Durability in games like this is pretty much used for RP purposes, aka, making your player feel like their gear has value and can be broken, which immerses them in the experience and their own story in their head.
Free mobile repairs break this immersion. If there will be mobile repairs, it should:
-require materials based on the weapon
-require skill points in either a "repair" skill, or if you're going full on crafting (blacksmithing, bowmaking, yadayada) it should require the skill for making the weapon they want to repair.
-and the repair hammer item should be removed, repairing should be something anyone with the skill can do at any point if they have the materials.
if the mobile repairs are changed this way, there should be a reliable blacksmith (Nebora) who can repair your equipment, the cost being based on the level/rarity of the item and the durability missing.
Basically repairs should always take something the player cares about if they are going to be in the game. Players don't care about random hammers or tongs, they care about money and their skill points. Removing durability is always an option, but just changing it to have more impact will work just as well. It's not that players hate durability they just hate that it has no impact.
So much this XD
I want it to have impact. I want the system to be more expansive so it effects more things. I want players to actually consider as more than just a foot note to ignore till they have to go through the tedious process of fixing gear one by one for no good reason than to do it.
Which is why the above suggestion on Identify and Repair items having 'charges' and your idea and 'identify all' and stuff are all good in my mind
Just to repeat my suggestions/thoughts so they're not buried in the thread:
Lots of people have been asking for either its entire removal or some changes in how it works. People also seem to dislike the idea that upkeep would ever be forced onto them and that using an infinitely usable repair item to repair items is simple tedious and "un-fun."
In the vain of solving this, while keeping the system, I offer a few changes:
> Add a repair all button that uses up repair items in inventory
> Make hammers and tongs consumables
> Make repairing require some points in blacksmithing/crafting and the amount of durability returned per consumable dependent on ability level(s)
> Add in skills/actions that target item durability (ie Sunder from D&D)
> Allow players to deconstruct/recycle components from items for crafting/blacksmithing using repair items. The value of the items obtained dependent on crafting/blacksmithing levels
> An item reaching zero durability is only unusable for a couple turns in combat before regenerating small amount
> A "break" action to tell PCs to auto target a door, chest, etc... till the item is broken without forcing players to repeatedly click
> Reward players for gear upkeep**
**Expanding on The Reward System:
- Example 1: A well maintained sword gains a status effect like 'keen edge' which adds +2 to hit. Items with a keen edge can be poisoned and have other effects added to them. In contrast a poorly maintained sword can't have effects added but hits as per normal.
- Example 2: An armour set kept in top condition adds +10 to armour rating and +1 to intimidation rating in conversations.
- The benefits would vary by weapon or armour type and would go away once durability fell below a percentage (ie 75%).
The above reward and recycle/deconstruction systems are courtesy of BlueGuy and the rest is an amalgamation from a number of users on the forums.
A suggestion using RNG instead of durability 'health bar':
Make items unrepairable (but material salvageable).
light door vs cheap sword: 50% door breaks or 50 %sword breaks
light door vs expensive sword: 90% door breaks 10% sword breaks (everything salvageable)
strong door vs cheap sword: 10% door breaks 90% sword breaks (destroying some sword materials/ gems)
strong door vs expensive sword: 50% door breaks or 50%sword breaks (loose one gem)
-> having the chance that you have to rebuild your sword when attempting to break a door (and loosing a gem)-> gold or good crafting
Some more input on the '___ All' buttons:
1) Loremaster/Identify overhaul
The current click-intensive system is extremely tedious, and adds no challenge. If a player has an identifying glass and sufficient Loremaster ability, all items that are picked up should be identified automatically (except those beyond the player's ability).
2) Blacksmithing/Repair overhaul
The current click-intensive system is extremely tedious, and adds no challenge. If a player has a repair hammer and sufficient Blacksmithing ability, a new "Repair All" icon/button usable only outside combat should repair all items equipped by the party with one click (except those too damaged for the player's ability).
