An Observation

I was reading through the replies to Chayesh's thread on what people's greatest frustration is in regards to the game. Overall, there was one main topic that came up repeatedly. People think that equipment has become too important and too difficult to get. Personally, I think these are both really the same problem. Equipment's importance is only a problem if the majority of people cannot get the reasonable items.

So, I propose two solutions. First, the only rares a character below level 38 can pick up are weapons . Why weapons and why level 38, you ask? There are plenty of rare weapons that are designed for lower levels, and they don't have any impact on the availability to pinns.

However, the hyper-important disparity between those who are decked and those who can't get armor is a problem. Equipping is usually done in stages. Basic (mithril/onyx, etc.)-> 'Normal Rares' -> Gradual Upgrading to Better Rares. For sub-pinn range characters, the scale is shifted down a notch basically. The 'Normal Rares' for pinns are what sub-pinn chars gradually upgrade to. What is the impact of this?

When a pinnacle needs to equip, they gather their basic items, and then there is a shortage of 'Normal Rares' because these items are the ones the sub-pinns are striving to get. Sub-pinn range does not require any sort of rares (aside from weapons) to be balanced, rank, or anything else. If the sub-pinn range chars weren't taking up a lot of 'Normal Rares', pinns would, theoretically, be able to get these fairly readily. This would put these pinns in a situation where they have a fighting chance (and aren't going to be beaten just by decked equipment; instead, skill is much more important again).

My second suggestion. In addition to this, raise the number of 'Normal Rares' (and by these I mean things like the multi-colored girdle, globes, coral bracers, veils, etc.) by A LOT. Yes, I know there is the statement 'Rares are supposed to be rare'. Thats all well and fine, but as FL changes, so must our mindsets. In an age where people go to Steel every day rather than once every few months, these types of rares need to be much more available to maintain balance. I really don't think there is a single person that minds if these types of items are fairly readily available. That doesn't mean they are limitless, just that a significant amount of people can get them. Its going to make things more fun for the people who are 'decked', and a lot more pleasant for those that aren't and don't stand a fighting chance. It also solves the problem of less skilled players beating more skilled players on equipment alone.

Overall, the point is not a small tweak. There needs to be a significant increase in the number of these types of rares available at pinnacle.

Thank you for your attention. I would appreciate feedback.

I think the increases of rares would indeed be nice, but as you said, it does kind of defeat the point of rareness. How about chars can only wear so many rares or, rares of a certain level. It might be necessary to make more .... levels of rarity to see it work, but like if you have the void leggings or some rather nice thing, then you would only be able to wear that, and like two other things judged to be that good or better. So keep rares like the girdle and globes the same, but now there's enough for everyone since everybody would have a limited amount that they could wear. So you can still get very well equipped, but not sick to the point of domination on a mass scale. It'll force some to kick on the pk switch and actually try...

You know what the funniest bit of this argument it?

Alot of people complain that Life Insurance stops people from looting.

If we limit the amount of rares we can have. Then why even bother looting? Its not like you can wear them or make use of them in any way? You already have reached your restriction of what you can wear....

Exactly, so you have to pick which pieces you want. Everyone can't be strong with everything. That kind of thing. You could still sac stuff to be an ***. Or defensively so they don't have it. I didn't flesh out the idea much, it was more of a response, but with some work, it might make sense.

Rares are circulating fine.If You wear teeths onyxes and need more better things just go and Pk someone wearing corals,girdles and etc,it is easy solution.

Oh ok. Simple.

Right?

Nothing needs changing

I support the second suggestion, but not the first.

Simply put, mages around level 30 would have absolutely no chance against melees if they could not obtain +hp items like elemental bracelets, brooches of life, sparkling rings, etc. It is the simple disparity in hp and ability to deal damage at this point between mages/melees that means that without eq, a mage won't be touching a decently equipped melee. Any PK-successful mage around 30 is decked out in +hp rare eq (I've PKed at 30 plenty with mages, and there is simply no other way to do it unless your opponent's an idiot), and they STILL are not going to have an easy time of PKing around there.

Now, are melees meant to have the advantage at lower levels? Absolutely. But mages should still have a chance, and to do that they need the ability to wear the +hp eq that actually does something.

Well, there are some problems that I see...

First, I'd like to point out that PK and playing in general isn't limited to pinn or high levels. High levels already have an immense advantage in that they can actually gather the rares...so the rares naturally gravitate to high ranks anyways. Sure, sometimes lowbies do get decked, but I don't think that the decked lowbies are the source of the problem here...which you named as equipment shortage. So basically, I don't think that lowbies 'hoarding' is the problem at all.

As for the second idea..if you bar rares from lowbies, why do you need to increase the availability of them? That seems redundant...Barring rares will already increase the availability of them. If you do both, may as well make them non-rare.

As for the equipment balance...the easy fix would be to make eq less worthwhile. This can be done in a few ways. One way is to just boost the natural skills of classes (which would make things like sanctuary and barkskin much more useful) to compensate for lowered amount of eq bonuses.

This would be very good for quite a few things, especially class vs class balance. For example, zerk skills would give a lot of avg dam/damroll/hp, but not so much AC or saves. Warriors might have hit/avg dam/ac bonuses...and so on. This would allow you to balance classes so that they aren't strong against everyone and have clear strengths and weaknesses. EQ would still be there, but would NOT be as significant as class's natural abilities.

