Mod idea: Break all the things (magical weapons/armor)

[ahungry]

I've noticed a very common pattern in quest/npc mods tends to be overly powerful weapons - some mods (Scales of Balance) address some known weapons by normalizing them, but I was still able to find some ridiculously overpowered items before reaching Nashkel (Tristan and Isolde attacked - I easily killed them, and received a katana with base damage + 1d4 magic + 2 APR, and a dagger that sets APR to 5).

What if there was a mod (perhaps there is?) that went through every item in override, and toggled ON the breakable bit (assuming this bit implies the item can be broken, not that it is broken)? 

Then a mega mod installer could play guilt-free with the overpowered items, knowing that after some usage, they would break, requiring additional cycling through gear?

Are there any caveats with the breakable bit?  In an EET game, would basic weapons remain breakable the entire playthrough, or only on the BG1 portion?

Edited January 19, 2022 by ahungry

[Jarno Mikkola]

31 minutes ago, ahungry said:

  In an EET game, would basic weapons remain breakable the entire playthrough, or only on the BG1 portion?

Yes*. And by the by, when you try to kill a monster ... I am not sure you want your magical weapons break ... since they are the onlky things that can hit him and do damage. As there are SEVERAL creatures that are only hittable with Magical Weapons of specific level. And that level also increases. So no, you cannot hit this monster with minsly +2 weapons, you are SOoL.

*well, depending on how it's done, and what other things are infliucting this. As in BGT-weidu, it would rely on a continiously running script that could be interrupted with a condition that could be set true, but I wouldn't rely on such a side effect prone alchemistry.

Edited January 19, 2022 by Jarno Mikkola

[Graion Dilach]

The pattern isn't as common as you claim it to be. Many of the recent mods are balanced fairly, the old megacampaign mods could pose this issue. Your particular case is Dark Horizons for example.

The breakable flag also wouldn't be enough, because there is a separate variable dedicated to what the item breaks to which isn't set on most of the items.

It would be much better and easier to just write balance tweakmods to these old mods instead of breaking the whole game.

[lynx]

It might also be hardcoded to ignore magic weapons in general.

[tipun]

In BGEE/EET, weapons stop breaking after chapter 5. Breakage is implemented through opcode 146 and a spell that changes weapons to broken weapons.

[Endarire]

BG is not Minecraft where item durability is an inherent part of the game.  With this mod, physical weapon users are nerfed into ‘why bother’ territory.

[jastey]

Like @Jarno Mikkola already said you'd have to make sure there is enough magical weapons around or the player might get stuck fighting a foe that requires specific weaponry (I'm thinking at the beginning of the game where magical weapons are hard to get, or the only +x weapon in the party required fight some kind of monsters etc.)

Additionally you'd also have to exclude specific mod items that are not meant to break, for example Grey's paws and teeth enforcers... But especially his paws. Same for any monster "claw/paw" weapon item.

Another thought: it would also mean that enemies' weapons could break (unless I missed something), meaning some enemies would be much easier to defeat.