Item repairing

[Doubleplay]

I have been repairing my imbued armor, weps, and jewelery after each trip out into the action. In order to prolong the life of the items, I try not to let each item get more than 10 points worn before repairing it. I realized that even though not worn out much, I am still losing a point of durability about 25% of the time.

My question is: Would it be better to let the equipment wear out almost completely before repairing it? I would lose a point of durability every time I repair, but if considering the lifetime of the item, would I get more total use out of the item by the short or long repair cycle?

It's possible that the 25% figure is not accurate since it is so far just my estimate of the failure rate on a slightly used item.

 

[Stupid Miner]

as far as i'm aware a legendary repair deed repairs the item 100% of the time

It's kinda simple to figure out the math from there.

 

[Tina Small]

A Five on Friday Q&A back in November 2007 discussed the issue of why legendary crafters sometimes lose durability when they repair items: http://www.uo.com/fof/fiveonfriday86.html. I assume the formula used for determining the chance to lose durability when using a repair deed has to be the same or very close to the one quoted in the FoF.

Might make an interesting Ask the Devs question to find out if it's better to use a repair deed or have a crafter make the actual repair. It "feels like" the answer should be you get a better result having an actual character make the repair, but who knows if that is what the real situation is.

 

[Basara]

IT's been stated before by devs that you are less likely to lose a point of durability from a crafter repair, than from a deed - but both tend to have an almost-certain loss once you get past 40 below max durability.

As for a citation of that, it was in a thread that is no longer with us, thanks to some anonymous server farm tech grabbing the wrong machine (i.e. Stratics, instead of some other customers) by accident to format & reinstall.

 

[Lorax_Pacific]

A Five on Friday Q&A back in November 2007 discussed the issue of why legendary crafters sometimes lose durability when they repair items: http://www.uo.com/fof/fiveonfriday86.html. I assume the formula used for determining the chance to lose durability when using a repair deed has to be the same or very close to the one quoted in the FoF.

Might make an interesting Ask the Devs question to find out if it's better to use a repair deed or have a crafter make the actual repair. It "feels like" the answer should be you get a better result having an actual character make the repair, but who knows if that is what the real situation is.

Basically looks like a 30% chance even if the item is durability is down by 1 point.

The best use of durability loss would be to let it get to a minimal amount that you can deal with and then repair. The more times you repair the more loss you will get.

Regarding the formula: The formula doesn't really work since it can go over 100% and in terms of probability that doesn't really make sense to code that way. I'm not saying the developers didn't code that way, but I don't think they thought through the statistics equation. Why would they need over 100% chance to lose 1 durability?

-Lorax

 

[Tina Small]

Regarding the formula: The formula doesn't really work since it can go over 100% and in terms of probability that doesn't really make sense to code that way. I'm not saying the developers didn't code that way, but I don't think they thought through the statistics equation. Why would they need over 100% chance to lose 1 durability?

Perhaps they code formulas like that to better ensure a desired result when the infamous RNG is introduced into a calculation.

Who knows.

 

[Yacct]

Hum, given a 255 durability it'll have ~32600 total durability if you only repair at 0. Whereas with that fof formula if you repaired after losing 22 hp for 50% no durability loss you'll repair effectively 44hp per loss...do that 200 times you've got like 9000 total durability so far.

So at a glance it appears you never want to repair until 0. I guess the formula didn't really envision PoF/arties? There's not really a tradeoff as that fof suggests.

Two possible easy fixes. a. Instead of clamping at 100% durability loss, increase the loss when > 100%. ie, 110% = 2 loss say (example only) or b. reduce item effectiveness proportional to durability loss.. I think UO used to work this way IIRC.

 

[Tina Small]

And I guess it should be obvious, but perhaps it's not something we think about much, there's always going to be a slightly higher chance of losing durability when you use a tinker, carpenter, or fletcher repair deed because the crafting skill for each is capped at GM.

 

[AtlanteanAngel]

For imbued items, you will always lose a point of durability with each successful, and unsuccessful, repair attempt. This is to ensure eventual destruction of imbued items (since one of the goals of imbuing was to reintroduce item breakage, in a somewhat misguided/flawed idea that item breakage would support crafters).

