I have been trying to make up a rarity system that works for Items, Equipment, and Monsters. I have been able to come up with a few ways of doing it, but most are just so similar to other games. Usually a game will have a different color representing rarity, a +1 to +10 system, a naming system, etc. I was planning on just using common, uncommon, rare, and legendary with each name having a varying color to represent the rarity. I tried to look up item rarity systems for other games, but it wasn't that easy and it seemed like I would have to download or play several games to find out. I also am not happy with the rarity system I have come up with so far. So I came here to ask if any of you could think back on all the games you have played and help me out by trying to list the rarity systems from the lowest rarity to highest rarity whether it be by color, name, number, etc.

It would also help if you could give input on which kind of rarity system you like and worked best for you. To me I believe the best ones out there are the ones that allow players to spot and know its a rare or non rare item the second they see it without having to scan through all the stats.

If you just want to convey the likelihood of the player coming across another of a given item again, color would probably be fine. It's quick, it's instantly recognizable, and it's easy to implement. It can be the color of the item name, or a colored outline around the item itself, or anything similar and still be effective. How you arrange the colors on the rarity chart isn't so important, as players will quickly identify the frequency with which they encounter those colors with their associated rarity.

For monsters, I might not worry about the rarity being so instantly recognizable. It's a lot easier to tell one monster model from another than it is to tell 10 swords that use the same model apart, and I intuitively feel that color coding monsters suggests information about their difficulty relative to my character (or some other pertinent information) than it does information on how often that monster appears. Like above, I'll know a monster is common if I see it a lot, and a redundant interface item would probably confuse me.

I agree with you on both accounts and that is what I was trying to go for.

I seriously don't see the point in common and legendary items. Commons are always trash and you just sell them or break them down for ingredients. Why not just give the ingredients in the first place? Legendaries, you never get ones that are for your class and level except in the endgame if you bother to farm for them after finding out in the wiki what boss has the specific legendary you want.

I understand what you are saying, but I can't see a game not having common or legendary items. It does not matter in my case though as I will not have weapons drops from monsters, but given after completing a quest to kill a specific monster. So players will not be getting hoards of crappy common weapon drops as they play. Players might find treasure in dungeons and the like though. One thing that has always bugged me about a lot of games is when monsters drop money, swords, equipment, coins, or some impossible tangible item. (Other than typical monster drops like fur, teeth, claws, etc)

[quote name='JigokuSenshi' timestamp='1316061353' post='4861893']
I understand what you are saying, but I can't see a game not having common or legendary items. It does not matter in my case though as I will not have weapons drops from monsters, but given after completing a quest to kill a specific monster. So players will not be getting hoards of crappy common weapon drops as they play. Players might find treasure in dungeons and the like though. One thing that has always bugged me about a lot of games is when monsters drop money, swords, equipment, coins, or some impossible tangible item. (Other than typical monster drops like fur, teeth, claws, etc)

Oh, if you're not talking about gear then common items make a lot of sense - it would be quite normal to get fur from pretty much every wolf you kill, or a bone from every skeleton. But for legendaries, I'd say you don't have to make them a very rare drop if you just make only bosses drop them. If you have to do an hour's worth of dungeon for one person in the party to get a golden leather, or something like that, that's already functionally as rare as something that only drops one time in a hundred from a normal monster.
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Yes that is exactly how I created the game to be like. I like creating things that make sense I even made it so that players get paid by the government to kill monsters and thats how they will acquire a lot of their money. They will just travel to a local payout kiosk to get the money for all the monsters they have killed.

I just think I need one more type of rarity. Should I use unique? epic? special? etc. and in what order? I think I understand the rarity system I want I just wanted some input on other games I might not have played and if any game does it in a completely unique and cool way.

No suggestions? I have everything rated in this order: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary. I just want some other words or a better system I could use.

No suggestions? I have everything rated in this order: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary. I just want some other words or a better system I could use.

*This is not an aggressive post, but it is certainly not edited to avoid potential misunderstandings. This is just the form of relaying the thoughts on items and their appendages.*

Why does there have to be any sort of system like this?

You found "Ice Sickle of Immense Power".

Cool, awesome. Now why does it have to be "blue" and titled "rare"? I can stand items of "immense power" being tagged onto an item. You can't quite quantify what makes it what it is so you just say... it possesses immense power. It didn't make sense for Agile Dagger of the Monkey. How do you know it is of the monkey? Does it have a dagger shaped like one? Does it fling feces good? Less items, better names.

Don't I know it is rare just because it is so freaking kick ass and hardly anyone else has it? Don't call it rare, make it rare.

