Le Dimanche 20 Novembre 2005 10:49, Nicolas Weeger a écrit :
Hello.
I'd like to discuss adding item weariness / fatigue.
Basically: each item has max fatigue points, which decrease at use (when
attacking for weapon, when attacked for shield, when player walks for
shoes, you get the idea)
Of course when fatigue reaches 0 the item breaks and is unusable or
simply disappears, and you have facilities to repair (maybe skills can
be used for that too).
Also fatigue reduces item bonus/attack/defense/... after some thresold
(50% of total fatigue points?).
Comments, opinions, critisicm? :)
Ryo
I already made a similar fatigue proposal in the past on the forums, in a
discussion related to alchemy. You'll find the copy of my own view of the
topic ( http://forum.metalforge.net/viewtopic.php?t=815start=15 )
For those too lazy to read, here is a summary of what I suggested.
Fatigue applied to objects:
--
- The existence of temporary fatigue (that wears off naturally) and permanent
fatigue (items requiring repairs);
- Fatigue doesn't make items unusable, but make them more prone to fail/break,
or less effective;
Fatigue applied to players/monsters:
---
- Every complex action generates an amount of fatigue proportional to its
difficulty;
- There is no permanent fatigue for players/monsters;
- The fatigue value isn't clearly visible by the players, but only a hint of
it is given (You look tired, You feel aware, etc);
- Fatigue increases the randomness of effects or their precision, rather than
the chance of them to backfire on you in a nasty way;
- Some items could be used to restore fatigue more than HP/Food (ex: cup of
coffee).
A long cut'n'paste being better than a short answer, here it what I initially
wrote:
Fatigue of the Cauldron
---
A cauldron is made of metal. You put it on fire, throw ingredients that react
sometimes very savagely inside and apply magical forces as well on it
whenever you use one for alchemy. It thus sounds reasonable that it slowly
degrades with use up to a point it isn't reliable anymore. I see this as a
two-fold process:
- Temporary fatigue, caused for example by the cauldron becoming very hot.
Those fatigue points would wear off after a given amount of time;
- Permanent fatigue which represents irreversible damages caused by
alchemical processes on the cauldron. Those don't wear off, unless you get
the cauldron to somebody able to repair it.
Fatigue by itself doesn't render the cauldron useless: it just increases the
chances of it to be destroyed when cooking something in it, possibly with
nasty effects (like sudden explosion). Note that this element could actually
be used to offer a gradation in the prices: a cheap cauldron would be able to
support only a limited amount of fatigue while a costly, luxury one would be
able to endure much more.
It also introduces another way to spend money (repairing/replacing your
cauldron), making the creation of easy-to-make objects less profitable
commercially speaking. Note that since fatigue is completely independent of
the difficulty of a given recipe, it is a convenient way to balance some
overused recipes. And it is explainable by in-game ideas as well: Water of
the Wise may be very easy to cast, but it may require a very high
temperature, thus causing a lot of fatigue to the cauldron.
In my own idea, I'd say that an easy formula could cause a high amount of
temporary fatigue, but little or no permanent one, thus harming only
industrial alchemists. On the other hand, advanced alchemy could cause fewer
temporary fatigue, but more permanent one, reflecting the difficulty of the
process.
Codewise, I think this is pretty similar to the grace stat - it is spent each
time you use it, it slowly recharges itself, but it needs some work to get it
fully back. I'd simply make it not visible by default - at most, somebody
with the smithery skill could attempt to evaluate the level of fatigue of a
cauldron, or a spell may do it as well. Or why not asking Mostrai ? Smile
The important point to keep if this system ever becomes implemented is to
make it general enough to be applied to other types of items and spells as
well - There are other fields in which fatigue could possibly become an
interesting addition in the future. Multiplying stats specific to a given
skill isn't a good idea on the long run.
I'm also against of a arbitrary limited lifespan for cauldrons - if you want
to buy it and keep it forever unused in your appartments, it is your right. I
see no way to justify their auto-destruction after only a short delay. Their
total lifespan should depend on what you do with them, so occasional
alchemists don't get harmed in the process.
Finally, the question of a possible casting time came up; I'm basically
against it, since a lot of legitimate players would probably find
