Balancing equipment

[burgingham]

This might need quite a bit of work, since it only popped into my head after reading another thread. In that thread someone stated there is currently no equipment reducing LA. Well, except for nettle shirt and pants there is no equipment reducing anything. I would like to see an equipment system though that makes it harder to determine THE best stuff to wear. So not only is more diversity in general necessary, but the proper balancing of it might actually lead to different opinions what and what not to wear.

Example:

A merchant robe still gives you one extra row of equipment, while there is a tycoons robe giving you that vertical and horizontal row, but reducing your LA by 50%. This example of course is well just that: an example. Traveler's sacks already go in a similar direction, by giving you extra space, but taking away your free hand slots.

So to sum this up: Stuff that gives regular buffs vs. stuff that gives higher buffs, but comes along with some disadvantages as well. Of course this would just be so much more fun in a customizable crafting system, where you can chose your own balance between buffs and debuffs to generate the perfect suit for yourself. Balance is key here of course, so items reducing say your LA should provide much higher buffs than something reducing your stealth or cooking. In fact such situational debuffs shouldn't be worth much at all, because I just wouldn't wear such equipment while cooking. An armor on the other hand reducing my stealth, but having a better AC than a steel plate would be worth quite a bit (with a working tracking system...), because both buff and debuff are useful on the same occasions.

[Gulluoglu]

Steel plate that prohibits running or sprinting. That makes it a real choice; lowering your stealth just means you throw some LP at it and now it's a non-choice again. But yes, forcing choice and creating viable variety would be good whenever combat and equipment get revamped.

[kaka]

...lowering your stealth just means you throw some LP at it and now it's a non-choice again.

The same argument applies to buffs as well.

Good idea, anyway. I think I like it.

[OvShit]

Got an idea how to balance that.
Let`s say armor lowers agi. Let`s say your agi is 90. Then armor doesn`t allow it to be higher then 70(that changes with ql). This way regardless of how high your stats are you still stay with pretty low stats.

[DatOneGuy]

Armor providing hardcaps does not sound fun.

Softcaps? Possibly.

Means I'd have to do what, remove my steel plate whenever I want to warp far?

[loftar]

Means I'd have to do what, remove my steel plate whenever I want to warp far? :P

Well, that in itself wouldn't be entirely unreasonable, if you assume travel weariness represents travelling a long way with heavy equipment.

I don't like the hard-cap idea, but fixed debuffs from otherwise powerful equipment is a good idea. It makes me wonder why we haven't already used that idea a lot more already.

[Avu]

What is reasonable or unreasonable is far from fun or gameplay enhancing though it's just useless tedium and that one is a clear example of useless tedium. Removing that plate is a no brainer as is putting it back on as soon as you got to your destination. A better example for agi would be do I keep heavy armor that lowers agi (basically crap defense) but provides great damage absorption against a range attacker or I switch to a more agile armor.

[Potjeh]

Yeah, please no more equipment juggling.

Anyway, I could see armour being a tradeoff between attack and defence, ie heavier armour absorbs more but increases cooldown of moves.

As far as debuffs are concerned, I think (weighted) softcaps would work better than reducing by a fixed number.

[DatOneGuy]

Yeah, please no more equipment juggling.

Anyway, I could see armour being a tradeoff between attack and defence, ie heavier armour absorbs more but increases cooldown of moves.

As far as debuffs are concerned, I think (weighted) softcaps would work better than reducing by a fixed number.

I'd love to see this in Cutthroat Cuirass's wherein someone who can forgo the defense in order to attack (and hunt) faster may go with a CC as opposed to someone who wants more defense but doesn't mind being a bit more sluggish going with plate or bronze armor.

Overall having to make tough choices in your gear seems like a very fun thing.


While I do agree that equipment juggling doesn't seem so great, if it gives you some sort of 'debuff' that shows like TW/Baby blue eyes/etc and lasts a set time from after you de-equip it, that would work too to some extent, eh?

What if for example travelling even by foot very gradually increased your TW? (like REALLY REALLLY tiny amounts) but steel plate made that amount significant?

[Coriander]

I like this concept and I suggest that the inputs, or effort(s), be kept similar for the opposing "trade off" items. For instance; a Cutthroat Cuirass takes a significant investment, as does plate armor.
So a in the example of the merchants robe and a Tychoons robe, both should take a similar amount of effort to make/obtain.