There’s no way around it, the current durability system is at best useless, and at worst negatively affecting the overall enjoyment of the game for players. It is currently linked with having to often repair your weapons as a time waster. If Moon wants to keep this system in the game, here’s my idea on how to turn it into a good system :
Add a system that buffs your weapons based on how much resources you put into repairing it, maybe bringing it on par with higher tier weapons acquired further into the game.
Another system could be to have the weapon to “record” how it was damaged, giving buffs/debuffs to players based on the enemy that damaged it, when you repair it.
** Personally, I would get rid of item durability. But if Moon wants it to stay, they need to make the system fun/interresting to interact with.
Youre absolutely right, I also suggested something similar on my post (here)
I have a game im designing and No Rest for the Wicked is the closes game to it that ive ever seen. However in my game I have something similar to what you suggested for durability.
In order to have a good durability system I think it needs to be engaging and rewarding, otherwise it’s simply annoying or otherwise pretty pointless.
It’s a very difficult system to design but as it is right now, Wicked has a very base shallow one.
Durability isn’t really meant to be fun or interesting, it’s meant to be punishment for dying.
At release durability was way too low, they doubled it and now it might be a bit high. Also, the costs to repair are far too cheap at higher levels to work adequately as a punishment system.
A punishment system can be fun or interesting. For example, Dark Souls 2 made something interesting. Dying made you go hollow, reduced your max health and took away your ability to play multiplayer. That was a harsh punishment. But you could use an item to get your humanity back and therefore get your max health back to it’s original state plus re-enable multiplayer. But those items were rare at first, and were rewarded for playing in pvp or helping another player in coop. All those system interacted with each other making the punishment system an interesting part of the gameplay loop, without being just a punishment. Don’t want to be invaded? you just have to die once to become hollow, and invasion, just like coop, becomes disabled.
A punishment system can be more than just a punishment, if it’s integrated into other systems. Then it becomes interesting or even perhaps fun.
I honestly don’t see why people gripe about durability.
Like 150 focus spent, and all of your items are repaired. Don’t wanna use a cheap repair rune that is sold off a vendor when you literally first get to Sacra? Then use one of the hundred of repair powders that exist.
It’s as if people don’t understand that choices need to be made regarding playing this sort of game.
Don’t want to repair? Try not to die. Play slower. The game isn’t meant to be played like a Diablo whirlwind Barbarian.
TLDR; The very first thing I do when I get to Sacra is buy the repair rune and slot it into a gnarled staff so I no longer worry about “durability”. Both of which are sold from the Tier 1 enchanted for Pennies…
It’s not about the durability system making the game difficult. It’s that it’s just not fun. It’s not fun having to stop your progress to go back to town ONLY to repair your pickaxe or your gear if you die a lot.
And you could probably split the durability system into 2. The gear durability and tools durability. In both case, the system needs to either have a purpose, be interesting, or fun.
For tools :
Does it have a purpose ? Not really since it’s not about “get good”.
Is it interesting ? No, nothing interesting or unique here.
Is it fun ? No, it’s not attached to any kind of gameplay system that makes it fun, like a mini game. It’s just tedious and a time waster.
So since it doesn’t bring anything, what is the point of having durability on tools ?
For Gear :
Does it have a purpose ? Yes, it’s a punishment system
Is it interesting ? Nothing interesting or unique about it. Just a number that goes down when you die.
Is it fun ? No, it’s just tedious and a time waster.
Now we have something to work with. It’s a punishment system. But not original or unique, and not fun. So the question is, since it has a purpose, why not making it fun and interesting too ? That’s where my feedback comes in.
For the interesting part, the idea is to have it integrated with some kind of buff that would trigger when you repair the gear piece.
They could make it unique with the “record” idea.
And the fun part is that you are now rewarded for going to repair your weapon.
This is just an example of what could be done with it. But the idea is :
What is the point of keeping a system that’s not fun? If you absolutely want to keep it, why not making it fun ! It’s a video game, ideally, if you can, you should want every part of it to be fun, no ?
I can’t even imagine doing this. It was normal before the patch, but now the amount of times you have to repair are few and far between.
That being said, there’s repair powders literally dropping everywhere, you can craft them and bring with you, or you can get the repair rune. There’s no reason to go back to town to repair.
doesn’t mean it cant be fun or interesting. Also being punished has the side effect of making the game fun, just look at any souls games or heck Donkey Kong Country or any old school games.
I believe durability can be interesting and fun, if the devs take your mindset then for sure it will never be.
I’m not going to respond to all this, since I feel like you didn’t read anything I said because well…
You don’t ever need to go back to a town to repair ever again, once you reach sacra…
Not sure why you think you do. Which makes me think you read nothing I said.
Durability is not a problem or a hassle at all in this game. Unless you consider using about four seconds of your time to repair everything a hassle. If so, you’re in for a surprise with games like this then.
During the first 2 or 3 days of EA, durability was a problem.
They fixed it. In all the hours I’ve played since the fix, I haven’t even come close to losing a piece of equipment due to durability lost. You’ve got consumables, runes, and a vendor that fixes everything for cheap. This is not a problem.
While it was a problem during the first couple of days of Early Access, it has since been nerfed. I do agree that it is now useless. While on paper, it does sound like an interesting system, I personally have never seen a game execute it well.
In its current state, it seems like a waste and might be better off if it were removed outright.
I would prefer if it was more linked to the player, for example if the players HP or damage dealt was reduced it would emphasise its punishing intent.
I don’t think it can be called an issue at all. What we have now is perfect, personally.
I’ll add, when you repair your armor, you can usually sell some unnecessary stuff you’ve been collecting at the same time. It balances out the system quite a bit
To me durability didn’t need to get nerfed so hard. I simply think that the repair cost was really high, especially early in the game after it stops costing 0 obviously.
I think a lot of people are missing the point of my post. The durability system is supposed to be a punishment for dying. But right now, if you die, you either respawn in sacrament, or at a teleport that can bring you to sacrament in seconds. That’s the big punishment ?
I’m saying that the punishment is useless the way it is right now. The punishment is not that your gear gets damaged, the actual punishment is to stop your progress to go repair. You might think it’s super not a big deal, and I 100% agree that it’s not a big deal. But then if it’s not a big deal at all, why is it even there ?
Removing the durability system would free a couple inventory slots (repair powder), it would free up at least 2 possible gear affix/enchantments that could now drop other affixes. It would remove the need to repair your tools. It would remove the need for the shield emblem. Basically thin out the loot and enchantment pool.
If moon wants to keep the durability system. It’s not just about finding the sweet spot in durability lost on death, it’s about integrating more systems into it to make it a fun part of the gameplay loop. Make it an actual thing to try to avoid. Dark souls had, at some point, acid that would damage your gear. They could make the damage to gear something that happens during gameplay and not on death, with your weapons now bouncing off tougher enemies if broken. (think monster hunter).