This is a followup to a post in the Merchant Service Suggestions thread, but I thought going in-depth made more sense here. This all stemmed from me wanting to hunt while using my wand gloves yet still be able to be able to UAC constructs and other magic weapon required monsters.

Me:

[I would like to suggest a merchant to provide] UAC-ization of gloves and boots. I don't mind enchanting up 0x leather boots if it just means I can have nice-looking boots.

(I wasn't around for UAC's release - is there a reason there aren't conversion chambers/there are still gloves/boots released that don't work for UAC?)

Tamuz:

>>is there a reason there aren't Conversion Chambers/there are still gloves/boots released that don't work for UAC?)

I believe it was on Finros' list of things he'd like to do. I'll just stop in to say there are a lot of old boots / gloves that have way too much capacity for current containers, so they would not convert well. There are also a number of enhancive boots that we might not necessarily want to convert over, along with numerous scripted boots/gloves (think Gloves and Boots of Tonis) that would need to be evaluated on a per item basis.

___

ASGM of World Development

Events

Loot Czar

>There are also a number of enhancive boots that we might not necessarily want to convert over, along with numerous scripted boots/gloves (think Gloves and Boots of Tonis) that would need to be evaluated on a per item basis.

This was my first thought when I asked the question, but then when I considered it - what's the major issue? There's definitely old gloves and boots with too much storage, but why should that uniquely affect UAC?

Is it somehow more unbalancing to get +35 UAF and be able to attack magical/undead creatures unarmed while wearing gloves with a 20-pound coffer in them than it is to swing a vultite lance or cast focused implosion while wearing the same gloves?

Is there a reason why the auction-quality Gloves and Boots of Tonis shouldn't be, say, 5x? Or why new boots and gloves released aren't UAC capable by default, even if they're by and large 0x?

If non-UAC boots/gloves prevented UAC all together, then I could see making it so that lace gloves aren't UAC, but as it stands, you can still punch with lace gloves, you just can't bless/eblade/enchant/ensorcell them. The rules were relaxed for robe armor to let dresses, so why not the other stuff?

I understand that cobbling might be too messy to easily change the final product to UAC. And that converting all existing shops is a ton of work for a trivial improvement.

I understand that there are problematic items out there, and I get that gloves that hold a medium amount or have a massive enhancive would be worth more on the player market if they're 7x/T5 than not, but I don't think it's any more of a balance issue that way than they would be for someone using a 7x/T5 melee weapon.

Same thing with scripts that seem problematic when mixed with UAC and really, everything else. IC-ly, it doesn't change much at all, because UAC still works. OOC-ly, it seems like an odd balance choice for there to be a dichotomy between "nice UAC weapon" and "nice non-UAC gloves".

While I officially dig the idea of converting fluff to UAC...it's much easier to alter UAC to one's style.

I'd much rather see a way to make cobbling compatible.

And a CvA fix. Just sayin'! <3

-The mind behind Rowmi's eyes.

>Time. Specifically, my time. (Or that of anyone else who would want to volunteer to make a converter). Fluff gloves and boots are built entirely differently than their unarmed combat counterparts, which means that "conversion" actually means "build a new item that maintains the player-visible properties of this old item which will be destroyed to create the new one". It isn't hard to do, but taking all the possible permutations into account is time consuming enough (and just plain not fun to code) that it just hasn't bubbled to the top of my priority queue. It's still in there, and it gets bumped a few notches every time I see a post like this, though.

Gotcha, and that's more than fair. INSPECT makes it seem from the player's end like there's a "UAC bit" to be flipped, but I know things can be quite different behind the scenes. Thanks for your time and attention on this.