A Critical Evaluation of the Durability Feature - Rust

I have seen a lot of complaining about the new durability feature and so in this post I would like to give opportunity for a more objective, critical evaluation of the feature to determine if it is worthwhile to add to the game. There are both pro’s and con’s with and without the feature. I feel most of the posts on here simply dwell on the con’s of the feature, instead of evaluating the pro’s and con’s of both with and without the feature to determine which may be better for the game in it’s current state. Let’s take a look: ----------------------------- [B]Current State of the Game (without Durability)[/B] 1. If you craft a tool or weapon, it lasts forever. You only would craft another for a few reasons currently: A. You lost the one you had (raiding or otherwise). B. It is a weapon and it doesn’t have enough slots. C. You are helping someone. 2. If you gather and raid long enough, you will reach a saturation point with items, tools and weapons. The only reason to gather/raid more resources during this saturation point is: A. To build bigger (establish further dominance). B. Deprive others of resources/tools/weapons. C. To make C4 to raid others. D. Craft more ammo for weapons. D. Repair buildings/structures (minimal). 3. If you are a newer player and craft a good weapon and it get’s stolen, it only further creates a gap between weak and strong player groups because they last forever. New player A just made an M4 and Player B has a grand base with lots of resources. He raids player A who now has nothing and Player B has his weapons permanently and will continue to dominate. ---------------- [B]How Durability Changes These Things[/B] 1. It gives another reason for crafting additional weapons and tools. 2. It lengthens the dominance curve out a bit by bringing in another upkeep requirement. 3. One could make the argument that this only further divides the weak from the strong. Groups who have the ability to gather more resources can upkeep easier and more strongly dominate. Lone players aren’t able to upkeep as strongly, therefore making more powerful weapons that cost more resources only doable for larger, powerful groups. 4. It gives value to lower cost weapons. Currently, it is consider a waste of resources by some to craft homemade weapons because you could just use those resources to create a permanent good weapon. If there are more intermediate weapons introduced that cost less resources to craft, then they become valuable because they are cheaper to make and likely also cheaper to maintain. This lengthens out the curve from naked to ‘fully geared.” Whether or not you like this curve lengthening is entirely subjective to what you want out of the game. This is simply addressed by the style of server you choose to play on. 5. If we consider durability together with the possibility military weapons become uncraftable, then it will make them even more valuable because once found, they have to be maintained. 6. It may shift banditry priorities. Currently, once you get some weapons, you can go around and kill whoever you wish because your weapon lasts forever. It would create a higher upkeep for those who wish to constantly pvp. In this regard it would curb banditry [I]marginally[/I]. These bandits may still increase the frequency they raid because they need a flow of 'fresh' weapons to continue. However, it would then be less desirable to kill 'lower tier' players because they don't have the resources to upkeep good weapons and so attention would be more focused on those with the resources to upkeep good weapons. This may cause more dominant group vs dominant group action rather than dominant groups picking on 'lower tier' players. 7. I'm sure admins might be able to adjust it just like decay, crafting time, etc as well so I picture it being an additional server feature. Example: "1/2Craft/Sleepers/2xDurability/Oxide/Etc" 8. Larger groups will require higher upkeep. The more players you have in one group using the same materials, then it proportionally requires more resources to upkeep the entire group's tools and weapons. This requires large groups to be smarter with the use of their collective resources. Wasteful use of resources by people within the group could potentially undermine the group's ability to maintain dominance since they do not properly use resources to upkeep their tools and weapons. In addition, attacking larger groups will have even more merit because if you deprive a large group of resources, then they lose out more because they have more they have to upkeep to maintain their dominance. 9. It creates higher cost for those who are higher activity and higher use. If anything, this [I]lessens[/I] the gap between active and casual players. People who play constantly will have to upkeep more whereas more casual players will have proportionate upkeep relative to their activity. ----------- These are a few that I have been able to come up with myself. If you have a few more comments that are good, objective evaluations of the pros and cons, then I can add them to this list. ---------------- [B]My personal opinion[/B] I think that alone, durability in the current state of the game may only create a stronger divide between lone players and larger groups. However, together with other future game dynamics, such as more intermediate tools and weapons, the uncraftable military weapons, etc, then together all these dynamics will create a more fluid game and a smoother curve from fresh spawn to fully geared. I welcome the new feature to see how it will impact the game and see how it is shaped over time.

Very well thought out post. I agree with all of the above and I appreciate you looked at all perspectives of the argument.

I always appreciate posts that utilize brain functions. Very good stuff. I hope that it lengthens the power band a little, but my fear is that it will only widen the gap by giving new players an additional burden that doesn't really affect established players much at all. I'll try to be optimistic. Maybe it will create more of an upkeep cost for larger groups, as you said.

I just hope the durability isn't too extreme. Like your P250 will be good for 50 shots before you have to tape some low quality metal to it. Honestly I can't say whether or not it will be good or bad for the game until we try it out.

Casual player shouldn't be equal to non casual one. Weapon should decay when you don't use them, playing more should be rewarded, not punished.

One of the cool things I noticed while playing on a dev server is that I think twice before chopping down someone's wooden door, How many hatchets am I gonna have to break to get in there? maybe I'll come back later when I'm better established, it's not just setting the corner of the keyboard on the left mouse button and going to get a drink anymore. I haven't dared to break open a shelter with a metal door, as I imagine I'd need to have two, maybe three pickaxes on me to get in there.. One suggestion I have is that if you keep an item maintained, repairing it before it breaks, it should loose less of it's permanent condition than if you use it till it breaks. Maybe this is already the case, but the repair benches were still kind of wonky and unpredictable when I tried them last.

[QUOTE=Evolution13;43988863]One of the cool things I noticed while playing on a dev server is that I think twice before chopping down someone's wooden door, How many hatchets am I gonna have to break to get in there? maybe I'll come back later when I'm better established, it's not just setting the corner of the keyboard on the left mouse button and going to get a drink anymore. I haven't dared to break open a shelter with a metal door, as I imagine I'd need to have two, maybe three pickaxes on me to get in there.. One suggestion I have is that if you keep an item maintained, repairing it before it breaks, it should loose less of it's permanent condition than if you use it till it breaks. Maybe this is already the case, but the repair benches were still kind of wonky and unpredictable when I tried them last.[/QUOTE] Hot tip, works for me on mac so I'm not sure about PC, if you click and hold the left mouse button and shift + tab to open the steam overlay then let go of the mouse button, your character will continue that action until you click again!

[QUOTE=Ebay Account;43988490]Casual player shouldn't be equal to non casual one. Weapon should decay when you don't use them, playing more should be rewarded, not punished.[/QUOTE] Some people have lives outside of Rust.

[QUOTE=Ebay Account;43988490]Casual player shouldn't be equal to non casual one. Weapon should decay when you don't use them, playing more should be rewarded, not punished.[/QUOTE] You just reached a new level of stupidity.