leaf wrote: But then players would have something like Chaos Sword +10 (Str+10, Dex, +10, etc.) and then all their stats maxed out at 30.
But now the item power restriction would stop anyone but possibly a level 110 creature from equiping that powerful a peice of gear, so while it might be possible to make a Chaos Sword +10 (all stats +10); the equip value would be unbelivabally high (I'm not sure of the exact math, but I think even a level 110 charecter would not be able to touch it and if they could it would prevent them from wearing much, if any, armour)
leaf wrote:One used to be able to enchant armour to +12 (or higher?) That was reduced because players would have Armour scores of 99 or higher and AC's of -15 or -20 before they reached level 2. This was also a reason why so many low level monsters would have attack types other then physical. Poor, unequipped newbies that would login would get toasted easily, early and often.
But now enchanting armour dose not increase the physical protection rating of the gear- so the part on Armour scores of 99 is moot, and the equipment rating makes it so that a charecter at level 2 could at best have an AC of 0 (serpentman with AC 5, +5 suit of armor; can't have any other magical gear); Also were not nessassarily sugesting that the current cap (+5) on armor be removed(Though it should remain in the settings file so that a server host could decide that it should be upped) ; simply that it be psossible to enchant magical armor beyond it's default state- so that a charecter with power dragon mail +4; 35 lbs, can turn it into power dragon mail +5 25 lbs. And a helmet of X-ray vision can be upgraded into a +5 helmet of X-ray vision, and that a Gauntlets of might, or dragon's paw can be made into a +5 gauntlets of might, or dragon's paw; of course a charecter wearing
Power dragin mail +5
Helmet of X-ray vision +5
Gauntlets of power of might +5
Gaea's cloak +5
Holy Sheild +5
Would need an equip value of about 50, not counting any weapon they may be weilding, so I don't think you need to worry about invincible newbies who spent all there time looting/enchanting armor.
Same argument for weapons; item power AND maximum number of weapon improvements will severly limit anyone attempting to build 'das umber sword'; but will allow a charecter to have for instance 'Ymir's Mournblade +6 (Pow+6)' at level 22, which dosen't 'break' mournblade, but dose allow my level 22 charecter (if he's not equiping much in the way of magic armor) to focuse the weapon more twoards a backup to magic use. Now; he could just enchant a regular sword that was coincidentally +4 to the same point, then stick an 'of devorerer's' enchantment on it, and he would get a simmilar result; but it would not be 'ymir's mournblade' it would be 'ymir's broadsword of devourerers''- and then he'd have to equip a holy shield to make up for the lost protection from draining- so I don't see a massive balance issue there.
leaf wrote:Item power was added to hinder high level characters from dropping a ton of good eq in the middle of a city and then all the low level players grabbing it and then being almost unstoppable while in maps designed for them. Now, hopefully.. characters learn how to use immunity and protection potions and find/disarm traps before they try to take on MWizard tower.
Fortunately Item power also has the side effect of regulating enchantment, and with that regulation in place; I agree with the orriginal poster that there is no reason not to allow enchantment of allready magical items.
With all these points said: It should be harder to enchant magical items- I mean, if it was easy the orriginal enchanter would have made it that way to start with! Further improving magical items should require more resources then improving an item 'the first time through', perhaps 10 times would be fair to limit it, and make building a near equivalent like what I illustrated above seem more appealing; we don't want everyone level 22 to have a +6 mournblade (+6 to stat), we just want to make more options avalible.
Side note:
I'd like to see more enchantment scrolls avalible for both weapons and armor- there are plenty of magical weapons in the game that have a default attack other then physical- but outside of godly blessings there is no way to make those (so weapons that do for instance 'drain, physical acid' are impossible to create). As well it is impossible to put resistances on weapons, but basically every magical weapons has resistances (Mournblade, excalibur, and stormbrand all protect against draining); it would be nice for there to be resistance scrolls that can improve a weapons resistances (while boosting it's item power appropriatly, but not it's weapon improvement rating), I think that a single scroll boosting resistance +10, but then reducing it's 'counter resistance' -5 for elements would be ideal (IE: +10 to fire resist makes -5 to ice resist) capping out at lets say 40%, and perhaps +20/scroll to the more emphrial resistances (Drain, depletion, holy word) capping out at +100%