First 5 levels no equipment tear when defeated

[forcee]

I was thinking of a function that we could borrow from World of Warcraft partially. Basically, when you are below level 6, you worn equipment will degrade through use but will suffer no durability damage from being defeated, thus saving beginners on repair costs. However, once you reach level 6, being defeated will damage equipment normally. Edited April 12, 2014 by forcee

[GatorAndy]

I don't know if I've ever died enough in the first 10 levels, let alone 5, to warrant this. Repair costs are super cheap at that level anyway, I don't really see the point. Level 1-5 takes about an hour at most.

[JimG]

There's no point to doing this. You basically have to try to get yourself killed in the first 5 levels. The game is ridiculously easy in the early levels.

[Muljo_Stpho]

you worn equipment will degrade through use

 

Sorry, but what does this even mean? Are you suggesting that the armor rating and stats built into items at that level should be dynamic values that can be drained out of an item each time you take a hit? So after a few fights you're basically just running around with armor about as strong as tissue paper if the game isn't throwing replacement gear at you fast enough? And there's no way to restore those weakened items to their original values? They just become more junk loot to sell? (And I'd imagine that they'd sell at a reduced value from what they were worth before the degradation.)

 

It also seems kind of odd to tweak what would generally only be the first half hour or less of play time (even without starting a character during a double xp event) and the first 25% or more of the total play time to get through a starter planet. It will be relevant for such a short amount of time and then you're into the range where everything's the same as it has been.

 

I know brand new characters aren't exactly rolling in credits but the only time across a couple dozen characters that I've ever lacked the funds to do something on a starter planet was hitting level 2 or 3 and visiting the skill trainer before I've had a chance to sell off junk loot to a vendor. You make enough as you go to cover the costs of all your new skills (and whatever measly couple credits here and there for repair costs) and finish your starter planet with something like 1k to 5k on hand depending on how much you wandered around along the way.

 

edit: Whether it was what you meant or not, my interpretation of your idea could almost be something to add an odd twist to gearing. Suppose that all white bordered gear items (like the junk loot on the starter planets and the crap carried by some weapons and armor vendors in the game that we usually ignore because what they carry is worse than green) is changed into a class of items called "dynamic gear". Alter them to feature some mix of actual stats but make them behave like I described where each hit knocks a point off so that the item slowly loses all of its stats. Perhaps it could be random each time which stat loses the point. The initial mix of stats on a dynamic piece of gear will be slightly higher than what would usually be possible for other gear at the same level (although they wouldn't be optimal, probably featuring multiple main stats plus arbitrary secondary stats), but it will have a limited window of usefulness because of the degradation. And either we would be unable to repair them or it would be an expensive process to refurbish them. This gives us a reason to check out those vendors and consider using their gear, but then you have to keep an eye on your gear and swap that piece out when it becomes less effective than the piece of gear that it replaced.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Muljo_Stpho

[Zharik]

I was thinking of a function that we could borrow from World of Warcraft partially. Basically, when you are below level 6, you worn equipment will degrade through use but will suffer no durability damage from being defeated, thus saving beginners on repair costs. However, once you reach level 6, being defeated will damage equipment normally.

 

Who dies before level 6??