Item drain was RE: [MUD-Dev] Item Distribution in Areas

[Brian Hook]

At 05:58 PM 2/23/01 -0600, Jim S wrote:

> In the end it seems as though the only way to really solve the
> problem is to put a drain on the faucet.

Right.

> Some of these do exist in our game if the proper precautions are not
> taken such as dragon breath melting an item or weapons being fumbled
> into a lake.

I would hesitate to call that item drain, since it's really more like
a chance loss of an item.  My idea of a drain is one with a fairly
constant and predictable outflow, hopefully significant enough to
balance the influx of new items.

> Item decay would at first seem another logical choice for putting a
> drain on the influx of items which come into the game.

This is the direction that I would head if I was developing a MMORPG.

> But our MUD revolves around a high-fantasy world where magic is
> relatively common, and most items we would want to get drained from
> the system are more or less powerful enough enchantment-wise that it
> would be illogical for them to decay overly much.

Well, applying logic to magic items may be pushing it a bit =).  You
could always invent some fiction, e.g. magic is not permanent and
tends to fade over time unless placed in special storage containers or
occasionally recharged blah blah blah.

> Also in many ways myself and the others that work on the game see
> item decay as just another 'annoyance' in many respects.

I think this depends largely on the implementation.  If it's a la
Diablo where you have to repair everything every time you come back
from battle, then I could see it becoming especially bothersome and
tedious.

One way of doing things is to have items wear out with usage instead
of decaying over time.  You can allow various forms of repair: none
(which may lead to hoarding but definitely acts as a drain); partial
(repairs only lengthen the time until the item is worn out); and full
(item can always be restored to like new).

I haven't really thought through which I prefer, but I'm leaning
towards partial repair where the cost to repair is some factor based
on the item's value and the amount of repair desired and an item will
still always end up falling apart (a two steps backward, one step
forward type of deal).  Entropy in action.  And if the repair removes
money from the economy by whatever means, then that's a secondary
benefit.

Some nice side effects fall out of this:

  - items are eventually removed from the world economy.  A
  consistent, delayed drain.

  - simply using items indirectly pulls money from the economy (the
  item wears down and loses intrinsic value; repair consumes money)

  - if you want to discourage hoarding, just make sure the world
  economy is structured such that players are confident that during
  the normal course of adventuring/advancement that replacement items
  will be reasonably easy to obtain.  For example, if at level 20 you
  stumble across a Polished Axe +5, it should have enough of a wear
  rating such that it can be used through level 30 (even without
  repair) even though you know that you're probably going to replace
  it at level 25.  This way a player economy is still encouraged where
  people sell/barter their used equipment which has, oddly enough,
  decreased in value because of usage.  So the expectation is that you
  find a "like new" item, use it for quite a while, then when you find
  something better you sell it in "used condition, as-is".

  - the effects of twinking are reduced.  The item still wears out if
  a twink carries it, and if you've casually twinked a friend
  (i.e. it's not a guild twink where tons of money is available), then
  they likely won't be able to afford to repair it before it breaks.
  This is like your rich relative giving you his hand me down 1991
  Porsche 911 Carrera -- it's free, it's nice for a while, but you
  won't be able to fix it when it breaks =)

  - player trade is still encouraged, with the added nuance that item
  condition will now be a bargaining factor

  - cool, situational use.  It would be kind of neat to have your
  uber-mega-whack set of gear you use for dragon runs and what not,
  but during the course of hanging out you use your "work clothes".

Obviously if this type of system is poorly designed or balanced you'll
get all kinds of problems.  Make the items wear down too fast and
people are going to hoard like mad.  Make the items too expensive to
repair and people will hoard.  Make the items too difficult to repair
(or the risk too great) then people will hoard.  Make the items not
wear down at all or too cheap to repair, then any benefits of
wear-and-tear on the economy aren't realized.

But overall I think it's a good system.  I'm sure a lot of MUDs have
tried it and it's got some horrible flaws in it, but since I'm not a
MUD player I wouldn't know =)

> Realism in a game has its place I do believe, but when realism
> overtakes playability then I definitely have a problem with that in
> games I play or design.

Sure, but I think that item decay or, more generally, economic
balance, is primarily aimed at game play, not realism.

Brian

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