22.1. How ‘item-centric’ is the game; how important is item acquisition?
Gear is a focus yes, as are abilities (many of which you can only acquire out in the field -- e.g. experiencing the game). Level is important, but gear and abilities just as, and probably more. We have formulas where we add up what makes a character powerful at any given level, and there are many components (his level, his gear (and not just general gear, but situational), his abilities/spells, his attributes, what buffs he has on him, etc). Although not where I want all the ratios yet, I am overall pretty happy with the plan and how much each component matters. Suffice it to say that a level 50 without good gear (and the appropirate gear in context relative to where he is fighting and what he is fighting), abilities and spells learned in the field, as well as knowledge in term of tactics (when to rescue, when you use your abilities and to what extent (openers, bridges, finishing moves), when to counter attack or counter spell, will be at a distinct disadvantage relative to another level 50 who has learned how to play the game, configure his character correctly situationally, use the correct abilities and reactions at the right times, how to interact as a team (e.g. group), etc.
Source: Aradune Mithara March 21, 2006
The higher level you get, the more unlikely you will own, say, one breastplate that's your 'best'. More likely you will own several and that one is better than the other and vice versa depending on the situation. Stats and resistance bonusses from items often matter as much or more than armor class, depending on the type of NPC you are going up against.
Source: Aradune Mithara Feb. 17, 2006
Very much agreed and in fact, we're pushing item centricity even farther and expect most players to have multiple sets of armor and weapons, rely on horses and ships (mobile banks), and to be able to react to situational encounters as well.
Source: Aradune Mithara
Vanguard will be a very item acquisition-centric game... questing, crafting, and adventuring to obtain items that enhance your character will be key, as will honing your skills and abilities. Crafting will be quite item centric also. Tool quality will be as important in harvesting as weapon quality is in adventuring.
Source: Official FAQ
22.2. Will items be hand crafted?
I think lots of items are great as long as they really do something, are varied, and aren't obviously the product of some item generation tool -- they need to be hand crafted. As I like to say, the Iron Crown of the Fire Giant Warlord should likely drop from Fire Giant Warlord. And perhaps have some fire resistance bonusses, etc.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.3. Will there be item decay?
Official FAQ entry removed due to outdated information - Silky Venom.
Unfortunately our FAQ needs to be updated as this entry is no longer valid. I believe in the main crafting thread I started after E3 I confirmed that item decay is no longer a part of the Vanguard design. Of course that does not go a long way to making you feel better about potential item glut, but we are trying to work out other avenues that will help address the issue you bring up.
I am definitely opposed to the idea that a crafter is just a guy who fixes an item vice making them and hopefully our current plan will insure that does not happen. We have things in the pipe that still need to be worked out, but we cant start ironing things out until we have a solid foundation.
Source: Silius
No item decay in Vanguard, period. – 28 October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
We are not using item deterioration, but have some other ideas on how to pull mid-high level items out of the game world to the benefit of those players and to at the same time slow the trickle down effect you guys are talking about. More on this later. - January 2006
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.4. Are any forms of unique guild representation, such as logos and/or flags planned?
Yes, post launch.
Source: Brad McQuaid, Jan 15, 2007
22.4.1. Can you give us your overarching philosophy for designing a player-driven economy?
If when designing a MUD or MMO you want a player driven economy, which is often desirable and can be a key part of community building (and therefore retention), you have to do several things that also lead to some unfortunate problems.
1. You have to let more items enter the world than leave it. If you try to close the economy and balance this, not only do the systems generally just break, items lose value and aren't part of character development and achievement.
2. You have to let quite a few if not most of your items be tradable. Setting an item as no-trade is a quick way of making sure it's still valued by others, but it's also removing it from the economy. It's a necessary evil and should only be used sparingly.
The primary problem is simply this: items are constantly entering the world, and at a much higher rate than they are leaving it. This creates MUDflation, where the older the server gets, the more items exist, and even if they were once very rare, the eventually become much more common.
They then trickle down to lower level players as they lose value and rarity. This is bad for several reasons. First, lower level players are getting hand-outs. Human nature is such that when you're given something as opposed to earrning it, you value it less. So you value the item less, and that takes away from accomplishment, which can lead to a person feeling less attached to their player. Which can then affect retention.
Another problem is that if higher level items are readily available to lower or mid level players, then there becomes less and less of a reason for the low or mid level player to adventure in level appropirate areas because the reward no longer matches the risk. If the higher level item they are given or that they buy relatively cheaply is as good or better than the item in the dungeon meant for them, then there's no reason to go there. So now you have regions in the game that no body visits. Aside from being a waste, you then have players realizing that the only part of the game that really means something is the 'end game', so they take their higher level gear and find the most efficient way to level up, so they can experience the end game that is hopefully fun.
Unfortunately, by skipping the content meant for them and instead justing gaining exp the quickest way possible, they are often then led to choose the path of least resistance, not the path of most fun. This is why one hears words like grind or treadmill when MMOGs are criticized. If you are playing just to get exp as fast as possible but not realy playing the game and enjoying it, then something's simply wrong.
