I dunno if this would work but it occured to me the other day.
Instead of eq being predetermined with x amount of ac, y amount of hit/dam and z amount of saves; what if eq had a rating. The rarer the eq the better the rating would be. Now here is the cool part, your char adds up the total "points" of his eq and can then distribute them however he sees fit among his stats. This way you can get any piece of eq and suit it to your needs while still making rarer eq more valuable because it allows more points.
If this were done we could also allow players to rename their equipment for cool custom sets, and when they die and get looted the victor can then use the points to adjust his own stats and rename the eq to his own liking.
I think this would have two benefits. One it would allow people to decide more closely how they wanted to suit themselves, whether going for certain saves, hitroll, ac, hp whatever. It would also make looting a little less harsh since even with a crappy set of easily obtainable eq you could still give your char what he needs to get better stuff.
I think this would also help melees a lot since you can only carry a few extra rares in the inventory. This way you can go from fighting a shaman to an invoker to a berserker without needing tons of spare wares.
The only thing that would need to be balanced is how and how long it would take to set the properties of each piece. If it were instantanious then it would be to easy to adjust ones stats for the current opponent...
Maybe you would have to go to an armory and take about 6 hours to alter a piece to your liking, and to change the name youd have to have imm approval so people dont make dumb things like "My badass sword of noob killing". Of course you'd prolly need a new imm in charge of eq strings 
Anyway, just a random idea.
I'm not sure how much I like this... I see learning eq to be an essential part of the game. I like that not everything is useful for everyone... hell, I had a character go through Gear the other day and get nothing out of it because none of the eq around would've been useful to me, and I LIKE it this way. I like that a glance at my enemy tells me what his strengths are, how his eq's boosting him. If we started renaming all the eq, you'd have no clue what your opponent was wearing. Not only that, but these points you propose could easily be used to nullify the weakness of a combo. A faerie invoker could easily just put all those points to hp, a feral cleric all aff saves and ac, etc.
Creative, but I don't think it's a good idea. Keep them coming though. 
I actually like the idea, but with a tweak...here goes:
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Get rid of the re-naming of things to allow for basic knowledge of eq by name.
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Have the "points" system apply to more specific areas rather than anything and everything. IE: Have the helm of spell turning offer 20 armor points and 10 save points and 0 hit/dam points and 0 stat (hp/mana/mv)-boosts. It could maybe even be a little more specific, but I do think it's kinda a fun idea.
Problem: This would require a massive, massive recoding of every item in the game as well as a creation of a customization interface. Balancing would be hell. It will never happen.
I do not like this idea.
If you wish to customize equipment in a sort of way, perhaps we should expand the sockets part of the game.
I think sockets play a very little role in FL. With the exception of that Fire breath gem, and the ones that curse weapons.
Much of the medium armor specter equipment (not the uber eq) could be set by sockets.
Leaving uber gear unsocketed.
For example i think we have little sockets variety, and i am yet to find a -1 spell save armor socket gem.
Go see the tooth fairy for your -1 svs armor socket.
I can also quote 2 non rare -1 saves vs spell of my head. But both are weapon only. 
-1 spell saves is pretty nice for a socket. You ask me, it should be only on rare armor sockets... think of how many armor slots you can have a socketed item in.
many non-rare armor items are already coded for that exact purpose. try and fit certain rare sockets into many non-rares and it's "too intricate to fit properly" standard message.
Are there +hp armor sockets, too?
reply yes.
Oh the habits our fingers get into...
If you actually took the time to look - there are sockets for just about everything...
norem, curse, hp, mana, move, con, str, int, wis, dex, hit and dam...
I can think of about 4 for each. And some rare some unrare. You just have to get off your arse and look.
'Instead of making a new thread i think Ill hi jack this one right quick. If i get a weapon uncursed is it now disarmable? is there a way to recurse it or is that automatic?do i have to get the dragon uncursed to use a bow?
Yes, the dragons you get from Imms for descriptions/RP you'll have to uncurse it to wear a bow, but it's still yours as long as you're not killed and you had it in a backpack. If you leave it in your inventory it'll stay attached to you or put it in a locker so it doesn't take up room in inventory. If you uncurse a noremove weapon you remove the noremove flag unless the weapon/shield/armor has a nouncurse flag in which case you wont be able to remove the curse on it. I tend to keep a curse on a weapon no matter what though because they come in handy quite often when fighting people who can disarm/shielddisarm/offhand disarm.
'Ok. I really like the idea of a cursed weapon but how do i drop it and keep the curse? Wait.. if i drop my strength with a demon talisman or something will i drop it?
'Ok. I really like the idea of a cursed weapon but how do i drop it and keep the curse? Wait.. if i drop my strength with a demon talisman or something will i drop it?
Have plague, poison, weaken, or anything else that drops str made you drop a weapon/shield before?