Hey you, yes (You), make a good RPG durability system

durability systems fucking suck. i don't want to pay a subscription to swing a sword.

Each use has a 1/4 chance to cause a 0.50% reduction in the item's Durability. If it breaks, you can fix it or salvage it for materials to fix something else instead. Any enchantments that would be "lost" get turned into attachments that can be added into the next item you might want to make that has the slots for it.

Simply have none.
Done.

Durability only goes down if you use the weapon wrong.

Or if your stamina is low maybe that way it would force smart stamina management while still allowing high risk gameplay?

Durability goes down with use, some weapons use durability as a resource for special attacks/magic

Breakage just results in sharp dps drop

Weapons can be repaired at safe areas or with consumables

So basically just the Dark Souls system. Unironically DaS2 would have done it perfectly if Soul Memory wasn't a bitch.

@100% durability, equipment piece has 100% of its stats, which linearly degrade to 50% stats @0% durability.

fpbp

Have the state of the weapon be visible while you're holding it. Increase the weapon's stats for being at high durability, and give it an attractive appearance. That way you actually enjoy maintaining your weapon and it's not a nasty surprise when it breaks. Adds some tension too, in a dark dungeon with a visibly beat up sword, wondering how many more fights it can take before it finally snaps.

The best durability system is no durability system
That shit is gay and not fun

i like in angband elemental attacks have a chance to destroy your gear unless you have high resistance or immunity

Increase the weapon's stats for being at high durability

Remove that and we're fine, high durability giving higher damage creates too much room for autistic meta gaming. You'll have faggots switching their weapon literally every encounter to be optimal.

hol up barroth I gotta sharpen my hammer

Weapons degrade when you don't use them, but they also "overheat" if they are used too much, now you jave to constantly change weapons and use all of them if you don't want them to break

Just make an oiling and whetstone mini game or something. If you don't do it your damage decreases or whatever

Fuck durability

the real question is how do special/legendary weapons fit into a game with a durability system, would be a bit odd if your god blessed blade broke but you also don't want to completely invalidate the system the instant the player gets a special weapon

In jrpgs durability wouldn't even matter because by the time you make it to the next town you can just replace it with the better version that they don't trade other towns with for some reason.

Eh, it worked with Hylian shield in SS.

durability contributes to a weapons experience

can turn this experience into various weapon upgrades

I think the only game that does this is Mabinogi, an MMO.

Just give it at the end of the game when you have enough resources to invalidates the system anyway.

Low durability weapons lose flat base damage but get something different instead

dull sword starts deals blunt damage

rusted dagger deals poison

splintered stick deals laceration/bleeding damage

for some reason

The reason is those other towns are poor

I kinda like the skyrim method where you can sharpen/hone your blade for extra damage, and when it loses durability it just goes back to base damage but the weapon doesn't break.

I think it's a neat way to do it

Have them run on their own energy system instead in which they are at full power while they have energy, but unusable/weaker than most of your other weapons without energy.
Energy either recharges over time, by killing enemies, using items, and/or by visiting charging stations.
You're mistaking that with proficiency. Durability may as well not even exist in modern Mabinogi.

In final fantasy 1 you start in the kingdom of the whole continent. Why can you only get level 1 armor and spells?

You don't do it because it's garbage no matter what
If your weapons break easily you encourage faggy gameplay and hoarding
If your weapons can get repaired easily what's the fucking point

hey you, yes (You), make a cancer that makes any game worse

no

The durability system should only exist if weapon management is something that is adding some complexity to the gameplay. In dungeon crawlers the wear and tear on your team and equipment is something important that must be taken into account when planning dungeon raids, which is why these games generally have more complex durability systems.
But if the intention is just to try and force the player to engage with your gameplay because it's so bad that people prefer to avoid it, then you should forget about durability and get back to basics.
BOTW and TOTK need a weapon durability system, while Elden Ring doesn't, because the first two are badly designed games, while the latter is not.