Realizing that a closed economy doesn't really work, and that making everything no-drop means there really is no economy, a lot of other ideas have been tried. One is hard level limits. Under such a system, if an item is marked as level X and you are less than level X, you cannot use it. This helps to some degree because you then do need to go after items that you can wield. The problem is that all items are still coming into the world. With hard level limits they then trickle down to their level limit and stop. This then happens with the items further down, and so on. So it ends up that you still just grind to the end game, but rather then doing it with the same, high level items, you switch gear each time you reach a new tier. For example, there are plenty of level 10 items, 20, 30, 40 ,50. When you hit 10, you don't need to go earn those items, you just use them. When you hit 20, you just drop all of the level 10s and use the 20s. Nothing's really been solved. Additionally, earlier in the game, before MUDflation has done a lot of damage, you can really frustrate platers because no matter what, because of error, underestimation of players abilities, or whatever, there will be those who legitimately earn an item higher level than they can use. And this is quite a turn off.
Item Decay has also been tried for a long time. The idea is that if items break, forcing you to obtain new ones, then MUDflation will be curbed because there aren't more and more items everday. Items come into the world, but then they break too. The problem, however, is that to truly stop MUDflation, for every item entering the world one would also have to break. This simply isn't any fun. At best, you have a game where nobody cares about their equipment because they know it's going to break and just have to be replaced.
Item decay can be used in a less extreme way to slow MUDFlation. But it's still hard to have any real affect without also making it such that players don't care about their equipment. And if item acquisiton isn't important in your game, that's one less thing to make your player feel attached and proud of his character, leading again to retention problems.
After thinking about this for a while, one generally has to accept that MUDflation is going to happen no matter what. If one then stops trying to devise ways to stop it, and focusses instead on slowing it, economies can be devised that actually last several years.
One way to slow MUDflation is TLC, which has been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere. Another is to make it so that many quests involve trading in your old item as part of the quest to obtain a new, higher level item. Altar systems have also been used, where an attempt is made to incentivise higher level players to sacrifice their items for temporary but advantageious bonusses such that it makes more sense to do that than to hand the item down. One tried and true way is to make the best items in the game simply very rare. As of late, however, many MMOGs have targeted players who find the time commitment necessary to truly achieve in an MMOG and obtain those rare items simply not compatible with their lives.
In the old days, MUD admiinstrators would do their best to slow MUDflation for as long as they could, but then when a certain amount of content was being ignored and high level items where readily available and players were just min/maxing to the end game, they'd eventually do a player wipe. They'd start he MUD, the game, and therfore the economy over. Usually, if they were smart, they'd also introduce a bunch of new areas, classes, features, etc. when the MUD reopened in an attempt to not loser their player base.
No body has yet figured out how to player wipe a commercial MMOG and retain their paying customers. MUDflation is slowed as much as possible and then expansions are put out, increasing level limits and offering new even more powerful items. So while that level 50 item still trickles down, every so often even better items are introduced, so people still have something to look forward to and strive for.
Unfortunately, this usally ends up in the older regions of the world becoming obsolete and unused. The world appears to be growing from the outside, but it's really just shifting. The newer items are better, all players, reagardless of level, have better items than they used to and are therefore more powerful. And so the NPCs are also adjusted to become more powerful to keep the game challenging.
This is pretty much accepting MUDflation and shifting the game with it. The problem occurs though when a new server is launched in a very old game. New players can be turned off if the current path to advanement is not made clear to them. Additionally, if the expansions didn't also add new low and mid level areas, then the new player is again forced to grind to the high level which usually isn't fun and which usually drives some percentage of them away. And if you try to put good items into the low and mid level areas to revamp and revitalize them, higher level players will go into them and farm the items out until they are common again, unless something like TLC stops them.
So, thus far, it's really been about slowing the MUDflation. Keeping items rare. Incentivizing players to hand in their older items for a transient bonus or as part of a quest, discouraing them from handthem down instead. Applying item scaling/soft level limts so that when a low level player does get a high level item, it doesn't work at full potential and allow them to zip through the game. Scaling buffs so that it's harder to power level your friend to acceperate him into the end game.
The problem here is how draconian to get. You can make lots of things no drop or use attunement. You can completely stop our of party buffs. You can use TLC. You can keep higher level players out of certain areas period. But the more strict the rules, the more fun you also lose too, that feeling of freedom and being part of a virtual world.
Fun stuff
Money is different though. Money really isn't an item in an MMO. Money is a medium. It's a tool to help people do transactions. Assuming most items don't have universal appeal, they are not always appealing and sellable to anyone you run across. If you can create currency, however, and make it instead universally appealing, then players can use that to help buy and sell. You may not have an item worth trading for that other item you want, but you have enough currency to buy the item instead.
To do that, though, currency has to have value. Items have value because they allow a character to be more effective in playing the game. Currently has to be given value by creating money sinks. This can be requiring people to buy food and water. You an assign taxes, upkeeps. You can make it such that to use items or spells or abililties you have to expend reagents which can only be obtained from NPC vendors by giving them money. The list goes on and on. If this is done, however, currency along with items hodl value.
But they shouldn't be thought of as the same thing. The item has a direct impact, whereas the currency is just a medium or a too -- in and of itself it does nothing.
