Post by Magicsofa in On the Usage of Shields in a Text Only Role Playing Game

Viewing post in On the Usage of Shields in a Text Only Role Playing Game

The more damage a shield takes, the harder it becomes to block with it.

I think I see where you are going with this part but it sounds counter-intuitive for a game. I mean, keeping track of equipment is already a task, but having an equipment that constantly drains away its usefulness could be tedious. And may lead to a meta where players always ditch them for one with less damage, or even stop using them altogether.

Then again I'm imagining the shield going from 100% to 0% effectiveness in line with how damaged it is, which may not be what you intend. You did say player skill would make it easier to block with a very damaged shield. However this is the one piece that is supposed to be different and not "boring"

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Turnus22 days ago

The reasons why a player would not be incentivised to exchange their old gear for new one are the following:

- the gear is a rare commodity in the game

- the gear is evolving together with the character (it gets improved by smiths)

- the concept that "if the enemy has it, you can have it", that usually applies with the "after the enemy is dead" addendum :) that usually implies that the enemy is going to use the shield and damage it in the process as well.

Regarding of what you have said about keeping track of damaged equipment, I entirely agree. It can become a tedious task in most games, but since this is a text based game, it will not pressure the player to make rapid decisions and I have already put in place a system that signals the need for repairs, when that need arises.

If you are interested in seeing it in action (for swords, not for shields), my game is called Project Tezerat and it can be downloaded for free in a very alpha version, here, on itch.io. I'm not going to post a link to it, because I believe the forum prohibits it.

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