Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Durability: yay or nay? Neither says me: new idea

The only setting in which a traditional repair system does anything at all for a game in the positive is for MMOs or other games where economy is a strong factor. The effects on gameplay are a few mindless button presses and light menuing from time to time which, IMO, games should really be striving to force as little of on the player as possible without sacrificing gameplay. (which removing repairs does not)

That being said, this is a game that tries to emulate games (like DnD) that try to emulate a fantasy setting in a believable manner. Repairing your equipment from time to time is a believable problem to have. It purely a matter of opinion as to whether or not this is "good" but it barely effects anyone so no real pressing need to change it in my book.

Edit

And before anyone says anything about repairs not being in DnD, the mending spell exists for a reason. :P

@Kilroy512512 'It purely a matter of opinion as to whether or not this is "good" but it barely effects anyone so no real pressing need to change it in my book.'

Happily, 99% of the posters on this thread disagree with that point. So hopefully this is a case of majority wins. No one likes it. By your own description, it's a waste of time. Those of us who've given it more thought have deduced it's not just that, but it adds literally nothing to strategy or immersion.

'Repairing your equipment from time to time is a believable problem to have'.

Are you serious? This is your rationale for keeping it? This is everyone else's rationale for getting rid of it - this is a game. It's supposed to be a thing you enjoy, not an emulation of work. It's main strength is turn-based strategy, and durability as is adds nothing to that.

By your reasoning, I could well say, 'eating food is a believable problem to have'.

*solution: make user eat food every 4 hours, because of hungry status - make them buy food if they have no food*

Or, 'sleeping is a believable problem to have'.

*solution: user gets tired after X amount of hours and must click button to sleep*

Or - I don't know - 'listening to completely inane banter ad nauseam is a believable problem that can make people angry'

*solution: user can become exasperated from clicking the dialogue options of complete idiots, and must endure a cooldown before they are able to engage in dialogue again with a cool head*

Could go on, but hopefully you get the point. Just because it's believable doesn't mean it should go in. This is a game. Games are designed to entertain, not create chores. Durability as it is doesn't entertain or reward - it just annoys. In a game. So get rid of it.

I was by no means arguing that it should be left in. Quite the opposite, I dislike repair systems and if they took it out I would like that. Not sure why you jumped on me to be honest.

'It purely a matter of opinion as to whether or not this is "good" but it barely effects anyone so no real pressing need to change it in my book'

That doesn't translate into what you've stated above about disliking repair systems and wanting them out. You're saying you feel it's ok to keep it. I'm not 'jumping' on you. I'm reading you saying to me that there's no need to change it, so I'm providing a measured challenge to that.

If you've reversed your decision and think it's better out of the game, you get the thumbs up from me. That's not how your original post read, however.

"The only setting in which a traditional repair system does anything at all for a game in the positive is for MMOs or other games where economy is a strong factor. The effects on gameplay are a few mindless button presses and light menuing from time to time which, IMO, games should really be striving to force as little of on the player as possible without sacrificing gameplay."

I'll just toss that in there so you can actually read it this time.

The only thing I was saying was that this is a relatively minor issue and one that has very little impact on gameplay compared to other major issues that really need to be handled.

I'll just make this shorter so the shooting of the foot thing is clearer:

'it barely effects anyone so no real pressing need to change it in my book'

to

'I dislike repair systems and if they took it out I would like that'

translates to: 'There's no need for it to change. I would like for them to change it.'

I read everything you wrote. Even in the quoted text, you're dismissing what 99% of the others on this thread have said: that it needs to go. And I'm defending both them and myself on the matter. No one ever said this was a major issue. We said it's a major nuisance. You like nuisances? I don't. Most others don't either. Bye bye nuisance is the aim of the thread, or turn it into something of strategic value.

Having something not be a pressing need doesn't mean I don't want it. I'm reasonably certain your just being intentionally difficult though so I'm just going to ignore you now.

Aw, shucks.

I don't think it's difficult at all to remove durability and therefore is not too much to ask.
As we have all agreed that this is preferable to the current system or the truly difficult option of re-doing the system, I don't see why they shouldn't remove it.

Taking away durability would also take away the 'benefit' Indestructable. Something you are hardly ever are taking in consideration, if you decide which equipment you prefer.

I'd rather see equipment "regenerate" over time while out of battle (and not equipped) based on your repair skill.

I started posting (complaining) on the Larian forums about the unbelievably tedious equipment durability and item identification mechanics wayyyyy back during the D:OS 1 alpha, and here I see in the latest Kickstarter update that they've managed to make things even worse (IMO) by not only leaving the pointless repair click-fest in for D:OS 2, but also making repair hammers and even identification glasses (???) break after use. Wow. If this is how things are going to be in the final version, the game will be close to unplayable for me, no exaggeration. I again post my initial suggestions from several years ago that should still keep the people who enjoy the general repair/identification gimmick happy while avoiding all the painfully boring clicking on repair hammers/identifying glasses and equipment pieces (with the recognition that I haven't played D:OS 2 early access and the ability names may now be different):

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).

Larian, for the love of all that's holy, please finally fix this for D:OS 2.

Totally for 1), not really that much for 2). Just remove repair completly, instead perhaps add the ability to dismantle stuff for crafting materials.

Kalrakh - personally, I'd be fine with removing durability altogether as well, but Larian seems pretty married to the idea. I just can't fathom their apparent decision to not only keep such a tedious implementation of the mechanic, but also make it even worse by causing repair hammers and (inexplicably) identification glasses to break. If things stay like this in the final cut, I'll need to either find a way to mod durability out of the game, or ask for a refund of my pledge.

Minus the refund. wholeheartedly agree

Definitely going to mod it out if Larian doesn't wake up. It was tedious to begin with as pretty much all durability systems are, but to make hammers and glasses consumable is insulting (and illogical; why does my glass break after looking at something lol) and seems to exist solely waste the players time. I play games to have fun, be immersed, experience good stories, etc...not run around buying hammers and glasses every 10 seconds so I can spam click all my gear before I can get back to the damn game.

Shadovvolfe - nice, I'll be downloading your mod then! I do want to enjoy D:OS 2, so I'll probably contact them over Kickstarter at some point if they don't fix this in the meantime (not sure how closely the devs read all the topics on the forum).

I mean, I'm an EA player, not a backer, but I bought into it specifically so I could give feedback. Larian is pretty good at listening to feedback as far as game companies go, and after the flawed gem that was DOS1, I decided to support this one before release in the hopes of influencing development to make it a better game.

So I mean, let Larian know it's an idiotic idea, as well as any other blunders they make. They may very well fix it themselves when the game releases proper.

I think, the purpose is to enforce more needs on the players, so that they have to spend more money and time on gathering those tools and therefore their resources being more limited. But I think it's a pretty bad way to force more management on the players.

I mean, sure, we know this concept from Diablo: identify scrolls. But in Diablo resources were endless because you could remake a map and also later on you could unlock ways to make identifying easier like finding Deckard Caine.

If they really want to keep it, they should at least turn it into indentify scrolls and not a 'glass', also those scrolls should work, without the need of having Loremaster. So you would have the choice: spend social points for loremaster or use identify scrolls. But if you learned loremaster, identifying should work automatically like suggested.

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.