Some thoughts on loot, crafting and trading

### TL;DR: Basically just my hallucination on loot/craft/trade in PoE 2. I feel what devs say about loot and trading ironically doesn't align with how it is (at least for mid-low luck player).

### DISCLAIMER: I don't present it as the best way possible or something like this. Maybe some ideas are good, feel free to criticize brutally

I have a Witchhunter glass cannon character, which nukes screens in T15+ maps, but may die from unlucky AoE hit. And ANY improvement (in an adequate time) I can get to my items comes mostly from trading. Ofc I don't need to be much stronger than I am now, but that's the point of endgame.

The only non-traded improvement "gear" were my previous and current crossbows, which I both gambled at vendor. And new one increased dps for like 10-30 points on my most used skill. I just like its affixes more than the previous one.

One funny thing I heard from devs talking about is "using items from the ground" (or something along the line).

It just doesn't work. Yeah, there's a small chance you get lucky occasionally with an item (even though it comes out bricked or mid most of the time). I feel like people are more excited about trading currency / getting high-value items (esp. unique) FOR SALE.

Let's talk about items on the ground.

There is a key question: Why filters are a thing?
It has 2 parts. Filtering and highlighting.
Highlighting based on type+value should be default. Period. Let it be customizable.
Filtering. Just lower the quantity of items, and increase the quality. And it's a separate topic. I don't need 999 low-level normal bases per map. I don't need 100 random magic items per map, I won't even check most of them, it's too time-consuming. I will be ok with a few my-level normal/magic bases per map. Rares should be rare, but good. Most of them are vendor trash. See it like 1-3 inventories of solid items per map depending on quality/quantity affixes.

It will remove a need for filters and won't really break anything as it works almost the same with filters rn. (Except rares) Ofc it's a huge hit to the current economy system, but I feel it will make a game better for literally everyone.

---

Now I'll summarize how (I think) drop-based progression should work in a vacuum. And be aligned with the dev vision (from public sources).

Key concepts:
- Main source of new (usable) gear should be loot, not trading
- Crafting currency should serve crafting, not trading
- Trading should be streamlined, no one benefits from fake complexity

Main process: find an item => "craft" it => use if good

We don't touch trading at this point, bc it shouldn't be here.

1. "Find an item" I described in the filtering question. You have only so many items to craft from. All of them are ok to craft from. They match your level. Magic/rare item affix tiers match the difficulty of the map they were obtained from (with deviation ofc, but not at the point where the difference may be x10 or x5).
2. Craft it. That's it. All manipulations on a separate section.
3. Use if good. But what if it doesn't actually fit you? I think there are 2 main ways: sell or recycle. And I think the key here should be recycling. It's underwhelming rn.

---

### Crafting

So the main objective is to keep PoE-like crafting system but add features to actually use loot instead of just vendoring it.

#### Key feature 1: Dismantling and disenchanting
Getting a few shards/pieces per item is pathetic.

So basically the idea is - dismantling an item should give a blueprint (to recreate the base) and some (specifically crafting) materials based on rarity. From those materials player should be able to craft a normal item of any previously dismantled base type. Types and quantities of materials are subject to balance.

This also serves the purpose of creating lower-level bases.

Disenchanting may return socketed runes. Extra gamble layer. Needs better runes => in the runecraft section.

#### Key feature 2: "Gambling" with orbs
It's good as it is, counting omens and future improvements.

#### Key feature 3: Reforging
Reforging is almost useless as it is now. Best case - use it to combine waystones, but it has nothing to do with gear.

Reforging should act as less "fatal" vaaling.

Basic idea: we need up to 7 rare items (6 affixes each) of the same base. Target item is the one being reforged. All source items are destroyed in the process. Source item affixes go into a reforging pool. For each affix on the target, it checks the pool for a similar type and randomly selects one or keeps the original. If no similar affixes are in the pool, it either keeps the original affix or turns it into a special prefix/suffix rune slot. (more in the runecraft section)

Reforged item gets "Reforged" (similar to "Corrupted") and can't be used in a reforging as a target anymore. As a source, it will pick only "on item" affixes, not slotted ones.

Reforged item can't be modified, except by adding quality, sockets, or vaaling it.
Corrupted items can't be used in reforging ofc.

#### Key feature 4: Runecraft
Imo current runes and soulcores are boring.

Basic idea: so there are 2 "bases" for prefix/suffix runes. We need to loot them first. Next, we select the rune and item. It destroys the item, but MAY return a rune with a random prefix/suffix of this item (depends on base rune). It's simple.

Next, we can slot the new rune into the matching prefix/suffix rune slot. In everything else, it acts like a normal rune.

So to acquire such slots items must be reforged. If an item has a slot(-s), it lacks prefix/suffix(-es). We fill it with a rune. It may be swapped later like a normal rune (as of 0.1.1).

MAYBE vaaling may turn socketed rune into a proper prefix/suffix. Empty prefix/suffix rune slot into a normal rune slot. For bricking potential.

---

### Trading

There are 2 main issues here: prices and bots.

Dealing with bots shouldn't be a huge problem (I may be wrong) as humans don't need (or rather shouldn't need to buy tons of different items). Place limits on the amount of items of a specific type that could be bought, let's say, once per day. E.g. one account (not character) can buy 10 pieces of gear daily and 20 waystones. Something like this.

#### Key feature: Stall

Player can get (buy, like a stash tab) a stall with a limited amount of space. Fill it with items, price them however they like, and apply it. MAYBE pay some fee to set up the stall
Past this point, the seller can't modify the item price or remove items from the stall.
Each stall can be set up once per day.
Then seller can (through the stall UI) customize a message and send it to the Trade chat.

Buyer may teleport to the hideout where the stall is set up. Place some currency into it. Available items will be unlocked (ones priced below or equal to the amount of currency placed). Something similar to ritual.
Then buyer may just take any item that fits the price.

MAYBE traded items can't be traded again in a certain period.

Last bumped on Jan 13, 2025, 8:47:07 PM

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