Currency will also suffer from inflation, where more currency is entering the world than leaving it, but this situation is far more easily addressed. If currrency is becoming to common, which is usually easy to detect because items will sell for more and more currency even though they aren't any more valueable over time, and likely in fact less valuable. When this occurs, money sinks need to be turned up and/or new money sinks need to be turned on. This will suck currency out of the economy and the prices for items will change back to, say, 100 plat for an item as opposed to 1000 plat for the same item.
And again, while this is all good, you are still only playing with currency, you are not really doing anyting to address the fact that every day there are more and more of those once rare items entering the world. Money sinks are important, but they shouldn't be confused with 'keeping items valuable' because if an item sells for 1000p or 10p, it could still hold the same value -- the difference isn't the value of the item but rather how much currency is floating about and to what degree money sinks arre or aren't keeping currency important to the player. – 31 October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.5. Will there be automated ways of selling items, such as a bazaar, or seller NPCs (vendors)?
We’re not too fond of global or centralized selling/buying systems. To us, part of a virtual world is making exotic lands that take time to travel to, have unique items, and allowing merchants and the like to create 'silk roads'... transporting items more common in one region to another, and selling them for more because they're rarer there. Global chat channels, bazaars, and the like take away from a lot of this.
Now, that doesn't mean we don't plan on having player controlled vendors and the like, ala Ultima Online for example, but they should be spread out all over the world. Additionally, we expect players to move their items around with them, with some limitations, either using a horse or a ship as storage (or as a 'mobile bank' per se).
Source: Official FAQ
The current plan is that you will be able to have a vendor(s). This is an NPC. He belongs to similarly to a pet, horse, etc. He has to be 'docked' in a commercial zone in a player city, possibly subject to restrictions placed by the city owners, but hasn't all been determined.
You can then stock that vendor with items you want to sell and set prices.
Other players can interact with that vendor just as they would a normal NPC merchant and buy things.
The vendor stays on even when you are logged off.
There is no search functionality for players. You have to search the vendors for wares just as you search regular merchants.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.6. No search function? Will there be a trade chat channel?
Just for more clarity, I don't want search abilities, etc. because I want price differences. Not just differences between regions, but probably within a city. To me, that creates an exciting player economy. Yes, one could argue it's more work to have to go shopping as opposed to just bringing up a nifty screen that does all the work for you. But the shopping is the gameplay. It may not be for everyone, but neither is it necessary for a player to participate in this part of the economy and game.
Source: Aradune Mithara
Plethora of chat-channels, including serverwide ones. This will be limited because I don't want to see global auction channels which would mess up regional trade and price differences.
Source: Aradune Mithara
Here's an update on my thoughts via this issue:
I probably did come across as adamantly opposed to *any* system that helps you shop for items regionally or within a city that has player run vendors, while this isn't totally accurate.
I probably should be have more clear.
What I described is what we will be implementing for player run vendors as 'phase one'. With this system and many others, the approach during beta will be to implement systems like this in stages. This makes it easier to schedule for, doesn't overwhelm coders with a huge complex task, and also let's us know if the extent to which we implement something is good enough or needs more polish, features, tweaking, whatever.
Initially, as per the modular approach above, there will be no assistance for shopping, no lists to help you find stuff, etc. You'll need to, as per my earlier post, shop around. If it proves necessary, however, we will start minimally adding functionality to help you find an item, like having vendors near you report what they have on sale in a UI that you can organize, etc.
Basically baby steps. I want to avoid needless tedium, but I really want the feeling of regional sales, shopping, and looking for that good deal. The line between the two is a fine one that we will approach with caution. This was the point I probably wasn't clear enough on: As with many of our other tenets, philosophy in the FAQ, etc. we do not want tedium for the sake of tedium. If we can implement UI, etc. that helps you shop for items, as long as it preserves the regional nature of price fluctuations, etc. we'll consider it.
Personally, I think walking around shopping, like at a garage sale or some such, can be fun, seeing who has the best deal, or the item you are looking for, or perhaps an item you weren't looking for but decide to buy on the spot because it's a good deal or you didn't know it was out there, etc. I don't want to risk losing that by putting in search engines, etc. I realize that not everyone finds this fun, but I also think many do and will.
How far we'll go with this depends on how people react to it and how things turn out with the first phase of implementation in beta. - October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.7. What do you aim for with this regional trade?
You should definitely find things available in some cities that aren't elsewhere and vice versa -- we want regions to make a difference.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.8. What about regional currency?
As a huge fan of regional price differences based on varying supply (mostly types) in different areas, I find the idea of different currencies intriguing... especially if the intent was to have these different regions really feel different in more ways than just landscape.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.9. Will there be in-game item and money sinks to encourage players to remove items and money from the economy?
1. By needing multiple sets of gear per character, we are encouraging 'hoarding', which slows MUDflation. And you need multiple sets of gear for two reasons: 1. for CRs and 2. because many encounters are situational, such that there will be no 'best armor' or 'best weapon', but rather the 'best armor' or 'best weapon' against a particular type of mob/encounter or in a particular region or dungeon. The importance of situational gear starts to become apparent at low-mid levels and then grows the higher level you become.
