Equipment wear and tear in games.

[Kpt._Rob]

Personally speaking, I really hate weapon degradation. Now, granted, there are games in which it is more annoying than in others (for instance, I'd take the weapon degradation in Oblivion over the weapon degradation in Dead Rising any day.

So, like I said, on the whole I don't like it, but there are some things that make me really not like it. These would be things like, if the degradation is not repairable, so that a weapon will always reach a point at which it becomes unusable, or if the weapon is not fully repairable, that is to say that while I might be able to repair a weapon to 75%, I can never repair it to 100%. Other things too, for instance, in Fallout 3 you have to combine weapons to repair them, that really annoys me, especially when you've got unique weapons, sure most of them could be repaired with similar weapons, but a few couldn't. When you've got a set up like that then I feel like I'm being given an incentive not to use weapons that I would otherwise use frequently.

That said, I think my biggest problem is that it just doesn't add any fun to the game. What it adds to the game is one more thing for me to have to worry about while I'm playing, but I've got enough things to worry about in real life... I don't want to have to muck about with things that need worrying over in a game that I'm trying to have fun playing.

 

[L-J-F]

Good so long as it doesn't make everything feel like you should buy it at a two-dollar-shop with a "disposable" tag on it. So I would say you'd need a way of repairing them that wasn't ludicrously expensive/takes a long time, have the equipment take one hell of a beating before needing that repair, and maybe even have some kind of "if you use it right it'll last longer". But I don't want to take my armour off because I'm worried it'll get broken ...

 

[Sprig]

I would like it if it was realistically implemented. I think Fallout 3 is ridiculous. Realistically you would go through a half a dozen weapons or more in a prolonged fire fight. Not to mention how do you turn a pile of poor quality weapons into one mint condition one?

It is also tedious because all it is takes to do it is a bunch of button pressing. That isn't good game play.

Weapons are exponentially more durable than that. You should be able to put thousands of rounds through a modern weapon without doing any more than cleaning it every few hundred rounds to keep it reliable.

Now surely sword and blade weapons are going to get dull but I am not playing a game so I can sit around sharpening blades or cleaning guns.

A better method would be to drop it off a shop or merchant for maintenance. If not it would become unreliable. That way you would be unable to use it for a predetermined amount of time and there would be a cost associated with repair and maintenance.

 

[Geekosaurus]

I'm open to the idea of weapon deterioration. Although my only actual experience of this was playing Far Cry 2, a game that has a peculiar mixture of being almost perfect, but completely flawed at the same time.

The way they did deterioration was decent, but it was way too frequent. A weapon's life span is determined by how well its owner cleans and looks after it, rather than how much they use it. If a game allowed you to strip your weapons and clean them as a way of repairing damages weapons, that would be pretty cool.

 

[Asmundr]

I've generally found that most games that account for 'wear and tear' in any sense overdo it.

Most real items don't break anywhere near as easily as what I've witnessed from items in games that do this.

Granted, it's quite possible to break things with little or no warning too, but games always seem to get it wrong just because they feel like if you're going to implement a feature it has to be obvious that it exists.

I think it's a tricky thing to get right, so you have to ask yourself what purpose it serves in your game and if it actually makes the game more interesting, or if it's just irritating.

Good stuff, especially on the last bit.

It is tricky to implement equipment degradation and get it right. Fallout 3 had it right on some levels but like I posted earlier it gets annoying to have to find exact copies of guns, then lug tons of them around just so you can rep your weapon with them.

To me something like this works in some RPG's and "apocalyptic" games like Fallout. Other game types it is just pointless and even more so that if you "time" breaks its gone for good.

I think the best way to repair stuff is to have spare parts as a resource and you could turn any weapon into spare parts and use that to repair any weapon. That way you don't have to carry 5 rifles just to maintain one. You should also make the stuff pretty durable and the item's performance shouldn't suffer too greatly when it degrades. Maybe even have the option to clean your weapon to prevent degradation.

Bingo.

This was one of the conclusions that me and my friends came to when discussing this. For example: Instead of following a Fallout example and forcing the player to carry an armories worth of guns to rep one why not implement a "Gun Kit". The "Gun Kit" would carry the spare parts for firearms and different guns would require different parts; different levels of degradation would require different parts. The parts in the kit won't take up any weight so as to not bog down the player. To make things easier on the player, weapons (depending on material) won't break quickly and some weapons can even be used while "broken". You can fight with a sword that has no edge or even if the blade has been broken.

