Rares/Objects : Handle with Care

[Blaine the Gypsy]

Rare System: Handle With Care

Any “Rare” taken before remain untouched by this making them indestructible.

Richard Garriott always wanted to have the “Artificial Life Engine” put into Ultima Online (attempting to make use of every object in the game). Of course griefers be griefers destroyed everything before a balance could be made. My suggestion is to help make this come to life in some fashion. It does exist in weapons and armor with the durability system. We can take it to at least a next step adding a different kind of economy to the shard.

Nearly everyone hunts for “rares”. Those decoration items you've always wanted in your houses and so on. Everything is clicked on, dragged around, and used in some fashion (if usable/movable). Now doing so will affect the item.


Let's talk skills.

Item Identification: Normally a totally useless skill, but now it will have new life.
Item ID Wands will ONLY be useful to identify magic item properties.

If skill is used and you target an object it will tell you the condition it is in (however you decide to rate this). You can tell if it needs repairs, what kind of repairs (different skills/different use for repair deeds), and how fragile the item is (having a durability system).


Stealing (or in this case “Handling”): This skill will be used to avoid doing damage either passively or actively with these objects. The better the skill the less chance of damaging the object you have by handling, taking, or stealing.


Snooping (or in this case “Scanning”): Of course having it's classic properties of snooping into bags will remain.

If the skill is used and you target yourself and/or tile it will allow you to “scan the area” (1 tile possibly? Per 10 skill?) for items of value. Either giving how many by number or by name and/or maybe by condition of the object depending on your skill level.


This all can be applied to every usable object if able. This will add a reality twist to the rarity and handling of objects. This is just an idea.

Thanks for listening.
-Blaine

 

[smile it's me]

I dont get this.. are u saying that my rares will loose durabilty if moved or locked down? that sucks

 

[bradley-]

I'm also a bit confused but I do feel like the stealing skill should be GM to be able to steal stealable rares. Why are they called "stealable rares" if you don't need the skill to steal them??

 

[Blaine the Gypsy]

Hmm maybe I need to totally re explain. But as a short answer.
Example: You use snooping to see if there's anything around that you could take may it be a rare or common item. Item ID would let you know if it's messed up already or if you have the potential of messing it up/mishandling it. "Stealing" isn't just grabbing something without care unless your skill is low. Stealing in this case would be passive or active depending upon the zone of where the object is. You could drop it after taking it. Who you sell it to could be horrible at handling/stealing objects which would decrease the value/durability of the object. It's really not a hard concept to grasp I need to explain it tho... ug....

Ok you snoop around the area and successfully see some rare eggs.
You can use to see the condition of them with item ID (if they are broken, damaged, or in perfect condition)
Stealing/Handling would be how to determine if you take it without damaging or breaking the object. How stealing is now is if they notice you take it or not. Pretty much the same concept just if you're taking it in a crappy manner.
You could end up with broken rare eggs that are worthless or you could have perfect rare eggs of a rare color.
Any time people move the items around in their bags or ground it would take away durability unless they pass the Stealing/Handling checks.
This would make these objects more valuable or not to exist anymore.
Locking the items down of course would make the item safe from damaging.
An item could randomly be indestructible to start with. So you could have an indestructible rare egg or the same rare egg but damageable.

 

[Blaine the Gypsy]

I dont get this.. are u saying that my rares will loose durabilty if moved or locked down? that sucks

Old rares from before this would all be indestructible and wouldn't have to worry about this system.
Let's say a closed barrel. If it's one of the originals don't worry it's fine.
If it's a new one then there's 2 possibilities. It having durability or it being indestructible. Making it a true rare/less common to find indestructible versions of it.
You walk into the blacksmith shop you snoop around you see things that you could take. Different levels of stealing means different items that could be stolen. If you attempt to steal something that would be too high of a skill you could still get it but it will be damaged.

 

[Patrick Brennan]

I'm also a bit confused but I do feel like the stealing skill should be GM to be able to steal stealable rares. Why are they called "stealable rares" if you don't need the skill to steal them??

This more than anything.

 

[Bromista]

Idea has potential, but also has potential to be too complicated/involved for most.

We have already seen failures in this department. IDOC timers are a prime example, players couldn't handle random timers so they were made static because they couldn't be bothered to be attentive and at their keyboards for any substantial amount of time.

I don't IDOC but it was sad the way the complaints and changes in regards to said complaints played out.

Keep it simple so players don't lose interest. Make stealing actually worth having and we have a solid step in the right direction.

 

[hubcap]

........ I do feel like the stealing skill should be GM to be able to steal stealable rares. Why are they called "stealable rares" if you don't need the skill to steal them??

