[Crafting rework] Suggestion

[atomic locust]

We need to improve crafting. Right now there is no replayability built into it, its rather tedious gathering the materials, it is way too expensive to craft the end game gear, gating it away from 95% of the future playerbase (or more). The price is just way too high for what the item does in the end. The rework was good by adding unique spells to the items, but it needs more love.

I think we should lower the price of crafting gear by at least 10 times, or more, and then add additional fixed and random stats into the items, to create that one of a kind, legendary, fought over BIS items.

First off, there need to be two types of modifiers (mods) on an item. These are implicit and explicit mods.

Implicits: These mods are tied to the base of the item. They cannot be removed or changed out for another implicit, except with a Leviathan orb (more on that later), which is likely to destroy your item. So, in most cases you are stuck with your implicit stat/s for good.

Explicits: These are the mods that we can roll on an item using a currency (to be determined how it's obtained, should be more expensive than crafting a lower tier item, and mostly used to re-roll mods on t4/t5 items, or BIS lower tier items). They are visually presented under the implicit mods. Generally, these are the most important modifiers and determine whether an item is worth using. There are two types of explicit mods: Prefixes and Suffixes. Depending on the tier of the item, the maximum number of explicit modifiers varies. On t4/t5 s3 items, the maximum number of suffixes is three, while the maximum number of prefixes is also three, for a total maximum of six explicit mods. We can have 2 currencies, 1 that changes a prefix and 1 that changes a suffix.

In our case, for suffixes we can use normal stat multipliers such as increased % physical/energy damage, adds flat physical/energy damage, attack speed, dodge, grit, resolve, crit, crit amp etc. These will vary within a certain range, based on stage and tier.

For prefixes we can use more entertaining things such as: % chance to double cast your omega (will be rather low), % to reflect incoming damage, % to heal self and lowest HP ally upon being hit, can have random or new spells that proc on hit/cast/being hit, can include an additional affinity/class point here if you want to be fancy. These will be 2 of the prefixes, again will vary within a certain range, based on stage and tier.

The 3rd prefix will be only on stage 3 items, it will modify/enhance an illuvial's stats or omega ability (again random within a certain range), another thing that will vary is the prefix will be randomly for stage 1-3 illuvial, so we might end up with perfect stats on the previous 5, but the last one is for a stage 1 illuvial for example.

I suggest to introduce 2 new currencies that can re-roll stats of an item. The first one for the suffix stats, can be obtained through OW. It can only re-roll a chosen suffix stat.

The second one can be called a Leviathan orb. Then we can have a Lesser Leviathan orb, earned as part of the rewards from ranked gauntlet/ascendant, amount received is based on rankings. The Lesser Leviathan orb can modify the implicit(base) stat of the item, or any of the suffixes or prefixes. Using it "corrupts" the item, making it impossible to modify further and also a small chance to destroy the item in the process.

Then we have the Exalted Leviathan orb, earned the same way but from Leviathan gauntlet/ascendant. It does the same thing as the lesser orb, but does not corrupt the item so it can be modified further.

Also we can include a feature to burn 5 "trash" items and reroll into a new one, as a burning mechanism for the bad ones.

Example of how an item with such stats can look (see attached screenshot below).

I feel this will improve the overall crafting experience, generate more revenue by creating more incentive to craft new items pretty much endlessly, more affordable for lower budget players, while still incentivizing whales and others to go for that BIS combination of item spell, stats and bonuses for the ultimate flex. It will also improve the OW experience, by making you feel even a few runs are enough to craft something and if you are lucky, sell it and fund your playtime for a month. It will also make arena experience more diverse and entertaining, with the 3rd prefix being an illuvial bonus, it opens up more room for creativity.

Thoughts?

[sour turret]

Agree RNG on crafted items and unique rolls makes the experience better. Gem sockets for additional stats etc

[warped rock]

The more we take from POE into Illuvium the better we'll be. They have the most intricate crafting system I know and they're a great example on how to make crafting great.

[pine basin]

I cant take a screenshot because i have to hold shift to see the stats but weapons and suits already have stats

They are really expensive to craft before ranger equipment is actually the most important thing in your team. Best weapons and suits are like rhamphyres

Right now its boosted because fuel is at top rail and ilz didnt start to sell fuel but it wont stay like this for long

That being said, i like the idea :)

[tight frigate]

nooooooo

guys we are trying to get more players not make it more complicated

current problems with crafting:

• high one-off solon cost
• but solon doesnt have much sink otherwise
  i think one random mod is enough.
  im not really keen on re rolling.
  we want players to keep grinding OW

[atomic locust]

I agree but not fully, they kept adding more and more stuff in Poe to the point it became a hot mess. But otherwise it's one of the best crafting systems and we can definitely up ours.