2. By encouraging alts, we are encouraging keeping spare gear 'in the family', e.g. in the same account as opposed to trading/giving away gear to other people. The Veteran system makes higher levels items more effiective on alts assuming you have a character on that server that is at or higher level than the item as well. Again, this encourages keeping items within the 'family', e.g. hoarding, which slows MUDflation.
3. By providing lots of places to store your gear (on you, on your horse, on your ship, in your house) we make hoarding that much more easy -- you avoid the situation where the character becomes encumbered and then spare loot is handed out/sold to other players. This slows MUDflation.
4. Item decay has never worked well to limit MUDflation unless the rate at which items decay and probably have to break approaches the rate at which items are entering the world. And such a system is very anti-item-centric, taking away the feeling of accomplishment you gain from obtaining that exotic item because you know it will eventually break. Typically item decay systems don't even come close to approaching a system that really slows down MUDflation and are rather used as money sinks (where you have to pay to have your items brought up to maximum efficiency every once in a while). We feel there are plenty of other money sinks we can place into the game to insure that money retains value and works a great medium for trade without creating a system involving item decay that to many is just a hassle.
5. There will be some items that are no-drop and/or attunable, but they will be in the minority, because we want a strong player driven economy. It is true that were one to make all items no-drop that the farming issue would go away, but so also would the player driven economy go away, and we think you lose a lot more than you gain there -- it's throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Farming can and will be dealt with in other ways, may of which we have yet to reveal (no reason to alert the professional farmers as to our ideas this early).
6. TLC is not primarily meant, as another poster pointed out, to stop or slow MUDflation per se, but rather to stop bottom feeding -- to keep higher level players out of areas they shoudn't be in and interfering with the players of appropriate level in those areas. Dynamic Threat Assessment is also another mechanic that will inhibit bottom feeding. Also, by limiting raid size (having it variable), we can adresss the zerging problem to a degree as well. Please see my numerous other posts on these issues as they do not directly relate to the discussion of slowing MUDflation.
7. One of the biggest anti-MUDflation mechanics in Vanguard will be the Altar system, where players can sacrifice extra items or items they have outgrown and receive signficiant and usually long lasting buffs. Altar systems have been around since early MUD days and have been very effective at slowing the trickle down of high level items to low level players, because if the reward is sufficient (and it will be), the high level player will likely sacrifice his spare gear before handing it out unless it's to a friend or guildmate where equipping that character is deemed more important than the signficant buffs you receive by sacrificing an item at an altar (altars will be present at the majority of Outposts, btw).
8. Many quests will involve using your existing gear. In other words, to complete the quest and receive your reward, you'll need to hand in items you may have been using previously and are starting to outgrow. This is an item sink and will slow down MUDflation.
9. The ability to loan items to players but maintain ownership of them will also allow players to temporarily equip their friends to give them a 'step up' but then later retreive those items (to use at the altar, or to complete a quest, or to equip an alt). This will also slow MUDflation.
10. Servers will likely age and adjust for MUDflation over time. More on this later, as this is something we are keeping under wraps for now (at least the details of it).
In summary, there is no real way to stop MUDflation entirely without hurting the game in so many other ways that it's not worth it (by creating a non-item-centric game, or by trying to create a 'closed' economy). Also, I would argue that some MUDflation is good, because as a server ages, some trickle-down of items can actually work as an incentive to play (or re-play). Likewise, just as there is no real way to stop MUDflation completely, although I think you can see from the above that Vanguard easily has the most thought-out and robust system of mechanics to slow MUDflation to-date in an MMOG, there is also no way to completely stop farming. But, like I said, we have some pretty strong ideas on how to curb that as well.
Source: Aradune Mithara May 29, 2006
Yes, these are important components of slowing and controlling item and money inflation (MUDflation).
Source: Official FAQ
on hindering Mudflation
In general, yes. One aspect of making obtaining multiple sets of usable and valuable gear for your level range key to the game as opposed to only one is that in a sense we are encouraging 'hoarding' of gear a bit more than perhaps in previous MMOGs. Drop rates to take into consideration that you need a lot of gear, and in general are a little higher than usual, but not *that* much higher. But overall, even with more frequent drop rates, there are still that many more items to obtain. So the encouragment of holding onto multiple sets of gear keeps people from selling/trading gear until they have the multiple sets they need to be successful in different situations and areas, as well as better prepared for that post-wipe CR. This, in turn, leads to less items being available for sale/trade, at least earlier on the life of the server, and therefore slows MUDflation down.
We also have other ideas that are either implemented already or will be later in beta that will encourage people to sacrifice or trade up their items to obtain better items, important 'buffs', etc. While I can't go into detail yet on these systems (although systems like 'altar systems' date back to the earliest of MUDs), the general idea is to provide attractive reasons to sacrifice or trade-up nice gear that you no longer need instead of selling it or twinking it down to other players. This too slows down the rate of MUDflation.
TLC also reduces the ease of bottom-feeding/farming of valuable items that are lower level than you are, which again means less of these items entering the economy and therefore adding to the MUDflation problem.
