Back in old MUD code a safety was in play to prevent characters from using weapons/armor that was above the characters level, if a character
tried to pick up something of higher level he would get zapped and drop it. FL does not used this code BUT its still being used in shops, my level
10 can find a level 50 (NON RARE) sword on the ground and use it where at the same time cant buy that 300 gold level 15 sword because of inexperience.
Low level characters need equipment and sometimes hunting for it isnt able to be done, so my suggestion is to remove the level check from shops
and allow people to make the purchases that they can afford.
This will simutainiously put money back in shops and limit the amount of people reaching level 25 with 50k gold on hand, so basicly if you are gonna let them use
it you might as well let them buy it.
UC
We generally don't allow people to use gear significantly above their level.
The rule of thumb is, if you can't obtain an item with a group of similar level players then you shouldn't be using it. If we find this, we request the player stadh the item until or, if we feel there's a risk of using it, we take it away.
I can't see a system where we hardcode that sort of restriction, unless it's like players can grab items their level + (level x 0.5) or something.
I think you misunderstood, I was talking about 'removing' the rest of the old safety not adding new restrictions.
Low level chars should be able to buy equipment from shops if they can afford it, thats what shops are there for isnt it? From what
I see and remember weapon and armor shops were basicially only used for farming gold (selling xxx equipment) to use at the potion and scroll
shops levels 30+, so for the weapons and armor shops money was always going 'out' and never coming in. Thats fine but once the keeper
goes broke people have to wait for a reboot in order to be able to continuing the farming process while at the same time there could be 2-3-4-5
rank 10-30 chars walking around with a pile of gold in their pockets and nothing to do with it except buy ducks 
But thats just my thoughts, please mull them over If you like the idea but think X or Y could be a coding challenge just send me a PM, however if
you hate it dont tar and feather me publicly lol
UC
There is a penalty for using weapons whose level is high above your own level.
You can see this when you get a L50 weapon at low levels, you will be dealing about the same damage as a crap weapon.
Sometimes it's best to just use what was intended for your level.
Regarding weapons, just get the blackwatch sword. This sword is great just up until the 40th's.
If you can't use a sword and need meele power, then there is a maul in the Arena with an avg damage of 20. Both are non rare.
I've even used the blackwatch sword at 50 in certain circumstances. A great addition, imo.