Item Advancement

There's a lot of talk on the NERO boards currently about adding additional levels of weapon/armor advancement to the game. People are kind of up in arms about the fact that you either have a normal weapon that can break, or a magical weapon that lets you ride unicorns and smite your enemies forever... or something like that.

Item advancement is a tough topic for every game. You have to find a way to put the gear treadmill at a reasonable enough pace for people to stay interested. Make it too hard or too slow, people will get frustrated. Make it too fast or too easy, and people will get bored.

So what can be done? Let's look at the ways that some other games handle it.

D&D (3rd)
Magic items are super easy to come by, but somewhat difficult to make. They are pretty much required for handling some encounters. The major limitations are item slots and the fact that they become exponentially more expensive as the quality increases. This could be considered the baseline for item availability, as this was honed after years and years of dorks playing the game.

NERO
Magic items are harder to come by, and even harder to make. When you're at a good game, they shouldn't be mandatory, but they definitely give a significant boost to players when they have them. Sometimes, magic weapons are mandatory (but this should be uncommon). Plot is permitted to put items out, but not enough that everyone gets magic items at events. In addition, the way that items are put out often make them disappear, but that's a plot issue more than anything else.

Exiles
In Exiles, I would classify guns/technology as magic items. These are extremely easy to come by and they never expire, but are essentially required. Players can upgrade their guns/technology to let them carry more bullets or fire faster, but it becomes incredibly expensive towards the highest tiers of guns. Technology and magic items (they do exist) both require players purchase skills to use them, and those skills may not be available to all classes. Magic items are often 1/ever effects and technology items often cost a lot of money to power.

Wastelands
Items last a number of events that the players play. Guns are easy to come by and pretty much required. Like Exiles, better weapons are often defined by how many rounds they can fire and how easy it is to fire those rounds. I don't have a lot of experience in that system, so I can't really say how some of the more magical items work, but there are some minor trinkets and such that make lives easier (1/ever spells, full meditation, etc).

Mirror, Mirror
I'm not sure how easy it is to get magic items, but if you want one, you can get one by buying a skill (Signature Item). Your signature item will last forever and even if you lose it, it will come back to you (barring extreme circumstances). I don't believe having a magic item is required at all. Magic items give two tiers of benefits (minor and major), with minor ones acting like 1/event skills and major offering some constant effects.

I'm not going to pick one system that I think is the best. But I do believe, just by looking at these systems, that NERO is significantly behind the pack when it comes to item balance. NERO needs to do something to make items easier to make/find, and possibly reduce the power of those items. Reducing the power wouldn't happen without some significant overhaul, but making the creation process easier shouldn't be too hard. Drop the ridiculous component costs, un-tie extensions from a batch, and allow re-extensions, and you should see the magic item system become significantly more balanced.