When your weapons break you get a resource that you use for other parts of the game. Rarer item = more resource. This resource can only be gained by breaking gear and has unique things it can be spent on.
The main reason people sperg out over durability is because of loss aversion. This is why so many midwits think that "repair muh weapon" is the only solution. The problem with repairing weapons is that in that case you might as well not even have breakable weapons anyway since all it does is force you to have a regular weapon system with pointless busy work attached. If instead of it being a strict loss you give an incentive to break weapons then it allows you to keep the intended gameplay purpose of weapon durability while swapping it so instead of it being "oh no I broke my good sword" to "if I break my good sword now I can get a new spell" or something.

The bare minimum for a magic sword made by the gods should be being unbreakable. You could make it hard to get or hard to use instead of a story freebie but if it's supposed to be legendary then it better feel like it or it's pointless.

The durability is hidden and reduced by RNG. You're not a fucking blacksmith or a clairvoyant, how would you know how many hits your weapon can take? It could break on the next swing, or a year from now. You'll just have to wait and see!

they need four kids to appear to deal with one nigger doing [nothing] in a ruin a mile away

Safe to say they’re having economy problems

What if I could be a blacksmith or a clairvoyant in the rpg?

all melee weapons wear with use

sharp melee weapons also dull with use

you can keep them sharp with proper gear, if you use improper gear to sharpen them it gains wear

can inspect weapons to look for signs of wear

after a certain threshold of wear, each strike has an increasing chance of breaking the weapon

breaking weapon mid combat leaves you in an awkward spot

can carry a backup, switching to the back up takes a few precious seconds in a fight

can replace worn components (that makes certain attacks do less damage) of weapons with multiple parts so it costs less than a whole new weapon (while restoring its damage output).

Then why not be a god too and press the "I win" button?

To be fair that nigga was the leader of their army. He probably trained everyone wrong as a joke.

vagrant story did exactly that, it also offered a way to repair weapons with one specific chain ability without going to the workshop

Well if it's a role playing game about bring a god then yes.

Yeah it doesn't really make sense, but it'd be weird if it was the only blademaster weapon that didn't need it
Shit would make more sense if the game had Frontier style variants in each weapon class from the start, so a blunt hammer might not need sharpening, but a cutting one (an axe, maybe) would

weapons must be maintained via simple and cheap occasional process to keep their full damage

abusing/misusing a weapon like hitting a stone golem with a sword damages the weapon and permanently lowers it's damage numbers

no other effects of durability

None of the weapons are special and typically wear out after a few engagements. You just attack with every weapon at your command -- including your opponent's.

System: Weapons have no durability.
Things like durability and inventory management should be handled automatically, it's no different or more useful than a pee meter.

You can't because durability is an inherently shit and flawed system
It's only purpose to FORCE the player to change weapons because the devs are too retarded and lazy to make the player WANT to change weapons

Damage decreases, weapon visually bends/dulls/chips, repairing is just patching it up so it deals the same amount of damage but it'll still break so you'll have to get something else
Weapons are durable enough to last you half a playthrough, heavy attacks break them ten times faster
Special items get repaired with time/mana/praying

Have each weapon have an overall durability corresponding to the quality of the weapon. Well crafted and expensive weapons have higher number while shit that drops off random mooks has lower durability. Each time you repair a weapon this number lowers till you can no longer repair it.

I should be allowed to pee on my enemies but it's too powerful a feature to be left unlimited, so give me a pee meter in games.

I'm still bummed Bethesda nixed durability from Fallout 4. The weapons being modular would have allowed for a much better way to handle durability, by having individual components degrade and require upkeep/repair rather than the whole weapon.

It gives visible wear and tear, instead of just a blank stat decrease, also it only affects female armor and clothing.

Hitting friendly players and corpses should cause 8x the amount of durability damage than anything else in the game. Also tie it to the players FPS so anyone playing over 30 really feels it.
Now ship it.

Durability Points work like MP, but for all attacks using that weapon. So when you run out of DP, you can’t use your weapon anymore until you get your DP refilled (using items for small gain, going to blacksmith for full gain). Stronger attacks drain more DP. To make it more of a risk-reward system and not just a chore, weapon attacks should have the capacity to be much stronger than in most RPGs.

wtf I love durability systems now. Imagine an adventurer losing to an acid slime and having to go into town stark naked to buy new gear...

