Armorsmith Archive

• Useful Items - Items that have a clear and beneficial impact on the player. They allow the player to increase their overall effectiveness in the game. These items tend to be used heavily by players.


• DisplayItems - Items that haveno direct benefit to the playerand are more like trophies.They don't increase the players overall effectiveness, but players still pursue them because they look nice or are hard to get. Any item that people will not use as they are afraid it will break, becomes a dispaly item. The risk for getting these items far out weighs the rewards, but players stil want the items. Krayt Skulls, paintings and similar items fall into this catergory.


• Junk - Items that serve no purpose and are so common that no one wants them. Basically, if it's not one of the above, it falls into the junk realm. The game even has junk dealers to semi-handle this stuff.

My biggest complaintabout how absurd the drop rate is for the RIS components is that it makes the armor a display item rather than a useful item. Players spend tons of credits in the pursuit of the components to make 1 piece of RIS, much less 1 suit. The same can be said for Mandalorian armor, the amount of effort required to get the armor, makes it a display item, rather than a useful item. Here are some questions I ask myself when evaluating the pursuit of any item in the game. I will post my answers after the question in regards to how I feel about Mandalorian and RIS.

Is the item better than anything I currently have? Currently no, butthey should be the top armors after the combat balance, so the answer is actually yes.

How much time is involved in obtaining the item? RIS and Mandalorian are the hardest items in the game to obtain, besides the legendary drops. It takes a minimum of 18 days just to get GDK scales if you kill every spawn during that time period for RIS(50 spawns a day, drop rate of 1/100, 1 scale per drop). In addition, the other looted components and resources must be obtained. Chances are, it would take someone playing 24-7 a month to obtain everything. Even if you have obtained all the resources, a qualifies smith has to be found to assemble everything. Similar statements can be made about Mandalorian Armor, although you now have to convience 19 of your buddies to help 9 times.

How many credits will I have to spend to obtain the item? It's fair to say that a full suit of Mandalorian or RIS is worth 200 million credits. On some servers it might be more, others less. Based on current Ebay credit sales, $20 for 1 million credits, a full suit of RIS or Mandalorian would have street value of $4000.00.

How long will I use the item? I use by best stuff just about everyday. Why have something if you aren't going to use it.

Does this item serve a purpose if I change professions? It is safe to say that both armors would make nice display items. Therefore they have some purpose.

Will I be able to acquire another item of the same type, using the current item, before it is rendered useless? It is pretty much fair to say that players will not be able to get another set of the armor in the time it takes to get it destroyed. Mandalorian has a durablity of 40000, which means it can be repaired roughly 4 times before becoming not useable due to the repair system. I highly doubt either of these armors would last long enough to see their replacement made or to obtain the 200 million credits needed to buy another suit.

As you can see, these armors fall more into the display category, than the useful category. The last question is the kicker. Any item that cannot be used to obtain another copy of itself, before it is rendered useless, becomes a display item. RIS and Mandalorian are great rare items, if the devs want to leave them as quest items to be put on display, I'm fine with that. If they intend these to be the new "composite" or top end armors, then they have just created a nightmare. You think it's hard now, imagine having to compete for loot rights like goes on with Krayts and the Geonosian Cave.

If u can get RIS its worth it I would say...I finally got a helmet made..came out at 70% resist 40k condition (unsliced) with low encumberance...the guy that made it had 90% resist RIS believe it or not. I wouldnt pay more then 5 million for a suit myself however.

Message Edited by Redrumm on 07-02-2004 03:00 PM

Omigod dude that is frigging ridiculous...20 million per piece!! lmao!! thats just stupid...I got the helmet in less then a week and 3/4 the components for next piece..all im missing is another GDK for the chest plate and I actually had one but gave it to my friend so he can start on his suit....maybe ive just been lucky.

I thought the point was usefullness of these armor types, not their practicality. I agree 100% that the advantage that these armors provide is small in comparison to the increase in price, which may, to some, be unpractical. However, despite the simply outrageous prices, many people on my server DO use their RIS. I made a helm the other day for a guy that wanted all my experimentation put into the kinetic so he could use it to hunt without worrying about mind encumberance. Furthermore, a wise player knows that the display value of armor remains after the armor loses all of its condition. I have no doubts that even a thoroughly broken piece of RIS would fetch a great price, but nowhere near the amount one could get for a brand new piece. At that point it would be entirely for show. So yes there is a premium set on the display properties of rare and seldom-seen items of all types, but the main cost of armor lies in its functionality to the buyer. Lastly, RIS and Mandolorian armor are not meant to be worn in all situations like your standard composite armor. They're meant to be kept inside a droid storage compartment for special duels or perhaps dire emergencies. Properly kept and prudently used armor can last for the duration of your life as a player so there needn't ever be an issue of replacement unless the player foolishly uses his/her armor in unnecessary situations or simply plays for a very long time.