On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Kimes, Dean W. wrote:

> Even if it is possible to repair wear completely many if not most people
> will not do so. Their items will deteriorate and will break. This is a
> fact of life. Car engines last immensely longer if you change the oil every
> 3000 miles religiously and yet I know many people who don't. Just because
> wear can be prevented does not mean it will be, especially if you have to
> run all the way to a city to get it done. Some people will take excellent
> care of their equipment, others will be too lazy or forgetful to do so and
> will suffer for it. Unfortunate but true.

Your car does not vanish if you forget to change the oil, just
the cost of future repairs is increased. And by the time most
car engines start to wear out, most people are looking to buy
a new car anyway. Once people realize their bladed thulian
claws could vanish on them in a blink of an eye, they will
repair it religiously.

Now, a system where weapon and armor effectiveness started to
degrade with wear and remembered a "repair history" that
affected wear rate, that might be something. (And hopefully
figure out a way to avoid the way UO did it, where you had to
trust the smith doing the repairs and hand your equipment over
to him.)

--
John H. Kim
kim@...