Durability Mechanics

tim-cain system-design durability game-economics weapon-design money-sinks game-balance

Abstract

Problem: Is equipment durability an outdated game mechanic, or does it still serve a valid design purpose?

Approach: Tim Cain draws on his experience designing durability systems for The Outer Worlds and Fallout, compares approaches (generic weapon parts vs. like-repairs-like), and examines Breath of the Wild as an extreme third-party example.

Findings: Durability is not outdated — it serves multiple design goals simultaneously: encouraging thoughtful weapon use, forcing weapon variety, and acting as a critical money sink in game economies. Every feature frustrates someone; the designer's job is to provide amelioration paths, not eliminate friction entirely.

Key insight: Durability is fundamentally an economic tool — it functions as both a direct money sink (repair costs) and a passive one (items used for repairs instead of being sold), and removing it without replacement destabilizes game economies.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPzMDnev_hE

1. Context and the Arcanum Anecdote

A viewer asked Tim about weapon durability and also who designed the weapon-destroying golems in Arcanum's Black Mountain Clan mines. Tim believes it was Chad Moore, who did most of the Black Mountain Clan content. The golem's weapon breakage wasn't a system mechanic — it was a script placed directly on the golems. Tim's archived source control copy doesn't record who checked it in, so he can't confirm with certainty.

2. Tim's Position: Durability Is Not Outdated

Tim is clear: durability is not an outdated mechanic. He included it in The Outer Worlds despite internal resistance — designers on his own team begged him to remove it, calling it frustrating and terrible. Those same designers also wanted to remove ammo entirely, wanting weapons to work forever once picked up. Tim disagreed with both positions.

3. The Pros of Durability

3.1. Encourages Thoughtful Weapon Use

Without durability, many players find one high-damage weapon and use it for everything, never learning the combat system's depth — which weapons work against which armor types or creature types. Durability forces players to ask "when should I use this weapon?" rather than defaulting to one gun for the entire game.

3.2. Forces Weapon Variety

Even players who don't engage with the tactical layer are forced to use multiple weapons when their favorite breaks. This ensures players experience more of the game's content and weapon design.

3.3. Functions as a Money Sink

This is where Tim gets most passionate. Durability serves as a dual money sink:

  • Direct sink: Players pay to repair items or buy repair materials
  • Passive sink: Items that would have been sold for money are instead consumed for repairs (broken down into parts, or used to repair like weapons), reducing money flowing into the economy

Tim notes this connects to a broader system design topic: money sinks vs. money sources. Big games often hire a dedicated designer just for game economics, especially MMOs where devalued currency collapses into barter systems.

4. Comparing Repair Systems

4.1. The Outer Worlds Approach

Any weapon can be scrapped into generic weapon parts, which repair any other weapon. Tim considers this too easy in hindsight — players end up with massive stockpiles of parts. He acknowledges this was a known issue in QA but notes that economic balance bugs get deprioritized below crashes and combat imbalances near shipping.

4.2. The Fallout Approach (Preferred)

A weapon can only be repaired by the same type of weapon. Tim prefers this because:

  • Finding duplicate drops becomes rewarding ("oh good, another .45 pistol — I can fix mine")
  • Modded weapons create interesting tension — you need unmodded copies to maintain them
  • Rare weapons become genuinely costly to maintain, since duplicates are hard to find, forcing players to pay for professional repairs

4.3. Breath of the Wild (Extreme Example)

Weapons degrade with essentially no way to repair them (aside from obscure methods the game doesn't communicate). Tim sees this as an extreme but valid implementation — it forces both thoughtful use and weapon variety. The game's massive success demonstrates that even aggressive durability doesn't sink a good game.

5. The Amelioration Principle

Tim's key design philosophy on frustration: you probably can't name a feature that doesn't frustrate some subgroup of players. If your goal is a game where no player dislikes any feature, you will fail.

Instead, designers should:

  1. Accept that every mechanic will frustrate someone
  2. Remember that one player's frustration is another player's challenge
  3. Provide amelioration paths — ways for frustrated players to minimize the impact (e.g., stealth/talk characters in Tim's games use weapons less, so durability affects them less)

6. The Economic Bottom Line

Every game needs money sinks and money sources. Most single-player games err toward too many sources, not enough sinks because designers try to avoid frustrating players. Durability is one tool in the economic toolbox — not the only one, but a valid and effective one. Tim does not consider it outmoded.

7. References