GameMaker Studio 2 engine

- intro -

While there is no definition for itemization in games, the following summarizes my thoughts about it:

Itemization is the design of items in games and includes item types, item stats, item rarity, item diversity, item skills, item affixes and balancing.

It does not necessarily apply to Action-RPGs only, but to all sorts of games where there are items which can be used in a certain way, such as weapons, armor and even consumables. In games there is usually some sort of item progression which drives the player to keep on grinding or wanting to find new items to get stronger.

- items in Pale Coins -

- item type -

The first important aspect is the type or category of the item. Some of them have subtypes or sub-categories. Here is a complete list of the available types and subtypes:

Weapons, armor and artefacts primarily influence the build or playstyle of the player, while consumables could be considered secondary. Misc items or key items won’t influence the playstyle at all and are used in other ways.

The several weapon types come with different movesets and different approaches. Two-handed weapons hit harder but are slower when compared to a dagger or a one-handed weapon.
Runes hold powerful spells but are useless without mana. Staffs on the other hand can be used for melee attacks as well as casting magic.
Bows are useful to attack from distance, but only if the player has enough arrows.

Armor does not change the moveset. However, armor and helmets influence the defenses and - most importantly - the appearance.

The primary use of artefacts is to fetch out the target build or grant boni not associated with weapons or armor.

One of the most important things is that everyone can use any item as long as the item requirements are met.
Why shouldn’t a wizard be able to hit an enemy with a big club? He could, but it won’t be as effective as if a melee focused player does that.

- item stats -

I guess the most basic item stats in Pale Coins are damage, defense and resistance.

Damage can be either physical, fire, ice holy or dark. Certain damage types are better against some enemies, while others are worse.

Defense is commonly used to describe the physical damage reduction. The physical net damage is calculated by using the physical damage and the defense:

damage = <damage physical> * (5/5 + <defense>)

Resistance refers to fire, ice, holy and dark damage reduction. While the (physical) defense is any number (greater than -5), the resistance is specified as a percentage. Therefore the net damage is calculated as such:

damage fire = <damage fire> * (1 - <resistance fire>)

As mentioned in the section above, anyone can equip any item as long as the requirements are met. The requirements relate to the attributes Vitality (VIT), Endurance (END), Magic (MAG), Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Intelligence (INT) and Luck (LCK). After leveling up, the player can assign attribute points to any of those attributes, which in turn lets the player equip different weapons.

Increasing the attribute points does not only enable the player to wield more powerful equipment, but also directly influences the damage output based on the weapon scaling.

Weapon scaling, if available for the weapon, is shown after the required attribute in the brackets. The scaling ranges from E to S. E being the worst scaling and S being the best scaling.
But what does the scaling refer to? The scaling refers to how much of the attribute value is added to the damage.

- item drops and rarity -

Every item has a level assigned, although it is not visible to the player. The level is used to determine if an item can drop as loot or not. Usually, items can drop from enemies with the same level or higher.

More often than not the player will encounter an item with a certain rarity. Currently, items in Pale Coins have the following rarities:

• common (white text color)
  
• magic (yellow text color)
• rare (green text color)
  
• unique (purple text color)

Common items roll with their base stats. Magic items have one affix assigned, which comes with at least one modification. A rare item has two affixes (a prefix and a suffix) assigned and usually is the most powerful version of a basic item.

Then there are uniques. An unique item has no affix, but comes with overall great stats already.

Each item, except unique items, has a certain chance to roll with a prefix and/or a suffix.

- item affixes -

An item affix (either a prefix or suffix) specifies the modifications an item can roll with. For example the “Burning” prefix suggests some sort of added fire damage.

Affixes are based on the item level and item type (weapon or armor). The higher the item level, the higher the chance to get a better affix.

Modifications describe what is added per affix. Here are some examples:

• +8 fire damage
• +10% physical damage
• +5% movement speed bonus
• +15% casting speed bonus
• +8% item find bonus
• 20% chance to inflict 5 bleed damage per second
• …

A modification is set up like this:

{
	"name": "add_damage",
	"values": {
		"damage_fire": {
			"from": 2,
			"to": 8
		}
	}
}

They do not necessarily add damage, but give other passive stats as well. Having several different modifications is crucial for a good variety in itemization.

