Recyclable Gears

[Mere]

Ultima Online did that. We had to bring bags of swords to a fight...

"bags of swords" sounds funny... like if they where bread or something for a picnic lol.

I remember other game that had a similar idea to what I was trying to say (making gears disappear from the game). The game was Ragnarok Online.

In there you could use some special stone to upgrade armors or weapons which would then gain a +# at the end (eg. Armor +5). It could be enhanced multiple times and every success would add a +1. The more times you enhance the gear, the less chances of success it has. If the enhancement fails, the gear is lost forever, no matter how many successful upgrades it had before. For example, it was easier to get the gears to +1, +2, +3... but then it could break when you try the +4, if successful, you would think if you dare to try the +5 which is even more risky... and so on.

So lets say that you have a Sword +7, means it has survived the enhancement 7 times and is exponentially more powerful than a NQ Sword. And then you go and try to make it +8 and fail... the Sword with all its upgrades is now lost forever.
So an Armor +6 is several times more valuable than an Armor +5, and an Armor +2 is relatively cheap. Whenever someone said they had the bests gears, they would be +8 and up to +10 if I remember correctly. Extremely rare and expensive!
I remember having a few dozens of already upgraded armors at some +4 or so, then attempt to upgrade one by one to +5, and then try to upgrade the survivors to +6 until I was left with only one armor... which I would keep till I get a new dozen of +6s to try and repeat the process another day.

In other words, my point is... the enhancements/upgrades should be very high risk but very well worth it if success.

[MariyaShidou]

"bags of swords" sounds funny... like if they where bread or something for a picnic lol.

I remember other game that had a similar idea to what I was trying to say (making gears disappear from the game). The game was Ragnarok Online.

In there you could use some special stone to upgrade armors or weapons which would then gain a +# at the end (eg. Armor +5). It could be enhanced multiple times and every success would add a +1. The more times you enhance the gear, the less chances of success it has. If the enhancement fails, the gear is lost forever, no matter how many successful upgrades it had before. For example, it was easier to get the gears to +1, +2, +3... but then it could break when you try the +4, if successful, you would think if you dare to try the +5 which is even more risky... and so on.

So lets say that you have a Sword +7, means it has survived the enhancement 7 times and is exponentially more powerful than a NQ Sword. And then you go and try to make it +8 and fail... the Sword with all its upgrades is now lost forever.
So an Armor +6 is several times more valuable than an Armor +5, and an Armor +2 is relatively cheap. Whenever someone said they had the bests gears, they would be +8 and up to +10 if I remember correctly. Extremely rare and expensive!
I remember having a few dozens of already upgraded armors at some +4 or so, then attempt to upgrade one by one to +5, and then try to upgrade the survivors to +6 until I was left with only one armor... which I would keep till I get a new dozen of +6s to try and repeat the process another day.

In other words, my point is... the enhancements/upgrades should be very high risk but very well worth it if success.

Um no, that is a famous trick in F2P Korean + Chinese MMO to force people to spend cash heavily, because those things are very imbalanced, especially in a PvP-centric MMO. Most Western MMOs do not have this feature, though P2P Korean MMOs do to a lesser degree.

Disposable Gears maybe, like someone said that if the durability goes down to 0 it would literally break.

[Mere]

Um no, that is a famous trick in F2P Korean + Chinese MMO to force people to spend cash heavily...

You think so? I don't know... FFXIV is not one of those "micro-payments" games... we are supposed to pay a monthly fee... unless you are talking about gil sellers and botters... but then again, they do those things anyway, and even worse (like camping NMs using cheats and stuff).

And sorry, I don't know much about PvP or how to make it balanced... never been interested in that, because whoever has the higher lvl and the best gears wins anyway.

If everything is trivial to acquire then who cares. However, we all know there will be rare gear that is difficult to obtain.

Then maybe make it so "rare" gear never reaches 0 durability, but crafted gear would. And what would be good about crafted gear if it has a chance of breaking? ... That it could be enhanced/upgraded!

I do not agree that everything will eventually break, but I kinda like the idea of taking care of your stuff, giving it maintenance and stuff. I remember reading somewhere in the FFXIV website about a fisherman (or someone else) coming back home after a long day and giving maintenance to his rods? Or something like that. You would HAVE to be careful of your gears so they don't reach 0 durability, and if you neglect them, then they are lost and you gotta buy a new one.

Or maybe... broken gears could be used for de-synth!