The 'veteran system', where soft level limits (item scaling, to be more precise) aren't as strict when you twink your own alt but have another character(s) on that server that are higher level or as high level as the item you are twinking to your alt also encourages people to 'hoard' -- players are ecouraged to keep those better items 'in the family' so to speak, as opposed to selling or twinking them to other players when they are no longer as needed on their primary.
Bottom line: the more reasons we can give the player to hold onto valuable items, whether for their primary as components of second or third sets of items, or whether to 'trade-up' in quests, or whether to sacrifice in the altar system, or whether to keep for an alt they might make one day as it will benefit that alt more than a character owned by somebody else, the better... all of these either remove more items from the economy or keep them on the player who earned them as opposed to be sold or twinked into the economy (which really means they aren't technically yet part of the economy as they've not yet left the possession of the player who originally earned them), which again helps to slow down MUDflation.
That said, before someone assumes we are against player driven economies and the trading/buying/selling of items, that is certainly not the case. Player driven economies are a lot of fun to particpate in for a lot of people. So while we have mechanics in the game to encourage hoarding, sacrificing of items, trading in items for better ones as parts of quests, the fact is that, especially as the server ages, items will still trickle down as more are still entering the world than leaving it. MUDflation can be slowed, but the player economy will arise anyway. And while farming and rampant twinking and the other downsides of allowing players to trade items (as opposed to making everything no-drop, for example) are therefore still going to occur despite these and other game mechancis, we still feel the upside of player economies (the fun of buying/selling/trading, being a merchant who transports goods from afar to sell for a profit, etc.) are more important in the grand scheme of things than the downsides.
Source: Aradune Mithara Feb 17, 2006
22.10. What is your overall approach to itemization, especially item upgrades, 'transitional' items and the ability for casuals to gain useful items?
In general, itemization is much more planned out. We do use some algorythmically generated data and point calculators for balance TO START WITH. At this point, please resist worrying that our items will have no soul because they are only randomly generated stuff after you punch in a level range. We designed it to start us off, not to finish the items. It helps with balance and tells us what we need. The designer than takes the recommendation, makes sure its relatively balanced for where it, how difficult the encounter, etc. And then he creates an instance of that item based on the template and tweaks it and gives it personality, story, a cool name, context, and thinks about what it offers who and where. So this, not taken too far, and don't worry, gives us a good start. It should avoid very disparate itemization in different dungeons that share a similar level range. That is good(TM). And it should retain the hands-on handcrafted feel to our items, which adds to immersion and makes us believe we truly are wearing the Iron Crown of the Fire Giant Warlord.
So, progression. Remember that the focus of the game, or the primary game, is the grouping game targeting the 'core' gamer. Not hard core, nor casual, though we want to appeal to them to, as long as it doesn't intefere with our primary audience.
So the best stuff drops and/or is harvestable from areas that require you to group... dungeons, towers, mines, etc. So if you want to play there effectively, you'll need that equipment.
But then there's items that are from casual mobs, store bought, and then items that are crafted. The first 2 are lower end items, but good enough to do casual content. There will be a progression. You will feel like you are moving up, either being able to buy that new long sword, or looting those greaves from a casual mob, or buying a magic ring from a crafter. But will it be as exciting as grouping? Depends on who we are talking about. I think most people prefer grouping, though many will enjoy the casual. Many will also enjoy the other ways, as mentioned in a recent post, to advance your character that doesn't involve the grouping adventure game (diplomacy, harvesting, crafting, etc.). But I still think a lot of people will enjoy the casual. But is is a challenge. It needs to be fun and engaging, but by definition cannot be as engaging, complicated, detailed, or even perhaps as exciting as a group encounter. This is simply the way it is. Nor, as mentioned, will loot as good as those from group mobs drop on casual.
Another thing to keep in mind is that casual content is not only for the solo player or the guy who likes to group with only 1 or 2 people. It's also, and this is as important (some would argue moreso), for players who do focus on the grouping game, but don't have a lot of time that night, or their buddies aren't on for whatever reason. He needs to be able to advance his character some way, whether it's killing casuals, or harvesting, or parlay, or crafting, etc. That's a very important part of Vanguard -- yes, the grouping game is primary, but having alternate and meaningful activities for players to do when a group doesn't work out for whatever reason is a close second.
So, and hopefully more to your point, if you focus on the casual content in the game, you will find/buy items that make you better, and as you level up, acquire wealth, skills, etc. you will find better equipment, and should feel a sense of accomplishment.
But that equipment most likely wouldn't cut it in a grouping region, and most certainly not in a raid area. Those mobs are harder, more situational, and don't just require more attention when playing (making sure you counter that spell, etc.), but also require that you have items that are at least close to the level range of the group dungeon you are in.
It can't really be any other way. If you want to only be casual, you will progress, but as I've said in the past, you won't have the same stuff as the guy who groups, or who raids. Same with the other spheres and how much time you invest.
If you gauge your accomplishments based on what YOU accomplished you will be happy. The player who has convinced hiimself that he has to 'catch' some high level player in terms of items, whether casual, group, or raid is probably always going to be frustrated. Or maybe he finds it fun -- if so, God bless 'em. - 27 October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.11. Will there be item class restrictions and item race restrictions?
Yes.
