Feature suggestion: inventory item hitpoints

[Derakon]

Inventory damage is a bit of a pain, especially because of how random and binary it is. Currently, at best you have a 1% chance that any given item will be destroyed if it is eligible. Otherwise it survives utterly unharmed.

I suggest that instead each item have some degree of hitpoints that are depleted when it is targeted by elemental attacks in your inventory. When these hitpoints are depleted, the item is destroyed. Then, elemental attacks should affect your inventory more often, but be unlikely to destroy an item outright. Item HP should be pooled when the items are in stacks, much like charges are; each time enough damage is accumulated to exceed the max HP of a single item in the stack, one item is removed. For example:

e) 15 Scrolls of Phase Door (45/45 HP)
...
m) a Staff of Destruction (3 charges) (14/15 HP)

The Red dragon bat breathes fire! -more-
One of your Scrolls of Phase Door was destroyed!

e) 14 Scrolls of Phase Door (40/42 HP)
...
m) a Staff of Destruction (3 charges) (9/15 HP)

The benefit here is that inventory damage becomes less arbitrary. The detriment is that it becomes significantly more complicated. Is it worth it? I don't know; I'm just throwing the idea out there.

As for fixing damaged goods? I don't know that it's strictly necessary. I suppose recharging could be co-opted for this task though, or a new item could be created. Otherwise, just add more items to the stack to keep the stack HP high.

Additionally, I'd like disenchantment attacks to drain charges from wands and staves (while I'd also like melee drain-charges attacks to be less absolute).

[AnonymousHero]

Sounds quite similar to the Diablo II system of item "Durability" (though D2 didn't have the concept of inventory damage). Armor and weapons lost "durability points" from use (atttacking, "absorbing" hits).

I think it added something to the game, especially in combination with "Ethereal" items which were irreparable and had lower durability than normal, but had higher base damage/defense statistics (before modifications applied by "egos"). This was slightly complicated by the fact that some items (artifacts, sets and some egos) could auto-repair (slowly) over time.

In D2 you could also repair (non-ethereal) items at the shops.

[Lord Tom]

I don't know that the inventory damage concept as you suggested would add enough to gameplay to compensate for the added complexity, but having wearable items accumulate damage offers interesting possibilities.

It could provide some more differentiation between artifacts and ego items if artifacts last "forever" whereas ego items do not. It would also add some strategy in terms of when to equip/use certain powerful, but destructible items, eg to avoid wasting swings with a good weapon on an orc pit at cl 40. It would add more impetus to look out for useful weapons as opposed to the single weapon that does the most damage/provides a need ability at the time. And maybe heavy weapons/armor could wear less quickly than light ones.

I'd say if damage-by-use were used, though, damage should accrue quite slowly, eg many thousands of swings for an average weapon.

[fizzix]

It could provide some more differentiation between artifacts and ego items if artifacts last "forever" whereas ego items do not. It would also add some strategy in terms of when to equip/use certain powerful, but destructible items, eg to avoid wasting swings with a good weapon on an orc pit at cl 40. It would add more impetus to look out for useful weapons as opposed to the single weapon that does the most damage/provides a need ability at the time. And maybe heavy weapons/armor could wear less quickly than light ones.

I'm not sure I would support any proposal that makes it even less likely that an ego will beat out an artifact at any point in time.

OP's proposal is not a bad idea though. But like he said, It might add more clutter than usefulness.

[ekolis]

Intriguing idea... reminds me of Fire Emblem...

[Bostock]

Sangband has something somewhat like this, for staves only. (Unless you count blankets of elemental protection). Because there are only 2-3 damage levels, it works, more or less. It doesn't really introduce any difficult decisions - rarely is there cause not to replace a damaged staff with an undamaged one, since recharging is plentiful. If anything a decision sometimes arrives with *ID'd* staves since usually only these will give you failure chances, which are nice to have at hand when you are blinded/confused (an all-game problem due to mind blasting... not sure if it's in V).

It certainly is a nice feeling, though, when you find a fresh staff of detection right as your old one has reached Badly Damaged. And that nice feeling does add to the game.

[cinereaste]

Intriguing idea. Would acid damage a weapon's (or armor's) hp, bonuses, or both?

[Derakon]

That is the big question. Arguably you could have armor's AC malus depend on how badly-damaged it is, but the implication is that when the armor's HP reaches zero, it is destroyed, which is poor form for a non-consumable item.

Generally-speaking I'm not a big fan of worn equipment wearing out through the simple process of use. It usually shows up mostly to put the brakes on an online economy by creating a money sink; Angband isn't online and has no need for that. Equipment damage becomes somewhat more interesting if items can't be repaired, but you end up with constant tradeoffs between "too cheap to be useful" and "too awesome to use" which I think would overall hurt Angband's play. Especially considering how vital a single piece of gear can be to a player's success.

[Magnate]

Sangband has something somewhat like this, for staves only. (Unless you count blankets of elemental protection). Because there are only 2-3 damage levels, it works, more or less. It doesn't really introduce any difficult decisions - rarely is there cause not to replace a damaged staff with an undamaged one, since recharging is plentiful. If anything a decision sometimes arrives with *ID'd* staves since usually only these will give you failure chances, which are nice to have at hand when you are blinded/confused (an all-game problem due to mind blasting... not sure if it's in V).

It certainly is a nice feeling, though, when you find a fresh staff of detection right as your old one has reached Badly Damaged. And that nice feeling does add to the game.

IMO the *only* tolerable implementation would be something very simple, i.e. with only one or two levels of damaged-ness between unharmed and destroyed. Having damage affect plusses or flags on armour or weapons would be too much, unless inventory damage is toned down further still. But OTOH if we don't do that, what's the point in having it. I don't know. Acid can already destroy swap weapons in inventory if they don't ignore it, so maybe (-5, -5) from acid damage would be appropriate.

[Tiburon Silverflame]

I'm not at all a fan of equipment wearing down either.

And generally, I don't see that this adds anything but more tedium.

[AnonymousHero]

(Sorry about the near-necromancy.)

Durability/accumulated damage affecting armor/weapon attributes would be horribly complicated and annoying, IMO. The only interesting mechanic would be to do with "item still works" (and is or is not close to destruction) or "item has been destroyed" (permanently, even artifacts!).

I never played D2 much online (well, I did, but only after playing for years offline), and I still thought the mechanic was interesting even in offline play, so I don't think the "online economy" comment applies.