Attunement and Item Decay...

[Rian18]

<DIV>I'm currently a lvl 28 Ranger on AB and already I'm seeing the utter idiocy that Soe has initiated by having both these concepts in game.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>To give you some idea on my character before I start this rant.  I'm currently in a mix of AQ and feyiron, while duelwielding scorn and a pristine forged steel stiletto.  My bow is Stormfire and most of my abilities are at least adept I with shadowlunge and triple shot at adept III.</DIV> <DIV>I was lucky enough to win and be able to sell off a master drop for a couple plat,  which allowed me to have some pretty decent gear for my level.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But already I see doom approaching.  Its happening to my friends now as we all enter our 30's.  Most people do not have the funds to constantly keep upgrading their equipment to the orange/yellow level to keep their effectiveness optimized.  Especially the healers who have to upgrade their abilities more then other classes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now here in  lies the problem.  With Item decay (and yes it is item decay, any time an item can go from a great use to useless over any period of time its item decay) and attunement it is very hard to keep up.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The game does not and should not have both penalties in game.  I'm fine with no drop.  I'm fine with item decay.  I'm not fine with both at the same time.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Example:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You buy this very nice high damage sword for 2 gold.  It currently cons orange to you, so you attune it and go out and level.</DIV> <DIV>A few levels pass and the item goes white and eventually blue to you.  So now you need to start looking for a replacement for it either via quest or broker.  The problem is you spent 2 gold and now have to spent perhaps double that for a replacment all in a span of a few levels.  Thats a pretty rough penalty when you multiply it times all your slots.  So now your dropping maybe 8-20 gold reupgrading your equipment to keep it effective.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But wait I'll just sell what I had and make back some of that money I spent in the first place.  Err Wrong.  Its no drop because you attuned it so all you can do is sell it back to a merchant for a few pitiful silver.  Now the penalty for leveling went from rough to utterly severe.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Your buying an item, using it and then instead of being able to sell it back and recoup at least a minimal percent of your initial gold outlay you get nothing.  What you do get is to spend and spend just to keep effective.  So those of us who aren't Tradeskillers (like me It bores me to tears) and depend on adventuring and selling drops for income are up the proverbial creek without a paddle.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This needs to be fixed.   </DIV> <DIV><BR>There are a few easy solutions to this.  The first being remove either item decay or No drop.  That would be ideal.  I'm also smart enough to know no way that happens. To much money would flood the economy.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So how about something like this.  When your done using an item its gone grey to you lets say you can resell it but the condition of the item is worsened.  You can make it so resold items only have a 50% condition rating which means they need to be mended much more frequently and dying can really be a toll.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Obviously you would never be able to sell this item for what you paid for it.  But it would give you some lattitude to sell it maybe for 1/4 of what you paid for it and recoup some of that now lost gold to help you continue being effective. It would also allow the person who is upgrading to have a choice between a full conditon weapon for 2 gold and a half or quarter condition one for 75 silver.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Another solution is just removing item decay in general.  I mean its an idiotic concept.  If you have a 10 dmg rating sword and its real effective at lvl 20, forget item decay its going to be less effective at lvl 30 because the mobs are tougher, have higher hp's higher mitigation etc.  There is no need to decay the item.  The progression of the mobs becoming tougher innately decays the item anyway.  I mean how many of you would still use your aq armor at lvl 40 if given the chance?  Of course not. Mobs hit harder it wouldn't do enough so you would look to upgrade anyway.  But at least it allow you to wear it a bit longer while you found some other items to wear and you wouldn't have to worry about the item having zero benefit because it was grey.  Hell something is better then nothing at all.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This way they keep their no drop and its not too severe.  Its manageable.   </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm not asking for a total overhaul.  Just give us a little leeway, make it a bit easier to continue effictiveness without having to worrry about where the next gold piece is coming from.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The current system is too taxing.  It penalizes you too many times and it does it over and over.  I don't want to have to play this game and be either not effective or have to take up a tradeskill something I dislike myself.  Neither do I want to be forced to spam repeat stupid quests for 15 silver here and there just to make enough to get by.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I can only imagine this gets worse later on.  <BR></DIV> <DIV>Nial Bladestorm</DIV> <DIV>28 Ranger Antonia Bayle</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV>

[Caltros]

