On Wed, 3 Nov 1999 hho@... wrote:

> >
> >I still like my idea of loot-once-per-lifetime. It lets you
> >keep items rare while keeping the mobs common. It also stops
> >harvesting dead in its tracks. The only really bad part is
> >that you can't continuously camp a mob until you get the item
> >you want, but then, that's really the root of all these
> >problems isn't it?
>
> Mhh if I understand this as:
> You can only loot a named mob ONCE, regardless of what it have.
> I can see a couple of problems with it:
> - Some mobs you can tell if its the rare or the common drop it carries.
> So youll have people killing it until its drop is rare and then looting that
> one.

Just create dummy objects which are "mundane" but have the
same graphic as both drops, and load one of each all the time.

> - Even on mobs where the drop isent visable this could be used, unless the mere
> examination of the body would count as a loot? Imagine being attacked while
> trying to loot your ghoulbane *ouch*..

I can't think of any occasion where we've killed something,
been able to examine it, but died/had to leave before we could
loot it.

> This would make items very rare indeed, but also open up for some serius flaws
> IMO.

I'm not saying it's without flaws. What I'm saying is that
the flaws seem to be more acceptable IMHO than the flaws that
come with the current system - extreme mob rarity, camping,
harvest, selling on ebay, etc. It'd be more in keeping with
the fiction as well - you kill Dvinn and for all intents and
purposes he's dead in your universe, no need to kill him again
(though you could choose to to help someone kill him in their
universe). If you didn't get the dirk from him, you could
always trade for it, except now you know that any item you
trade for is not going to have been attained via harvesting.

> I think the only viable way to get items out of circulation is to make them wear
> out. If its possible to mend them it should be done by NPC's and be priced upon
> what "level" of equipment we are talking about and price comparable with the
> indgrediants casters use. In a way so that the expences per played hour is
> around the same.

Unfortunately, if you make it possible to repair wear
completely, then it's the same thing as not having wear except
when people get hit by bugs or make stupid mistakes. And that
already happens for item destruction (items eaten in trade
bugs, accidently selling/giving items to NPCs, etc).

Partial repair is the same thing as a slower wear rate, just
more inconvenient since you have to take time to repair stuff.

> As it is today melee classes havent got any expenses other than food and initial
> costs of equipment.

Well, likewise for the casting classes. Once you buy the
spells, that's it. Yeah there are some reagent costs, but
most are trivial by the time you're high enough level to use
the spells.

--
John H. Kim
kim@...