For me repairs have been free? I still haven’t cleared the way for the blacksmith to start his forge. I rescued him from 3 people.
The repairs are free once you get to that point, and then cost some coins after the first boss.
I think the problem is, before you can even save the Blacksmith, you can potentially screw yourself if all your stuff breaks.
I see a lot of people getting stuck because of durability. I’ve never had it that bad, I have enough gold to repair all of my gear 100 times over, and I’ll probably only get more as I go as I like to explore every nook and cranny 3 times over, but repairing is just not fun. It makes me avoid death at any cost, so if I see something shiny over yon ledge and I don’t know how to get to it, instead of trying to jump there or looking for a way around that could result into me falling to my death, I’ll just ignore it and move on to the things I can access right now and just hope I’ll get there eventually. Also my tools breaking every 10 minutes and me having to either carry a bunch of spares with me or run back to town and repair is the opposite of fun and engaging gameplay.
If you have to punish players for failing, implement something that isn’t constantly frustrating. Dying shouldn’t take away or affect your ability to tackle the game in any way. Imagine if in PoE you could lose your weapon mid map and had to run all the way back to town after dying in order to repair. It would feel like you’re being punished 2 times for one mistake.
If you absolutely need to have a very punishing experience, then punish progression, stuff like the amount of currency or materials you have, or quest/objective progression, or make some or all enemies respawn faster when you die so you have to fight your way back to wherever you were, in other games you could get away with taking away xp but I think that would be a horrible idea here seeing how often the average player is expected to die.
The main issue I see with the current system is this: It shouldn’t be possible for anyone to lose their gear and thus their ability to fight and play the game as they want because of death. Especially in a game where death is expected and it’s expected often. It doesn’t matter that it’s not supposed to happen for the most part. The possibility shouldn’t be there.
3 Likes
Tone it down massively and make it cheaper …
2 Likes
Really? Havent noticed it yet, but I fight with a great sword which has high durability, maybe thats why.
I found a giant chest with a big mob on a tower in west Marina Shelf and proceeded to destroy all of my gear until I finally defeated him for the loot.
I then moved on searching for a way to repair my gear afterward and ended up running around for ~2 hours with broken/no gear until I found Fillmore.
I think the friction here is mostly in the tutorial onboarding hours of the game when you don’t know who/how to repair gear and are unable to Fast Travel. I don’t mind Durability of weapons as a mechanic in the game, but maybe they are deteriorating a little too fast (from use, death, etc.). Admittedly, I don’t have as many qualms with durability post-reaching Sacrament, but even still I wouldn’t mind gear being a little more durable at a base level, maybe ~15%?
1 Like
Okay, I wanted to do a quick +1 to getting rid of / reworking durability.
It took me around 20 tries to defeat Warrick (I suck I know), but the gear repair cost is set to 0 at that point. Prior to stumbling onto the smith I had maybe one death (I drowned :D), so not much issues there.
The problems started once I entered the town of Sacrament. I explored, spent some money, etc. So I basically had 0 gold at that point. Then I ventured out to do some dailies and bounties. Got destroyed a couple of times and now I have no gear and no gold to repair it. I REALLY like the game, but I fail to see how can I come back from this situation. If I died with my gear on, I won’t do much better without it.
4 Likes
For a game that involves ALOT of dying, Having durability just makes no sense.
Maybe there are reasons for the Devs to implement it, but it does not make for a good experience.
If there are any reasons the Devs implemented it and i fail to see it, at least make it not as punishing. For example, make loss of durability only when using it and not when dying, make repairing it cheap and easily accessible. The game is great so far.
Edit: I take it all back. I DO NOT see any reason why Durability should exist in this game. I just lost my weapon and armor from fighting and dying. Jesus Holy Christ! Guys please, for the love of everything under the damn sun, just remove durability already.
Durability is like Cancer, there is no reason whatsoever to have it in you.
Edit 2: Even the tools have Durability? Am i playing Animal Crossing here?
Edit 3: As suggested by user Scarletwing,
A better alternative. Go to blacksmith or use portable tool and “sharpen” weapon and it does extra damage or damage type until the “sharpness” or “charges” runs out and it becomes the base weapon it started out with.
This would encourage people to “maintain” their weapon. This works like durability but instead of punishing, it is rewarding.
27 Likes
Oh I feel your pain. All my weapons are broken in the starter area with no way to repair them and faced against mobs with a giant sword that can 2 shot me. Horrible starter area design.
3 Likes
At a minimum get rid of all durability in the starter area before you get to a repair stations. I’m basically stranded in the starter zone with broken weapons and can’t find a way to repair them while the mobs in the area have great axes and can 2 shot me.
3 Likes
Same here. I can only imagine when we progress further and more problems will start showing up and makes things worse.
but i still think Durability should be remove completely, not just the starting area.
