and many other discussion forums of including everything that remotely resembles an MMORPG due to having an online component in the description.

    Btw, that's quite the lists of time-wasters I would never willingly have anything to do with you have there.

    I play MMOs to adventure, explore, kill and loot. In real life I fish, cook and even do a bit of leather crafting. I want to simulate that in an MMO about as much as I want to simulate actuarial risk assesments there.

    Why should your reasons to play a mmorpg mean more than mine? Because they are shared by the arcade mob that plays these games by accident? The populist shouting "catch the egalitarian!!!" ? :)

    Flame on!

    :)

     

    Did he say that? He is just stating his preference. And at the same time, your reasons do not mean more than his or mine. Not in a fundamental way.

    And the market decide which demand is filled depending where the money is.

    Yes, he did say that, he called ingame economy and other areas secondary, optional and not worth discussing, hinting that if something does not focus on the things he likes, it is not an mmo, bad or a time waster.

    (And he may clarify that at any time and i will stand corrected if that is not the case.)

    There is the difference, you are usually more carefull.

    Flame on!

    :)

  • Dexter2010Dexter2010 Member UncommonPosts: 244
    Originally posted by adam_nox

    Do you want crafting to play an important role in an mmo?

    Do you want to be able to give items to your friends?

    Do you want your mmo to have a functioning economy?

     

    If you answered yes to all three (or maybe just 2), then there is only one solution.  Item Decay.  Now just hold that rage inside for a moment.   I know the thought of losing your epic purples from use might seem distasteful at first, but please consider a couple things.

     

    1.  In most modern mmo's crafting has lost most it's significance.  Blizzard has in two different games introduced special items that you can craft, but if you don't care about them, then there's no point to crafting except something to do.

     Crafting can potentially decrease raid grinding and rolling against 39 other players.

    2.  Similarly, we now have the concept of soulbinding, where we cannot freely trade or gift items around.  Even if in practice it doesn't infuriate you, how do we tolerate something that makes so little sense?  Oh yeah...

     Great! you gave me a sword that will dull and break before reaching the boss. - Not all epics are bind on pickup. Will people be so charitable and make such gifts with their gear breaking?

    3.  Economic inflation.  As more and more gear floods the economy, currencies crumble and gear acquisition and ownership become pointless. 

     It's pointless to grind raids weekly AND roll against 25 people (some of which are friends) for another Masamune because yours has degraded by 15%. Who goes into boss fights with 85% power? It's redundant to hoard 4 Excaliburs (aren't they unique?) just because they'll all break. Will you share your guildies's joy when they roll against you and win a 4th Gungnir and you have none?

    Unfortunately, the bandaid of soulbinding hasn't fixed the issue, while it creates it's own problems.  Now let me sell you on Item Decay.  First off, in at least WoW, you don't keep the same gear because blizzard releases new expansions that raise the cap and introduce new epic tiers, thus creating a gear treadmill that can lead only to OVER 9000 syndome.  You become more powerful, enemies match you, doesn't it all get a little old?

     It gets more old to collect one item 10 times then enchant it 10 times. Imagine killing Ultimate Evil 10 times over 10 weeks to get 10 Essences to forge 1 Godly Weapon but it disappears after 20 melee swings. With decay, I'd say: "I won X last week, why am I here for it again this week? What if I don't get it??" It's better to grind new content for new gear than the same content for duplicates. Why are you fostering hoarding? Devs have to release new content anyway because sameness breeds boredom. Grinding for duplicates is also a treadmill. You can still run this treadmill without gear degredation.

    Secondly, do you really want to wear the same gear month after month, year after year? 

    Yes, if it's the best. But you won't have to due to new content being released. With decay, you're still wearing the same thing, just literally crappier every week or an identical duplicate of it.

    With Item Decay, acquiring backup weapons and gear becomes interesting and necessary, and your game experience becomes more varied as you switch things up.

     How does your statement make sense? Acquiring backup weapons and gear is not interesting. How is your game experience more varied and what are you switching up by repeating the same content for duplicates? Great, my limited inventory space just became premium.

    This can also alleviate a little bit of gear stingyness on the part of devs who want people to keep playing, and are afraid once they have the gear from a dungeon that it will no longer appeal to them. 

    So people will quit due to repetition and that rares aren't rare. Are you suggesting that devs can keep players without delivering new content?

