The item insurance mechanism has been reactivated on the Sosaria server today. Its implementation, however, is associated with changes in the mechanics of this system, in a way that reduces the negative impact of long-term item protection on the demand for new in-game equipment and crafting.
The issue of item insurance has been a controversial issue for years in the Ultima Online community. Among the fans of the game, you will find a large group of supporters and opponents of insurance. The former indicate a real protection of their equipment against loss as a result of death, which motivates players to use better equipment. People opting for such a solution claim that the lack of insurance limits the sense of using better equipment, because a minor slip-up means a real risk of losing top equipment. Moreover, they indicate the benefits in PvP related to the fact that the winner of the fight receives a part of the insurance expenses incurred by the player. Many supporters of insurance claim directly that the lack of this element will result in running only with weak equipment, the loss of which would not be painful for players.
In turn, the opponents of insurance claim that its existence limits the rank of PvP games, because players usually have all the more tasty morsels insured, and thus it is difficult to find something more interesting in the loot. In addition, they often express the view that the fact of the existence of insurance seriously limits the turnover of items in the game and their demand for craftsmen, because if you have enough gold, as a result of using insurance, once acquired equipment can be used / owned much longer than it was in earlier eras. UO.
There was an insurance mechanism on our shard for a long time, in which the rate for the insurance of the item was differentiated by the magic parameters of the item. For a short time – for example to develop a modification of the insurance system – this mechanism was disabled. Today it becomes active again but with some modifications.
From today, the option to insure the item and renew insurance will therefore be available again in the character’s context menu (in place of Siege Bless) with the current fees. Nevertheless, to some extent to affect the loss of permanently insured items from the game world over time, and thus to stimulate trade related to the need to successively restore your characters’ inventory, we introduced an additional element in the form of losing a small, random amount of durability points and max durability of weapons and armor with each subsequent insurance for the same equipment (e.g. as a result of death).
At the same time, in order to compensate for the losses related to the recently disabled Insured tag, we have implemented the solution that the first insurance of the item (until 1 character dies) does not result in expenses for it and the loss of durability points.
The implemented aspect is the first element of changes in the indicated area, because in the coming days we will also look at the blessed parameter and we do not exclude the implementation of a similar solution – for blessed items – but with lower (than in the case of insurance) losses in durability and max durability. On the one hand, such a solution should encourage players to obtain bless deeds (lower durability losses at death than in the case of standard insurance) and on the other hand, solve the long-term problem with “eternal” equipment in the game world.
However, this concept is a topic for a separate entry.