You can go over 100% durability to increase the weapon's stats but it quickly drops to 100% with each hit. Destroyed weapons drop materials you can use to craft parts or permanently upgrade the same type of weapon. Make durability something that affects enemies too so you don't get into stupid situations where you pick a gun that was perfectly operational only for it to jam every 3 shots.

weapon has a base chance to get infected with an std (sword transmitted disease) every time you swing it at somebody

if it reaches 0 your sword breaks and gets ED (empty durability)

can only repair it by restarting

can’t beat the level without it

I hate when games do this

Also max DP is calculated by your character stats and the weapon, so some weapons have more DP than others.

Adventurer has no money to buy new gear

has to pay off with her body instead

When your weapon breaks it turns into another weapon but better

Weapon decays with use.

Weapon gets weaker as it decays, dealing 0,5% less damage for every missing 1% of durability.

Weapon gets unusable at 0 durability but doesn't get deleted from your inventoory and can be repaired.

Can repair weapons in town against a fee with higher level weapons costing more compared to low level weapons.

There is a weapon repair skill that allows you to repair weapons on the fly with a mini smithing kit and crafting components found in the wilderness or in dungeons, but you need to level it to be effective.

There are one toime repair scrolls too.

This but instead of fanservice bullshit, armor visually gets battered and clothes and robes get tattered as they get lower durability. This visual effect is reversed again when repairing.

Your sword has a fixed 1% chance to break after each swing.

I don't care about durability, what I care about is a physics modelled material penetration ability/sharpness and hardness system for weapons and armor instead of basic math being used to calculate damage. I want an rpg that isn't some % or incremental number game.

fpbp

In a non-mh context stuff like Dark Souls resins also are good, just tie them to # of hits instead of a timer.

Different durability based on weapon type.
You have durability and condition
Bladed weapons lose cutting damage as condition lowers. You can restore it with a whetstone, but below a certain level you need a grindwheel at a smithy. The blunt damage of your sword is not affected.
You lose little condition hitting targets weak to slashing damage and no durability. Hitting targets resistant to slashing damage lowers condition faster and you start losing durability.
Hitting targets you recoil off severely impacts both condition and durability.
Durability does not affect damage, but once it goes below 50'% your weapon has a chance of breaking.
Blunt weapons do not have a condition stat, but weapons with wooden hafts will have a lower durability value. You restore durability at smithies.

Weapon quality and make up dictate durability and condition. Bladed Weapons made out of metals such as mithril etc. will now have a condition stat.
Magical weapons will not have a durability stat.

Basically, you graduate out of this mechanic as you get better gear.

Until VR becomes good enough, realistic physics games won't work. Playing a realistic physics game with mouse and keyboard or controller is a nightmare.

The Master Sword's only real problem is that it doesn't regenerate energy unless completely broken. If you could switch off it without breaking it and come back to a full health one it'd be fine.

explain

I remove the concept of durability entirely.

Something fire emblem cant seem to figure out

I mean, the sword in the OP defeated Sauron after it broke so yeah.

I think there's one reasonable way to go about it: hardcore simulation. Weapons can and do get damaged or even break in combat and it's a tactical consideration. Of course, this implies a whole another type of game design philosophy in which every individual combat encounter is a pivotal moment in the game, as opposed to mowing through hundreds or thousands of trash mobs.

Other than that, I think durability system in World of Warcraft (vanilla/TBC era when repairs were a nontrivial fraction of income sources, and supposing tuning relative to player skill level where even elite groups are expected to wipe a ton in progression raiding) is a purposeful design. Online multiplayer games benefit from gold sinks to keep inflation in check and punishing deaths is one of the most natural places to put a gold sink into. Plus, when you have to repair during clear, it's one of those instances where class/profession utility like mage portals/warlock summons/engineer repair bots/rogues being able to vanish (to avoid repairs) feels good and rewarding.

I thought of that idea way back when new vegas was new.
Playing Anomaly and GAMMA taught me it's a shit idea because it ends up being feast or famine

you can also temper weapons to be more durable but it makes them do less damage. and vice versa. it's fun to make a -3 weapon that eats durability in few hits but shits out so much damage you kill bosses in one well placed combo anyway.

