Does anyone know if your equipment in TESO will be ''everlasting''(like in Skyrim...), or will it get more and more ''worn out'' and damaged when using... with a possibility of losing it, if it's not repaired...?

Most likely there will be durability, probably will be tied with death. We don't know at this point, but it'd be weird if they didn't include it.

I hope it wears out over time through use. My sword should break after striking with it X times, where X is how many times I can strike within a 24 hour period... So if we can strike once every 3 seconds with a standard attack, it means we can strike 20 times in a minute. There are 60 minutes in an hour, so that means 1200 strikes in an hour. That means I can strike up to a maximum of 28800 consecutive times in a 24 hour period. So it would only need maintenance before I have struck something 28800 times. It would break and need reforging after that. Swordsmiths should be able to craft sword maintenance kits (whetstones and polishing compounds) to keep it in good repair. Those kits can be sold exclusively to public blacksmiths for the repair services. As long as the blacksmiths have kits, they can repair someone's sword. This allows player-crafters to have a recurring important role in the game economy but without being able to gougue their fellow players on repair kit costs. The blacksmith would always pay for kits. The more kits one makes the more money they can make. Say the blacksmith pays 25 gold per kit. The repair service would cost 100 gold. So it is a money sink.

By the same token, crafters tools should also wear out through use and need repair or replacement, so crafters will also have to spend some money to keep their stuff repaired. No special case rules that exempt one group from a penalty another group must suffer.

Durability but not permanent lose is the way to go.

Well, Permanant Loss would be the penalty of not paying attention to the condition of one's gear and having it maintained regularly. If it breaks, then it needs to be reforged or replaced. No item, even epic loot should be immune to this.

Having gear serviced should never affect its maximum status the way it did in SWG. In that game, when there was gear decay, if you repaired something, its maximum durability was decreased, eventually leading to MANDATORY replacement.

It should never require mandatory replacement unless the player refuses to pay attention to the condition of the gear. A GUI icon should show when any gear is below a certain durability threshold. So there would really be no excuse for letting equipment break.

Reforging would be done at the blacksmith as well, but like maintenance kits, would require that the blacksmith has special materials in stock... Scraps of leather. Metal plates. Ingots. Ore. etc... The blacksmith would make components if he has the materials to make them. It would be nice to have alternative uses for resources we find other than using them in our own crafting activities or just selling them to other players. Blacksmiths should always buy these things.

The Reforging of epic gear should be expensive because the materials needed to reforge it would be rare or highly refined. But one would never actually LOSE what has been gained, but if it is broken, then until it is reforged, it is useless.

As to the mystical gear that in games like Arena or Daggerfall, which were only temporarily yours and would go away after a time, I'd like to see these unique thing back for TESO. They would not be subject to wear and tear like above, but rather available for a limited time. Say, 30 days, regardless of where they are stored. There should be many places scattered all over Tamriel where one of these items would spawn at. Shrines, Dungeons, Caves, random places out in the open world. These type things would encourage exploration. If nobody knows where these items may be found, and no one person may own them for more than a month, then even places that have been visited before might be worth visiting again. Nothing will prevent someone from finding these unique items again, but it would be by chance, not by intent... Unless he manages to successfully find it again by going from one possible resting place to another all over the land before someone else happens upon it. And that will not be an easy task

This sounds like a not fun chore to me.

Really? How hard is noticing an icon on your screen, Clicking on it and seeing that your sword is about worn out, droping by any blacksmith and having him service it for you. If he doesn't have the materials (unlikely since service kits would be a swordsmith's assured bread and butter with the local blacksmith) he'll offer to take your sword, put it on the waiting list and get word to you when it is ready... It's a simple process... If you happen to be a swordsmith yourself, you can craft the kit and use it. If you ignore the warning, and your sword is at 10% durability, you still have 2880 times you can strike with it before it will break. The warning icon on the interface will move from blue to red the closer something gets to actually breaking. You'll have plenty of time from when the icon first shows up blue to make a trip to a blacksmith. Most MMOs have a need to get your gear serviced. Every TES game except for Skyrim required it as well...

