rusted? fine? Do you use both or neither?

[Xaeyr]

Do many of you when creating your weapons use different "varieties" of the same weapon? Such as a rusted steel sword vs fine steel sword? Or do you just stick with "a steel sword"? I like the idea of a character finding a rusted item and being able to take it to a blacksmith and have it sharpened into a "fine" item.

 

[CrazyCrab]

Generally I'd use those when weapons are scarce - some post-apocalyptic world or a survival game. I think that that is also when the player will care more for them and it makes far more sense - why would anyone want a rusted sword in a typical RPG with blacksmiths in every village who sell weapons for next to nothing? When fighting for survival every scrap counts so that is where I feel like a rusted sword would actually be useful.

In my current project RPG / Equipment is really kind of a secondary thing, so I'm just sticking to ''none'' for them + occasional magic items.

 

[captainproton]

Mine doesn't have a rusted/fine/brilliant progression for equipment, but I do have a system where you can make new items and equipment from what you've got via Alchemy.

 

[mlogan]

I like that concept, since I personally have not really seen it before. As crazycrab pointed out, it might lose the value a bit if blacksmiths are super accessible, but if you have them scattered out so that the player has to work for it, then it could be valuable.

 

[Xaeyr]

I really do like the idea, but it does make sense that it would work better if blacksmiths and/or weapons are scarce.

 

[Kes]

Whereas I've taken a different route.  To me it doesn't make sense that every small village or even moderate size town will be selling weapons and armour.  Who would be buying it except our intrepid heroes?  So unless something dramatic happens to change my mind, my current project will have only 2 places where you can buy gear.  This also feeds into my dislike of the mechanic whereby you can just buy your way into excellence.  So you get your gear through exploration, drops from optional side quest bosses/mini-bosses, and your power through using your skills (I have both magic and physical skills which level up with use.  You don't learn a more powerful fire spell, you earn it by using your low level one).  So every piece of equipment matters.  I think the interplay between how you get your gear and how you get your skills is sometimes overlooked.  So fine if you want rusty gear, especially taking into account the points others have made, but how does that tie in with your skills and their progression?

 

[Dragnfly]

I'm cool with a tier system like you're mentioning, Xaeyr. It's also easy to remember "This town sells Iron gear, this next town sells steel, this next town sells silver." and so forth. Weapons are going to be tied by their power regardless of how they're named, so why not upgrade the old materials at a smithy or whatnot. Stuff like upgrade or crafting systems give purpose to your obsolete gear far more fulfilling than selling it or throwing it at enemies.

My project's old weapon upgrade system was proven stupid by other games that did similar so I've considered tier upgrades like as an alternative too.

 

[captainproton]

I've always wondered about that, though. Why would one town only sell leather and cloth armor and lousy bronze or iron weapons, while another town--which is no more economically or technologically advanced--sell Enchanted Impervium Armor and Magical Awesomite Weapons?

 

[Dragnfly]

The same reason you can't hop over a waist-high fence

 

[Wavelength]

I've tended to avoid using these "prefixes"/"qualities" in favor of a larger variety of fundamentally different weapons with different effects.  There might be room to have both at the same time, with the right scripts... it's just something I haven't tried yet.

 

[lolshtar]

I prefer to upgrade equipment with materials with random prefixes/affixes

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

Personally, I like to go with different materials....
In your sword's case
"Wooden, Tin, Steel, Iron, Stone" or what ever.

In my case, it's wooden, scrap metal, steel, stone, diamond, then a made-up gem called Lunomite.

 

[Xaeyr]

Lunomite. Nice That's one thing I love about making your own games is it's your world to create whatever you want?

 

[Matseb2611]

I've always wondered about that, though. Why would one town only sell leather and cloth armor and lousy bronze or iron weapons, while another town--which is no more economically or technologically advanced--sell Enchanted Impervium Armor and Magical Awesomite Weapons?

Another thing to add to that is how pretty and shiny materials for some reason are better as weapons. Why is a gold sword for example better than a steel sword? Just because it's prettier wouldn't make it better in battle. Anyone correct me if I am wrong, but if weapons were ever made out of expensive materials in the past, they'd only be used as decorations and not for battle. Iron and steel might not be the prettiest, but it did the job better than a Shining Emerald-Hilted Sword of Gold.

 

[Dragnfly]

Nah, spending a fortune on your sword means that you swing it that much harder. Gotta get your money's worth, right? So that Emerald Sword (love that song, btw) doesn't cut because it's strong, but because you're motivated to fight harder with it. You've gotta think like an adventurer.

 

[Matseb2611]

^Lol. Or perhaps expensive materials are better magic conduits or something. I still don't know what explanation Elder Scrolls universe has for using Glass Armour and why is it better than iron and steel.

 

[Dragnfly]

Too bad it doesn't give an evade bonus because the enemies
A) Don't want to risk being cut themselves

or

B ) Don't want to see the horrors of a guy in glass armour falling on some rocks or rolling down a hill.

For armour only (weapons are different) I do the modern Phantasy Star thing where you have a barrier generator for defense, except in my characters' case it's in their skeleton and get "awakened" through story stuff. But really it's just a standin reason for why a guy in jeans and a tanktop can take the amount of punishment he does when the same damage is shown to kill armoured soldiers.

See? Dragnfly doesn't just go balls-to-the-wall hardcore all the time. Sometimes I explain the physics.

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, handwaving this kind of stuff is common in games, but I do see why it's done, because the alternative is to have a game where a single shot from any weapon will kill your character. Not exactly fun. But I think finding ways to explain their unnatural endurance to seemingly lethal wounds is a good idea.

 

[Kvich]

^Lol. Or perhaps expensive materials are better magic conduits or something. I still don't know what explanation Elder Scrolls universe has for using Glass Armour and why is it better than iron and steel.

I think that the "Glass" is actually a meteorite rather than molten sand.

It looks like glass, a green tinted glass actually, but according to the lore, I recall it's a meteorite that fell, making it really rare.

But on the other hand, it gives the phrase "She saw right through me" a whole different meaning.

I often use "Rusted" "Dull" "Toy" "Smelly" "Old" etc. on the first armour/weapon the characters have, and few other weapons/armour will have a "Masterwork" "Fine" etc. applied to them.

 

[Fernyfer775]

I use a few different systems all in one for my equipment.

First of all there are tiers of items: Tier 1 - Tier 6:

Wood - Bronze - Iron - Steel - Mithril - Adamant

Following tiers, they have a chance of rolling a random affix:

Of Endurance, of Power, of Defenses, of Speed, etc.

Following that each item can roll a different rarity. A higher rarity means higher stats for that item.

White = Common (no bonus)

Green = Uncommon (3-5+ on stat(s))

Purple = Rare (6-10+ on stat(s))

Yellow = Super Rare (11-15+ on stat(s))

Cyan = Legendary (16-20+ on stat(s))

In essence, there are really only 6 basic weapons tiers in my whole game, but because of all the different secondaries they could possess once acquired, it provides hundreds and hundreds of variations. Even a simple Green Bronze Sword of Power could have different stats from an exact same sword that drops. Think Diablo, for those of you who are familiar.