So, I was going to post this in response to a post in the Slappy Scrunt thread, but I realized it might deserve its own topic.

I honestly thought it was just kind of a given that pricing and item stat budgeting were more or less arbtrary. I mean, take a look at the troll store – would anyone here ever buy a Segway with sidecar over an MC Banhammer Memorial Love Doll? Yeah, it’s a little douchebaggery and defense better, but you lose a huge chunk of offense. And somewhere in the emo kid store there’s a piece of equipment that’s a straight-up downgrade from another, but costs more. Hacker equipment seems to be a little better about this, with items dedicated to a single stat giving more of it then “all-around” items at the same price level, but not to the extent where I found most equipment to be useful. I went straight from Holy Water Cooling Systems and Alan Turing’s Brains to Transformer Modifications, with no desire for the items in between them in prices, although my good luck in farming a certain .moar file probably pushed me to the most expensive option a little faster than I would have taken it otherwise.

Really, I think a lot of the items with a single stat on them need to be brought in line with similar-quality items with multiple stats.

This is just all from my experience, and concentrating more on stats than the humor or appearance of the item. Maybe there are situations where 2 defense is worth a loss of 18 offense, and I’m sure there are hackers who are happy wearing a Three Wolfram Shirt over a Holy Water Cooling System just because of how awesome it is.

I don’t intend this to be a FIX ITEM STATS fabulous person ADMINS DO IT DO IT post, I’m just wondering if there’s anything I’m missing, or any upcoming plans I don’t know about. Is there any unseen benefit to the single-stat items?

(EDIT: Fixed typo)
(EDIT EDIT: In retrospect, this probably would’ve gone better in Game Discussion than here, seeing as it’s not new to Ep3 or anything. Could someone this there, please?)
M3m0ryH0g edited this message on 02/08/2010 7:42PM

I can tell you for a fact there is no formula.

In beta testing I suggested strongly that a formula be used, and even presented a potential one. I’d be glad to repost it here for discussion (if I can find it).

But ET said, basically, that he doesn’t feel it’s necessary. What was done in Ep1 and Ep2 seemed to work, so that’s what he was going to use for Ep3. To change the base would require not only a bunch of coding (which we all know he no longer has time for), and would result in weird balance shifts to everyone who’s been playing for any length of time.