Items with random stats?

Are the items in this game, like UO and diablo 2. Where the stats are random, and not every item/weapon is the same. Or is it more like Wow/LOTRO/Everquest, where all the items are the same, and every one who has a long sword of woo has the best weapon.

 

First off, still being in pre-alpha everything is potentially subject to change. Nothing is written in stone. Besides that we also don't have all the information. That said..

Pretty much all items will be player crafted but stats may change over time and not all crafted items are necessarily going to be equal. However, the current thinking is that the best items will be player crafted.

 

We dont really know. They haven't given us a lot of info on the itemization system. If I had to guess, I'd guess that items will have set stats, but those stats can be modified by magical properties and the quality of the item. That's basically the easiest way to balance things, and it creates big potential for item diversity while keeping the item system sensible for players. This approach would also be consistent with what we have been told (which, again, isn't much). Take this with a grain of salt.

 

I would imagine the higher your skill in a certain crafting skill, the higher percentage of creating the item with better stats.

 

Aye, this will all depend on how they handle crafting. If there is any challenge in the actual creation process or any variance in resources then different levels of quality would be possible.

 

There's a "Quality" skill in the crafting tree, but in the Megapost thread it describes this as "a better chance to succeed when trying to craft higher quality items." I'm hoping it also means a better chance for any items to turn out high quality, too.

 

Do not forget there are also plans for "events" during crafting that could potentially effect stats.

 

Like minigames? Have they talked about this?

 

I don't want combat to be completely equipment based. But at the same time, if every item type were virtually identical, crafting wouldn't be very fun. Really, you wants to create the same exact item over and over again? I think some sort of hybrid would be nice. Maybe some stats could range by a certain percentage, maybe no more than 20%. I don't want extremely powerful weapons that kill with one swing (I know about the Crystal Sword, but that those aren't craft-able). There should be limits on how many stats can be enhanced on a given item as well. Skills should ultimately have more weight in determining the outcome of a battle, rather than the equipment used.

The devs have not really commented on how crafting will effect stats of items yet. I think I heard that durability of items might be random, but as for other stats I don't recall anything being mentioned yet.

 

They haven't given specifics but they have mentioned it a few times. From what I gather they're not really mini-games but I suppose conceptually that might be one way to think about it. Can't say for sure but occasionally something could happen during crafting that could require a live response of some kind (this is speculative on my part I don't recall word for word what's been said) that could change the end result for good or ill.

I don't think they will occur for every attempt but randomly every now and then. Like rolling a 1 out of 100 or something. I'm pretty sure it will require a live response as opposed to just a random roll result. I don't expect we'll hear any more about it until combat is further along and they start focusing on other things.

 

The one idea they've been fairly consistent with is that a PC's "power" does not increase exponentially. While a difficult fight a level 20 could still have a chance against a level 40. This would have to take equipment into account. While the level 40 has obvious advantages they should not be overwhelmingly so. Equipment will need to be much the same.

 

Great topic even if we do not know the answer.

Interesting itemization makes for fun, I think. An item doesn't always have to have a ton of stats to be interesting, just enough of something different to give it personality and make it feel like a real find.

 

Now that you mentioned it, I do recall the devs talking about that. I believe that was the hangout that Chris and Richard joked about how many 5th graders would it take to overpower them or something like that.

 

That I believe was the most recent example and one of the times they've talked about the concept most but the idea has been there since the beginning. Richard talked about it early on how he didn't want "gated" content like in a lot of MMOs and the power differences between levels.

In some ways it's a difficult discussion to have without getting into too many specifics because they're always the preconception of level = power.. which is also true of equipment. It's a natural expectation that steel is better than iron for example and that high crafting skill should allow you to make "better" items and those "better" items should have value.

So the trick is to both have that power/quality increase but at the same time limit that increase such that it isn't overpowering.

Then to have the player understand how this can work. A lot of people have expressed the desire to not have an "item based" system which would happen if equipment is too much of a deciding factor in combat.. yet at the same time you want equipment to have value for the player. I do not envy Portalarium's task in trying to strike this delicate balance.

 

I was also having a conversation in another thread that the value of certain skills will be relative; ranged might be more useful in some situations while hand-to-hand more useful in others, and different types of magic might be ineffective in some situations, while powerful in other situations. So the mathematics of a "perfect deck" isn't necessarily going to always rule. But that's a whole other topic.

We know that there will be a lot of varieties of base weapons; for example for blades, falchions, iron swords, scimitars, etc., and so on, that will have different stats on their own. I'm guessing there won't be a reason why in some cases these couldn't be of "superior quality" or of "weak quality" and have different levels of durability and critical bonuses.

 

Hmmm, I guess this game coming out at the end of 2014 isnt a go then if they dont even have how they are going to do items yet. Well I hope they have random stats, i really wish they would copy mortal online lol. Where there are hundreds of different resources and you can put them in the handle, blade ect. Be nice for resources to have stats to.

 

I hope random/better stats are implemented and its not like the OP said where every sword of woo has the same stats or values. One of the cool things for me is always being able to get better gear even if its only 1% of badasserdom better than what i currently have .

Its still early on but i agree its a nice topic with great ideas and content

 

I'm hoping items are diverse as SWG and for the same reasons. Experimentation and available resources. With resources randomly spread
across the world instead of spawning in the same spots like many mmos. I'm also hoping rare resources can be claimed and harvested when found.
Really loved the diversity amongst crafters in SWG and hope they do something similar. For instance, I found a rare resource in SWG and my gunsmith
set up harvest stations and was the only one on the server who could make laser weapons at the time. Anyone remember Jeli?

 

Everyone has a slightly different playstyle so ideal stats for you might not be ideal stats for me. For that reason I truly hope that item stats are indeed randomized. While you can make a bastard sword, for example, you could expect it to have varying stats each time you made it, including a small chance at a "masterpiece" level of stats.

If every bastard sword you see is identical then you will only ever own one and that's not good for the crafters or very realistic, imo. Mixing and matching items is a fun part of the game!

 

I would love to see something along the lines of a stat system like what Borderlands uses. I.e. you have a huge matrix of different equipment types, different potential modifiers, and probabilities on the modifiers. That could make for some truly unique equipment... I guess diablo III uses a similar system too.