Durability may be in. But is it wanted?

It depends what angle you are coming from, personally I am approaching from the 'make this game freaking amazing' angle, others are looking at lore, or making the game 'realistic'.

 

Being able to die makes a game challenging and opens up new fun mechanics like healing and blocking.

But buying items allows me to get those new items in the first place.

Going to your spaceship allows you to go to those other planets in the first place, as well as give you a cool space to decorate, ect.

See? All of those things add to the game. What does item durability add?

EDIT: And before you start just listing off more examples, no, I am not going to explain the purpose of every single game mechanic just because you can't think of a good reason to have item durability.

 

The only problem is that your assault rifle will be gone forever I guess it is to prevent "anyone" getting blueprints from just one single item.
A solution could be that instead of destroying the item, said item is able to give its blueprint only once.
Edit: though I don't know if 3D printed items will be able to give blueprints. But I assume they cannot.

 

why would anyone other then a 10 year old like to be invincible and just walk through the game... just saying

 

Even in fantasy settings, verisimilitude is very important if you want your players to feel really engaged with the game.

 

Healing is fun? I guess that's why there are always way too many healers looking for groups in MMOs....
Yeah, it adds challenge. I know this. I'm not actually arguing against any of those things, if you're paying attention.

I'm just trying to point out that you can apply that logic to pretty much any aspect of a game.
For some people, durability DOES add to the game. For the people that like it, for whatever reasons those are.

Some people think it's fun to play in god mode, I don't.
Some people think it's fun to give themselves unlimited cash, I don't.
Some people think teleporting everywhere for free is fun, I don't.

But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't.
e-edited for readability

 

Realism for its own sake does not engage people. And something breaking after only 100 uses is only realism if you buy things at the dollar store.

 

Um, what? Plenty of people like to heal. Yes, more people like to DPS or tank, but that doesn't take away from my arguement one bit.

And what "reasons" are there for durability? Until you answer that question, your entire argument is nonsense.

 

It does work if the game is built around that idea. I'd count DayZ as one of the more realistic games out there, for example. (Okay, at least its trying to - Most of the stuff that seems weird will get adressed in standalone.) It's got drinking, eating, temperature, reloading half-empty mags (as in, you keep the mag with half the bullets), bullet drop, zeroing and so on.

Does that make it a bad game? Hell no. Because it's actually built around realism. Because the items are replaceable, even high-end weapons, it does not matter if you lose them because of death (I'm not sure if standalone will have weapon durability, can't find anything on it).

Starbound is not built around realism. It's built around exploring planets, building structures and manhandling the local wildlife. A randomly generated gun will be a valueable asset, given that it stats are good. Losing it to durability would be annoying.

Here lies the problem with the very concept of durability. If its set too low, your items will constantly break, annoying the player. If it's set too high, it will never have an effect on gameplay and only be a pointless, forced waste of money. Even if balanced out right, it still forces you to take spare items with you, limiting your inventory space, as well dettering using unique guns.

 

Read more than the first sentence, please.

 

DURABILITY!?

 

you articulated what i have kind of been trying to get across much better sir and i didn't know that was a word

 

I did read more then the first sentence. I read up to "whatever reasons those may be." I'm trying to argue that there are NO reasons, and you're arguing that, hypothetically, if I don't like one thing I must not like anything about the game because they're ~real~. You're a braindead idiot, and until you tell me WHAT durability ADDS to the game, I'm not wasting my time with you.

Edit: And I just read the rest of your poorly thought out post. My point stands. I already told you why those things were in the game. Idiot.

 

Wait..
Perhaps the printer is for economy. The original is bound to the finder.
The Finder uses the armor/weapon on the printer and the printer spits out a replica of that gear.
The printed gear is of the same states of the original but the printed gear has durability.
there are many... many items in starbound so no two people will have the same gear so easily.
You would not print any ol item but some really good gear that you can trade to others because it will replace that +2 damage sword with a +15 damage/ +10 stun flamethrower. the copy wears out yes but would you not replace that stick with the rare red button of doom?

 

Oh man. If I was trolling you, this would have been the perfect response. Unfortunately, though, I wasn't... so... yeah... umad, I guess? I'm not sure what the protocol is, here.

 

Having enough realistic elements for players to be able to suspend their disbelief is not realism for its own sake, and usually doesn't take that much anyway. All I was saying is that you don't need to go full-on simulationist if that doesn't fit the theme you're trying to create, but a little bit is sometimes necessary.

 

Item durability systems give you a sense that to continue being successful in play, you will have to work to get more resources or whatever. If you're trying to make survival a theme in your game, that's potentially a great mechanic to have because it reinforces that you're supposed to feel a bit desperate and unsure about your future prospects. Whether it's a good mechanic that adds to your game essentially depends on what kind of theme you want to create.

 

oh hush peoples its a game not life some "realistic" elements in the game are not even close to realistic. I would love to see someone in reality jump flawlessly on top of a one story building completely clearing the top but that is probably not going to happen. final post for me also... NO PLZ STAPH DURABILITY WHY

 

Is there really any need for that sort of attitude in here?

 

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Fine, I'll post it again. Here goes. Get ready.

Because some people like it.

And since you asked for any reason to have it, that's the only one that matters. Personally, I don't like it, so I can't say why others do. But I see that they do, in fact, like it, so obviously there's a reason. People don't just arbitrarily go down a list of things to potentially like and check them off at random.