This system is badly invented. Mostly, because it's pain in the ass in early game, and it's non existent anyway in mid/late game.

Yes, and the one where bobby pins had a massive weight compared to the real world.

The gear breakage at least had some plausibility, but the weight limits on some of the items were ridiculous. And don't forget about those questy items that you could get stuck with that had weight as well.

How about it works like this, the more the weapon degrades, the less powerful it is, encouraging you to repair it.

I hate armour managment in CRPGs too. And then there's food. Ugh. Another thing I hate about CRPGs is having to manage characters health and hit points. What's the point in forcing the player to keep the characters alive? So tedious.

It only makes it more painful and more micro managmen-ish.

What would be good, though - if you have your weapon, and you will forge / enchant some rare ingredient in it, it would wore out with time, forcing you to renew enchantment from time to time.

I find hardcore mode inventory in F:NV was one of the most enjoyable inventory usages in any (modern) game. It wasn't to restrictive, as you could still carry enough loot but you had to actually prepare your character for what lied ahead.

By and large I liked that aspect, but it got annoying after a while when I was in the habit of hording things and I ran out of things to buy.

I'm not sure why people are complaining about the damage to gear, it can be done in an interesting way, it can also be done in a poor way as well.

What I liked is that I wasn't hoarding anymore. I wasn't picking up fifteen rifles and twenty armours like in other games. It felt more natural, checking the loot for valuable. Also, not having de-facto unlimited ammunition really made "dungeon delving" more interesting, as I had to take ammo into account. I really needed to "prepare" before going on longer quests/journeys. Awesome immersion.

Well, I was still hoarding, I just wasn't grabbing every single thing I could get my hands on. The main issue I had was the inventory system made it a pain to figure out what I was all holding at any given time.

I remember with FO3 where I was grabbing up all the ammunition I could get and buying it from the vendors because it was the only viable way of getting rid of the loot that I could later trade for caps. With the Pitt I was eventually able to convert ammo. FO:NV had the sense to let people do that by default which made that a bit less important.

Thinking of this, I can hardly wait for FO4 and Wasteland 2 to come out.

Am I the only one who likes item breakage...

Or it's a pain in the ass all the time like in Dead Island. :P But I have to add that I couldn't complain about this in Dead Island as it kinda felt right in the game and forced you to switch weapons a lot. What is ridiculous though is that you have to pay a work bench (you're doing the repairs yourself and you still have to pay for it - if the devs had some sense of humor they would've at least positioned a tip jar next to every bench).

But yeah, while I think that the idea adds to the atmosphere in games like Stalker it is generally one of the stupidest RPG mechanics ever created.

I don't like equipment repairs too. Especially on weapons. Games like Stalker, Fallouts are good examples of annoying weapon repair system. Couple of shots and your weapon is broken.. 500 shots and you have to throw it in the garbage, really?

A better way would be to make weapons get dirty and player clean them from time to time, but not paying for it or use some special kits. For example, just right click on the weapon and press "clean" button. I have been dealt many times in my life with guns and they are almost unbreakable, at least the soviet ones :P never touched a NATO weapon.

Armour repair is annoying too. There is no need for it, it's a money sink for MMOs. I remember playing Oblivion and the first thing on every char was to max my repair skill so I can repair my stuff with only one hammer. Thank God, Skyrim got rid of that and I can play freely without repairing my stuff after every enemy encounter.

Goodness Am I the only one who never had a problem with weapon durability and somewhat likes it, so many people here complain as if they never repair their gear at all, are you guys that irresponsible with gear management?

I mostly play as a warrior with heavy armor in these games and I always fix my gear.

No, I happened to think that it added a lot to Fallout. The problem is that some developers don't bother to think things through when they implement the system.
I think that should be limited ammo or weapon breakage, not both. I suppose you could do both, but you'd have to properly balance it.

As I said before, I think games should take notes from Far Cry 2 reliability system.

again, the AK-47 may not be as accurate as the M16, or strong like a Colt Python, but it is extremely reliable it rarely jams and lasts a long time.