Weapon durability can be an "immersive survival mechanic" where you are forced to return to civilisation regularly unless you are equipped and skilled to repair your own weapons and clothes. It can make the wilderness feel more dangerous and towns and hubs more safe.
It can also introduce additional challenge in long dungeons or journeys away from civilisation where you will need to consider maybe using different weapons for high and low level enemies, preparing by bringing enough repair equipment, etc.

I didn't mean for how the game plays but how materials interact with eachother. Imagine we could simulate them close to atomic level.

Fpbp.
Some weaker weapons get more durability which in turn in higher uptime between damage falloff.

You made me spill my tea
Sharpening during a fight kek that's one funny system let me use my whetstone

Trying to develop a game anon?

It depends more on the game itself to be good

Op, if you are actually working on a game, ad gay furry bara beastiality fetish sex.
I promise it will increase your sales by 100 000% and make you the richest man alife.

I reckon it'd only work if you're aiming for a more simulationist experience the emphasis being on preperation and maintainince so while keeping the weapon in good condition would be more involved you wouldnt have to worry about the weapon spontaneously exploding after a set number of hits.

I just enjoy mechanics discussion

Theres a keyword that halts durability loss at some point from 1-100 (or just prevents it all together if theres no diminishing states along the curve)

Its part of the statweights so a weapon without it will always have a higher top end than one with it, it just wont need maintenance

The "god" weapon you get that has it is the exception to this and requires a lot of effort throughout the game to get and is given to you at a point that it doesnt really hurt the balance of 90% of the game

Like the fierce diety mask in majoras mask but as a sword

ok

And for example
It will be annoying if your only weapon breaks randomly in a game with a lot of enemies

While minecraft like durability system would be useless in a game where you replace it often

I hate it when weapons break permanently, though even that has its place in some survival style games.
But weapon maintainance mechanics are really nice and add immersion and believability.

1 durability doesn't go down unless you're parried or strike armor (skill issue)
2 make it work for the enemies too

Talking to NPCs repairs your weapons

make them sap your life force

Or just have the shop be able to repair items for you.

Item suffux/prefix route

your weapon deals less damage at breakpoints.
100% damage from 50-100% durability
50% damage from 1-49% durability
30% damage at 0 durability

Weapon mods centred around durability like "ethereal" are in the game
Ethereal means your weapon cant be repaired, but it always does full damage until it breaks and inherently has 50% base damage

also weapon mods that trigger an effect when they reach a certain breakpoint. Maybe a weapon gains a temporary buff like 200% increased damage for 20 seconds when it reaches 50% durability. Maybe it explodes, maybe an armor piece heals the player when it loses durability

Gameplay route

Durability is given meaning because of gameplay elements, like levels being structured so that the player has to keep durability in mind because a weapon will break if the player only uses that weapon the whole time. Levels are like expeditions where the player has to use strategy over what he brings and uses. at the end of the level everything is repaired.

Either route could work. The problem with durability is devs putting it in for the sake of it becuase they are stupid, also player has it stigmatized as a dumb mechanic because of that + players are often dumb.

It's some stone tool
How are you going to maintain it

oblivion

tes and fallout already perfected durability.

repair items yourself or with merchants

merchants are inconvenient and expensive but you can mark it down with social skills

repairing yourself requires skill but becomes cheaper and can repair above 100% at high levels

perks/traits change degradation speed and let you repair with more common materials like lower tier weapons

I don't remember the last RPG I played with stone weapons.
Copper and bronze? Yes. Wood? Yes. But stone?
Also these are usually earlygame only anyways and replaced with iron or steel quite early.

Chisel and hammer.

Yeah. Thinking about it, it's by far the best.

Weapons never fully break. They just lose effectiveness ("sharpness") the more you use them. (i.e. reduces down to like 30% damage after 500 hits)
You can repair them at any blacksmith for a small fee.

tes and fallout already perfected durability.

this

The spear from Ark You break it

I'd steal ideas from TTRPGs. You can pack along axes, polearms, maces, spears etc which all have various bonuses over swords but will all eventually break while your sword won't.