 

[Doubleplay]

My blacksmith and tailor are legendary. The items they are repairing are all imbued. I have never failed a repair, but lose one durability point approximately 25% of the time. I don't think I have ever lost more than 1 durability point per repair regardless of the starting condition.

It seems that opinion is all over the map on this. What are others experiencing in real UO life? As an aside, It seems to me that my tinker (who is GM) is the most successful, my blacksmith is least successful, especially on weapons. Blacksmith results are worse on weapons than on armor for some reason.

Again, this data is purely subjective at this time. I am only trying to find out what others are experiencing when repairing imbued items, and to develop a strategy for maximum life for the items.

 

[JL from Europa]

For imbued items, you will always lose a point of durability with each successful, and unsuccessful, repair attempt. This is to ensure eventual destruction of imbued items (since one of the goals of imbuing was to reintroduce item breakage, in a somewhat misguided/flawed idea that item breakage would support crafters).

On the subject, does Self Repair work with imbued items? Because if so, it would never need repairs, just some time repairing. I could for example switch between suits and wear the damaged ones on a mule until it is fully repaired. Or, somewhat dubious, just sit in my garden with monsters targetting me, that usually prevents my char from logging out for some reason.

 

[Miriandel]

... one of the goals of imbuing was to reintroduce item breakage, in a somewhat misguided/flawed idea that item breakage would support crafters.

It is not a misguided idea since the original UO indeed was a game of crafting.
The original UO also had a now gone formula: the more you repaired, the faster items wore off.

That way, you would never have to worry about items lost/worn out (and we lost a bunch since Trammel and insurance did not exist).
Those who wanted to craft always had lots of customers and those who didn't want to bother with crafting always had brand new items to buy for dirt cheap.

Items were indeed cheap, anyone selling anything for more than a few hundred gold would be laughed at.

I'm mildly amused when people complain about 45DCI mages or infinite moving shot archers, when they are the same people who want their overpowered items to last forever.

Back in the days, you could out-gear someone, with a vanq weapon or an invul set... but it would not last forever, so it was wise for everyone to play with crafted gear, which of course favoured a game based around skill and only skill.

 

[Connor_Graham]

Hum, given a 255 durability it'll have ~32600 total durability if you only repair at 0. Whereas with that fof formula if you repaired after losing 22 hp for 50% no durability loss you'll repair effectively 44hp per loss...do that 200 times you've got like 9000 total durability so far.

So at a glance it appears you never want to repair until 0. I guess the formula didn't really envision PoF/arties? There's not really a tradeoff as that fof suggests.

Two possible easy fixes. a. Instead of clamping at 100% durability loss, increase the loss when > 100%. ie, 110% = 2 loss say (example only) or b. reduce item effectiveness proportional to durability loss.. I think UO used to work this way IIRC.

If you wait for an item to get all the way to 0 you have a chance to fail at repairing it even with a legendary crafter, which then causes the item to lose a durability poing without it being repaired. It's best to repair before it gets to that point for just this reason.

 

[Doubleplay]

Using the formula from the FoF, at 120 skill, you will lose a durability point 100% of the time when a 255 max item is repaired at 183. At 100 skill, the corresponding 100% loss is at 185. Thus the skill of the repair person is pretty much irrelevant.

Since the minimum loss chance is 29% with an item worn down only 1 point in durability, it appears that the best strategy for maximum life of our imbued items is to let them wear down to single digits before repairing.

 

[Lorax_Pacific]

Using the formula from the FoF, at 120 skill, you will lose a durability point 100% of the time when a 255 max item is repaired at 183. At 100 skill, the corresponding 100% loss is at 185. Thus the skill of the repair person is pretty much irrelevant.

Since the minimum loss chance is 29% with an item worn down only 1 point in durability, it appears that the best strategy for maximum life of our imbued items is to let them wear down to single digits before repairing.

Another point to consider about when to repair is that an item will not work as well with low durability. I don't remember if there is a formula for hit chance or defence chance, but I know that hit chance is affected and repair usually around 40-60. I think that is about when my hit chance goes south.

If you don't know a formula just make yourself a study and see if you seem better at hitting or defending. I would avoid getting too low.

-Lorax

p.s.
I think the formula is dumb and always has been. It doesn't even have a random number generator in it like another person suggested. It's like a weird Fahrenheit.

Also, imbuing removes self repair.