    For crafting, some kind of reverse engineering process can help crafters put together weapons and armor that mimics the power of that found in dungeons, and better yet, custom made with the stats and effects the player wants.  A penalty to this might be a faster decay rate.

     So you want the same but have it not the same? What the.....? Yes! Allow me to gather rare and expensive mats to forge an epic One Hit Chestplate! Allow me to state the obvious, two helms with different stats are considered different helms. What you seek is WoW's transmog system.

    You could also modify soulbinding to attunement, where once a weapon has been used (or picked up in some cases) for the first time, it's attuned to that owner, and suffers half the normal decay rate (which would be somewhat fast).  So tossing used items at friends won't be quite as good as finding it themselves.

     So you want unused backup gear from my inventory to decay twice as fast as the gear that gets bashed on my chest? What will i use When my equipped axe breaks? When a friend gives me rapidly deteriorating gear, I'll tell them to keep their garbage. Why are items soulbound when your decay system is supposed to facilitate gear sharing?

    If you don't want to forget about that time you had that great weapon with super rare stats, when it's become unusable, it could go up in some sort of trophy room.

    Why? You'll grind for a new one weekly. You'll find yourself shouting with glee as you slaughter demons with a mundane toothpick on accont of Epic Sword not dropping again; but at least the broken version reminds you of good times as it takes up space in your Hall of Fail Gear. .People will keep decaying, backup, and broken gear because it's more fun to look at than wield.

    Your post contains no discernable logic.

  • gamesrfungamesrfun Member Posts: 127

    Obviously item decay should be a key component of any deep MMO.

    As you can see half the people here don't want a deep MMO.

    I'm more than happy to play in a deeper sandbox world.  But what you want is a sandbox feature, and sandbox non-treadmill ideas are scary to many developers.

    Just like looking at Neverwinter Nights beta.  What a POS.  Lol.  Just the same old crap for the last decade.

     

     

  • YizleYizle Member Posts: 517
    Originally posted by Dexter2010
    Originally posted by adam_nox

    Do you want crafting to play an important role in an mmo?

    Do you want to be able to give items to your friends?

    Do you want your mmo to have a functioning economy?

     

    If you answered yes to all three (or maybe just 2), then there is only one solution.  Item Decay.  Now just hold that rage inside for a moment.   I know the thought of losing your epic purples from use might seem distasteful at first, but please consider a couple things.

     

    1.  In most modern mmo's crafting has lost most it's significance.  Blizzard has in two different games introduced special items that you can craft, but if you don't care about them, then there's no point to crafting except something to do.

     Crafting can potentially decrease raid grinding and rolling against 39 other players.

    2.  Similarly, we now have the concept of soulbinding, where we cannot freely trade or gift items around.  Even if in practice it doesn't infuriate you, how do we tolerate something that makes so little sense?  Oh yeah...

     Great! you gave me a sword that will dull and break before reaching the boss. - Not all epics are bind on pickup. Will people be so charitable and make such gifts with their gear breaking?

    3.  Economic inflation.  As more and more gear floods the economy, currencies crumble and gear acquisition and ownership become pointless. 

     It's pointless to grind raids weekly AND roll against 25 people (some of which are friends) for another Masamune because yours has degraded by 15%. Who goes into boss fights with 85% power? It's redundant to hoard 4 Excaliburs (aren't they unique?) just because they'll all break. Will you share your guildies's joy when they roll against you and win a 4th Gungnir and you have none?

    Unfortunately, the bandaid of soulbinding hasn't fixed the issue, while it creates it's own problems.  Now let me sell you on Item Decay.  First off, in at least WoW, you don't keep the same gear because blizzard releases new expansions that raise the cap and introduce new epic tiers, thus creating a gear treadmill that can lead only to OVER 9000 syndome.  You become more powerful, enemies match you, doesn't it all get a little old?

     It gets more old to collect one item 10 times then enchant it 10 times. Imagine killing Ultimate Evil 10 times over 10 weeks to get 10 Essences to forge 1 Godly Weapon but it disappears after 20 melee swings. With decay, I'd say: "I won X last week, why am I here for it again this week? What if I don't get it??" It's better to grind new content for new gear than the same content for duplicates. Why are you fostering hoarding? Devs have to release new content anyway because sameness breeds boredom. Grinding for duplicates is also a treadmill. You can still run this treadmill without gear degredation.

