equipment slots vs races vs 'decorative' spots

[Chalgyr]

I have heard this come up a few times, and from different directions.

Some people really like the distinctive equipslots by race

Others feel like it makes some races overpowered and others underpowered

I recently had one person propose that it means there's too much gear out there, that can affect too many things.

Another person suggested having a handful of standard 'armor slots' - head, hands, body, legs, feet - and other areas simply have decorative items - cloaks, piercings for ears, ebellishments for ankles or waist or somehing along those lines.

Another recently proposed 'roles' for gear. Body armor can be very flexible, but maybe gloves for hands being physical protection and rings for hands being magical only.

What are your thoughts on equipment slots by race as well as the 'purpose' of gear.

[Daklore]

The purpose of gear is armour.

That doesn't mean it's impossible, or implausible, to make decorative only slots. Achaea does it. I know, apples and oranges.

But in Achaea you have two armour slots. An actual armour(body) and a shield. Not everyone can use a shield. Armour is divided up by class, for instance monks get leather armour(the weakest) while Knight classes get Fieldplate and fullplate(relatively identical pieces, just the latter is more expensive to make, never decays, and can have its appearance customized), which have the highest physical defenses.

Nothing outright offers resistance to magic, you need enchantments for that--which come on rings, of which, everyone can wear 10 of them(I think, maybe it's 8 [edit: stupid smilies >.>]). And active enchantments don't stack, so at most you can have one instance of fire resistance, cold resistance, lightning resistance, and general magic resistance. Outside of that, they're just decorative. They don't add anything passively, nor do necklaces, or gloves, or boots(boots can be enchanted to let you walk on water). Likewise there's clothing and cloaks and etc etc etc and none of it offers any defence.

So entirely cosmetic pieces are entirely possible.

But I think we do have too many armour slots(and having more armour slots -does- give people an advantage in resistances when it comes down to customs. Dragons have two slots over most races with tail and wing, which adds another -100 possible resistance, for instance)

[Chalgyr]

An email from a player in the game:

I think that equipslots is a uniqueness to the game, and why some races are more valuable than others, but that also helps balance out some skills/abilities being more powerful than others.

Humans, better resistances over all, less equipslots.

I think if you balance out the abilities vs equipslots it is enjoyable, if you get.. lets just take for instance.

Were races.. they are trash

They don't gain any extra equipslots, they actually lose armor when they changeform, which thye can't do at will.  Their resistances are trash, and abilities are also not noteworthy.

If you took a race like that and amped the abilitie index, it would make it more enjoyable.   Like 'wereform' you can use it only when the moon is up, and you get to keep your gear but get 50% increase in damage,hps,spellpower,resistances.  (you take 50%
more damage with silver)

--> add a damtype silver, that is not resistable (optional) or just have the silver flag hit really hard in wereform.

IF they use a moon runestone then their increases are increased an additonal 10%.

(stuff like that)

Athaches,  their abilties aren't really good, but their equipslots are.
Humans abilties are the best in the game.. increased stats and resistances, no extra equipslots.

It just depends on balance of each class/race combo some are always slightly better than others.
Some are too powerful, some are very weak.

[elios]

To Chalgyr and the other administration members,

Considering the variety of choices for races I believe the current available equipment slots isperfect.  But might I suggest that weres when they transform can keep some pieces of equipment such as necklaces? Just something for your consideration.

[Thalia]

Is the complaint about "too many equipslots" really that what can go in them is too powerful? 

Is there a difference between having half the current number of equipslots vs. halving the AC/Resist/moves et al that can go onto custom equipment?



I like the idea of jewelry/decorative slots.  Never made much sense to me to have necklaces & earrings could be as powerful as body armor.



FWIW -- Centaurs have two more equipslots than Dragons.  (Oops! does that mean that everybody is gonna start switching to Centaurs?)

[Daklore]

too many, maybe... having "too many over everyone else" yes.

[Tylon]

For my own personal tastes I prefer to play in MUDs that have a lot of equipment slots. I'm also a fan of lots of attacks, big numbers on stats, etc. Maybe its just because the first MUDs I played were like this.

That said, from a balancing standpoint I can see where having only a few gear slots that are actually functional would be a good idea. It would make things like the proposed retooling of gear and/or mob stats a lot more managable on the development end.

[Chalgyr]

Funny you should comment on 'big numbers' since that was going to lead into today's post...