Items durability, damage over usage.

I don't know if this suggestion has been around or made elsewhere by anybody, I was thinking about introducing an item durability value.

ie. Armor/Weapon/Flasks used or hit [value] can downgrade in quality and need to be fixed.

Fixing an item makes it 100% again but of lower quality. Not fixing an item will keep it at it's starting point but can lead to the destruction of the item (too much damage).

Fixing isn't free, it has a price (stones, scrolls, dunno..)

People can prevent their set from damage over usage by paying cash (they really have to love the set and hope they won't get a better one farming or looting around with maps).

Imho this improvement will extend game's life even more.

This is my first post so I will point it out:

I'm really happy to play this game, as an old Diablo fan I was waiting for something like this, thank you so much GGG, I hope you will get enough money from this masterpiece you are developing, and I hope to see different monsters added in the future.

Cheers.

Arg. God no. We already have an XP death penalty.

The best way to think of all lost investment in a game like this is lost time investment. They are all the same. The XP death penalty is actually fairly huge as you break level 80. It is more than enough.

Now, that said, I would consider equipment damage and repair insofar as it was used instead of an XP penalty, and insofar as items could not be irretrievably destroyed using such a mechanism.

--C

Item Durability has always been a bad thing. Every single game that has ever had it. Never a good thing. Please do not do this GGG.

One of the things I've really loved about PoE since I started playing is that I didn't have to worry about the status of my equipment. Nothing was more frustrating in Diablo II than Whirl Winding through packs of mobs in Act 5 and BAM! Lance is broken, you're now dead in the water so-to-speak. No, please do not incorporate an item durability scheme, this is one of the things that sets PoE apart from other action RPG style games.

Oh, it would be okay if the damage only occured on death. In fact, I think I'd like it more than the current death penalty. The answer to the complainers would be the same (to wit: "don't die"), however could leverage past time penalty to buy off present debt.

The only twist it would need is the ability to repair your equipment without currency using 15% of your present level progress.

This would be accomplish abou the same thing as an XP debt on death that could be bought off through currency.

That's fine, too. I'm not sure which would be easier to implement.

--C

I would be pretty pissed if some item I crafted and spent tons of currency on got damaged or destroyed. No thanks. To me item degradation is simply a way to waste a players time and currency. This game needs neither of these things in my opinion.

You really should read this
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/55102

I would actually kind of like seeing a durabilty system as a death penalty. As you said it could destroy items but only if you let them get to a low quality.

It will constantly require you to use wetstones and armor scraps, which will increase the demand for these types of currency. As long as you keep your items at top quality they wont get destroyed.

If you do however let your items not be at their top condition then they will be destroyed. This may help eliminate some of the items in SC, since there is no item sink for SC.

I think it could also work well with the repair system in Diablo 1. Every time you repair an item it becomes max durability but its max durability also decreases. Eventually if you repair it enough or die enough the item will be destroyed.

Maybe they can remove some of the XP loss in exchange for this system. I think it would be a great item sink and give wetstones and armor scraps more of a purpose. This can also bring in room for more affixes like increased durability or indestructable.

Not sure I understand the purpose of such a system. If the item can be repaired to full potential using nothing more than regular currency+quality fixes then the only purpose of it is a 'gold sink'. Do we actually need a place to eliminate low currency items from the economy? Furthermore, this would simply increase the 'cost' of owning high end gear. Rich players will just find it an inconvenience. Poor players will be priced out of rares and uniques as those would now have an additional cost to keep using them.

It also encourages trading and discourages actual hunting. Trading doesn't wear out your equipment after all. Those that refuse to trade will be in a constant worry over not finding the right materials needed to preserve their gear.


Having a Diablo 1 styled method that actually kills the equipment eventually makes that issue even worse. If I find a useful unique, there's now a time limit for me to obtain another one before I become much weaker. For some builds who are fully reliant on gear, this can completely destroy their build as they no longer have the means to keep fighting.


Lastly, the 'on death' idea seems odd. It'll only affect Default, which is the mode you go to when you DON'T want heavy death penalties. Those that like are 'harder' setting play HC, where one death means the end of all of your carried equipment and the character holding it.


The overall point: It's a system that is widely hated, offers nothing for this particular game, and can easily ruin the game as a whole. It's also firmly against the developer's policies, who flatly stated that they hated the system and purposely kept it out of PoE.

So no to this idea.

First of all thanks for all the replies. I'm not going to defend my suggestion since I'm not a developer and I have no idea on how this would affect the game, I just would like to stress two points:

Of course it's not like "1 hit = item gone" at higher levels it would take tons of hits to actually damage an item.

The idea of buying the items making them eternal was a perk to show affection to the game itself, because honestly people satisfaction goes with "I found this item after so long, I like it, I don't wanna miss it." I'd love to give money to the game for something like that, more than visual effects and other kind of stuff. And we are not talking of course of lots of $ (few people would actually spend so much money to secure a set, but keeping it at low fair price as an option, would grant a higher money flow - and yes, since the game is free, I'd love to help GGG to make money somehow for the huge effort they did on this project)

Plus, isn't there already in the game a stone that clones items?

In the end I understand the dislike of the suggestion, the hate behind having to keep an eye on the items status, and the chance (remote at higher levels) to lose them.

The "damage on death" is a nice twist of the plot to me. It could also be an actual option like: I don't wanna lose xp, I'd better lose items points.

Thanks again for replying.