However, I want to avoid having too specific modifications. Oftentimes you hear the term “Damage on Tuesday” in case a game gets too specific when a certain damage is applied.
Personally, I dislike having to fill out an Excel sheet for 30 minutes to figure out how much damage my current build is doing in certain situations.
That is one reason why I want to keep the itemization rather simple. The other reason is time.

- problems -

Now that we figured out how the itemization is set up let’s talk about the issues.
While all the information above is true, having progression based on item power alone is somewhat boring.

Assuming you have a sword with an item level of 3 and a weapon damage of 3. Eventually you’ll find a weapon with an item level of 8 and a weapon damage of 10. It is a no-brainer to replace the current weapon.
Ultimately, in the endgame you’ll end up using the 5 best items out of 500 because all other items are simply weaker. This is natural in any game. Why should you use a weaker weapon, right?

But maybe - and here is where I see potential - the weaker weapon has other stats which would benefit your current build and make you stronger.

I think Diablo II did a great job with its itemization. Just because an item with a higher level drops, it may not be better. It may have better damage, but does not give a bonus to your skills which makes it weaker. There are more aspects to talk about why the itemization in Diablo II is great, but I want to finish the article.

At the moment the item power in Pale Coins is based on the item level. Usually, an item with a higher level is also stronger which makes 90% of items below your level useless.

- possible improvements -

In this section I want to outline a few ideas on how to deal with the issues in the itemization and provide more item variety.

- shields -

Two-handed weapons are usually stronger than one-handed weapons. With a strength-build the player may end up using two-handed weapons, due to the damage output.

By adding shields, which can be equipped along one-handed weapons only, the player has more options of equipment available to choose from.

You want more damage? Two-handed weapons will do the trick.
You want to have more defense or more resistances? One-handed weapons and a shield should be good.

- more armor slots -

Right now you can equip helmets and (body) armor. By adding another one or two slots, the player has more options to choose from. Also, this gives more variety when building a character.

- sockets -

Another possible way to improve items is by adding sockets and something to socket them with. In Diablo II you have your gems, jewels and runes (+runewords) to add to your equipment.

Something similar may be a cool idea for Pale Coins. Maybe some equipment has more sockets than others.

Example: A basic short sword could roll with 3 sockets, while a longsword, which is stronger, could roll with only 1 socket. Then there’s a reason to use the weaker weapon in case you have something good to add to the sockets, right?

- resistances -

Every armor in Pale Coins has a base defense and some basic resistances - something around 5-10% of fire, ice, holy and/or dark resistance. Usually, the resistance is negligible as most enemies do physical damage.

To make resistances worth more, enemies should do more elemental damage. Also, in terms of item variety, basic resistances of items should be reduced. This would only work well with the next possible improvement.

- random item modifications -

Currently, almost all items have no modifications unless they roll with an affix. Item variety could be improved by defining random modifications which may, or may not, roll with an item.

Let's assume items have less base resistances and enemies do more elemental damage. Then you would consider weaker armor if it rolled with a fire resistance +20%, right?

- crafting -

This has been suggested by a friend of mine and could be a great addition.

Currently, crafting items is more or less not worth it, besides equipment which can only be obtained via crafting.

In order to improve crafting, crafted items should be stronger than basic item drops. Therefore, it would be a cool idea for a crafted longsword to deal more damage.

As there are three or four smiths planned for the final release, why not having different boni per smith?

Examples:

• Hallgrim in the outlaw camp may give you +10-20% physical damage per forged weapon
• Another smith may craft weapons in a way which does a 100% damage conversion from physical to either fire, ice, holy or dark damage

Do you have opinions on itemization which I forgot to mention, or do you have ideas on how to improve the itemization in Pale Coins?
Please let me know what you think.

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See you in the next update and have a great day,

Lukas