    Secondly, do you really want to wear the same gear month after month, year after year? 

    Yes, if it's the best. But you won't have to due to new content being released. With decay, you're still wearing the same thing, just literally crappier every week or an identical duplicate of it.

    With Item Decay, acquiring backup weapons and gear becomes interesting and necessary, and your game experience becomes more varied as you switch things up.

     How does your statement make sense? Acquiring backup weapons and gear is not interesting. How is your game experience more varied and what are you switching up by repeating the same content for duplicates? Great, my limited inventory space just became premium.

    This can also alleviate a little bit of gear stingyness on the part of devs who want people to keep playing, and are afraid once they have the gear from a dungeon that it will no longer appeal to them. 

    So people will quit due to repetition and that rares aren't rare. Are you suggesting that devs can keep players without delivering new content?

    For crafting, some kind of reverse engineering process can help crafters put together weapons and armor that mimics the power of that found in dungeons, and better yet, custom made with the stats and effects the player wants.  A penalty to this might be a faster decay rate.

     So you want the same but have it not the same? What the.....? Yes! Allow me to gather rare and expensive mats to forge an epic One Hit Chestplate! Allow me to state the obvious, two helms with different stats are considered different helms. What you seek is WoW's transmog system.

    You could also modify soulbinding to attunement, where once a weapon has been used (or picked up in some cases) for the first time, it's attuned to that owner, and suffers half the normal decay rate (which would be somewhat fast).  So tossing used items at friends won't be quite as good as finding it themselves.

     So you want unused backup gear from my inventory to decay twice as fast as the gear that gets bashed on my chest? What will i use When my equipped axe breaks? When a friend gives me rapidly deteriorating gear, I'll tell them to keep their garbage. Why are items soulbound when your decay system is supposed to facilitat gear sharing?

    If you don't want to forget about that time you had that great weapon with super rare stats, when it's become unusable, it could go up in some sort of trophy room.

    Why? You'll grind for a new one weekly. You'll find yourself shouting with glee as you slaughter demons with a mundane toothpick on accont of Epic Sword not dropping again; but at least the broken version reminds you of good times as it takes up space in your Hall of Fail Gear. .People will keep decaying, backup, and broken gear because it's more fun to look at than wield.

    Your post contains no discernable logic.

    QFT

  • SuperNickSuperNick Member UncommonPosts: 460

    You made a good post - it's well thought out and has always been a grand idea in theory.

    The reality of it is (SWG was the first to attempt it if I recall) is the system quickly becomes an unbelievable annoyance. You ended up putting your good items away so they didn't decay and using lesser stuff, thus circumventing the entire system at your own expense. When you did use your items, yeah, you eventually lost them.

    It irritated on a few levels:

    1. You felt like you were constantly wasting your time hunting the SAME items. Not upgrades, the same ones.
    2. You felt relegated to lesser gear to protect your 'good' stuff.
    I couldn't tell you another solution as i'm not a designer but yeah I agree crafting has taken a real nosedive in MMOs these days.
  • YizleYizle Member Posts: 517
    Originally posted by SuperNick

    You made a good post - it's well thought out and has always been a grand idea in theory.

    The reality of it is (SWG was the first to attempt it if I recall) is the system quickly becomes an unbelievable annoyance. You ended up putting your good items away so they didn't decay and using lesser stuff, thus circumventing the entire system at your own expense. When you did use your items, yeah, you eventually lost them.

    It irritated on a few levels:

    1. You felt like you were constantly wasting your time hunting the SAME items. Not upgrades, the same ones.
    2. You felt relegated to lesser gear to protect your 'good' stuff.
    I couldn't tell you another solution as i'm not a designer but yeah I agree crafting has taken a real nosedive in MMOs these days.

    Actually UO and SB both had item decay.

    UO when you repaired an item it would lose some of its max durability. SB also had durability on your gear so if you died too much before getting it repaired it was gone.

  • craftseekercraftseeker Member RarePosts: 1,740
    Originally posted by SuperNick

    You made a good post - it's well thought out and has always been a grand idea in theory.

    The reality of it is (SWG was the first to attempt it if I recall) is the system quickly becomes an unbelievable annoyance. You ended up putting your good items away so they didn't decay and using lesser stuff, thus circumventing the entire system at your own expense. When you did use your items, yeah, you eventually lost them.

