I Can't See a Good Solution To Solving Enchanting At All With Current Loot Systems

The way this game works I straight up can’t think of a solution because there have been decent quality enchanting rework ideas thrown around in here & Reddit. But the problem with current enchantment isn’t quality it’s purely quantity.

The problem is even if you have 25 different types of longswords in Diablo/POE/Grim Dawn or anything else, in essence it’s 25 of the same weapon. There’s no difference in moveset or utility it’s all the same weapon, therefore one roll out of 25 being good is a good ratio. Yes shit like Nioh/Wo Long/Ronin exists but even though those games have actual movesets + affixes + RNG, your moveset is based off a skill tree. Meaning the weapon is again removed from mattering in terms of utility, the only thing that matters again is the roll on it, and all weapons of the same type are once again lumped together.

This game though is entirely unique and that’s problematic. If I get 25 scythes in Grim Dawn & each scythe is technically “unique” but in essence I have 25 of the same weapon all that changes is the design. If I get 100 scythes in this game though, the further you get in the game the more frustrating the drop, because you’re adding tiers of each scythe dwindling that 100 loot pool. Tier 1 only have to deal with T1 scythes, so you have 100 of the same scythe, potentially the one you want. Once you get to T2, suddenly the number of scythes you may want is divided in half(50 T1 scythe, 50 T2 scythe). T3 now you have (33, 33, 34) of each scythe from the tier, and this pattern continues. And this even assumes you can use them all, which you can’t cuz obviously weapons are stat-based

Even if you upped the drop rate to astronomical levels, the problem of the drop you know you don’t want occurring will always be there because you’re not technically getting a “bad scythe” you’re getting a “bad weapon”. What I mean is if I want a T2 scythe, and I keep getting T1s or T3s, it is no different than if I want a scythe in Grim Dawn but keep getting clubs. The moveset aka the utility of the weapon creates a hard divide between your lootpool & thus your satisfaction of the grind. Each weapon is practically its own category, not an alternative weapon in the same category.

The problem with enchanting is it almost necessitates a bad weapon, there is no ARPG/MMO in existence that lets you keep the same 10 weapons and just keep iterating on them. Somewhere along the line you get a better roll and you trash something. Being forced to trash something is an inevitability in MMO/ARPGs, we have to have junk because the economy is built that way. Give us too much control(like exaltation) and suddenly as long as you get the affixes you want even if they’re the worst roll, it’s now a diamond encased in turds, the exaltation is the pressure washer.

You want crafting to matter, but it has to compete on the same terms as items that are loot-only but crafting necessitates an extra time + resource sink. My own band-aid would be to make crafted weapons stronger by letting us reroll-their enchantments while looted items can’t. But that’s nothing more than a band-aid I came up with before. I wish Moon Studios good luck here, I think the game will still be good and well received, but to be a true ARPG they have to solve what I think is the most difficult game design conundrum I’ve seen in the past 20 years.

1 Like