So it's not really that big of a chore. Of course, you could just keep some spare gear in your bank or in your personal inventory if you don't want to bother with getting your current gear serviced. You'll likely be finding plenty of it. Where it really would become necessary is if you decide to buy player-crafted gear which should be better than standard loot drops, or if you have some gear awarded by a questgiver that you really like and what to use for a long time...

So you're with your guild taking a keep in Cyrodiil, you're close to taking it but you notice your sword is about to break. "Oh sorry guys I can't help anymore i have to go back to town and fix my gear" Then others have to as well and you've now lost momentum and you can't take the keep. Not because you weren't skilled enough but because you had to go fix your gear?

Yeah that will go over really well...

Again, permanent loose doesn't really make sense anymore. Durability where by the item becomes unusable until fixed fine, but permanently loose an item just by playing and using it? No.

Pretty much all MMO's have durability loss over time and a more significant durability loss with death, and as long as the over time part is structured right the only way a situation like you have described would happen is if you don't make it a thing you do every time before a raid and that would be to repair all your gear so there is no possibilty of this happening. Like CB Jackson said, even at 10% durability you could still take an additional 2880 hits before the sword broke, so 10 x 2880 = 28800 hits total before that particular weapon breaks, and they just adjust the numbers to make it realistic but not a frustrating problem.

Then they can also add things like unlimited durability to items, like for instance Daedric items might all have that quality to make them more wanted by the population and give them fairly normal stats otherwise, which would keep them from being OP.

Anyway I would be surprised if there is no durability loss at all on items.

uh.. I'm just saying there shouldn't be PERMANENT loose. There should always be some sort of durability but never to the point where you loose the item for good.

If you make sure that you're gear is in optimal condition before you leave camp to go storm the keep, you will NEVER have this problem. And what about all the gear you will loot off the NPCs helping the other side guard the keep? Or from containers in the form of corpses scattered around the battlefield if NPC fill-ins are not possible... There should always be plenty of options. Like I said, Even when wear and tear on a piece of gear gets bad enough that you get the blue warning icon, it should be good enough to see you through the current need... Also, there could be resuppliers located near the battle zone for your faction, Crafted swords and swords looted from PvE content could be donated to these resuppliers... They are donated for the war effort. Send one of your buddies with your damaged piece of gear and he will trade it for a fresh piece...

That gives a reason for PvEers to come to Cyrodiil as part of the efforts to keep the supply lines for the war effort established.

And by the way, Taking a keep could and should be bigger than just one play session. Some strongholds could take days of careful engagement to take down. I would hate to think that one could take the Imperial Throne in just a matter of days.


It will if it is something that is taken into account as part of design rather than something just tacked on.


I agree. Didn't I say that... What I consider permanant loss is having the item unavailable until I get it reforged if I don't want to just toss it aside and replace it. Player crafted gear should be of superior quality to standard vendor or looted gear. Marginally so. Enough that I feel like it makes a difference, but not enough to make standard gear useless...

"Damn! The sword that Joram crafted for me just broke. I need to have it reforged! Ah, well... At least I've got this rusty longsword. Not as good, but it will kill people just as well..."

Maybe having something like Oblivion's repair kits would be okay, even though I thought that was annoying, too. I would hate to have to continually stop whatever quest I'm on and run back to town to repair my favorite sword. I have enough crap in the real world that needs continuous maintenance without having to deal with it in a game.

I think the equipment decay is a ''MUST BE'' in TESO.

What about the hunger (character must eat, drink and rest... or your stamina and health gradually decreases...)?
So... will there be a ''CHARACTER DECAY'', or something similar?

Because... food in Skyrim has almost no meaning...

It's going to be like world of warcraft, when you die you lose durability.