I think it is just making players think less. Developers, designers more specifically, should try to implement mechanics that provide a benefit to the players health, mainly through improved brain function. Challenge the mind a bit here and there even if it is on something as simple as making them interpret the game for themselves.

[quote name='JigokuSenshi' timestamp='1316307073' post='4862926']
No suggestions? I have everything rated in this order: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary. I just want some other words or a better system I could use.

*This is not an aggressive post, but it is certainly not edited to avoid potential misunderstandings. This is just the form of relaying the thoughts on items and their appendages.*

Why does there have to be any sort of system like this?

You found "Ice Sickle of Immense Power".

Cool, awesome. Now why does it have to be "blue" and titled "rare"? I can stand items of "immense power" being tagged onto an item. You can't quite quantify what makes it what it is so you just say... it possesses immense power. It didn't make sense for Agile Dagger of the Monkey. How do you know it is of the monkey? Does it have a dagger shaped like one? Does it fling feces good? Less items, better names.

Don't I know it is rare just because it is so freaking kick ass and hardly anyone else has it? Don't call it rare, make it rare.

I think it is just making players think less. Developers, designers more specifically, should try to implement mechanics that provide a benefit to the players health, mainly through improved brain function. Challenge the mind a bit here and there even if it is on something as simple as making them interpret the game for themselves.
[/quote]




(I didn't see this post as aggressive just to let you know) I totally understand what your saying. I can imagine a system like that for a single player game, but not a multiplayer game. Just about every MMO and multiplayer/co-op game I have recently played uses some kind of a color coded rarity system or a name rarity system. On a game like Mass Effect your method would be fine since you don't even trade weapons with one another. In a game like Borderlands, Diablo 3, and several MMO's it helps to have that rarity system to easily categorize item prices, what item drops to pick up, etc. This way an inexperienced player that doesn't know much about the game will know how rare and awesome a weapon is just like an experienced player would.

[quote name='Caldenfor' timestamp='1316315429' post='4862943']
[quote name='JigokuSenshi' timestamp='1316307073' post='4862926']
No suggestions? I have everything rated in this order: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary. I just want some other words or a better system I could use.

*This is not an aggressive post, but it is certainly not edited to avoid potential misunderstandings. This is just the form of relaying the thoughts on items and their appendages.*

Why does there have to be any sort of system like this?

You found "Ice Sickle of Immense Power".

Cool, awesome. Now why does it have to be "blue" and titled "rare"? I can stand items of "immense power" being tagged onto an item. You can't quite quantify what makes it what it is so you just say... it possesses immense power. It didn't make sense for Agile Dagger of the Monkey. How do you know it is of the monkey? Does it have a dagger shaped like one? Does it fling feces good? Less items, better names.

Don't I know it is rare just because it is so freaking kick ass and hardly anyone else has it? Don't call it rare, make it rare.

I think it is just making players think less. Developers, designers more specifically, should try to implement mechanics that provide a benefit to the players health, mainly through improved brain function. Challenge the mind a bit here and there even if it is on something as simple as making them interpret the game for themselves.
[/quote]




(I didn't see this post as aggressive just to let you know) I totally understand what your saying. I can imagine a system like that for a single player game, but not a multiplayer game. Just about every MMO and multiplayer/co-op game I have recently played uses some kind of a color coded rarity system or a name rarity system. On a game like Mass Effect your method would be fine since you don't even trade weapons with one another. In a game like Borderlands, Diablo 3, and several MMO's it helps to have that rarity system to easily categorize item prices, what item drops to pick up, etc. This way an inexperienced player that doesn't know much about the game will know how rare and awesome a weapon is just like an experienced player would.
[/quote]

It still seems to me like they are trying to treat them as being special/slow/stupid/etc. If a player is inexperienced, why would he have a rare item? If it is due to new players getting "rare" items via random world drops, that there seems like the issue. Who started the color coding?

Color coding just seems like it is dumbing the gear system down and I don't think it should be done. Then again, I dislike gear based play. Allow the players to determine what is good and what is not good by allowing them to gather information about the item. Remember "Item Identification"? What the hell happened to it? Why can every person out there pick up some random item in the wilderness and know exactly what benefits it provides?

I am not saying a form of Item Identification is a must(it is cool though), but if players are incapable of looking at the attributes of an item and determining if it is useful to them or not, maybe they don't deserve to have it. It would be either the player lacks the capabilities to do so or that the developer poorly made their display system/gear system.

I think it is more used as a filter for the Auction Hall search engines because the games are bloated with more items than necessary. I still don't like it and I don't much like game-wide auction halls either, but that is for another topic.