@KipEnyan is quite the persistent person on this topic.
The OP diluted it down to a choice, so in that reference, I believe that would make both sides happy. @KipEnyan you wouldn’t have to care for it as you would have the choice to not have it affect you.
I’m reaching here but there’s a reason that games like dayz or other survival genres incorporate tasks that seem to have nothing but a negative spiral to their objective contribution to the games’ system. Like having to take care of keeping your hunger down and hydrating.
In its’ core you could argue these are complete obsolete systems as one might not get enjoyment out of them at all, as you only get punished for not maintaing them.
But hell, experience is also subjective, and in the subjective not everything has to make 100% sense to everyone absolutely all the time.
I think that the ‘negative offset’ systems bring about certain depths to the game, that otherwise aren’t replicable. And I stand by the OPs’ take here.
As it is currently, it is mildly annoying and adds nothing of value to the game.
I think the most annoying factor is my tools breaking and completely disappearing from my inventory, as I need to go buy a new tool from the city if that happens. That needs to be fixed.
The current solution is just that I have to occasionally open the inventory and check the durability on my gear, and use a repair potion/make a trip to the city to repair all. This is not either fun or interesting. The cost to repair is also so minor after the patch that it’s never an issue.
Either remove the mechanic completely or actually make it change how you play the game. People dislike weapons breaking in BOTW/TOTK, but atleast it accomplishes what it set out to do, forcing you to use different weapons.
I’d keep the system but remove the death penalty.
Lose gear durability by taking damage.
Slowly lose weapon durability by hitting enemies - if you hit a shield or get staggered, you lose more.
Make repairs take time so you have to use something else meanwhile.
That kind of stuff makes thematic sense and I can get behind.
But the system doesn’t want the player to be always kept in action. It wants you to stop, it wants you to spend time travelling through the world, it wants you to take it slow.
Going back for repairs isn’t interrupting the game flow, it’s going with it. Wether that game flow is likeable or not, that’s a whole other point.
But there’s clearly a vision behind it, and I believe they’ve not put in place this system without clear reasons behind it. Everything else is so well made that it feel out of place, right? You said so too.
So far I’ve enjoyed durability. It doesn’t hinder me particularly and when it becomes a problem it’s usually because I’m doing something wrong.
Maybe, like with many innovative things, a lot of people are disliking it because it’s different from everything they’ve seen so far.
It doesn’t keep you spending time traveling the world, you just warp back to town, sprint to the repair, then sprint back to warp back to the fight you got stopped doing
But you DO spend time traveling the world. Going back and forward is exactly that, because usually you’re not near enough to a whisper and you go through part of an area at least.
And what if you don’t want to use a whisper because you prefer to keep the fast travel to another location? Then you might make a long walk instead, and maybe on the way you fight some more enemies, you loot some chests you left behind. Maybe you notice a path you didn’t see previously.