Illarion.org

Currently repairing does this:

Quality of the item goes down, state of the item goes up (or not if you fail).

I don't particularly like this. If for example, you have a scratched shield, and you cover the scratch with paint, it doesn't make it any less protective does it? Similarly, if you have a damaged cloak, and you sew it back together, it doesn't make it any less protective from the weather.

I suggest this:

There are 5 things that can happen when you repair an object
I) Loses 2 quality
II) Loses 1 quality
III) Loses 1 quality Gains 1 state
IV) Gains 1 state
V) Gains 2 states

Obviously, chances are that its goign to be II, III or IV, while the others are for exceptionally good work (or exceptionally bad failures).

The chance of getting one of them, depends on
I) How hard an item is to make
II) The state of the item before.
|-> If you sharpen a sword, there is less chance of it getting damaged, while if the sword is almost destroyed, repairing it WILL do damage to it.

This means that if you repair a sword (for example) each time it takes a little damage, the sword will last you for ages (as it should in real life).

Hadrian_Abela wrote:This means that if you repair a sword (for example) each time it takes a little damage, the sword will last you for ages (as it should in real life).

Thats exactly the problem with your proposal.

From a design and balancing point of view you want items to break, to vanish from the posession of players, to dissapear from the cycle.

You need to create and upkeep a certain demand.

Of course, removing this with your idea will lessen the burden of the "warrior type" characters, but in the end it just hurts everybody and we move back to the point we once where:
A warrior buys his/her gear once and keeps it till eternity.

Currently it looses all times 1 quality point and gains a skill and item depending amount of durability. I can't see any reason to change this.

Keikan stated the point why this proposal is not good.