This is only a rough idea though and their was a lot more to it, like NPC repair shops and such who would take care of this for you for a small fee, or favors, or even for free if they like you enough. Parts can either be made by the player or NPC's and not cost a whole hell of a bunch, etc. Again, this is only a rough idea of what we we're thinking and their was a whle lot more to it.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Fallout 3 was annoying because it seemed like the weapons lost quality so fast... STALKER's system (well, in Clear Sky, maybe in Pripyat) where the gun would jam or misfire the lower quality it was was pretty awesome...

 

[Deadlock Radium]

Ever played Fallout 3? I loved that system and never found it bothersome. Repairing my gear, watching that sunset. Raid a random grocery store. All fun in my book.

*Super agrees*

No, seriously, Fallout 3 did everything right. I like the fact that weapons and armour gets worse with more use.

 

[Kevonovitch]

sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's complete BS, depends on how it's implimented, and the type of game.

oblivion=perfect, dead rising 2=wtf is this shit?

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I hate it. I think it is always a bad idea that works against my enjoyment of a game.

And I love Oblivion and Fallout 3.

 

[aseelt]

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within had a nice mechanic where you had your primary weapon and the a secondary optional one which you could pick up from fallen enemies

The secondary gave you powerful combos, but expired after several hits.

I liked it.

 

[imnot]

I dont like it if its to fast, as I rarley concentrate on repair in fallout, oblivion ect.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Dead Rising's system is cool but I'd love it if they'd added a % for weapons that don't have ammo so I don't have to keep count of how many hits I've made with said weapon...
It depends on the setting though. Some games wouldn't benefit from this (most modern FPS's) as it would add an annoyance factor. Perhaps more along the lines of jams/misfires for these games.
RPG's would be the best for these systems as a way of reminding you that maintainence is key.

 

[MetalheadParkey]

I have an Idea.

What about using a system where; Items degrade, you can spend money to repair them if you want to, but they (if only slowley) regenerate on their own.

I'm not sure how you could explain that in a game if your going for any realism at all, or prehaps your character could automaticly repair them between battles :S

 

[TheColdHeart]

I think it worked pretty well in Fallout 3, it was fairly simple and worked pretty well at helping you slim down your inventory if you didn't want to hoard or sell stuff.

FarCry 2...god I hated that mechanic. It just ruined gameplay, you get run off the road for the 1000th time by ANOTHER jeep of rebels and think "right screw this I'm going to kill them" jump out, stand in front of them and...nothing! the gun jams and you become a pin cushion.

 

[TPiddy]

I think that the Fallout system of using similar guns and parts to repair your weapons was cool, but it shouldn't be the only way. You shouldn't just be able to replace parts, you should be able to maintain them with oil and the like. And the one problem I had was how quickly the degradation occurred. Of course, if I'm mashing a wooden baseball bat over a super mutant's head every 5 minutes I would expect it to break eventually, but shotguns and rifles can expends hundreds of rounds of ammunition without really breaking down all that much.

If you're going to do weapon degradation, be as realistic as possible. Armor degradation, on the other hand... would just suck if it were super realistic, as a single bullet could really screw up your armor.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I hate it.

Because for one thing, if realistically implemented, it would come up incredibly rarely. How many times is your gun going to break in a twelve hour fucking period in real life?

If implemented often enough to mean anything, it would become irritating. I can't tell you how many times I had to stop having fun in Oblivion to go fix my sword. If the little hammer didn't break, it wouldn't be so bad, kind of fun even. But no, half my money had to go towards fucking hammers.

A way it could be done right is sharpening your sword or cleaning your gun gives you a temporary boost, next thirty hits do 1.5 damage, or something like that.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

If you are doing some sort of RPG or Survival type it might be good to add a bit of rudimentary degredation system. If you are going for a linear rpg however, I would tend to leave it out. Also keep in mind how realistic you want to make your game. That is the biggest factor in whether you should include it or not. If the is of the 2 types previously mentioned if implemented well it would definitely add to the experience of the game even though it would be an annoyance factor to an extent the person should of kept their equipment up to date.

I hate it.

Because for one thing, if realistically implemented, it would come up incredibly rarely. How many times is your gun going to break in a twelve hour fucking period in real life?

If implemented often enough to mean anything, it would become irritating. I can't tell you how many times I had to stop having fun in Oblivion to go fix my sword. If the little hammer didn't break, it wouldn't be so bad, kind of fun even. But no, half my money had to go towards fucking hammers.

A way it could be done right is sharpening your sword or cleaning your gun gives you a temporary boost, next thirty hits do 1.5 damage, or something like that.

A master hammer like the skelton key would of been brilliant in Oblivion but then again I don't really see money as being a problem in that game.