after numerous discussions about itemization we (at least a part of the people discussing) came to conclusions about magic, rare, legendary and unique items
but we haven’t talked about white items in particular very often
i think that even white items should have a place in the endgame one or another way
the way D2 did it was obviously that some of them happened to roll with a certain number of sockets which was necessary to craft runewords
this wouldn’t work in our current system as sockets are already planned to randomly replace affixes and will probably mostly appear on rare items
also the fact that a white item COULD roll with either 0 or many affixes would also counter the point that objectively bad items are not good itemization
so there has to be something else done with them
obviously in the beginning a white item is just the first item you find
it doesn’t do anything special, it’s just better than hitting zombies with your bare hands and that’s totally fine
however these items will not just stop dropping later in the game so there should be a reason for them to still exist after 100 hours into the game
i think there could be something done with “crafting” or “enchanting” but i don’t really have an idea right now
if nothing else, they could at least be used for transmog
if the system is a bit more demanding and grindy than D3’s transmog system and you actually had to consume one item in order to make another one look like it, you could at least pick up white items if only for their look
but i think there can be something else done, regarding actual gameplay
I’d be fine with them being part of crafting. Preferably not “Disenchant => white crafting dust”.
Maybe if you want to enhance a rare/legendary/unique mace? Then you need 1 or more white maces as part of the recipe.
Could also have normal versions of whites, and Superior versions. Rares only need normal whites as upgrade material, while Legendaries and Uniques need Superior, which might be a fairly rare drop, akin to getting the right amount of sockets on a white item in D2.
could work but it also sounds a bit…sad
like this whole sword, shield, helmet is just…material as soon as it drops xD
id rather see it being upgraded to something new
Just some ideas, none of which are necessarily thought-provoking or worth anything…
Get 15 of the same name, and you can recipe them together and make them level up. That is, white can turn to yellow.
Salvage for parts; use the parts to make something else.
Give them actual levels, like a player, and the more it is used the better its stats become. That is, it is a “legacy” item and can eventually outshine even an epic/unique/set/whatever because it is based solely on its actual level - this would have to be different than its “level drop” stat so finding one when you’re level 70 doesn’t mean the item is level 70 for its attributes.
Some merchants only deal in whites; you cannot use gold to buy things but must actually trade equipment.
Collecting X of any white item category gives some little reward; this could be an achievement, a banner/portrait-like thing, a title, or some in-game permanent boon like “The Usual Suspect: Your recipes that require white items now require one fewer.”
What to do with white items? Well outside of crafting (and even then I wouldn’t do anything there as I hoped for something else for crafting), nothing imo.
Are we going to have any time to actually slay monsters and demons in D4? Or will our entire game time be taken up with inspecting, comparing and hoarding every single item that drops? Because it sounds like literally everything could be BiS in one way or another for the build we’re currently playing or may want to play sometime in the future.
Let trash items drop, lots of it, stuff you don’t even look at or pick up, whole catagories that are just insta-salvage. If there’s no trash, there’s no gold either.
More depth? Fine. But making itemization too complex and too time consuming is a negative, not a positive.
No matter what whites are used for in endgame I would reduce both whites and blues droprates substantially in endgame. Make them a reasonably rare drop, but then also fairly useful in crafting when you do find some (or for blues, as something you want to wear, of course).
Gold can come from all kinds of other sources. Although, I would greatly increase the vendor sell prices for items. Even if there are no objectively bad items in a game, there will still be subjectively bad items (as in items you cant use for your builds). If items drop relatively rarely, you can sell those items for gold. D2 did that aspect reasonably well imo.
And as far as spending time looking at items to see if they are trash or not… You sure will spend less time looking on items, if less items are dropping. So that seems like a pure win.
Yes. But unless we have unlimited stash space, you cant save all items for a potential future. I want a lot of stash space personally, but not unlimited. So you still need to save some items, and let others go.
Also, while everything could be BiS, they wont realistically. Some affix combinations might only be BiS for builds and classes that dont even exist (yet). Might not bother to save those for all eternity. Others might just be too odd to work in reality, like:
+2 Fire projectile skills
+10% cold dmg
-5% poison skill resource cost
+2% chance on electrocute to stun target
Chances are, this items is spread too thin to ever find much of a use case, unless some crazy ultra hybrid build comes along.
This. Killing things en masse is the fun part, the loot is just a tool to make that more efficient, having to consider every single item that drops is a hassle, not a boon.
so why dont you just stop looking at it, leave everything except orange and green on the ground and kill for fun and let us ARPG fans play the game we signed up for
Yeah, vendor fodder for me. I’d rather crafting be turned away from gear completely. Making enhancements, gems, potions. All from monster drops and mats found in the world. Reduce gold drops from monsters and use unwanted gear to make your gold.
