Repost from MTG: Item Repair and Permanent Decay

As with the previous post, I'm attempting to save some of my meager writing history with this reposting of some thoughts I had on decay and item repair in MMOs. As before, take a look and see what you think...

Because of the tragic death (for the third time, as discussed in a previous post) of my laptop screen, I'm currently sitting at my work laptop installing WoW. Thankfully for me, WoW is one of those games that isn't system-intensive and will allow me to actually run the game on my work rig. The work machine isn't bad, it just lacks graphical power, which is the generally the case for all work machines in my line of work (consulting engineering).

So, as I'm here patiently switching out CDs (the five for the original build, plus the four for BC), I thought I'd put down some of my thoughts on MMOs, specifically the systems in place for item wear, item repair and item decay. This general dynamic has been handled in many different ways by MMOs over the years, from no repair or decay whatsoever (a good example of this is the original Everquest), to having to repair items over time as they are damaged during use (most MMOs have some form of this nowadays, including SW:G and WoW, and EQ2 to a small extent), but most, if not all MMOs on the market now do not deal with permanent item decay. If you have an item (let's use in this example a sword), and you use it, in many games the condition of the item will worsen. This makes perfect sense, since in the example of the sword, it's going to take a beating cleaving through rats, bats, and gnolls. As the condition of the sword worsens, it becomes less and less effective. Eventually you'll have to go to an NPC or PC with the proper skills and have your sword repaired. With no permanent item decay, though, your sword can be repaired over and over and over again, with no fear of it ever permanently wearing out, breaking or otherwise becoming unusable.

Now, in a video game world, this makes some sense, as people are not playing the game to deal with real-world issues such as having to replace things because they wear out. It's much easier to suspend disbelief and some sense of realism and just accept the fact that the repair-people have such skill that they can repair any flaws, damage, etc. that are incurred on your item. There is also the fact that players would look less than favorably on the decay of an item that they spent countless hours raiding one boss mob, or one instance, or [insert endgame aspect here] to achieve. The player puts in their time, gets the item, only to have it wear out far too soon.

However, this aspect of items never truly wearing out and/or breaking wreaks havoc on the economy. Because items never really disappear, as players find more and more of these items, they flood the user market and reduce the inherent value of the item. For example, a powerful sword for a warrior, when first discovered, is extremely valuable for its rarity and power, but after a few months of farming and just plain finding more of the sword, its value is reduced because of the greater supply and no attrition of the sword due to breakage or wearing out.

The effect of items never wearing out also affects player-created items. In the original Everquest, early on in the life of the game banded mail armor was very popular and in demand for use by warrior types. Players skilled in the armorsmithing trade could make a decent living by making banded armor for the populace clamoring for it. As time went on, more and more people hopped on the bandwagon to make armor while fewer and fewer players needed it. As better armor was discovered, and players handed down their banded armor to the new characters they created, the market for banded armor dried up and disappeared altogether.

This effect of item wear on the economy has been lessened somewhat by the inclusion of soulbound and/or no-drop equipment, in whatever form it takes on each different MMO game. There are items in all games that, either after being equipped by the player or simply picked up by the player, cannot be traded to another player. This effectively removes the item from any in-game market, because the player who originally picked up or equipped the item cannot transfer it to another character. This system addresses the issue of flooding the game market and economy, but does not address the original topic of permanent item wear and decay.

In the MMO I would design, there would exist the aspect of permanent item wear and decay, and I would propose the basic system to work as such:

Each item would have two numbers associated with its condition, separated by a slash (xxx/xxx). The first number would represent current condition, while the second number would represent overall item conditon. The current condition (number ranges from 0-100) would be affected by the use of the item (i.e. going out and fighting creatures) and would affect the item statistics. As this number goes down, in the case of a weapon, the damage dealt by that weapon would decrease. If the item is armor, the damage mitigated would decrease as the current condition number goes down.

The second number represents the item's permanent condition. This attribute does not affect the item's effectiveness, but represents the amount of wear on the item itself. The attribute goes down over time, based on many factors, including how far the player lets the current condition go down before repairing, the skill of the player or NPC attempting to repair the item, etc. When the permanent condition of an item reaches zero, the item breaks and/or becomes unusable.

Regarding the repair dynamic: Using the original item example from above, taking this item to a player or NPC for repair would (depending on the level of the item and the skill level of the player or NPC repairing the item) revert the current condition of the item back to 100. However, the permanent condition of the item would be reduced, by a little if the repairing player or NPC has high skill, by more if they have little skill or the item's owner has allowed the item's current condition to go below a certain threshold, etc. The exact values of these events can be scaled for balance.

I could go on and on about the nitty gritty details, and bore you for hours taking about the system and the all of the dynamics that could come into effect, but the main thing I'd like to try to get across is that this system could be a vehicle to improve the flooding of the market with basically ageless items that never disappear or are removed from the economy, and also make player tradeskills relevant. If tradeskillers can provide the populace with items that are relevant, desirable and need to be replaced from time to time, then it would create player-driven economy with more interaction between players, create alternate advancement trees and occupations for players who may not be as inclined to 'grind' mobs endlessly, and generally balance out the economy, reducing the flooding of the market with items that never disappear.

Of course, there are downsides to this argument, and here are some of the issues I see with this system. FIrst, how do you apply item decay to rare and/or hard to procure armor, weapons, jewelry, etc. in such a way that it's fair and equitable without angering or downright alienating your playerbase? No player wants to see a rare drop, one that took them hundreds of hours of grinding, complete luck, whatever the circumstance, just disappear from use. Do you not have the decay dynamic affect this item, and simply slap a 'no-drop' or soulbound tag on that item? Do you have a specific NPC that can repair this item for a substantial fee, thus creating a money sink to further attempt to balance the economy? Or do you have the decay dynamic slowed so much that it almost never comes into effect with any regularity? These are questions that would need to be addressed with testing and proper balancing in a game setting, because no matter how good anything sounds on paper, all bets are off when it's released to 100,000+ players.

Again, as I've stated before, I'm not a game developer, so it's very possible that all of these questions have been addressed and answered hundreds or even thousands of times before, and the reason why a system as I've proposed doesn't exist is simply due to the fact that it's not practical. I'd like to think (and please don't burst my bubble too violently, I beg you) that I've come up with at least the basis for a system that could be reviewed, expanded, tested, revised, and become usable at some point. Maybe someday I'll develop a technical document including this system, and present it to a developer and see how much they laugh. An intriguing thought, to be sure...

Well, since the installation of WoW is finished, I'm going to retire from the blogosphere for now and head into Azeroth for a bit, but you can be sure that I'll be back soon, with more ramblings. As always, take care and keep gaming!

Well, what do you think? Leave any comments or suggestions in the comments section.