Weapon degradation in games

[AgedGrunt]

It's a nice sense of realism, but often implemented as little more than a nuisance and money sink. Fallout made perfect sense, given how technology is sparse and all the salvaging and jury-rigging that was part of the game's reality.

Dead Island, on the other hand, was without a doubt one of the most absurdly ridiculous exercises in nonsense. Literally acquire something that looks like it could shatter bones, upgrade it with thousands of dollars of reinforcements and a shock mod, and the thing is degraded 50% in twenty minutes (and it's not even that powerful, anyway). Then again it was a game where the most powerful and useful weapon was your character's foot.

 

[Hambers]

It's a nice sense of realism, but often implemented as little more than a nuisance and money sink. Fallout made perfect sense, given how technology is sparse and all the salvaging and jury-rigging that was part of the game's reality.

Dead Island, on the other hand, was without a doubt one of the most absurdly ridiculous exercises in nonsense. Literally acquire something that looks like it could shatter bones, upgrade it with thousands of dollars of reinforcements and a shock mod, and the thing is degraded 50% in twenty minutes (and it's not even that powerful, anyway). Then again it was a game where the most powerful and useful weapon was your character's foot.

Now if your character's foot had broken THAT would be innovation right there!

 

[Negatempest]

Weapon degradation is usually so poorly implemented that it's sole purpose is a time sink over anything else. In every MMO it only serves as a time sink, plain and simple. The only time I have ever accepted weapon degradation was in Monster Hunter. The idea that you weapon would dull over use on a tough monster hide makes sense. Makes even more sense when your weapon can bounce off a monster's skin from being dull or not sharp enough. Also there are skills to tweak the sharpness of a skill so it ends up balancing out.

 

[Jabberwock King]

Who here remembers Morrowind? Remember how chitin armor had pretty decent stats, but had fuck all for durability? Or how ebony or daedric equipment could lasts nearly forever. I think the clear numerical indication of how much wear anything could/would take was a good feature.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

It really depends on the game in question.

In anything Fallout or Demon's/Dark Souls, it's a must have. In other titles, it's a concept that's so remote, misunderstood and misinterpreted that it plain don't make no proper sense.

I personally like weapon (and armour) degradation. If handled correctly, it's really not just annoyance, but a constant reminder of everything being ephemeral, transient, and decidedly non-eternal.

As much as I hate it, I love it.

I fell on the stairs the other day. I was in a hurry, you see.

I thought I'd broken my leg, because I took the liberty of flight, down a flight of stairs, right before landing rather harshly, coming to an abrupt stop with my thigh lodged against the bottom step, made of stone, and thus quite a bit more durable than the simple mix of meat and bones and shit I myself am made of.

But, hey, life is just too damn short, so I used the time (and iPhone (and Snapseed)) God has granted me and I slapped together a little something before I could, finally, get up again and hobble on through life:

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

Fallout did a pretty good job at implementing it, but I'd much rather prefer it if games made repairing weapons and armor even harder so that your forced to swap them out more often. It would force us to use a variety of weapons and armor instead of us just sticking to whats reliable.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Unmodded S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC was an example of it being poorly implemented, as you had no way to repair your weapon. Whilst this shouldn't be a problem with so many people to shoot, you had the problem of some unique guns (For example, an American battle rifle that used the same ammo as the AKS4u, which was much cheaper to buy) you would be reluctant to use it.

I disagree, while you could not repair it, a replacement was found easily (being a better rifle) and besides, a few of the unique (the better) one's had an extended durability.

Spoiler

Storming Obokan and Faster Shooting AK47

Using spoiler tags for those who didn't play it.