Source: Official FAQ
On this note: Yes, expect clerics to wear armor that appears like plate, and nukers to not /only/ be stuck in robes and cloth.
The armor you see us wearing however is probably not the armor you will start the game in. There is more to be made still, and we are using what is "roughly" appropriate. The plate leggings on the ranger however is a bug
Source: Tagad
That said, we certainly do not /intend/ to only stick casters in the standard "here is your uniform" robe. We are hoping to have a few more looks available
Source: Tagad
22.12. Will there be item race Restrictions?
Yes.
Source: Official FAQ
Differentiation is important.
Not everyone can use everything.
Source: Tagad
22.13. Will there be item level Restrictions?
There won't be 'hard' level restrictions, no; it's likely that we will use 'soft caps' on statistical gains and usefulness. This means that if a lower level character equips a high level item he or she will be able to wield it but not receive nearly the benefits that a higher level character would. Our current thinking is that if the level delta is great enough, the benefit to the character would be that the item is slightly better than one of the better items at his level. This hopefully rewards the long time player who has 'twinked' his alt but at the same time doesn't imbalance the game at lower levels where that twinked character is soloing deep reds and the like.
Source: Official FAQ
We use item scaling, which I used to call soft level limits.
You can use an item higher level than you, but it scales down to its better than what you'd normally have but not stupid powerful. So still good to twink your alts, but not broken. - late October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
There are no hard level limits -- items and spells are scaled, so you can still twink your lower level character with higher level items, he just won't become god-like (we even have a cool 'veteran bonus system' where items aren't as severely scaled if you have other characters as high or higher level than the item on your alt). January 2006
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.14. Will there be item gender Restrictions?
No.
Source: Official FAQ
22.15. Will there be faction restrictions on items?
We hope to support faction-based equipment.
Source: Official FAQ
22.16. Will items be used to help define class roles at high levels?
In some cases, yes.
Source: Official FAQ
22.17. Will there be epic or unique items or artifacts?
Yes. You will also be able to craft epic and unique items.
Source: Official FAQ
22.18. What looting options will there be?
We plan on having several group set options which determine who has looting rights or what system is used to assign rights.
The list of options we plan to have is not publishable at this point in time.
We will not force the players down any particular path for loot splitting, that is their choice.
Source: Tagad
We just have basic looting in right now. By launch (and likely much earlier) we'll have a variety of looting options you see in modern MMOGs.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.19. Can NPCs loot players?
NPCs won't loot corpses of any type.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.20. Will there be random world epic drops?
We will NOT be sharing loot across multiple rares in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
Source: Tagad
Named NPCs which drop contextual loot Ex: Cuu'ruuk the Defiler, a named NPC - Bracers of the Defiler
Some amount of rare loot from contextual creatures Ex: Giant Scorpions in a region or dungeon - A Deadly Scorpion Stinger
Don't expect to see a million different items dropping from all NPCs randomly in the world. That isn't the approach we are using.
Source: Tagad
22.21.1. How is your TLC going to work?
Ok, now I'm not saying this is how it might work in our game, but what if the TLC was implemented differently? What if, instead of the mob having no loot, it leaves?
It sees big bad Tropics approach it, cons you, and says 'no thanks -- you outclass me by 12 levels' and runs like hell? That seems pretty RP to me.
Source: Aradune Mithara
No, it's not turned on in beta yet, but will likely be soon. No, I'm not prepared to release the details of how exactly TLC will work. I know it's a controversial issue. We'll be testing it out in beta and try to come up with a system and tweak it that does far more good than harm. If this simply cannot be done, just like any other similar system, we'll yank it. I've touched on this before: we will be trying lots of systems and mechanics that hopefully stop or curb behavior (in this case, bottom feeding). But we also realize that these systems can be taken too far. We've all seen that if you go overboard with an MMOG and try to stop any and all behaivor that is often harmful to the game you can end up doing more harm than good. We're very sensitive to this. We are not going to risk hurting the game as a whole, or penalizing the majority, to stop the minority if we can help it. Not doing anything to stop behavior that harms the game's integrity and long term health is bad(TM), but so also is going to far the other way and creating a super strict, draconian game that stops the bad(tm) but then also creates such a strict environment that freedom, flexibility, etc. is also harmed.
I guess it's somewhat analagous to how far we in the United States want to go legally to stop terrorism... how many rights and freedoms do we want to sacrifice to stop a small minority from harming people? Sure, a police state is very good at stopping crime and keeping people safe. But most people would agree that what you sacrifice, in the grand scheme of things, isn't worth it. What people argue over is where to draw that line in the sand. Some laws need to exist and absolute freedom just isn't realistic. But how far do we go? I think the same holds true in the communities that exist in massively multiplayer games.
Some areas we've already drawn that line in the sand. We're not going to have instancing. We feel instancing does more harm than good and that there are other ways to approach what instancing addresses without as many of the negatives. We're also not going to lock all encounters, even though this does curb egregious twinking and kill stealing; instead, we'll just lock specific encounters with our advanced encounter system. We're not going to have hard level limits on items in an attempt to stop MUDflation and egregious twinking; rather, we use item scaling or soft level limits. We're not going to stop a higher level player from buffing a lower level player, but that buff will scale down such that it helps the lower level player, but doesn't make him crazy powerful when he's doing content that is level appropriate. The list goes on.