--

Another way would make eq bonuses class-graded. Like how AC is graded by dex. So an avg 17 axe might become avg 23 in the hands of a zerk, but lowered to avg 13 in a psi's hands. Same with HP, ac, and all other eq affects. This would also specialize classes and make different eq worthwhile to different classes. Also, in this method, nobody can get a 'god' suit, because even if the eq has tons of bonuses, some are reduced based on your class. Of course, you will still be very strong, but still have a weakness against your banes (which right now may not necessarily be the case).

Getting more complex would be to add a grade for race too, getting rid of our 'best' choices for every class.

--

Or you could add a combination of both, boosting class skills a bit, slightly weakening eq and then grading it based on class/race.

If balanced well, this strategy will make eq worthwhile to gather but not overly dominating, while also fixing some balance problems with certain race/class combos.

You know what the funniest bit of this argument it?

Alot of people complain that Life Insurance stops people from looting.

If we limit the amount of rares we can have. Then why even bother looting? Its not like you can wear them or make use of them in any way? You already have reached your restriction of what you can wear....

LI: Sure, it sometimes bites that you can't get the eq after you kill someone - but all I have to do is think that I did kill that SOB and I feel so much better

Short of there being a rebalancing on non-rare eq, I like the second suggestion. More rares mean its easier to get them and that makes it easier to actually compete. Take it from me - the days of non-rared people hunting down rared people are gone. If you want to compete now you MUST have moderate lvl 50 rares ie Factions are a minimum. I'd go so far as to say that all 'basic' rares from the factions ie banner, rings of acc should be upped as well. Some of these items are critical for the melee side of things - esp non giants - to get the hitrol up high enough to fight.

L-A

I love Celeritys idea, I've got nothing else to add.

As for the equipment balance...the easy fix would be to make eq less worthwhile. This can be done in a few ways. One way is to just boost the natural skills of classes (which would make things like sanctuary and barkskin much more useful) to compensate for lowered amount of eq bonuses.

This would be very good for quite a few things, especially class vs class balance. For example, zerk skills would give a lot of avg dam/damroll/hp, but not so much AC or saves. Warriors might have hit/avg dam/ac bonuses...and so on. This would allow you to balance classes so that they aren't strong against everyone and have clear strengths and weaknesses. EQ would still be there, but would NOT be as significant as class's natural abilities.

--

Another way would make eq bonuses class-graded. Like how AC is graded by dex. So an avg 17 axe might become avg 23 in the hands of a zerk, but lowered to avg 13 in a psi's hands. Same with HP, ac, and all other eq affects. This would also specialize classes and make different eq worthwhile to different classes. Also, in this method, nobody can get a 'god' suit, because even if the eq has tons of bonuses, some are reduced based on your class. Of course, you will still be very strong, but still have a weakness against your banes (which right now may not necessarily be the case).

Getting more complex would be to add a grade for race too, getting rid of our 'best' choices for every class.

--

Or you could add a combination of both, boosting class skills a bit, slightly weakening eq and then grading it based on class/race.

If balanced well, this strategy will make eq worthwhile to gather but not overly dominating, while also fixing some balance problems with certain race/class combos.

I like ALL of that, especially the part about race. A Halfling wearing the same wares as a Giant and vice versa always seemed a bit off, since it should encumber the Halfling and provide much less protection for the Giant. Good ideas, Celerity.

its NOT difficult to get rares in this game. >.<

pk somebody once in awhile. if they had LI, keep pking them, or find someone else to pk.

completely agree with Aeva. I do not now, nor have I ever had any trouble gathering any equipment I sought. Locate it, and go get it. If another player has it, take it. :eek:

If there are social issues such as both players are good, or are affiliated through clans or cabals, then you should convince that player that your need is greater than their own. RP its not hard, its suposed to be an integral part of this world.

For those of you long time players who know where to get what you want but seem to always be a day late, visit more often.

As for any other issue with perhaps low ranked characters having the rare you seek, thats why the gods granted us the Sovereign Syndicate.

Well, obviously you two don't have any trouble getting rares. You two have both played here for a long time. I am not worried about people who have been here for years leaving because of getting rares. I am worried about having a stagnant playerbase, because we are so ignorantly complacent that because its not a problem for us, its not a problem at all.

Go read the thread I referred to if you are doubting that people think its an issue. Practically 12 pages of posts were enouncing the problem.

there is no coding activity on this MUD. none, zero. really any idea/suggestion is whistling in the dark.

Jesus Christ, you guys play all of the equipment-pking, treasure hunting dogs in the game. How about if you can't get a good set of equipment, you go around ROLEPLAYING FOR A WHILE.

Jesus Christ' date=' you guys play all of the equipment-pking, treasure hunting dogs in the game. How about if you can't get a good set of equipment, you go around ROLEPLAYING FOR A WHILE.[/quote']

Some of us actually enjoy PK - if you don't, you can always go and start a chatroom somewhere else....

L-A

Jesus Christ' date=' you guys play all of the equipment-pking, treasure hunting dogs in the game. How about if you can't get a good set of equipment, you go around ROLEPLAYING FOR A WHILE.[/quote']

OH yeah - and I'm ALWAYS role playing while I'm on my characters. I don't know what game you're playing - but RP is a mandatory thing. Just because my RP involved killing other doesn't make it any less valid than anyone else's.

At least I'm playing the whole game (RP and PK) instead of half of it like you.

L-A

Hey now LA...that's not completely fair.

If they are RPing....and get PKd...they played both parts.

A valid point.