Since we are getting a whole inventory tab just for mats, I suppose crafting will play some role in this game. But imo. it’s very important to not make crafting a compensation for bad RNG to at least give people “something” for mid game. Crafting should be important and relevant especially for end game and be an own mechanic and not just to safely get mid tier gear. And also not to reroll stats on existing gear. It’s the idea of loot games to find the perfect gear. And not try to roll it at an NPC.
So my take on it would he something like the grim dawn socket system.
David Kim said, we can find a lot of different mats all over the map. It could be materials like iron, crystals, the good old gems, demonic and even angelic organic materials. They could be used to craft different improvements on gear like thorns on armors and shields, elemental damage on weapons, extra physical and elemental resistance on armors, etc. A piece of gear can only hold 1 different improvement that can be stacked several times, increasing the cost. The only important thing to consider here, is to balance it right. If the mats are too easy to get, everyone will max improve all of their gear, all the time, starting at level 1 and it will simply become an annoying mandatory to increase stats. When it’s too expensive, people will only horde their mats, waiting for BiS gear to drop and will never actually use the mechanic and when a patch drops or they want to play an other build, they will get frustrated.
So it should be something that you want and can do when you find a good piece of gear that you are planing to use for a certain time and sometimes you should need to farm for it.
That would make crafting a relevant part of the game for everyone and not just an other way to get mediocre gear for lazy or unlucky people. Also crafting mats would become a part of the games economy.
Salvaging items could also still be relevant and things like legendary mats could be needed to improve a legendary item. Etc.
I don’t mind crafting. I’m on the fence as to whether it should be able to craft BiS equivalent stuff. Would searching the world for mats be good? Absolutely. It will give reason to be out in the world besides the normal.
Mats should come in three varieties, harvested mats from the world, dropped mats from mobs, and boss mats. This way one has to engage fully with the world.
Low level to level cap pre endgame recipies would only need mats from the first two groups as that gear would be not intended for long term or power usage. Endgame gear would require various boss mats to make.
We can even and depth, so like ifnyou have a +1 dungeon the boss could drop 1 extra mat or the mat could be a +1 giving bonus attributes or maybe lightning res if you have the lightning pylon key.
Could also find angel part, demon part, or ancestral mats(ancient zone/lore items) to add those attributes to crafted gear.
The question is, what can you craft? I mean, regrading rarity types, every type should be relevant. But crafting should not be something like “craft a random blue, rare, legendary” it should be it’s own type of item if you can craft full gear. Not something that you can also get as drop.
Unless we are crafting unique, like named legendary items, if greys-yellows are all random, there will always be the possibility of gear we craft could be the same.
I think going one or two steps further, we should be able to tailor make our gear say we want movement speed, life, and fire res, and angelic power on a pair of boots we should be able to mix certain mats to get that. Likewise, we should be able to upgrade or enhance existing gear similar to the cube or enchantress with mats found to a certain point. Nothing like taking a level 1 white starter gear and making a fully fledged endgame set of gear.
Of course that does sound interesting when I read it.
Making a piece of gear with your exact wishlist of stats is very dangerous to the genre
It has to be balanced and then you always have the question: easy to get the gear with the stats you want or find a BiS legendary with the same stats and the crafted gear will become irrelevant
So I think, uniques with recipes would be the way to go
Make crafting something that helps you with finding gear, not something that directly gives you gear.
Like potions that affects your droprate (higher chance to find gloves etc).
Crafting can also be fine for fine-tuning gear; rerolling a single stat etc., and yeah, improving gear.
But where the base item is still something you get from drops.
Could also limit the amount or range of the stats. Say a rare item has 4-5 stats a crafted version could have 3. Say stat ranges are 100-200 for max level gear, a crafted item could have 80-140.
Could also go adding ine specific stat to an already existing non crafted item.
That would again make it impossible for crafted gear to be BiS and make it irrelevant in endgame
That’s what I meant with “just something for mid game”
Every game mechanic should have it’s place in the end game.
So it should be something that you CAN’T get from drops
Not better. Just unique.
I like the general philosophy of what you’re getting at. And as you said, each system should be it’s own thing in the end game. But if crafting becomes too powerful, it’s all you’ll ever do. Even if you need mats, the drops become just that. And that would devalue them.
A thought did come to mind though. I’d call it something like item splicing. The reasoning would be that you could consume an item that dropped and some mats to splice one of its properties onto another item. At this point in time I’ll say one because I’m not sure on itemization but it could be expanded, depending on how many rolls items have and if we end up getting a sufix/prefix system, as opposed to just a big pool of affixes where any stat can roll with any other stat without exclusion. The spliced stat should be weaker than the one on the base item, by something like 10% or 20% and maybe you could reduce that penalty with more mats or higher quality ones. Something like this might not devalue the God drop, as in the end it has the ability to be better. It would also value whites as bases, if you can do it multiple times and/or blues if they roll less affixes but higher ranges.
I feel that like this you value both loot as a crafting tool and a material, as it’s need for the base, meaning you want something to drop and roll with 3 out of 4 stats for example, or 2 out of 4 if you can also reroll something on it, but also pure loot, because a naturally rolled item will have the chance to be better or even to be godly. Without cheapening drops in the process.
The other possibility is uniques, but with those you’ll craft once and forget about it. Or rare items that are not restricted by the normal affix rules with the ability to roll stats that you can’t get together on normal items dropped as a way to round up builds.
The problem about the first example is again, it can’t be BiS, meaning it has no place in endgame. It’s still a normal item that can drop from a mob but weaker.
So yea, impossible rolls/uniques or a bonus that can’t drop
I know many might not agree but would like to see the Crafting as a predominantly Barbarian mechanic tbh… Other classes might/should get something else
Think it’s a nice step forward for further class uniqueness/difference without necessarily destroying balance of the game (even in late game) overall
Let’s say Blacksmiths not able to insert metal jewels in a weapon
Let’s say Jeweller not able to create a powerful Jewel from combining gems (only Sorc). Or things like Enchanter not being able to upgrade (up to X amount of times) Spell Tomes (Only Sorc)
Let’s say Druid can combine charms into a larger “dreamcatcher” that s/he can put instead of an Amulet around the neck if want to (other classes would have to “clutter” :P). Or heck, even combine more (smaller) amulets into a one (larger)
Yes, I can see the need of universality of “gear management” and/or “gem management” but also some (most interesting parts) could be transfered to the classes themselves for the “extra oomph” of a certain mechanic tbh
Dang, that could be a Druid skill where s/he can make larger potions, or add extra impact when consumed
Ofc. as long as it’s not retarded and not “special branch” stuff I can well see it work… I’d like them at least try those (albeit pre-alpha or whatever) tbh