    It irritated on a few levels:

    1. You felt like you were constantly wasting your time hunting the SAME items. Not upgrades, the same ones.
    2. You felt relegated to lesser gear to protect your 'good' stuff.
    I couldn't tell you another solution as i'm not a designer but yeah I agree crafting has taken a real nosedive in MMOs these days.

    While I never felt this, and in fact like the idea of Item Decay, you have to recognise it is not going to happen.  Too many people would scream and stamp there feet about it.  As a consequence the developer would either abandon the idea or pretty soon the game would be reduced to a slowly dying niche game.

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by gamesrfun

    Obviously item decay should be a key component of any deep MMO.

    As you can see half the people here don't want a deep MMO.

    I'm more than happy to play in a deeper sandbox world.  But what you want is a sandbox feature, and sandbox non-treadmill ideas are scary to many developers.

    Just like looking at Neverwinter Nights beta.  What a POS.  Lol.  Just the same old crap for the last decade.

     

     

    Obviously LFD should be  key component of any fun MMO.

    As you can see half the people here don't want a fun MMO.

    ... Gosh .. see the issue ... assertation based totally on your opinion. Item decay should not be a key component of anything.

  • GhavriggGhavrigg Member RarePosts: 1,308
    Originally posted by Dexter2010
    Originally posted by adam_nox

    Do you want crafting to play an important role in an mmo?

    Do you want to be able to give items to your friends?

    Do you want your mmo to have a functioning economy?

     

    If you answered yes to all three (or maybe just 2), then there is only one solution.  Item Decay.  Now just hold that rage inside for a moment.   I know the thought of losing your epic purples from use might seem distasteful at first, but please consider a couple things.

     

    1.  In most modern mmo's crafting has lost most it's significance.  Blizzard has in two different games introduced special items that you can craft, but if you don't care about them, then there's no point to crafting except something to do.

     Crafting can potentially decrease raid grinding and rolling against 39 other players.

    2.  Similarly, we now have the concept of soulbinding, where we cannot freely trade or gift items around.  Even if in practice it doesn't infuriate you, how do we tolerate something that makes so little sense?  Oh yeah...

     Great! you gave me a sword that will dull and break before reaching the boss. - Not all epics are bind on pickup. Will people be so charitable and make such gifts with their gear breaking?

    3.  Economic inflation.  As more and more gear floods the economy, currencies crumble and gear acquisition and ownership become pointless. 

     It's pointless to grind raids weekly AND roll against 25 people (some of which are friends) for another Masamune because yours has degraded by 15%. Who goes into boss fights with 85% power? It's redundant to hoard 4 Excaliburs (aren't they unique?) just because they'll all break. Will you share your guildies's joy when they roll against you and win a 4th Gungnir and you have none?

    Unfortunately, the bandaid of soulbinding hasn't fixed the issue, while it creates it's own problems.  Now let me sell you on Item Decay.  First off, in at least WoW, you don't keep the same gear because blizzard releases new expansions that raise the cap and introduce new epic tiers, thus creating a gear treadmill that can lead only to OVER 9000 syndome.  You become more powerful, enemies match you, doesn't it all get a little old?

     It gets more old to collect one item 10 times then enchant it 10 times. Imagine killing Ultimate Evil 10 times over 10 weeks to get 10 Essences to forge 1 Godly Weapon but it disappears after 20 melee swings. With decay, I'd say: "I won X last week, why am I here for it again this week? What if I don't get it??" It's better to grind new content for new gear than the same content for duplicates. Why are you fostering hoarding? Devs have to release new content anyway because sameness breeds boredom. Grinding for duplicates is also a treadmill. You can still run this treadmill without gear degredation.

    Secondly, do you really want to wear the same gear month after month, year after year? 

    Yes, if it's the best. But you won't have to due to new content being released. With decay, you're still wearing the same thing, just literally crappier every week or an identical duplicate of it.

    With Item Decay, acquiring backup weapons and gear becomes interesting and necessary, and your game experience becomes more varied as you switch things up.

     How does your statement make sense? Acquiring backup weapons and gear is not interesting. How is your game experience more varied and what are you switching up by repeating the same content for duplicates? Great, my limited inventory space just became premium.