<P>Few suggestions all IMHO:</P> <P>Do's</P> <P>Buy player made equipment, you can have it imbued now and it will be orange/white for 10 levels (yup ya heard me).</P> <P>Sell all stuff you loot and harvest.  I make good money selling loot, rares and harvesting "?"'s.</P> <P>Every 3 days I lower the prices until it is sold or I bring it to a vendor and sell it to him.</P> <P>Sell your heritage quest items, I keep em for my apartment, but in desperate times my friend...</P> <P>I also am a crafter so I can make money that way, I am a jeweler and make my own runes so at jeweler lvl 37 you can bet I have a minimum of AppIV on all my arts(up to lvl 37, I am a 41st lvl Ranger).</P> <P>Buy smart, I have a lot of adepts and start shopping early so I can find what I will need not what I need NOW!!!!(I also do this for my adv jeweler books, if ya find one at a good price jump on it)</P> <P>Buy in bulk...just sold a fellow ranger 6 adepts at about half of my broker prices cause he bought em all in bulk at once.</P> <P>Make friends with crafters or guildies who craft, you know how much I charge guidles for runes/jewelery---about cost.  Sometimes I make a whole slew for one person in exchange for a rare harvest.</P> <P>What I own:</P> <P>Pristine imbued:</P> <P>Fulg Leggings (proc dmg) and BP(proc heal) (rest is non imbued pristine fulg chain)</P> <P>Cedar longbow (proc dmg does 130-244)</P> <P>Bloodstone ring of agility </P> <P> </P> <P>Dual wield:</P> <P>PGT (proc power boost)</P> <P>SSoY (proc dmg)</P> <P> </P> <P>I am very happy and have a min of 3 plat in bank depending on spending sprees.</P> <P>Also have a nice apt with almost 100 items in it. </P> <P> </P> <P>Hope this helps....</P>

[Sotaudi]

<P>I cannot agree with the premise.  Items do not decay in this game.  They become less effective at higher levels, but even with attuning, I can still use that weapon if I mentor down to a level where it is effective.  Granted, my higher level gear scaled down will probably still be more useful, but the point is, the item is never decays to the point of uselessness even with the "decay" you characterise.</P> <P>But that aside, attuning is imperative for the very reasons you cite.  If I buy a weapon at level 20 that is orange to me, then sell it to another player when it is blue to me, then he sells it when it is blue to him, and so on and so on and so on, that weapon will end up staying on the market forever.  Eventually, the market becomes so saturated that no weaponsmith will bother making weapons because there is such an oversupply that he cannot even make back the cost of his materials.  And why bother questing to get Stormfire when I can buy it on the market for a couple of copper because there are hundreds of copies for sale?  And if I would consider doing the quest for the bow even if I could not use it, what is the point if the best I can get for it is a couple of copper for the same reason?</P> <P>And besides, you said you would not mind item decay or attuning, but not both.  In a game like SWG where items truly do decay (i.e, the more you use them, the lower their condition, and the condition will eventually get to the point the item can no longer be used), you would never get your 2g investment back even if you did use the item for a while.  And if you did used the weapon until it became useless through decay, no one would buy it from you at all.  At least with attuning, you can sell the item at market value if you never attune it, or you can sell it to an NPC at a set value no matter how long you use it.</P> <P>I am sorry, but your thinking on this subject is flawed.  This system is better in the long run than a strict item decay system, but even if it was not, you cannot have a system where items never leave the economy without breaking the economy.</P>

[Randall-Rain]

You don't need to upgrade as soon as your equipement turn blue/green/grey. I'm a lvl 50 ranger, my bp is grey to me. It's a fabled bp with better stats than a pristine forged ebon bp, just it has less AC (oops mitigation). I use PGT every now and then (depending on the immunities of the mobs) and it's grey to me. Now, i just upgrade my equipement when i have a good opportunity, like when a good item is avail on broker that is better than what i use atm. If you keep upgrading every time something turns blue, you'll be out of money very fast.... <div></div>

[Jay]

<FONT size=2></FONT> <DIV><FONT size=2>Randall makes a good point. The item 'con' doesn't indicate anything other than the item's skill requirement in relation to your current rating. You do see situations where a blue or even green-con item is actually a better item than an orange or yellow. You'll outgrow the lower-con stuff faster, but even then, it's not like the item begins to suck. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Item qualities are static (aside from item damage from dying) so that +6 to agility from your old feysteel kris is always a +6 to agility no matter what level you are. </FONT><FONT size=2>You might find an orange dagger that has a longer 'life' but doesn't necessarily outdo the stats or even damage of the kris. I've kept blue or green items on even when I had a useable replacement that was orange, simply b/c there either wasn't any inherent advantage to switching at that time, or because the advantage that the newer item did convey was negligible (a point higher max damage or 10 more points of AC, for instance). </FONT></DIV>