TLC in an effort to curb bottom feeding and having higher level farmers interfere with appropriate level players enjoying areas meant for them is something I think is worth experimenting with in beta. But it's not something that I'm as confident about as, say, not having instancing, so I'm not going to say it's going to be in for sure at launch. The only 'for sure' at this point is that we'll be experimenting with different forms of TLC in beta when we're ready to focus on that aspect of gameplay (as well as other ideas, like dynamic threat assessment, etc.). - October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.21.2. Why do you want to implement TLC?
My desire to experiment with TLC goes back way before EQ 2. It goes back to when I was at SOE and set up the initial rules for the FV server.
I want to be able to put attractive items in low and mid level areas. I don't want an MMOG to turn, after a few months, into merely a race to the end game. I want players to have a blast at low and mid levels, and to be earning attractive items while doing so. I don't want them to feel compelled to just grind exp until the end game and *then* go after items.
A way to do this is to put good gear in low and mid level dungeons. No, not gear as good as in high level dungeons, but still good gear.
If I put crappy gear in low and mid level dungeons, then higher level players will not be tempted to bottomfeed and farm items in low and mid level dungeons. They will stay in higher level areas.
But then I get people just grinding exp until the end game.
If I put attractive loot in low and mid level dungeons, even if it's not as good as the loot in higher level areas, some subset of the higher level players will farm those low and mid level areas for these items. As long as those items are still attractive, even if less attractive than what they could get in higher level zones, this subset will farm items there and interfere with the level appropriate people in those zones. They will do this because the risk is so much less it justifies them going after the inferior yet still valuable and attractive item.
This does 2 harmful things:
1. It interferes with the enjoyment of the level appropriate people in those zones, because there are groups of higher level people in the same area killing the mobs they want to kill, but with impunity (no risk).
2. Because of the lack of risk, these bottom feeders will be getting more of these items than the level appropriate people, bringing these items into the world at a faster rate than what was planned for. This increases the rate of MUDflation.
So how do I avoid this but still make attractive low and mid level content? Somehow I need to make it so that bottomfeeding isn't rewarding. The only way I or anyone else has come up with is some form of TLC where if you outlevel the mob by some percentage, it doesn't drop the loot. The only other way is to make these items no-drop or attuned or some variant that removes them from the player driven economy, which is also something I don't want to have to do, or at the very least, do very rarely.
So yes, I agree this is more control and less freedom. If the higher level guy wants an item that we have marked as subject to TLC he will have to buy it or play another lower level character and then trade it up to his higher level character.
Is this a horrible thing? Opinions vary. It is most certainly a controversial issue. There are negatives and positives.
In beta I am determined to experiment with a few variants of TLC in an attempt to be able to itemize low and mid level areas with attractive gear and curb the problem so many MMOGs face, that being so many people just grinding to get to the end game where items matter.
If TLC does more harm than good in beta, then I promise you I will remove it. But what I'm trying to accomplish here is important enough for me to try. I *have* to try. I *should* be able to itemize low and mid level areas with attractive gear. There *should* be more to MMOGs than the end-game. - October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
The idea here is not to stop farming or selling of items for real money, etc. If it helps with that, great. The idea, as I posted, is to be able to itemize low and mid level dungeons with attractive loot at launch, months later, after expansions, etc. And the concern is that the target audience of these areas runs a risk then of being interfered with by higher level players looking for reward with little risk. Yes, dedicated farmers will simply make alts. No, this has nothing to do with camping, etc. - 27 October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.21.3. Will TLC cover all items?
to be clear, whatever TLC system we go with, if at all, would be such that we specifically mark items that are subject to it. It wouldn't just a blanket 'all items that are from mobs X numbers of levels lower than you'. I know one of the fears behind such a system is that it could end up screwing the player who is collecting items for a quest and then suddenly outlevels and is unable to finish collecting said quest components. It definitely would *not* be like that. - mid October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
I want to be even more clear than I was before: Trivial Loot Code wouldn't affect quest items, reagents, things like that. We make many distinctions in our database as to the nature of an item. You wouldn't be stopped from completing a quest. You wouldn't be unable to harvest materials you needed to cast a spell or some such. As for harvesting materials for crafting, I'm not sure yet. If we make attractive harvestable material spawn in low to mid level areas it's pretty much the same as dropping loot off of a mob. -late October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.21.4. How about making all named items lootable only once by each player character?
Personally, I think that's too extreme. I don't want to stop people from looting a second or third item from a named mob even though they already have it. Perhaps they are getting it for a friend who couldn't play that night? What if they are getting it for an alt? Remember, we're not against twinking your own alts. In our opinion, all twinking is not bad -- a lot of it can lead to replayability. Just last night I upgraded my level 13 ranger with some extra items from my primary character who is level 28. - mid October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.21.5. What if during Beta you find problems with TLC?
I've stated about many topics that we will try them in beta and see how they work. With TLC there are 3 possible outcomes:
1. We use it
2. We yank it
3. We have it on some servers, and not others.
1. would result if it works great and fully as expected and most people like it.
