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From Frequently Asked Questions
My opinions below are based on my experiences as a 3+ year veteran of WoW (plus some other MMOs that allow item repair) and a 3+ year veteran of Ryzom.

In the real world there is no full repair and your valued items wear out and must be replaced regularly. Without this natural turnover, much of human activity and commerce would shrivel, the world economy would stagnate and the rises of living standards we now take for granted would be severely curtailed.

Of course, Ryzom and other MMOs are merely games and as such sacrifice realism for the sake of playability. In this context, to repair or not repair can be considered a matter of personal preference, depending on what level of realism you seek in your gaming. That said, the spin off effects of No Repair are enormous and essential to the propagation of a dynamic crafting economy. No Repair is one of major things Ryzom got right and most other MMOs (who strive to incorporate a crafting simulation) have gotten wrong.

Allowing WoW-style repairs requires that best gear must be soul-bound to prevent ruinous item-inflation. Soul-bound means there is no after market or trading liquidity for the best crafted gear. Soul-bound even limits the market for crafting materials, since everyone must craft their own gear and will only need 1 of any particular final item.

In Ryzom, there are true master crafters as well as crafting novices. Anyone can aspire to be a master crafter or avoid it altogether (e.g., specialize in other skills). Even if you do not personally craft, you can still aspire to obtain the best crafted gear simply by working out a trade arrangement with a crafting master. In Rzyom, the master crafters truly are masters. They have knowledge of crafting nuances far far beyond that of crafter novices. The crafting system is correspondingly deep and dynamic. Crafting is a true profession worthy of special acclaim and recognition.

In WoW-style repair MMOs, there are no master crafters. You can only be a 1-off novice crafter because of soul-binding. The crafting system is correspondingly shallow and static. Of course, these games must also provide an alternative for those not inclined to craft -- all the more so because the crafting is so dull and unfulfilling. This alternative is to use dropped loot instead. In other words, the crafting system is so weak that the most viable approach is simply to steal all your gear from mobs.

Both approaches have merits in terms of realism vs. playability. However, my preference is to play a game that actually has a deep and dynamic crafting economy. If Ryzom was to introduce Item Repair, it would destroy ½ the game.

as a long time player and probably only one not digging and crafting after playing 6years or so I'm against item repair.
I can see an occupation tough where after loads of work you would be able to get an item to repair your weapon/armor for like 10hp so you can use those as a last resort when nobody is on. But then again that would get the worth of marauder armors/boosted gear down since ppl would grind it too be able to keep their armor/weapon hp up.
So I guess even a 10hp repair would just be bad for the community.

The constant need for new items gives the crafting skilltree a meaning, it also adds alot to the game dynamic. Imagine you made a very good weapon and armor, it took you a long time to gather materials and maybe also to get lucky on some bonuses. Now if you use these items, they will sooner or later be destroyed and vanish.

It adds alot to the value of those items, in other games you keep the items forever for example with the bind on equip or aquire system. Player simply hog items, with the constant need to find something better. Because items don't vanish, it is also important to balance very very well and make sure to introduce stronger and better items all the time to feed the "gear mill".

Once someone else has a similar item as you do, something new has to be introduced. Because if they use it or leave it in storage, it will be theirs till infinity with no chance to aquire something "better". This might be true for Ryzom at one point too, however you will lose them if you use them :)

I like Ryzoms system better, for some simple reasons:
- "Outdated" or "Buggy" Items don't need to be removed from the game or nerfed: use them, lose them. This way some really old items exist, for example with higher bonus or no requirements. These are very valueable today.
- As mentioned before, why would anyone invest the time to level the slowest skilltree in the game? Crafting is one of the most complex and time consuming skills, not to mention the aspect of finding recipes, gathering materials for good crafts etc.
- The duality of using vs losing. Once you have a fully boosted PvP Armor, Jewelset and Weapon you think twice before equiping this set for an op battle. Is it really worth it, to wear them out?
- Self sustaining content, Ryzom is a sandbox game and works without constant new content like quests, epic loot or instances. Losing equipment creates new tasks in order to replace it.
- Durability becomes an important stat. If you craft something oustanding, you want to have it last as long as possible too. If you could repair it, low Durability would just be an annoyance, if you can't it's essential.

In terms of real world, an item can be repaired, but only a limited time. This could be implemented in the game. For example every time an item gets repaired, a certain amount is removed from the max Durability. So after 2 - 3 repairs it will break forever. Though, this could be achieved with a slower break rate or higher Durability aswell, so no real new "content".

With all the comparisons to other MMOs don't forget the sandbox aspect. Ryzom is not designed to deliver you weekly content, it's based on "power to the players". You as player create the world, find yourself goals and ideally shape Atys. The Ryzom Ring was one of those concepts. As with all sandbox games, at a time one "has seen it all", this is where the development of new self sustaining content and events / animation comes in.

Sadly this aspect is lacking right now ingame, however to a new player Ryzom should provide enough content for a long time, most people complaining here and ingame are long time veterans and play the game already for over 7 years.

If you could just repair gear with dappers, everyone would be running around in rubbarn boosted sup gear and it would have no meaning, the way it is now is better because the hard to obtain gear gets used for special occasions and not to grind with, no point changing that IMO

I am no veteran, but I have played some MMOs. What I can say from some not-so-keen observation is that in a "WOW-like" mmo (and actually any game with a repair function for items), the items seem more vulnerable, you need some repair quite frequently. While in Ryzom I can justify the non - repair system not only because of realism (which is not that true either, in real world we repair items), but because items don't brake that easy, I suppose that when something comes to a condition that would need repair (that it cannot get anyway), it would be when it have past its lifetime (WITH any repairs it could afford) anyway.

It is as if repair (extra time with small fixes) has been counted in the normal lifespan of an item.

It took a long time for me to accept and embrace the concept of no-repair.

Items are pretty durable in Ryzom. I think new players will usually out-level their tools before they break. And we can all learn to make everything. So even when something does break, we can either craft a replacement, or we can usually find somebody who can.

I completely understand how some people feel about working so hard to obtain an in-game item and know it won't last forever if they use it. I felt the same way for years. However, I think the game is better without repair. It makes skills and materials matter much more.

My point exactly :-)

Also (and it has been said elsewhere on these forums) by the time you have need to repair something, you have almost certainly outgrown it and should be using something at a higher level.

Obviously, players who can use q250 equipment actually would find repair useful - both because q250 good mats are rarer, and also because they won't outgrow them ever.

Then again, if repair was allowed then everyone would eventually have the best stuff in game, which could be .. boring.

Just a thought from a passing ghost:

What about a limited repair with a possibility of failure (loss of item)?

Item is almost worn out. Repair crafter works on it and it's either almost good as new (say 50% of durability restored) or it breaks completely. Items can only be repaired once.

Just a thought.

how about in order to repair, you have to have at least 1/5 of the mats that were used to create the item, to "repair" it, so a new crafting window would be needed, where you would put in the item (let's say a jewel) and then add 2 of the seeds or nails or ambers or eyes or buds or spines and then you "repair the item" each time you repair an item it drops a grade, so supream items repaired become exel items, exel items become choice, choice becomes fine, and find becomes basic, at which point no more repair is an option and the item simply wares out after a long life of use :)

just my two dappers for the + side of the idea

Death to items! Only sane way to keep crafters sane.

On Atys, items are made from living matter, living matter decomposes. Items are irremediabily going to be destroyed, as they are not living anymore in order to regenerate.

+ repair action = death to crafters and to the many activities required to gather materials for crafts.

definitely against.