Suggestion to help move away from item based stat boosts

There has been a lot of discussion regarding a lack of desire for gear motivated game play in SotA- which I think is wonderful.

Just wanted to toss in my suggestion on this: instead of having items provide stat boosts (which create massive disparities between players, and thus the lust for gear), have items act primarily as accessories rather than necessities.

Some items will simply look awesome, a deviation from the drab and everyday stuff you had to pack around for so long. Something you can show off.

You can have items that improve or make changes to your abilities- the "choker of memphit summoning" changes your memphit from the normal fire, to poison for example.

A ring that lets you breath under water longer, jump higher, run further, have green skin, etc.

You get the idea- it would be a method to further customize your character rather than simply beef it up.

 

+1 for no gear worshipping
I think that the better quality items should bring advantages like perhaps being slightly lighter due to the better crafting skills of the maker etc. Also aspects like being less likely "critically" hit when wearing a good quality armor would make some differences.. making things more dependent on the skills of the player.
Even though I do hope there are some differences in the gear quality, I don't want it to be too expensive / valuable to be lost / worn out.

I too hope that more skilled craftsmen can create different customized pieces of armor / weapons that'll look good as well.

 

Gear worshipping?

In most MMOs, there are tiers of end-game gear you can progress through if you're doing the hardest end game content. If you don't want to raid, then you don't need that gear and you can just pay it no attention. But some players think that leveling and playing the main story is boring. Gear progression IS the game for them. If that is what they enjoy, why take it away from them if it doesn't affect you in any way?

My main interest is the story/main campaign. But I don't think that having end game gear progression is inherently bad.

 

@Monxter good suggestions!

@enderandrew There are plethora of games to play for end game gear, that system has been done repeatedly.
Nobody is saying there wouldn't be gear, just that it might be more fun to move away from gear based stat boosts. There are more creative ways to make such content appealing.

 

They said previously that it won't be a gear based game. There won't be stat bonuses and I believe it could be translated as saying there won't be "gear worshiping".

The problem with games like that is that a level 100 person is exponentially more powerful than a level 1 person. It won't be that way in SotA.