2. would result from a situation where it did more harm than good
3. would result from there being a mixed player reaction and the amount of good not totally and clearly out weighing the bad. When mechanics like this pop up, that's the beauty of alternate ruleset servers. - 23 November 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.22. Can I drop items on the ground?
We don't plan on letting you drop items because 1. there's really no need to and 2. it usually just turns into a CS nightmare. The added immersion is IMHO simply not worth the downsides of accidentally losing items of value or having someone grab your stuff.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.23. Will there be soulbound/no drop items?
Just an update: there *will* be items that are no-drop, and various variants of that (no-drop after equip, etc.). This is a necessary evil, but hopefully we can keep this type of item to the minimum. You can thank the companies who do organized farming (who pay people to farm and mess up games like Vanguard) for this. *sigh*
Source: Aradune Mithara March 2006
22.24. Will items scale with the wearer?
We're likely going to scale, both with items and armor. The ability to share items, meshes, textures across races gives us the ability to make a much greater variety of items. That said, I agree that it's not super realistic. My preference would be to have a ton of items but no scaling, but I think the benefits of our decision outweigh the negatives, at least at this point in where we are at in terms of graphics technology.
Source: Aradune Mithara
Items do NOT scale in reverse. If you are a higher level than the item, the item's stats are exactly the same as if you are exactly the same level as the item. Item scaling only kicks in when the item is higher than the player, not vice versa. January 2006
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.25. Will the same item display differently on different player characters?
The item you equip in your inventory will determine what shape, texture and tint is displayed on your character for you and others to see. We think this is important because optimally you ought to be able to look at a player and either know that he's got on or at least have a pretty good idea.
Of course, there won't be a 1:1 relationship between the number of items one can equip and texture sets in-game, but I do think we're going to get closer than anyone has before.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.26. Can we customize looted items?
Sorry to disappoint guys -- but armor that drops in the game will not be customizable in appearance. We feel that it is very important that items dropped in the game world be visually identifiable.
When you get the "Dread Lords Breastplate" other should look at it and say "What is that?"
Source: Tagad
22.27. Will more powerful items look better?
Definitely -- higher end items should not only be more powerful but also be more visually appealing.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.28. How will item storage work?
Items can be stored on your character's person, in a residential building the character owns, or on a character’s horse or ship.
Because a player has a limited ability to store a lot of items on his actual character, he'll want to store items on horses and ships which then become virtual 'bank's of sorts. He or she can then move these vehicles around with him, with some restrictions, and have access to the multiple sets of armor and other items he or she will need on a situational basis and/or for CRs (corpse retrieval). These vehicles also help to store items found in dungeons, while harvesting, etc. Houses and other player-owned buildings provide additional storage, though aren't mobile.
Character burden and number of item slots will definitely be something that players will have to think about. Even though a player has excellent equipment for adventuring and crafting, they will probably have to make a decision about what items to bring with them at any one time.
Source: Official FAQ
22.29. Does this mean characters will be encumbered?
You will indeed be hindered by what all you can carry and this is an important part of the game.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.30. Will banks be localized?
Yes, banks are local, not global.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.31. Is it the intent to use horses and ships as permanent storage rather than just as moving inventories?
Yes, with the additional focus on collecting multple sets of equipment, decoration your house with trophies gained from adventuring, etc., there are a LOT more ways to store your goods. You have banks, your house, your horses, your ship, as well as your character and cointainers on your character (some of which, at higher levels, will have magical properties, reducing weight, etc.). And as I've posted re: horses, they are really soul-bound mobile banks, so it's a lot more convenient in most cases to access stored goods (e.g. I see players using the conventional in-village or in-town bank a lot less and instead either keeping the bulk of their stuff in their house or in the saddle bags of their horses or inside their ships).
Source: Aradune Mithara (02/18/06)
22.32. Can we have intelligent weapons?
This is a subject we have done plenty of brainstorming on in the past.
There are a number of ways to implement it -- however, at this point in time this type of stuff will more than likely be expansion/live team material.
Source: Tagad
22.33. Can you give someone else total permission to use your things? Say me and a friend wanna share a house we could both access it and use the items in it?
That's the plan -- the server should be able to keep track of who owns an item vs. who is currently in possession of an item. That way, like you mention, you can grant access to a house. Also, you could let another player borrow an item but that player couldn't destroy, sell, or trade it.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.34. Can we sheathe or holster our weapons?
Sorry it took me a while to respond. Yes, after people made it clear that they wanted holstered weapons and I responded that we weren't sure if we could/would do it, the art team came back to me and said it was indeed doable and that they'd give it a shot. These screenshots show the result.
Kudos to the community for the request, and kudos to the art and programming teams that made this possible.
Source: Aradune Mithara
22.35. Can we sheathe or holster our weapons?
Sorry it took me a while to respond. Yes, after people made it clear that they wanted holstered weapons and I responded that we weren't sure if we could/would do it, the art team came back to me and said it was indeed doable and that they'd give it a shot. These screenshots show the result.
Kudos to the community for the request, and kudos to the art and programming teams that made this possible.
Source: Aradune Mithara