    This can also alleviate a little bit of gear stingyness on the part of devs who want people to keep playing, and are afraid once they have the gear from a dungeon that it will no longer appeal to them. 

    So people will quit due to repetition and that rares aren't rare. Are you suggesting that devs can keep players without delivering new content?

    For crafting, some kind of reverse engineering process can help crafters put together weapons and armor that mimics the power of that found in dungeons, and better yet, custom made with the stats and effects the player wants.  A penalty to this might be a faster decay rate.

     So you want the same but have it not the same? What the.....? Yes! Allow me to gather rare and expensive mats to forge an epic One Hit Chestplate! Allow me to state the obvious, two helms with different stats are considered different helms. What you seek is WoW's transmog system.

    You could also modify soulbinding to attunement, where once a weapon has been used (or picked up in some cases) for the first time, it's attuned to that owner, and suffers half the normal decay rate (which would be somewhat fast).  So tossing used items at friends won't be quite as good as finding it themselves.

     So you want unused backup gear from my inventory to decay twice as fast as the gear that gets bashed on my chest? What will i use When my equipped axe breaks? When a friend gives me rapidly deteriorating gear, I'll tell them to keep their garbage. Why are items soulbound when your decay system is supposed to facilitate gear sharing?

    If you don't want to forget about that time you had that great weapon with super rare stats, when it's become unusable, it could go up in some sort of trophy room.

    Why? You'll grind for a new one weekly. You'll find yourself shouting with glee as you slaughter demons with a mundane toothpick on accont of Epic Sword not dropping again; but at least the broken version reminds you of good times as it takes up space in your Hall of Fail Gear. .People will keep decaying, backup, and broken gear because it's more fun to look at than wield.

    Your post contains no discernable logic.

    +1

    I like your style, Dexter.

  • MajorBiggsMajorBiggs Member UncommonPosts: 709
    Originally posted by nariusseldon
    Originally posted by gamesrfun

    Obviously item decay should be a key component of any deep MMO.

    As you can see half the people here don't want a deep MMO.

    I'm more than happy to play in a deeper sandbox world.  But what you want is a sandbox feature, and sandbox non-treadmill ideas are scary to many developers.

    Just like looking at Neverwinter Nights beta.  What a POS.  Lol.  Just the same old crap for the last decade.

     

     

    Obviously LFD should be  key component of any fun MMO.

    As you can see half the people here don't want a fun MMO.

    ... Gosh .. see the issue ... assertation based totally on your opinion. Item decay should not be a key component of anything.

    ouch sick burn! i think you may have won the thread! 

    yeah sure, lets just settle with item decay not being even a component , and uh lets go get some heroin and some new WoW games er EQ games shit uhh themepark! Themepark was the word i was looking for. Nm, i think the word was 'crap'.

    Thank god fun isnt subjective at all and is something that everyone can measure. Like beauty. Or their rectum size - which seems to be a pretty popular thing so it must be good!

  • AdamantineAdamantine Member RarePosts: 5,085

    First of all, you do NOT need a good economy in games, not even MMOs. Its nice to have, certainly - but its a feature, not a requirement. Plenty of games have a screwed up economies and yet they are still fun.

     

    Second, there are three mechanisms I know of to assert people need new items:

    - Item Decay. You use an item, it starts an counter. Once you reach zero, byebye. A typical case of treadmil gaming - you have to work to stay at the same point. The only way to have this kind of mechanism is if you have really shallow kinds of crafting - i.e. quick and fast and dirty - and items arent too powerful.

    - Soulbound. Now this is the same in the end, but you can play one and the same character without end. The appropiate mechanism for quest rewards. Otherwise, highly annoying for people who love playing many characters, but completely neutral to people who only ever play one character.

    - Overenchanting. This is definitely my favorite. You can craft items, and you can improve them endlessly - but every time you do, there is a chance of breaking the item. Players with excess items will simply try to enchant them, thus thining the market. Also, you can get better and better with your equipment, without limitations.

    So in the sum, item decay is the worst mechanism. It makes elaborate crafting impossible and it makes powerful items impossible. Overenchanting is the best, its an already eloborate form of crafting in itself.

     

    Third of all, there are three things that are absolute no-gos for me:

    - Pay to win

    - First person perspective

    - Item decay

    If you have any of these "features", well you wont get me as a player, end of story.

     

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