Shopping for Equipment

[jmordetsky]

This maybe too IC...if so...scold away.

I find shopping very difficult. My char has come into a bit of excess recently and decided to get a few items to make his life a little safer, a little easier.

So, I find myself sitting in a shop going....Is item1 better for what I want to do then item2? Is item2 better then what I have now?

Is the Ldesc on eq the only thing you can go by save personal experience?

[sarahjc]

Heh.. why not ask a merchant??

Or wish up to animate the NPC Merchant and see if an IMM has the time to RP a scene..

Just a couple ideas..

:wink:

[spawnloser]

In general, most things are pretty self-explanatory...that huge mother of a hammer probably hits harder than the one half its size, so in that respect, you do kinda have to go off of just that information and a bit of common sense.  Otherwise, you are looking to RP with someone and ask them IC if they know if weapon X is better at (insert your style of combat here) than weapon Y.  Wish up if there are no PCs about, and if an IMM has the time at that time, it is possible that they will decide that you are worthy to RP with them.  :wink:

[UnderSeven]

I don't see how this is any different then real life.  You go shopping, you compare things, you are not an expert most likely (if you were you'd be a merchant) and therefore you guess purely based off what you know.  IE the looks (view command) and such.  That's not really all that different then life, what you want the items to give you numbers. Does X damage?  I dunno, I think the lack of information (if you can call it that) is pretty fitting.

[jmordetsky]

"Does X damage" would be bad. I wish I could post the specific example...It's really difficult to tell....but I think that would be a bit much.

I think the best way to is to RP it and get some advise IC. Thanks all.

[Carnage]

IRL it's a bit different. You can feel the material, maybe give that sword a test swing (under the carefully guided eye of the merchant's guards), whatever.

You go shopping, you compare things, you are not an expert most likely (if you were you'd be a merchant) and therefore you guess purely based off what you know.

You can be an expert and not a merchant. I'd expect a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant in the US Army to know what rounds are better against an armored and unarmored enemy or what type of firearm is better for what situation.

In all practicality, you need to know the situation and what you want this for. Are you a ranger who spends a lot of time wandering or sneaking around? Something with sandcloth or lighter materials will help, while that heavy silt horror breastplate is going to weigh you down and make your movements louder. Planning on going to war? Feel free to use some of the heaviest armors you can get a hold of.

Weapons are situational as well. If you don't plan on being the main target in a fight or shouldn't be, you shouldn't worry much about that parrying dagger and focus more on your damage.

Basically, as others have said, the best thing to do is the ldesc and experience. Watch your sparring, see what gets deflected/absorbed more, ask your sergeants, and so on. As for wishing up and talking to the merchant, I wouldn't count on it but it couldn't hurt.

[Bubblebath Boy '63]

Some shopkeepers, if I remember correctly, can be spoken with using the 'talk' command

try 'talk <clerk> <item keyword>'

[da mitey warrior]

The thing is, most weapons and armor are pretty equivilent.   One weapon isn't really better or worse than another one.

Bigger weapons do more damage, but needs more strength to use.   Alot of big weapons mention that they are awkward to use in their descriptions, so big weapons probably have negative bonuses to hitting.

Heavy armor absorbs more damage, but weighs your character down more.

Just keep those guidelines in mind.  The game is pretty consistant across the board with ballanced equipment.

I've done alot of combat and you don't really notice the difference between weapons.   A bone bastard sword is about as good as a curved sword of bone, which is about as good as a bone claymore.  And that dragon-carved, ornate katana which you special ordered from salarr for 10,000 sid is probably just a restrung bone longsword and isn't any better or worse than something you can buy for 50.

So, all in all, OOCly worrying about which piece of equipment is better or worse isn't really worth it.  There isn't any skill or special command needed, just go with what your character likes.

[Kalden]

It'd be nice if view gave the same info that assess does. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a chopping weapon and a slashing weapon, or know for sure if the dagger is a stabbing weapon, or if it can be used for skinning. Am I missing something here, or do people all find these out by trial and error?

Seems like I never used to have to buy weapon, ass weapon, sell weapon, buy weapon... and so on. Maybe I've just been having bad luck.

[spawnloser]

When 'viewing' you should see if an item is usable for skinning and what type of weapon it was...or at least I thought it does.

[Koala]

When 'viewing' you should see if an item is usable for skinning and what type of weapon it was...or at least I thought it does.

I wish "viewing" would work with -skill_value&skill_analyze- so that you may determine its weight plus what can be crafted or what raw materials used to craft...
Off course this should be related to your level of skill...
Just a simple wish  

[spawnloser]

I agree, Koala...completely.

[Tamarin]

I think a comparison between Earth-based commerce and Zalanthan based commerce is flawed...unless you're looking at the tiny little vendors to be found on the streets.  For them, I would think, selling their wares is a direct link to their well-being.  As such, they'll do whatever they can to make a sale, up to and including letting people carefully examine their stuff.  In short, give us more info when using the view command.

[Raesanos]

When making items, we try to make an item's coded stats match up with the description as much as possible.  We make every effort for the code match up with what an item "should" do given what it is.  Therefor, you can assume that a dull knife is weaker than a wooden knife which is weaker than a glass knife is weaker than a metal knife.  If you compare two stone knives and notice one is described as being sharp and one is chipped, there's a good chance the sharp one actually is superior.

This is done this way, with no way of accessing the actual coded stats, intentionally.  It lets people analyze equipment the same way they would in real life.  I imagine if people did have access to coded stats, there would be a lot less item variety in the world.  Everyone would just be using the same obsidian longsword that happens to do 2 extra damage, or whatever the case may be.  I'm not saying everyone is twinky, it'd be IC to use the best weapon possible.  But I don't think its IC to know nuances of the code that could be otherwise learned through intuition and experience.

As for assessing items in shops, this has been suggested many times before.  The problem is that it'd be very difficult to implement.  Maybe someday one of our coders will take the time to do it, but it would take some work.  I don't believe it is not implemented because any staff member said no to it; I think many of us would like to see this change as well.

[Kalden]

When 'viewing' you should see if an item is usable for skinning and what type of weapon it was...or at least I thought it does.

Probably right. I was exaggerating. I just mentioned that cause I ran into a piercing weapon that was described as a slashing weapon... a typo. So it's really not that big of a deal.

And I bought some knife that I thought would be able to skin, but apparently can't. <shrug>

[Xerin]

My character recently viewed a longsword at the Allanak Salarri merchant and decided to buy it. The description specifically says it is a double-edged sword used for slashing, but in reality it is coded as a puncture weapon. It would be nice to have inconsistencies like that fixed.

[Carnage]

My character recently viewed a longsword at the Allanak Salarri merchant and decided to buy it. The description specifically says it is a double-edged sword used for slashing, but in reality it is coded as a puncture weapon. It would be nice to have inconsistencies like that fixed.

Did you typo it?

[Xerin]

I didn't, but will try to rememer to do it next time I log in.

[spawnloser]

If it was indeed the weapon you had intended to buy, but it is not the weapon type it had said, you should 'bug' the item in game.