Repair kits are currently punitive

Once you level up enough, you can make insane money fast. But the first few levels after a wipe are really tough. Encumbrance didn't help and the repair kit tweaks made it worse.

I can't make any money off leather any more, so I decided to kill some kobolds to try and sell their weapons for a profit. I made maybe 2,600 selling Kobold weapons after a run, but I used up 26 repair kits which now cost 220 each. I literally can't afford repair kits for another run.

I think before the last patch, 1 repair kit was giving me 20 points of durability on my armor. Now it is giving me 10 points, and the price has more than doubled, which means really that we're taking about a 4x change to repair kits. And my armor didn't use to degrade that fast either, which may mean an even greater change.

I wanted to try and help out my daughter today, but I'm in a bind myself currently.

When the first few levels are this tough, I fear it will turn away new players.

 

Agreed!

In R13, Repair Kits were just poor value for money. It was better to keep a few spare swords in your pack and toss the worn ones away. Now it's even less cost effective to use repair kits. I cannot see the point :-(

 

It still often costs more to repair an item than it does to make a new one. This is partly because resources are "free" and repair kits are not.

What you're seeing currently is that there are no players to sell you repair kits at a lower price. There are no players because there are no player vendors. That's the problem.

So fear not, repair kits will be something that "makes sense" as the economy evolves. This has been designed well.

 

Even with player vendors, it would be even more expensive because it costs considerably more to craft one.

Right now, if it wasn't for the crystal I keep grabbing in the Clink I'd be dead in the water with broken gear and unable to afford repairs. That isn't designed well.

 

I agree, repair kits are way way way too expensive. It wouldn't be too expensive if one kit repaired the item to 100% though.

 

The concept is designed fine. You're playing chess and only thinking one move in advance.

Players will undercut the price of the Repair Kits. What are they at the vendors, 200 gold? So all the devs need to do is lower the cost of making them to something like 50 gold. Then players will sell them in between 50 and 199 gold.

The design is fine, it's just the numbers that need adjusted. Your feedback is correct, but it's nothing to freak out about. It's just makes testing a bit frustrating.

 

You're saying as is, the system is fine, when it requires a change. But you're saying that I shouldn't provide feedback that a change is necessary.

For several releases people have been asking to make it cheaper/easier to craft one, and that hasn't happened. The only changes they've made have been to make the repair kits less effective and more expensive.

And the only feedback I'm giving is that the numbers were tweaked in the wrong direction, to which you are contesting.

 

it's cheaper to replace than repair, I'm boycotting the repair kit! If everyone stops using them maybe they'll address the problem.

 

In the last release, I found it cheaper to get multiple sets of armor and weapons and replace the currently used set as needed.
Edit: And this release even more so.

 

Quick question: do you have the Armor and Weapon durability skills in the Tactics tree?

 

It is an issue when repair kits are so expensive (now 240g) that it is not worth going hunting. Something as essential to game play as repair kits, should have a fixed price.

 

The only balanced thing about repair kits is you cant make money off of them.

Repairing weapons before selling them was profitable. Now it comes out equal.

 

really? resources are free? Maybe hides are common but is there anybody out there actually having fun mining for ore or chopping down trees?

I'm sure there is some hidden door or some secret passage that leads to a place to gather mass amounts of them but not everybody knows that.

In UO we could gather wood from almost all of the trees. I'm having a problem getting around the idea that I have to search for a special tree to find wood???

Currently the resource gathering is not fun unless somebody knows a trick. I haven't a clue how to find resources that make it worth my time. I can search for resources for an hour and come back and make like 1 item. Big deal. This can't be right.

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I really like the new light spell. It looks like a burning sun for sun magic. Cool touch, but these other features don't make any sense to me yet, and I'm starting to lose heart that they ever will. It would be nice to have some mention made on the next hangout as to what the goal is for magic, and for gathering and the deck system. I'm just not understanding the vision.

 

It's not a big deal...you can buy new stuff cheaper. So do that.

 

I like what I am wearing, so I am repairing it. Seems like that should be a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

 

I think this is the problem of giving feedback without knowing the big picture. For instance, last release people had the complaint that repair boxes were punitive. This release it got worse (but the skills they added might help?)

So the real question is why ignore player feedback? The answer must be in the larger picture. We don't know what that is.

Maybe repair boxes are temporary until crafting can directly repair items so they don't want users getting used to them. Maybe they're making them weak like NPC weapons and armor because the plan is that players can make the good boxes. Maybe they are bad to force people to participate in the upcoming player economy.

I think when feedback like this goes in the opposite direction, the devs should at least reply with "We're aware this is a pain in the short term but there is a reason for this."

Because we don't know why numbers were tweaked this way. I can only assume there is a reason we don't know yet.

 

That buying new is less expensive than repair might not change that much, even after release. Item affinity will in the end make so you do not want to buy new equipment that often.

 

I don't. I haven't had a chance to level up. My first skill points had to getting to Heavy Lifter in the tree, some strength and then just enough glyphs to fill my deck. I'm finding it hard to level up when I can't afford to repair my gear.

People say replace it with the free weapons laying around, but stealing isn't very Avatar-like and I doubt the world will have tons of weapons to steal at launch. Constantly replacing the gear because you can't repair it means item affinity will never work.

I'd rather not instantly throw away the Royal Founder pledge gear and my Sword of Bah'eer because people want to show off pledge tier gier.

Nor are players about to craft repair kits when iron bars are too expensive to buy, and the ones they smelt they're more likely to put into iron armor for thousands rather than trying to undercut a repair kit at 200.

 

This isn't a solution to repair kits being too expensive. In fact by getting those armor and weapon durability skills you are taking away skill points that could otherwise be spent on offensive and defensive skills. So you opt to be weaker to ensure your gear doesn't bust. That works if all you do is PvE and you aren't interested in getting the most out of your character's offensive and defensive skills.

I will pick up those skills after I get over level 50. by that time a character should be quite strong and then I think we can spare skill points on armor preservation because our self-preservation skills will already be bought.

I personally think that self-preservation skills are a priority.

 

All I do is indeed PVE.