^^^^THIS^^^^^

 

[SidX]

^^^^THIS^^^^^

Yes definitely agree.. nothing more annoying than seeing some rares hunters camp a bunch of newb alts at the rare spawns with 0.0 in all skills... if you want to hunt stealable rares, then put the effort into stealing them. This should be a BENEFIT of the thief class.

 

[hubcap]

gotta say, Blaine, this is the first (and only)
idea of yours that I don't think would be a good idea.

it would probably be a pain to program in, and, let the thief get some reward. I like the tought behind it.....just dont agree that this one would be a good idea............But my opinion. Others will disagree.

simple solution would be to make 'stealable rares' actually require "stealing' skill to pocket.

 

[Blaine the Gypsy]

Ideas are ideas and exist to either work, be worked on, or debated. Feeback is always welcome as well as honesty.
Anyone that has commented tho seems to agree something must be done whatever that may be.

 

[Violence]

Hmm maybe I need to totally re explain. But as a short answer.
Example: You use snooping to see if there's anything around that you could take may it be a rare or common item. Item ID would let you know if it's messed up already or if you have the potential of messing it up/mishandling it. "Stealing" isn't just grabbing something without care unless your skill is low. Stealing in this case would be passive or active depending upon the zone of where the object is. You could drop it after taking it. Who you sell it to could be horrible at handling/stealing objects which would decrease the value/durability of the object. It's really not a hard concept to grasp I need to explain it tho... ug....

Ok you snoop around the area and successfully see some rare eggs.
You can use to see the condition of them with item ID (if they are broken, damaged, or in perfect condition)
Stealing/Handling would be how to determine if you take it without damaging or breaking the object. How stealing is now is if they notice you take it or not. Pretty much the same concept just if you're taking it in a crappy manner.
You could end up with broken rare eggs that are worthless or you could have perfect rare eggs of a rare color.
Any time people move the items around in their bags or ground it would take away durability unless they pass the Stealing/Handling checks.
This would make these objects more valuable or not to exist anymore.
Locking the items down of course would make the item safe from damaging.
An item could randomly be indestructible to start with. So you could have an indestructible rare egg or the same rare egg but damageable.

While I appreciate the idea and I can see what you're getting at here, I think the same effect can be achieved by simply removing said rares entirely from the spawn tables after 6 months or so which would leave a decent amount of semi rares, modest amounts of monthly and keeps the 3 monthlies in the truly rare department. Many of my favourite pieces have an interesting history to them and have changed hands a few times, and I'd hate to rob any new rares from the same sort of stories.

But +1 on requiring stealing for the actual stealing of rares.

The other related skills (hiding, stealth, detect, tracking) can be better put to work by their actual in game usage. Hide objects in area that would be difficult to steal without first stealthing in, spawn rare named mobs (trackable) that contain stealable objects in their packs that can only be obtained by snooping and stealing them, etc etc.

 

[Patrick Brennan]

Hide objects in area that would be difficult to steal without first stealthing in, spawn rare named mobs (trackable) that contain stealable objects in their packs that can only be obtained by snooping and stealing them, etc etc.

This would be a wonderful idea.

Have to track a rare elite monster, snoop the pack and then steal a rare from the backpack as the only means to loot the rare.

 

[Violence]

Exactly. Like a gauntlet that pushes all of a thieves (or in this case, rare hunter) available tools to the limit.

You could even add lockpicking and remove trap to the mix too, as to carefully retrieve delicious rare goodies from dungeon chests, which are otherwise destroyed by any other means. In turn this generates a larger variety of templates for rare hunters and while one template might be great for a certain group of rares, it might not be so good for others.

 

[Patrick Brennan]

Exactly. Like a gauntlet that pushes all of a thieves (or in this case, rare hunter) available tools to the limit.

You could even add lockpicking and remove trap to the mix too, as to carefully retrieve delicious rare goodies from dungeon chests, which are otherwise destroyed by any other means. In turn this generates a larger variety of templates for rare hunters and while one template might be great for a certain group of rares, it might not be so good for others.

Put locked and trapped boxes on rare spawns that contain rares. The boxes disappear when the mob is killed so the only way to obtain the rare would be to snoop the pack, disarm the box, pick the lock and steal the rare in the pack before the mob is killed.

 

[Patrick Brennan]

Another great idea is make random spawning hidden chests in dungeons. You would need tracking in order to find the chests, detect hidden (no casting reveal) to reveal the chests and them lockpicking and remove trap in order to loot the chest.

I say telekinesis shouldn't be used to bypass a chest trap. You should have to use remove trap in order to open a chest without dying.

 

[thriftyuoplayer]

I like the idea of chance of damaging them when stealing.. but needs a preserving method, so it will not break..