6 Likes
I’m not a fan of durability in games at all and it ticks down reasonably fast particularly when you lose it for dying but I’m dying because I’m trying to climb but my character dodges instead and rolls off the tower and things of that nature.
The other thing I would say is that in the tutorial area I’m sure it mentions smashing things and if that’s something you want to encourage so people can find secrets or shortcuts or hidden items then having degradation of weapons is going discourage that, particularly when it gets low.
If durability is going to be present in the game then fine but it definitely needs tweaked to make it less of a punishment or at least give us an early recipe for fixing kits or whatever or resetting durability when interacting with a rest point or something of that nature.
5 Likes
At the end of the starter area you can fix your gear for free. The blacksmith by the last bonfire blue orb thing will fix it.
I supported durability to start, but it is implemented so poorly that at this point they need to remove it entirely.
The problem is that the mobs are way overpowered and you end up dying entirely to much for this system to work.
The whole game punishing you at every turn, from slow speed, traversing all the up and down movement with clutter and water, durability, not enough resources, is just to much.
Games are supposed to be fun, and at no point am I having fun.
4 Likes
Personally, I am fine with durability.
I have only played 19 hours on 2nd boss.
However, I do think nowadays players hate being punished. If Moon Studios’ devs could implement a system like Monster Hunter’s sharpness mechanic instead of durability, rewarding players for taking care of their equipment, it could make this situation completely different.
11 Likes
I agree with everything you said here, and I hadn’t even thought about durability degrading when smashing breakables 
. That should DEFINITELY be changed.
4 Likes
This could be a better alternative. Go to blacksmith and “sharpen” weapon and it does extra damage or damage type until the “sharpness” or “charges” runs out and it becomes the base weapon it started out with.
This would encourage people to “maintain” their weapon. This works like durability but instead of punishing, it is rewarding.
Thumbs Up! Good suggestion
4 Likes
This feels like an honest solution with good fundamentals
Now that I have had a night to think about it I think I see (from my perspective) where the not-great feeling is coming from.
This game promises to allow you to play however you want. Well, I wanted to play a dex build with daggers — and I am. However the armor drops were not in my favor so I ended up playing with minimal armor.
One bit of praise I’ll give the game o far is taking my armor off and playing pure speed actually kind of worked! When you’re in the lighter weight class you’re very fast. I am still throwing myself at the first boss but some of that was a zig when I should had zagged (with his build, literally). However my build isn’t perfect and its not like I can respec and many of the bad guys in the area are already dead, so now I am stuck. I can’t get stronger via experience and I am frequently running low on food so I have to take the time to go back out and farm up mushrooms and things to go get killed by the boss again.
(Possible) Solutions
(A side note. I see folks in the discord and a little bit here who are telling people to just get better… I think this is unconstructive because people come at all ability levels. I believe the devs know this. No matter what the they decide I just hope respect is given to the hardcore gamer and the noob who puts all their stat points into the inventory option)
Durability seems to feel bad because it can get expensive (not in the tutorial area but after) and it can feel like a soft-lock to new players. Since this game does not have a difficulty setting that means those very new very not-great-at-souls-games players need to be thought of.
1) Devs could add a soft difficulty setting. A buff from an NPC that helps with durability or maybe ups stats until it is toggled off.
2) Make money a little easier to get in the early game by adding RNG loot that you’re only meant to sell. This can make buying food a little easier pre-city and repairing easier post city where you’re getting your face smashed by mobs after the tutorial.
3) (If this exists I have not found it) Upgrade gear in tutorial level. Even if its very limited. Imagine after your 30th death an NPC shows up because you obviously need help and allows you to do a little crafting? You get the tools for it in the tutorial level why not use them? Maybe free respecs in the tutorial level as well. It makes the first area bit more of a sand box to experiment with before continuing your adventure.
4) Maybe rework mobs to where some of the easier ones respawn. I understand some of the big-boys staying dead but the little soldier dudes that are relatively easy to kill keeping a few around so you can grind levels if you need to can help remedy noob mistakes.
5) Luck stat and MOAR DROPS. More loot means more of everything else. This isn’t really early game because in theory your luck would be 1 (or maybe 10) and nothing would change but its another build option.
In conclusion, I think there are ways to make it so this experience we have right now can remain for whose who like it but can be modified for those who need a little more help if necessary. I do think durability as it stands is a little too punishing because it is coupled with the need to also farm food for health and, at least in the first area, only having a finite amount of XP so the option of over-leveling past obstacles is also out. Despite not putting any praise in here, I think the devs have so far done a great job, however. If I didn’t think so I would not had written this much about it lol. I spent hours yesterday exploring which felt really good.
By no means do I feel my suggestions are the end all be all but I hope they help in some way. I can’t wait to spend the weekend making my way through this world.
2 Likes
I think durability should be toggle in gameplay options. If you want the extra challenge keep it on, otherwise turn it off.
2 Likes