Making all wares, "common" items.

So...I was thinking. The dynamics of FL in its current state has changed considerably. It's come to the point where no one will even fight in anything than a perfect set of wares. My suggestion is to try a different type of game.

What if we remove the rare/uniques status of all items. Making it so that there are unlimited amounts of rares in the game. I'm only suggesting we try it for like a month, then we can revert to how it was earlier if we don't like it. Honestly, I don't think the system works for our player demographics. We have few people, and those few people often have many characters. Those said characters are usually armed to the teeth since dying is a real rarity now a days as well as our smaller Pbase. It seems most of our players simply log on very briefly to see if they have some opponent they are preped to fight or to see if there is a certain rare in and if none of those apply they simply log off. There is almost nothing you can do to get rares to cycle around. Compound this by the aforementioned vets(I am guilty of this myself) often have pre-50's also in rares so it really can get a pain in the ***.

Just take me as an example. I have 2 50's in upper-end rares, 3 prepinns in basic rares and my play time is limited. How is someone supposed to get those off of me?

Roll ninja, level, train, study, assassinate.

Yeah I'm in accordance. As Lamah I felt something was terribly wrong because no matter how many times I slayed a Nexus or other powerful foe to weaken them they'd all have life insurance and could keep there gear, it got very ridiculous.

Roll ninja' date=' level, train, study, assassinate.[/quote']

Then you'd have people hiding in there cabals and logging off faster.

Providing they see you coming

Just take me as an example. I have 2 50's in upper-end rares' date=' 3 prepinns in basic rares and my play time is limited. How is someone supposed to get those off of me?[/quote']

Maybe we encourage people to stop freaking doing this? I mean, it's one thing if you're playing all those regularly, but as you obviously are not, quite frankly I consider you a poor sport for letting that eq just languish in limbo. It is that people like you are doing this that is making it feel like rares are never around, not that there aren't enough of them. You want to help change the accessibility of rares, change your own behavior first.

P.S. Do not take this to be picking on you only, Wages. LOTS of people do the exact same, and it is, if you ask me, the main reason that rares feel so damned rare... because people forget how many their own chars that they aren't even playing have (if you added up the chars you mentioned, I'm willing to bet you yourself have around 30 or 40 pieces of rare eq in your possession, with less than half of those on your main char which means that most of them are usually not in play).

Ya, I went the ninja route, and people just log off faster not wanting to risk their wares. That and if they see you for a split second, everyone with AIM knows you are there. Not to mention random tells telling of a ninja. Even then people know to stay out of cities most of the time.

I totally agree with you Pali, and I kick myself for it. On the other hand, when you have no one to play with, such as when your play time is limited to off hours like me(i.e. max 5 people playing at the same time) then you have really nothing to do other than just train and equip characters. When I do get some action, I need those rares to even compete. I feel justified in keeping them though. I play them, just not so regularly. I reckon many people feel the same.

Really, let's try it. If it sucks, we'll just lower it back to normal. This is an almost labor free change and am so shocked by everyone lack of willingness to change/experiment. Doing nothing is not going to make the game better/or get more players it's going to keep things the way they are. Some openess please! I know we spent years learning the "system" and any change means we slightly lose our mastery of the FL world, but we need changes to bring in new blood.

Making all eq common removes the entire point of the rare system, which is to encourage competition.

What I want is life insurance gotten rid of and standard sets of cabal eq granted upon death/request being brought back, ideally along with a lowering of the gaps between most rares and the really high end ones plus a small increase to the strength of most common eq.

And Wages, I'd recommend keeping it to two chars at a time. You mentioned you have five. Why? If your playtime is already limited, how are you accomplishing anything with any of those chars with your time divided so much? And if it ISN'T so divided, but a few of those chars aren't doing anything really, then I'm quite right in saying you are wasting rares on those characters that could be put to far better use by being within the system.

I also feel two "active" characters is a happy equilibrium.

I only get like one rare on any of my characters these days, can't ever find any others

I say Eliminate RARES.

Fights would last longer, they would rely on skill, not on UBER equipment to win.

That's what I hate about WOW and others, you get good, and a new expansion pack comes out, and you MUST do it, to compete and have the best equip...

Why can't you get to 50 and everyone has a chance, not just those who have suits...

There is an eq balancing project running, however it will take a bit till the resulting changes are implemented. (Just imagine the time needed alone for listing every piece of eq for one slot / weapons of one kind. THEN you have to compare, see if they are really accessible right now and THEN see what we need more / less to make things more balanced.)

That is a gargantuan task. I wish you good luck.

If you wish an idea, try to make some ground rules on EQ bonus.

Or create a structured point buy rule system for eq bonus.

This will allow you to compare equipment with more ease and eat less time.

It's been running for a good half year now.

I say Eliminate RARES.

Fights would last longer, they would rely on skill, not on UBER equipment to win.

That's what I hate about WOW and others, you get good, and a new expansion pack comes out, and you MUST do it, to compete and have the best equip...

Why can't you get to 50 and everyone has a chance, not just those who have suits...

I hear alot of people talking about uber suits, and great rares, and eq causing pks to be lost/won. Im telling you I have lost more in uber suits than I have in crap. Gear has probably the smallest effect on a pk than any other factor. If yuo suck, your gonna suck in full adeptus, or mithril. If you can hang, your gonna do so in crap, or in great gear. Those people who get godly suits do not keep them strictly because of those suits bonuses. If you do not train, your not gonna keep that gear, if you do not know what your doing, your not gonna keep it, so on and so forth.

here is my order for pk affecting variables

Skill

class

cabal

race

gear

How about we just limit everyone to a single character. Have an account login confirmed by the IMMs over the forum, allow a single account per IP, a single char per account. No more limbo...

I think 2 is a better number, but I see why 1.

Fights would last longer' date=' they would rely on skill, not on UBER equipment to win.[/quote']

My characters average at least a 5-1 kill/death ratio, and I have NEVER had a full adeptus or comparable suit (except for Victol and Vryxtyx for short periods).

It's already about skill.

P.S. I also think two is a far better number. It's nice to have an alternative char if your main guy just got pounded and has been fighting 3-1 odds and you still want to play but not have a crappy time of it.

I gotta agree with the two characters.

I agree with 2 chars as well. Same reason as Pali said, plus it gives you the chance to explore and try some new combos or random RP ideas while not scrapping your main toon.