Advanced Option: Slider Bar for Weapon/ Armor Breakage
Bhryaen
Member Posts: 2,874
I believe that the original vanilla BG1 had breakable weapons due to iron tainted by the gunk in those green bottles that the kobolds in Nashkell's mines drop. Well, BGEE will be using the ToB engine... and in ToB there was no iron shortage, no iron tainting, no Nashkell. So this feature will have been lost. I do believe it still will be lost in BG1EE if not restored because I once found it presented as a mod and asked about it, receiving the (correct) answer that BGT has that mod built-in- i.e., to restore weapon breakage to BG1 since the ToB engine dismisses it. The vanilla BG1 weapon breakage rules were, IIRC, a chance for party members to break weapons when rolling a 1 on attack rolls. Enemies were presumed to have access to the untainted Cloakwood iron weapons. The mod, however offered different alternatives in implementation, including armor breakage chance on a roll of 20 against you, and given the fun possibilities it affords, I thought I'd add those in a single slider bar of the Advanced Options section.
Mind you, it only applies to normal weapons and armor, so it also mostly applies only to the early part of the game.
This would look like (from left to right):
1- No weapon or armor breakage. (DEFAULT)
2- Metal weapon breakage for both party members and enemies based on a XX% chance when rolling a 1 on attack rolls.
3- Both metal weapon and metal armor breakage for both party members and enemies based on a XX% chance when rolling a 1 on attack rolls.
4- Metal weapon breakage only for party members based on a XX% chance when rolling a 1 on attack rolls.
5- Both metal weapon and metal armor breakage only for party members based on a XX% chance when rolling a 1 on attack rolls/ enemies receiving a 20 on attack rolls against the party member.
This might be better accompanied by another slider with, say, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 200%.
There are elements of this in the mods "Baldur's Gate Trilogy," "BG2Fixpack," and "Hard Times" and possibly more.
This is one in a series of game features I'd like added in a separate settings section called Advanced Options that would be available in a new "Advanced Options" Tab on the regular Settings Screen. It would be entirely optional to even peruse it, clearly designated as "Advanced" (even throwing in "Intended for more experienced players only" if that's deemed necessary). It would mean an in-game tweaking mechanism that would no longer require a mod.
Mind you, it only applies to normal weapons and armor, so it also mostly applies only to the early part of the game.
This would look like (from left to right):
1- No weapon or armor breakage. (DEFAULT)
2- Metal weapon breakage for both party members and enemies based on a XX% chance when rolling a 1 on attack rolls.
3- Both metal weapon and metal armor breakage for both party members and enemies based on a XX% chance when rolling a 1 on attack rolls.
4- Metal weapon breakage only for party members based on a XX% chance when rolling a 1 on attack rolls.
5- Both metal weapon and metal armor breakage only for party members based on a XX% chance when rolling a 1 on attack rolls/ enemies receiving a 20 on attack rolls against the party member.
This might be better accompanied by another slider with, say, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 200%.
There are elements of this in the mods "Baldur's Gate Trilogy," "BG2Fixpack," and "Hard Times" and possibly more.
This is one in a series of game features I'd like added in a separate settings section called Advanced Options that would be available in a new "Advanced Options" Tab on the regular Settings Screen. It would be entirely optional to even peruse it, clearly designated as "Advanced" (even throwing in "Intended for more experienced players only" if that's deemed necessary). It would mean an in-game tweaking mechanism that would no longer require a mod.
Post edited by Bhryaen on
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Comments
Heck there could even be a class of weapons (similar to the idea of masterwork) that are "hardy" (+ x% to resist breakage above weapons of that type) where all magic weapons are automatically hardy. Also there should be a few legendary weapons that are truly unbreakable.
mmmm, what about this: weapons can be "weakened"but repaired at a shop for gold. Weakened weapons get say -1 to hit and if they fail to resist breakage a second time they break forever.
Could even have multiple settings: no break, weakened but never break, weakened then break, break on first fail
Storywise, it makes sense to limit this breaking issue to metalic weapons (the iron crisis and all). In that same vein, all iron equipment should also suffer from the same problem.
I know that introducing a durability component to all equipment would be more realistic, but BG isn't really that kind of game.
Regarding magical weapons, I think they should be unbreakable for two reasons: First, they are rare, and many are even unique so gameplay-wise it would be annoying to say the least . Second, most of are old, probably made before the iron crisis, so i would not make sense if they were effected by it.
While breakable armor would make sense storywise, it would be a pain to have to carry some extra platemail, just in case. It would also be quite painful when your full platemail would break. If they were to implement breakable armor, I think they would need to add more magical armor as well.
It would be a pain if your metal armor broke, but that's the point. It would always remain optional so I see no problem with it.
I guess you are right, although I don't think some extra magical armor would hurt anyway.