On itemization, smart loot, and two-handed weapons

[mossy kraken]

Sorry, this is a bit long and it is two suggestions in one as well so it might be a bit cluttered. I just want to give some feedback in regards to the current itemization in the game, and some suggestions in regard to any potentially upcoming two-handed weapons. I know there was already a thread on this so I hope it doesn't cause issues.

I have read some things about two-handers being its own skill lines, and I think that would just feel weird and clunky tbh. At the end of the day playing two-handed or dual-wielding is all about living out a fantasy and I think you don't really need too much to achieve that goal. Playing a two-hander is one of the most natural things in any RPG ever, and having it locked behind a level restriction or something would be extremely off putting to almost everyone. There's already a bit too much of that in the game imo.

I feel like the ideal way to implement two-handed weapons already exists in the game tbh. Knife fighting and Unarmed both have skills that require dual wielding in order to use them, which is functionally the same thing as doing two-handed weapons. In my opinion two-handed weapons should just function within the existing skill sets and simply have a few unique two-handed only skills that create an avenue for playing differently.

As an example, Sword has decent AoEs with Many Cuts and Parry, but both require mods on gloves in order to be AoE at all. Two-handed swords could have an ability with native AoE in order to either just free up glove slots or allow to fully specialize at AoE damage. Imo two-handed skills should mainly offer something that the one handed variant doesn't in order to make it something different and unique to play, as opposed to just having more damage.

One fundamental issue to be wary of is making two-handed weapons be more powerful by the nature of them being two-handed, requiring you to sacrifice your off-hand. The danger would be that you could make one handed builds obsolete by making them simply under-perform comparatively. That's why I say that I think it would be better to focus it around access to unique abilities instead.

Of course the true issue with two-handed weapons is treasure effects. There are plenty of solutions but I don't know if there are any good ones. Allowing two-handed weapons to roll 10 (to 12 with augs) enchantments would be extremely cluttery and messy in terms of UI. Boosting the strength of the enchants could be okay, but the off-hand enchants are so much weaker and/or different that it doesn't necessarily make sense either.

I think adding special unique off-hands for two-handers would also be a huge mistake. Its a hamfisted solution and it also dilutes the loot pool which is an issue that shouldn't be ignored. In fact it is already kind of a problem with knives and fists having unique off-hands, and it also becomes even more of an issue if you ever wanted to implement dual-wielding for swords, axes, or hammers.

This unfortunately boils down to treasure effects being balanced in a way where the main hand is simply much more prominent. This works when the off-hand is just meant to be a supporting item, but once we start talking about two-handers or dual-wielding it becomes weird. Ideally you should just have "knives" and not main-hand and off-hand knives, because it's just much more intuitive and natural, and it dilutes the loot pool less. You could still have unique main hand only or off-hand only knives, but it could be 10 instead of 40.

Ideally I think that you should rework the equipment system to some degree. I know this is not something that is a very likely course of action, because it would probably be incredibly unpopular, and it could look bad after release. But the way gear works is a problem which is evident by the need for a smart loot system.

First I think that equalizing main and off hands would completely solve the issue with two-handers, but I also think solving the issue would allow you to potentially implement similar approaches as dual-wielding for even magic playstyles, where off-hand could enable fire or WW, but only limited spells, and some spells could require a main-hand or both. It doesn't need to be applied to magic, but it could.

Second, I think that equipment should be stripped of any class requirements. Items should roll with 1, 2, and 3 Generic mods. 1 for uncommon, rare, exceptional, 2 for epic, and 3 for legendary. These should not be rerollable at all. The reason for this is to facilitate trade. Finding a perfectly rolled legendary should be something really cool to either use, or sell for profit. It's kind of sad that the only gear market that seems to exist at the moment only revolves around meta-builds, having to be farmed by the same meta build if not crafted.

This would allow any build to gear themselves towards damage reduction, threat bonuses or reduction, or multiple types of flat damage without having to sacrifice half of your build in order to do it, by specifically needing generic or endurance gear which competes with your main build.

On top of this gear should then be customizable in some manner that allows you to add the same mods we have now to the piece. Instead of items dropping with class based modifiers they should become bound to you when you add mods to it. I'm not entirely sure what the mechanism for this could be, but there are many options. There's just an issue of gems, augments, and rerolls potentially losing reason for existing, but it should be possible to tie it in.

Augments could be converted to some sort of generic augment item (maybe with levels, and with types (weapon, chest, boots, etc)) that can be infused with a skill type via gems somehow, whether its just something you can do, or if its part of transmutation. Augmenting an item with an infused aug would give you 1 random enchantment mod from the pool, which can then be rerolled using the traditional system, and you can add more mods after that as well. You could keep the same 3-2 skill line rules for augs, or maybe reduce it to 2-2 due to the increased access to generic mods.

I love playing this game because of the way the item system works. I love finding randomized items and working towards better gear. It's really what keeps me around. I just think its a massive shame that the current smart loot system, which feels mainly like a crutch out of necessity, is basically completely hamstringing equipment trade.

[rigid stump]

Sorry, but a lot of what you have here goes beyond suggestions to entirely reworking parts of the game.