[MUD-Dev] Gdn: item decay was: Blog about GDC implies changes to MMORPG population

[Damion Schubert]

On 7/15/05, Mathieu Castelli <mathieu at newtgames.com> wrote:
> J C Lawrence wrote:

>> Decay systems involve lots of change, both in their decay, and
>> the constant effort and activity involved in merely attempting to
>> maintain the status quo.  The trick is to make those changes also
>> interesting.

> Reading this rather old post, I was trying to come up with things
> that are interesting as decayed, as they reach the end of their
> time.  Stars and their nova sequence out of which heavy elements
> exist.

> Simply translated into the game it could be that right near the
> end, weapons and armours could blow out. The metaphor being that
> the crackles in the fabric becomes shrapnel (or, if need for a
> variant, that as the magical energy is not strong to hold the
> elements together anymore, it blows).

While not exactly what you're talking about, Earth and Beyond had a
similar dynamic, where they had a crafting system that allowed a
crafting system to disassemble any item in order to have a chance
for that item to be added to their 'recipe book'.  The net result is
that items that were on the verge of breaking were of very high
value to craftsmen, who hoped to be able to learn how to add it
permanently to their repertoire.

This is all anecdotal, mind you, but the designer of the system
seemed very pleased by how it turned out.

--d
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