Tired of Current Game Mechanics? What Would YOU Want? (Part 1 - Items)

lifesbrink

Many of us on this board have consistently complained about the different mechanics in games and how much they suck and so on.  So how about some ideas being tossed around?

For starters, Itemization in games.  We have characters whose skill is based on gear, we have randomized items strewn throughout the world, we have the best items being found in raids and a hundred other kinds of mechanics.  So what would be your preferred game mechanics with items?

 

For me, I like these features:

Crafted Items = Raid Items in power

No random items with pointless names

No stats on items, instead, diverse abilities

Weapons should not be some ongoing change, I would like to be known by the sword or spear I carry, rather than the flavor of the week. (Currently, WoW changes this through transmogrification, however, I would want a system where the weapon is not about damage numbers and so forth, but about how fun it is to use)

Better locations to find items....I hate finding armor on a bear, unless it is an armored bear.

No more oodles of crap dropped off of enemies to vendor, for one, that just eats more more of our time through bagspace, as well as introducing more time of inventory management, and furthermore, clogs up bandwidth as well as creating more pointless items for devs to have to make.

 

These are just a few ideas I have had in the past, what other things do you guys think would be neat?

Adamantine

What I would like to see:

- Everything can be crafted.

- No tiered ressources. What newbies get as drops, even maxlevel players can use, only enormous amounts of it. All crafting ressources exist in various qualities.

- No more "raidbosses" and "endgame". Bossmonsters that require large groups and an individual strategy to beat them should be available on all levels. Maxlevel player characters should be rare. The road itself should be the fun, not a preparation for the "endgame".

- Bossmonsters drop special ingredients, not predefined items.

- All player characters can choose one out of a pool of crafting classes.

- Each Crafting class has specific uses and can learn certain recipes. Recipes are available though various means, most importantly quests.

- All crafting classes require input from other crafting classes, depending upon the item.

- The crafting process itself is a minigame.

- Items can be produced with various efford. Make an item quickly, its of low quality. Work on a single item for hours and it can be incredibly powerful.

- There are different crafting styles, resulting in different looks of the final item.

- Each item is unique and different, depending upon the crafter as well as random factors in the crafting process.

- The crafted item can then be further enchanted, which makes it even more powerful. Getting the ressources for an enchanting is itself an expensive process.

- But every time an item is enchanted, there is a chance to break it. This chance is higher, the lower the item quality is and the higher the item is already enchanted. The chance is however never zero.

 

Ramanadjinn

agree with the end game items being craftable!

 

edit: changed it.

 

 

Don-Quixote

Originally posted by lifesbrink

Better locations to find items....I hate finding armor on a bear, unless it is an armored bear.

I say! Coherent dropping or something like that. If I kill a Warrior, why does he drop a potion that says: heals you for X, why he didn't use it then before I killed him? I think that Warhammer devs said that this kind of dropping would be in the game: a boss would drop the armour he was wearing and not some random thing.

Also, get rid of useless items (gray items) that drop in order for you to immediately sell them to get coin. What's the point of it? To fill up your bags?

Mahavishnu

This is all you can come up with? Items should be like in reality:

-Items have no stats, they just are what they are.

-Items can get battered over time, but be repaired as well

-With certain abilities it may happen that you can destroy your opponent's weapon, shield or armor.

-Items have realistic qualities

• 
  you cannot swim with mail or plate armor
• 
  you cannot walk for a long time in plate armor and need a horse

-Every weapon has a certain fighting-style and range, you fight differently with a dagger or with a spear.

-Every class can wield every weapon. Come on, in a dangerous fantasy world you would expect anybody to be proficient with a sword, not as good as a Warrior of course, but just to defend himself.

-Crafting is the main source for items.

-Drops are like "what you see is what you get"

• 
  animals and monsters do not drop weapons or armor (I mean, where did they carry all this stuff?)
• 
  but if you kill an Ork wielding an axe, you can always loot the axe

-There should be a physics-engine that allows players to experiment with "normal" items like ropes, sticks, etc. So they could craft useful things in dungeons like improvised bridges, cranes, traps, etc.

-Players can craft almost everything in the world, from a little nail to a big castle.

Adamantine

You can definitely swim, run, sommersault etc in reallife field plate armor. It needs more strength and stamina than doing the same thing without armor, but mediveal combat armor isnt heavier than what modern soldiers wear.

Tournament armor (about twice or more as heavy as battle armor, and restrictive in respect to movements, but providing ultimate protection to the knight) is a different issue though. It wasnt meant to be used in actual battle because, unless the opponent also wears tournament armor, the opponent will have a huge advantage.

Armor that actually slows you down etc would be a huge disadvantage against unarmored opponents, in mediveal as well as modern times.

Chain armor is btw LESS comfortable than plate armor. Its a bit lighter, but unlike plate, it doesnt distribute the weight nicely all over the body. Instead, it concentrates the weight on the shoulders.

lifesbrink

These are excellent suggestions, I hope to read more from more people!