Item Prefixes

[bossculeur]

I just wrote a huge post about this and it got deleted for some reason so this probably won't be as detailed as it should be. I'll also probably get search functioned but I did look around and couldn't find anything myself.

EDIT: wow apparently I lied about it not being long. Got carried away.

What I'm proposing is that the item prefixes in warband (e.g. balanced, reinforced) into NI. These would be rolled on most (all?) craftables and all legendaries. I think this change would be really positive for NI, I'll go into more detail about the pros below. The prefixes would all have an equal chance of occurring or follow a probability curve with no prefix being in the middle of the curve. I have no idea how difficult this change would be to make. I assume that because there is already a similar system in Native it would be fairly easy to implement but I really know nothing about this kind of stuff.

Why?

First of all this would give the very rich players of NI something to work towards. It can get quite boring to play games once you have everything but variables being implemented, people will always have something to work towards (dat tempered POK). As an intense D2 player I know how exciting it can be to search for perfect gear when the stats are variable. This change could possibly even bring old players who quit because they were too rich back.

The crafting system would be completely be reinvigorated and there would be a new reason to level crafting. People would become obsessed with crafting items over and over again to get the best rolls. At the moment there are many items that there is almost no point in crafting because there are too many of them already. An SS bow is a good example. You have no chance of getting the money you put into crafting one back from a sale of one. It would be very exciting to craft as well because you wouldn't know what the exact result would be. This would also deal with the huge excess of mats that have built up over time. There would no longer be people sitting on stacks of 700 hm because they would be able to sell or use it. People would also level their personal crafting in order to be able to participate in the the new crafting craze. I feel at the moment there is hardly any reason to level personal crafting because people will craft for free and every item comes out the same.

New players would have a way to get into the economy through a good craft. It can be very hard for new players to compete in an economy filled with people who have been around for 2 years. A lucky craft could help somebody get ahead, helping to invigorate the economy.

There would no longer be a need to constantly add new items to the game because the prefixes would fill the gaps between gear. The huge stats overcrowding in some gear categories like 2h cut weapons would have never happened with a system like this in place. This would also lead to there being a smaller requirement for model, which is often a reason why there aren't a lot of pieces of gear in a certain category.

Problems

The biggest problem would be that top tier gear could become irrelevant because lower gear with good rolls could outclass them at a much lower crafting cost. An example of this would be in you rolled a trans with +6 defence it would be as good as a defender armour for a fraction of the cost (imagine how mad Legend would be!). The way to combat this would be either to make the best/worst rolls extremely rare, or to put a limit on the variability of items (e.g. no more than +/- 2 defence on armours). Some items such as arrows probably could not have any variability because their stats are so close already.

It may be too late in the existence of NI to implement prefixes. Since there are so many items without prefixes the emergence of them as a legitimate factor in the economy could take a while although people might go on a mad crafting spree as soon as the change was made. Also I would like to note here that I think the only fair way to implement this would be to keep all current items as they are.

Thanks for listening (if you made it all the way through). I would love opinions etc. I'm sure someone will have a good reason why this is a stupid idea. Bring it on!

[Huscarlton Banks]

I had the same idea not too long ago, but unfortunately I don't think you can set prefixes to multiplayer equipment screen items.

cRPG got around this by adding more item entries for each item (Bodkin Arrows and Masterwork Bodkin Arrows are 2 different items in itemkinds, for example, which is why final_boss's retextures and models work for loomed items).

So while it's possible, it would take a really, really long time since we would have to add/balance 4-6 variants for every currently existing item both on the website, and in the module system.

It is a good idea to make crafting more interesting though.

[Sphinx]

I would love a random roll on -/+ damage on crafted equipement.

Reminds me of Ragnarok Online, where you were "gambling" to get more damage to your equipment. Rolling a random number (1 to 2 = -2 dmg , 2-4 -1dmg , 5 = 0 dmg change, 6-7, +1, 8 +2 , 9 +3 dmg)

A somewhat similar formula would be great, but maybe make it only -2 - 0 - +2 , so that way you dont need 5 different items but just 3.

[bossculeur]

Well looks like at least 2 people got through my monster post.

I figured this could be an issue and had thought of the solution crag uses.

I think it could be worth the time because it would really spice crafting up. Would love to see it on legendaries too. I like your idea sphinx and I think even adding that small of a range would make huge waves (especially if the probability followed a curve).

Anyways I'm basically repeating myself. Thanks for taking the time to read through this abomination.

[Maroon]

Like Banks said, the only way to have this in multiplayer is to have a different item in the items_kind for every variation of every weapon. Let's say you were to have 5 variations, the normal one, 2 below and 2 above normal. With the ~500 items being used much in NI, that would add up to adding 2000 more items to the files, leading to a monstrously big module, and an enormous loading time.
Also, if it were to be implemented, I'd really not like to have it on legendaries. Let's say you are a Pikeman, using the Swadian Poleaxe, with 58c and 35p. You then loot a Sunpike (62c and 40p), with a -4 prefix on it. Seeing how absurdly low (ok, not absurdly, but very low) the droprate is now, it would really, really suck to loot a negative prefix legendary, as in my example, because the 'normal' Sunpike is around 14 mill, and the Poleaxe only a few 100k.
So I like the idea, but it would take a lot of dev time and resources to make, and I don't think it should be used on every item.
/2 cents

[bossculeur]

Well yes, the whole point is that it would suck to get a bad roll and be great to get a good one. With +\- 2 nothing would become that bad and it would just make things more interesting.

[Fred_Frederickus]

I can see it happening, I've finally looted my first legendary: a -2 Worm Bane.

[bossculeur]

^^ he gets it

[Slayer]

Non tradeable items called "Gems", your weapon can level up to level 5, or lets just say 5 stars, with this is +1/2/3/4/5.

You can use a maximum of 4 "Gems" per time you wish to upgrade a weapon.

The more gems you use, the higher the chance of success of adding a star to your weapon.

If you fail an upgrade you drop down by 1 level.

If you fail the upgrade of 3-4 or 4-5, you drop down to 0.

I like this idea personally ^^

Gems are found via loot if your wondering.

PS: I'm not even sure if i'm on the right track of the OP, I don't really get it.

[bossculeur]

You're talking about an item improving function as far as I can tell slayer. Would serve the same purpose I guess, although I prefer random rolled items.

I was proposing that every time a new item is created via drop or craft, there would be a roll on a certain stat on that item. For example if you crafted a butcher is might come out as a "sharp" butcher with 62c damage.

EDIT: just to further my response to your idea I think that if item upgrades were implemented it would be better if the upgrading used crafting mats already in game. This would. Be to provide more of a resource sink so that people don't end up with massive mat stacks. With most of the desirable crafting recipes relying more heavily on who and lumps I think we could use more sinks for stuff like leather, hc, sw, and leather.