[atomic locust]

Thanks for your comment Patate, I meant to randomize the stats with variable values while also reducing the price of crafting a single item. That way it's an endless loop of crafting the perfect item, providing constant demand for ow materials. It also opens up the lower quality gear to a broader playerbase

[atomic locust]

What you say contradicts what you mean Jaga. Players will keep grinding OW because of the constant demand for new craftable items. Right now we can only achieve such demand with a constantly growing playerbase.

Re rolling would be somewhat limited, as suggested in the op. One reroll option will be a rare ow material, the other can be leviathan reward, based on rank.

[eternal solar]

i like it very much, wasn't this already proposed by you a while ago? 🙂
however, i feel complexity level of the game itself should slowly rise and therefore i would wish this being implemented not asap but a in a bit of a later stage.

[atomic locust]

I did but it was in token chat I think, hadn't made it here.

I agree with you, can be 3-6 months into the future, but in my opinion it's gonna benefit both revenue and gameplay side greatly.

[pine basin]

I like that idea very much so

[tight frigate]

i mean like the drone upgrades, u need to keep crafting to get the BiS secondary

[atomic locust]

Yeah we can do it also with gear, alot more stuff to play with.

[regal barn]

I don't think you get value out of a PoE style affix system in a game where you equip 2 items (weapon and armor). The current setup is definitely sufficient IMO.

Now if we want to do an ARPG, it's a different story, but for what we currently have, the 3 variable 0-5 system definitely does the job.

Just as a baseline, everyone is in fact aware that we have stats on weapon/armor currently, right?

Rough math is 1/216 to get a perfect roll.

T5S3 takes 32000 solon ~= $280/roll = $60k on average to get a perfect T5S3 weapon

I love ARPGs, but applying their item systems to our game doesn't make sense unless our game is more focused on items. Right now you kinda slap a weapon on if you wanna make an affinity or class bonus, and an armor if you have extra points. Not having control of your ranger in combat is a pretty major problem as well if we wanted to have more focus on itemizing the character. Just as an example, say you have an item that had rolled ignore or pierce phys resistance. You can set up to be hitting a high phys res target in the initial state, but to really utilize that item you'd want your ranger to be continually having priority targets.

What I think could be used, is divine orb equivalent (reroll stats on weapon/armor or reroll the secondary on Drone Upgrades), and I do agree that many of the weapons/armor/drone upgrades are prohibitively expensive to craft. I think I'm one of 4 T5S3 drone upgrade owners, and possibly still the only T5S3 armor owner. People aren't making them.

[atomic locust]

It's not really applying their system to the fullest, cause that would be much bigger. We don't have to do it as complex either, just variable stats, a few more effects to the items that also have variables in them is enough.

About your example, such items that roll stats or suffix/preffix etc that don't match with the gear will be considered bad quality and either sold for cheap or as suggested, 5 items can be reforged/rerolled into a new one as a burn mechanism.

The price of crafting should be also greatly reduced, that way people will still craft the same or very likely way more than now and we don't depend on constant growing playerbase to meet the growing supply.

[regal barn]

Could slap a single secondary affix onto crafted weapons/armor, that would honestly probably do it. I think it kind of leads us in the direction of ARPGs in general to be exploring that path though, and I think we'd need gameplay to support those systems. Right now price is only part of the reason people aren't crafting weps/armor, it's largely because they have no reason to care about equipping them. Current use case is Arena, and that's about it.

Will reiterate that I love ARPGs and so I'm not opposed to investigating that angle, just to make the point that without gameplay reasons to care about weps/armor, it won't matter how much work is done to the systems underlying them.

Kind of like people not buying donuts at a gluten free conference, so you upgrade the donuts to super premium donuts, people are still not eating gluten.

Probably a better analogy but I'm thinking about breakfast.

[atomic locust]

I disagree, I think it doesn't need to go in the direction of arpg, it will greatly benefit the current modes as well, by diversifying builds even further. We need to reduce the serious feel and increase the fun factor.

One of the stats suggested in the op is direct illuvial omega enhancement, that can change your entire build. The other suggested effects can also have a great impact on the gameplay.

[regal barn]

I'd like to see more info about how many people are playing Arena first, because like I mentioned, that's currently the only real reason to care about weps/armor. S3 runs in OW can be done with a $20-$30 setup that doesn't rely on wep/armor.