Item Decay

Arawulf

The first in-game screenshot was released yesterday along with the announcement of the Centaur Legionnaire being a playable archetype.

Besides finally getting a look at the in-game environment, something else strikes me as interesting: that armor looks damaged. Could we be getting a look at the visual representation of item decay?

Notice the visible damage on the chest/shoulder plates. In a player-driven economy where crafting is of paramount importance, item decay and need for replacement would keep the economy moving along and maintain the need for quality crafters. 

Plenty of games have item decay that can be repaired for coin, but what if it wasn't quite so easy to patch up that chestplate and over time it needed to be replaced? I'm not suggesting that's what's happening in Crowfall, but it's interesting to think about.

Do you see item decay as something good for the in-game economy? I'm curious as to what others think here. I personally think the idea that gear, much like in RL, needs to be replaced due to wear and tear.

 

Varex12

Not sure that's any indication of item decay.  Could just be the dev team going for realism in their game.  However, since Ralph Koster is involved in this game, I suppose it's a possibility we might see that.  Not real familiar with SWG, but didn't that have item decay?  

Anyway, not sure how I feel about item decay.  Guess it would be great for the economy of a game, but seems like an awful lot of maintenance.  I guess it depends on how quickly gear decays and how the system is implemented.  

achesoma

Originally posted by Varex12

Not sure that's any indication of item decay.  Could just be the dev team going for realism in their game.  However, since Ralph Koster is involved in this game, I suppose it's a possibility we might see that.  Not real familiar with SWG, but didn't that have item decay?  

Anyway, not sure how I feel about item decay.  Guess it would be great for the economy of a game, but seems like an awful lot of maintenance.  I guess it depends on how quickly gear decays and how the system is implemented.  

Yeah, SWG had item decay(pre-nge) but didn't have any visual effects.  I'd be very surprised if CF didn't have decay.  It's not all that scary in a crafter-based economy like it would be in an RNG loot-driven game.  Like in SWG, gear didn't brake quickly(as long as not dieing repeatedly) and it could be potentially repaired a few times before it did brake.  Also, gear was much more attainable and most always had a back up set.

Reticulata

Lack of decay destroys economies and crafting.

Ilaya

Hopefully Item Decay comes back here !!! Glad to see that. Back in SWG that worked so good!!! You actually had to take care of your Equip and Mats ofc. The whole Crafter thing was so awesome. I remember that sometimes it took hrs and up to days to get the "right" stuff for crafting.

 

And not that alone. I remember also that we had some rly nice stuff going on when it came to community, or better said, the relationship between a crafter and crafting mats collectors. Haggeling about prices and such. That was....ah man.....just to good. It was a "Game inside the Game" for itself.

 

From my perspective it was by far more intensive in regards of community building like everything else nowadays. If Crowfall can bring that back, i'm soooo Sold!

SpottyGekko

The reason item decay was consigned to the annals of History is that the majority of players don't really like too much simulation in their games. Decay was considered "tedious" and is a real problem in a loot-based game where the RNG rolls determine what you get.

 

SWG originally had a very interesting decay system. The decay of an item could be repaired, but never restored to its original state. Decay was tracked via the "Durability" stat. If the Durability dropped below 90%, the item could only ever be repaired to a Durability of 90%. That means that you could greatly extend the lifespan of an item via proper care and maintenance, but eventually the item would reach 0 Durability and only be useful as a wall decoration.

 

Many players didn't like the SWG decay system though, because it wasn't "fun" to have to carry around a stack of Repair Kits AND remember to apply them at the right time. And with most of SWG's competitors moving away from decay systems, it was removed from SWG as well during the NGE (iirc).

BahamutKaiser

I like the idea, but as Spotty says. it can't be too tedious.

Perhaps if they made a variety of maintenance methods, like adequate income or looting to replace your gear frequently, or make the process simple and unnoticeable.

Personally, I feel loot and equipment shouldn't play a drastic part of a character's power no matter how high end it is. Especially in a competitive game, players can not really engage competition freely if there is undesirable maintenance cost weighing on them, further irritating the difficulty of your initial preparation to compete in an MMO setting.

If gear offers a meaningful difference in combat, but isn't essential, and it's not painstaking to replace and maintain gear, than decay isn't as scary as it implies.

Given the expectation of a crafting rich game with little emphasis on raiding bosses for loot, I think it could fit just fine.

xMyth1

I see it necessary also related to crafting. 

Here is the new Fae Assassin - I really like the art style. 

Pemmin

well we know the game has item decay....its listed in the rule sets as one of the death penalties. the question is on how they handle repairing or removal of the items.

Bladestrom

Eso has decay and it works brilliantly. Visual decay, now that would be worthy of a next gen label.

andre369

Originally posted by Bladestrom
Eso has decay and it works brilliantly. Visual decay, now that would be worthy of a next gen label.

How does spending a few hours and some money on some armor skins in different states really qualify as next gen? Is this really all we expect from "next gen"? 

Lets not start start using the term next gen in this way please. Next gen, resembles some real progress, not "just spending more money on the making of armor skins". 

 

Bladestrom

Uhu, are you a graphic designer? do you never wonder why games don't have thousands of different high quality styles, do you wonder what the cost of that would be if you had to design each style with different levels of dmg in different locations. there's a reason why it hasn't been done well to date.