Regardless, as long as the pointless repetitive clicking for item repair and identification is somehow fixed, I'll be able to play D:OS 2 without wanting to cry.
Cheers!
An idea on repair/identify item 'charges':
Or other idea:
1) If you want hammers be consumable, give them 'durability'. For example: A repair hammer has a durability of 100 and can therefore repair 100 points of durability, before he gets broken.
2) Instead of a identifying glass, make it some kind of magic crystal or orb. Identifying certain rarity would consume a certain amount of durability/charges.
More on durability related combat skills and making hammers and stuff have 'charges' and be consumable:
~snip~
Maybe a few abilities that set items to 0 durability could be cool, but mostly player abilities. For example:
Careless Strike: Strike with a high damage and guaranteed crit + bleeding (or whatever), but you break your weapon.
Overcharge (Aerothurge?): Double the stats of a piece of armor for 2-3 turns, but at the end of that time, it breaks. Difficult to balance, but could be cool.
Scales to Bone (Geomancer?): Heal for the remaining durability + X on an equipped item, breaking it.
~snip~
If limited use repair hammers stay, I also agree they should have a repair amount instead of just single use. The higher the blacksmithing, the more you can get out of one hammer. And if that's the case, a repair all equipped items button would remove a ton of tedium. I don't know if it's worth the effort to make durability interesting, though.
A point to consider on RNG vs deterministic ideas for the game..there are two camps and players of these kinds of games normally end up evenly distributed:
I think that it all boils down to the question: Do you want the game to be completely deterministic where you can carefully plan for each and every situation or do you want the game to throw at you a few nasty surprises (like a weapon breaking in the middle of a fight) which force you to rethink your whole strategy? While I am a strong advocate of the latter, I understand that some people don't like the element of randomness.
Some more on other skills that effect weapons and armor:
Instead of durability and repair hammers, we should have a Disarm and Disrobe status/effects that allow an enemy to strip your gear(forcing AP use to re-equip), and Crowbars that act like super-lockpicks(rare, but require no skill to use).
With Crowbars in game, no door should be breakable through damage.
While I don't think the above quote on new skills should replace durability: I do however think the skills/effects you suggested should be added regardless of what happens, actually. I like the idea of letting people choose to either invest in lockpick or use a crowbar in the same vain as the unlockspell except more rare. The disarm and disrobe effects can be tied into melee fighters to give them more flavor and expend their repitiore of skills since we have such a flush of magic trees
And another quote on making identify use consumables and changing the current system:
Hmmm... well. if Larian wants to keep resource consumption for Identifying items, this idea isn't that bad. I'd change it up a bit though:
- Added consumable Identify scrolls. These are sold and can appear in loot.
- Identify scrolls can be used without points into Loremaster.
- Loremaster requires Identify glasses to use
- Identify glasses are no longer consumed on use, you can use them as much as you like
- Identify glasses come in 5 different qualities, which allows you to identify items up to and including X level of the item. ...Actually, perhaps scrolls also come in the same five types?
- Identify glasses are no longer found in random loot, can only be bought from merchants or found pre-placed.
- Identify glasses price is increased significantly, and each higher level of glasses has a higher price which also increases significantly from the previous level.
If Larian wants a gold sink for identification, this offers three: Merchant identification, one-shot-scroll identification, and reusable, but expensive identification.
Merchant identification is probably the most useless since it's pay-per-item and you need to travel there to use. But they can identify anything (if scrolls come in 5 types as well). Scrolls are not that expensive individually, but the costs add up, however, Loremaster is not required. The glasses can be used forever, but require points into Loremaster, and are expensive to buy and are not found in loot, and can only be bought or found in pre-placed locations.
I can see people hating the idea of 5 different levels of identification glasses (and possibly scrolls), though.
> Repair/identify all button
> Durability/Equipment related skills
> Repair/identify items being consumables with 'charges'
> Some special items that go around the skill req for normal actions such as lockpicking/identifying
* Side note: items breaking/being lost when breaking open a chest is something that should be a thing, though I thought it already was
