[CF List] Too stupid...

[Mark Wedel]

"Andrew D. Bagdanov" wrote:

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      I think there is consensus that level minimums are the solution to
     
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      this problem, but ideas about what happens below minimum level vary
     
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      wildly:
     
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       1.  Item cannot be applied and is totally useless.
     
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       2.  Item attributes scale with character's level.  Item may be used
     
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           by low-level characters, but with reduced effectiveness.
     
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       3.  Item randomly un-applies itself depending on level.  Item may be
     
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           used, but with high potential risk.
     
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      Did I miss any options?  I'm too lazy to review the whole thread right
     
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      now...
     
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      Option 1 is certainly the simplest solution, but options 2 and 3 add
     
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      interesting gameplay elements...
     
     
 Those points are also in rough order of how hard to do.

 Depending on the item and level, point #2 may also be useless.  Lets take
dragon scale armor, and say the min level is 10.  Presuming the scale is pretty
linear (such that at level 9, you get 90% of the bonus, level 8 you get 80%,
etc), if your level 7 or 8, the armor may actually end up being worse than
standard armor.  And at level 1, it would appear like complete crap (you may
also get some confusion in than when a player examines an object, it should tell
the bonuses as related to that character, so that level 5 character would see
really 50% of the various, where that level 10+ would see all of them).

 The other little complication is that for items that give stats, even really
good ones tend not to give really high stat bonuses, so even if just a little
below min level, the item may appear much worse.  If we continue with the
example of a level 10 item that has +1 Str, +1 Int, and +1 Dex, if you do simple
fraction drops, this item has no bonuses even at level 9.  If you do standard
rounding, then at level 5 (.5 for each stat), the item is effectively fully
usable.

 This is a very simplistic example, but there probably are many good artifacts
at there which have moderate bonuses in a whole bunch of things, so the rounding
could really make those appear weaker.  I wouldn't really want to try to give
partial benefits (in the case above, at 4'th level, you get one of the +1, at
7'th, you get 2, and at 10'th, you get all three).

 But this dimishing/confusion could probably be fixed relatively easily by doing
something like this when the item is examined:

 The ring of might is a level 10 item.
 ITs full bonuses are ....
 The bonuses you would get are ... (this only gets printed out of character is
less than 10th level)

 This way, the low level characters could see what they may eventually get from
the item.

 But I will note that case #1 has to be done before either #2 or #3 can
proceed.   So it probably makes most sense to do that, and if further
refinements are needed, #2 or #3 could be done after the fact without a lot of
difficulty.

 I have the feeling that the hardest part in all of this is assigning reasonable
minimum level items to the relevant artifacts