Just copy worlo

Oh you said rpg
nvm

tes?

todd's game

Go all in on kintsugi. Weapons must use up all their durability through use to be upgraded. You must use a weapon until it is no longer useful, then it becomes a component to turn into a stronger weapon once you get the other materials needed and return to "The Town". While working towards forging this next weapon tier, you use other weapons, which likewise can be maxed out the same way if you use them enough. Higher tiers take longer to max out and break, which also means your favourite weapon is not just becoming more powerful, but more reliable.

Unrelated
But why didn't they fix Skyrim despite releasing so many editions?

when your weapon runs out of durability, its damage decreases by 5% but is otherwise still completely usable
when you repair it, you are given the opportunity to use any material in the game. based on the material you choose, the weapon will gain a temporary bonus until its next repair, and a smaller but permanent bonus that persists on the weapon across any future repairs and stacks with future permanent bonuses.
the end result is that a broken weapon is an opportunity to get stronger rather than just a shitty homework assignment

Have the higher tiers of weapons be prohibitively expensive to constantly repair, and make the lower tier weapons drop often and be relatively easy to repair. This way the player will keep his main damage dealer for challenging encounters while also not making the shittier tiers irrelevant.

BotW was right in it's approach in the sense that if you have weapon degradation there should also be a surplus of weapons so you never run out.
Where it failed was that it was too balanced towards early game so you end up with legendary weapons that you never use. One way to fix it would be to make it so late game weapons have very high durability and you can repair them with common materials that you should have plenty of at that point.

I like how it was in Lies of P. In the late game and NG+ you restore durability by playing well, and the first strike on max durability vastly increases your damage.
You also start passively regenerating durability of inactive weapon too.

Lies of P

More like Lies of PAJEET!!!
KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEK!!!

Has any game done this aside from Batman?

Do RPG Maker h-games count?

Only by overextending will the weapon's durability suffer.
Simple Overheat mechanics to weapons. Durability remains 100% as long as the weapon doesn't pass the overheat threshold.
Once the Heat is too high, continued shooting, slashing, blocking, etc will chip away at the weapon's health.

A rifle could go through 1,000,000 rounds as long as you don't hold the trigger down and overheat the barrel.
A sword can cut countless demons and deflect endless blows without so much as a nick as long as you maintain proper form (burning out and trying to attack/block with no stamina could also cause damage to the weapon).
Armor will deflect attacks with only superficial marks, but if you suffer a devastating blow (special grapple attacks, being counter-hit), the armor will suffer too.

On the example of swords:

progress from sharp to blunt damage, eventually to a mixture and add conditions (i.e. poison/bleed) based on rust/jagged edges, slowly morph the sword to reflect the status

teach the player that 1) if neglected, damage may become permanent 2) depending on the material the sword may even break (worst quality), lose use-cases/potency (medium quality with dininishing returns) or fundamentally change in terms of use-cases (best quality, without diminishing returns)

It requires:

an intricate damage/stat system involving resistances (e.g.: sharp, blunt, poison, bleed,...)

an intricate condition system (e.g.: bleed/poison scaling with player movement, secondary and escalating/combo effects)

a reasonable crafting/economic system that enables player agency

None of it should ever turn into a chore or draconic punishment. Player agency should always be rewarded, e.g.: if a player crafts/buys a powerful weapon and neglects it, then the weapon should always remain useful and simply change. It may even serve as form of personalization (with and without magical elements such as inscriptions, curses etc).
If you create systems in isolation from another, you're just filling a bingo chart, tick off boxes on a checklist and work through a flowchart -- you're not creating a game, you're creating a generic, minimally viable product.

e.g.: bleed/poison scaling with player/NPC* movement, secondary and escalating/combo effects)

Bleh. It could be worked into multiplayer/PvP games, too.

The only time weapons breaking was fine was in the early parts of Baldur's Gate 1. When the Iron Crisis is still raging, be prepared to change weapons a lot or better yet, find a magic weapon. When you solve said crisis, voilà, no more weapons turning to metallic dust.

the chisel and hammer can break too

Isn't the materia system from FF games basically this too?

Have blacksmiths easily available that will repair your weapons for money, no resource grind bs, have weapons cost repair costs proportional to the weapons strength

Muramasa the Demon Blade did it perfectly. Essentially it turned them into cooldowns.

If your gear breaks, you can buy consumable repair kits in the cash shop.

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