As you're now aware, the way durability works on items has been changed.
First, let me start with the two major reasons durability was worked on.
- The act of repairing equipment was rare when leveling.
- The cost of repairing was negligible and didn't seem to increase by very much as equipment increased in value.
So the factors in the expense of repairing damaged equipment are: durability, the item's base price, any appraisal stats or gems and the refine grade it is.
So #1; originally the act of reduction was effectively, random chance. Not only that, but the act of initiating that chance of being damaged was based on attack, not a successful strike. So if you were to just swing at someone or something, you had the chance to lose durability life. We didn't like seeing that. So we started by reasoning "what would cause a weapon or armor to become damaged?" The answer was simple, making contact. The first step was to make it so durability loss is only based on a successful hit. But that seemed a little unfair and too quick of a loss. So as a measure of helping reduce the rate of durability life loss, we provided a 'resistance' mechanic. The durability of the piece of equipment now acts as a resistance chance against taking damage to durability. As it stands right now, the durability on weapons and armor is nearly the percentage of resistance it has to taking damage. Each durability point is worth about 1% resistance, so a 50 durability item would have about 50% chance to resist. That's not exact, but that's a simple way to look at it.
#2; As stated above, the factors of what's taken in to consideration has been changed. Previously the cost of repairs had little basis to what made the value increase and with how ROSE has evolved over the years, we saw a need to adjust where the value was being considered. A lot of this reason is influenced by the concept that's been heard from the community, "the rich get richer, the poor can't catch up" or something to that effect. In this we wanted to ensure the cost of repairs reflected the value of the item and it is expected, if you are able to afford such a luxurious and well refined piece of equipment, you can also afford a higher repair bill. Now, this isn't all done on the reason that because you have the money, we are forcing you to spend it. It also stems from the reasoning that if you have a more advanced piece of equipment, it stood to reason that it would require more expertise to repair it without further damaging it. You don't have the same repair bills for a 1980 car with hardly any electronics in it compared to a car built in 2012, do you?
So those are the major reasons behind why the durability was changed. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to the next topic!
How does it work?
When attacking:
- Land an attack that caused damage.
- Chance of durability life loss is put against the item's durability.
- Resistance succeeded - no durability life loss.
- Resistance failed
- The damage dealt is converted in to durability life loss, which should be roughly a 0.1% loss in durability life.
- Received an attack that caused damage.
- Was the attack blocked by a shield?
- Yes - The shield will automatically be chosen for the chance to receive durability life loss.
- Resistance succeeded - no durability life loss.
- Resistance failed
- The damage dealt is converted in to durability life loss, which should be roughly a 0.1% loss in durability life.
- A piece of equipment is selected at random with the chance rate based on the exposure of the body. (See more below for explanation)
- Resistance succeeded - no durability life loss.
- Resistance failed
- The damage dealt is converted in to durability life loss, which should be roughly a 0.1% loss in durability life.
The rate of equipment being selected was based on two things, the expectancy that you wish to defend yourself and the exposure of said armor piece. What you will see listed below is the rate in which has been designated the chance of selection. Based on the facts, if you had a shield, you would raise it to defend yourself with, giving it the greatest chance of absorbing an incoming attack. Next, exposure, your body would have the greatest exposure to being struck otherwise, and as you typically are facing an opponent, the body and back have the larger chances of being struck. Next, the arms, legs and head, all extremities and felt to have equal chance of being struck. Then finally, the face. As most would have the reflexes to not want to be punched in the face, we've left that as the smallest chance overall.
Here are the actual rates of chance, when struck, (assuming a shield is equipped) in equipment selection:
30% Shield
25% Body
12% Back
9% Head
9% Arms
9% Legs
6% Face
Item Mall
I'm not going to hide the fact that the Item Mall had a part to play in this, but not where you might think. The repair hammers removal was the only influence behind this update. As it was seen, repair hammers were almost never used, it was seen as a little difference to remove them from game play and place all 'portable' means to repair equipment unto the Item Mall's Perfect Repair hammer. It gives added benefit and usefulness to what was generally seen as a 'useless' Item Mall item. Now, it not only repairs equipment to full, but costs no money to make that repairs. So the now added benefit of the Perfect Repair Hammer is savings, especially for high valued equipment. But that is all the influence the Item Mall had to this aspect of the update.
Final Note
As much as we felt the new durability design was working as we intended, we are very much aware that there may be many instance and situations where this new system may not play out as intended. So please share your experiences with it and how you feel about it. I would personally ask that you try to keep the reasons above in mind, when offering your viewpoint, because until now, how often did you really repair your equipment? And when paying for repairs, how much does it really affect what you may have just made for the time you spent out in the fields?
So far, I've seen some pretty accepting feedback and experiences already, which is a very pleasing thing to see! But I know there are many of you out there being affected by this so please, when offering your experience, opinion or suggestions. Provide as much detail as you can, particularly what item(s) and durability are involved, for repair cost comments; include grade and any gem/appraisal stats that are on it.
I wish everyone a fun filled Halloween~
Leonis
