Originally Posted by
Quavis
Lack of item decay (aka no items ever leave the system) means that there are more items that the game must constantly track, which doesn't do anything to help performance.
The major issue I see with decay not being turned on is the economy. Right now in-game there is very little supply/demand for anything, and that will only get worse. Once a games economy crashes, it is close to impossible to fix. Right now the only thing keeping the economy stable long term is the fact that most people leveling up their skills atm are DESTROYING everything that they make (because there is nothing else to do with it all).
I realize I'm coming from a crafting perspective (I could care less about pvp), but unless something happens soon, nothing short of a wipe will fix Xsyons economy (and that of course would make people quit). Ultimately that will cause the game to fail. Don't believe me? Take a walk around a bit. How many "Trading Post" tribes/homesteads did you find? Without a working economy, all of those people are gone. At current pace, by the time decay is implemented, everyone will be max skill and have recipes for everything. At that point, item decay is pretty meaningless as everyone can create anything.