comprehensive wishlist of features / changes

[ffrotty]

this is based on the assumption that act1 is not really supposed to be the main push/grind into high tier2 low tier3 items, and that the endgame state + crucible being spiked that high is a preview.

1. more odds of getting partially upgraded drops. it can happen, you get a 1/2 diamond tier2 item, etc. i also want to see lower level armors/weapons drop as higher levels more frequently. not start them at their base level.

2. 1 ties into this: salvaging items. if mats are needed to upgrade items and some items have upgrades applied, there should be a way to break them down for the materials. Getting some wep that you lucked into that should be a tier 2 that drops as tier 3, you should be able to break it down to get at least some of the materials required for upgrading it.

3. more consistent/predictable way of resetting areas for farming and shops for new items. at least put a timer of "new stock in XX:XX:XX" or something. this also goes for challenges and bounties. i'm not sure when/why/how anything respawns. i know there's a time function to some stuff but not sure.

4. marker your map with resource nodes (maybe timers appear when mousing over). most people who legitly did say, the clay grind, use markers to mark the nodes. everyone should mark every node they come across on every map. since that's the case, just make that happen automatically when you find stuff. same goes for chests. anyone farming minded is going to mark all the chests "potential loot nodes" on the map.

5. enchanting needs to show what possible statlines you can get. i have conspiratorial thoughts and theories of different armor types rolling certain stats more frequently. it makes sense thematically at least that plate would get % poise stats more frequently if not "only." this also gives light armor a reason for being, since the mitigation lack is not made up for with dodging in a lot of scenarios. at least show the possibilities if you're not showing the odds.

6. buy back. there's no reason for an "oopsie i sold the thing"

7. i get the immersion for bounties and challenges, but you're already magically warping around so that extra leg of going to whisper just to go to town to turn in only adds tedium. challenges are all acceptable at once, bounties should be as well.

8. add another layer of reputation to doing bounties/challenges. you've rebuilt the town, sure, but you're also willfully or not "assisting different factions." do something with it, even if the rewards are cosmetic or a general loot cache when hitting rep levels.

9. no sarcastic descriptions / full stat sheet. chance to heal X% when taking damage is a perfect example. is this additive, are the procs separate? how much is the heal for? what is the chance? ive swapped rings that should have given me HP and the sheet/stats don't change. armor % seems to be for the item its on only, not overall. is that true? at the very least your stat sheet should show all the stats your armor and weapons are giving you. the extra step is "parsing" or making those stats less opaque. health/focus regeneration seems to be the same amount as "constantly drain" health/focus. but if they can rng, where's that number at? having a good regen item, it seemed to be a paltry amount. was it a bad roll? are all like that?

10. show ranges of rolls when holding a modifier down / advanced tooltips. rune descriptions are ok to experiment with, but how much damage per focus does something actually do? impossible to tell. especially on vendor items. the armor shows X armor, but i've gotten X+/-20ish when it's purchased. The same doesn't seem to be the case for weapons.

11. turn on the training dummies to be attackable.

12. torchlight / dragon siege style "pack animals" that carry loot for you or perhaps return to town to sell / store / scrap items. this opens up a whole new levelling / choice factor. perhaps you can also feed the animals that plague ichor and they act as your thrall and gain inventory as a result.

13. gem extraction of some sort. it's painful to lose stats on an upgrade because you don't have another of the gems or any way to facet it.

14. reroll gambling. use a resource to target reroll a stat line. maybe one line per item but infinitely rerollable.

15. options for attack number skins/appearance. it is visual noise on a fast attacking character where you see blobs of overlapping numbers. have them cascade and not overlap as an option, or, better yet-- combat logging/dps metering.

16. SOME edge protection. one of the biggest drawbacks to daggers is the movement, which is ironic, in that the attacks have you flying all over the place, knocking mobs off ledges and dying yourself to falling. it shouldn't be an impenetrable wall, but first contact with an edge shouldn't be "time to fly." maybe its keyed to certain abilities so that you can't exploit it.

17. "speed" stat clarification. what exactly is it speeding up. is it functioning? does it work on charge time for attacks? Stack additively/multiplicatively?

18. more generous target locking. it drops weirdly, and seems to be inconsistent where a much closer mob that's "south" is not targeted as easily as one on the east/west/north. this is punishing for stave and bow users / longrange attacks or thrown items where you might drop target and shoot nothing or hit environment. it also switches too easily in group settings where a mob might be 1 pixel in front of another and suddenly that's your target. it could be dropping simply because the "south" mobs are behind environment that you can't see. it doesn't feel geometrically equal to attacking into open, visible space.


19. last one, i know it was a new addition but decouple respeccing from the same currency used to run the dungeons. lorewise you did a good job of rationalizing it, but in other games it would be the equivalent of using "dungeon key" to change your stats.

I think a nice solution to this would be once you are level capped, you still "gain exp" and are levelling up respec points/energy. this would still make room for the godly level capped purple item curses of "losing exp on hit / gain less exp / lose exp on death."

you could also create a crucible currency where on each floor you're extracting the essence used for respeccing, but if doing something like this please avoid the negative feedback loop of having a bad build and not being able to get the thing to fix the bad build.... because your build is bad.

the ember farm is probably fine so long as it scales up in the later acts. but as it stands now a full clear of the game and drops in crucible are not self-sustaining if you're struggling.

[Tórç]

Originally posted by ffrotty:

4. marker your map with resource nodes (maybe timers appear when mousing over). most people who legitly did say, the clay grind, use markers to mark the nodes. everyone should mark every node they come across on every map. since that's the case, just make that happen automatically when you find stuff. same goes for chests. anyone farming minded is going to mark all the chests "potential loot nodes" on the map.

I disagree with this because it would invoke an unnecessary farming simulator aspect to the game, making it more prominent. Instead of cluttering up the map, manually placing a single maker for the area where the resources are is fine without futuristic capabilities.

[Sangamon]

I agree with this post. Hope the devs read this one.

I have a few more:

Sitting down. So many benches and chairs strewn about, why can't my character sit down and enjoy the view? As is, I don't even bother with crafting chairs and tables since my character can't interact with them.

Beer/Ale/Spirits. The Inn should sell cocktails that provide temporary buffs AND debuffs. It would fit lore-wise, and it would give me a reason to return to the Inn after I craft a bed for my house. With no drinks, the Inn became obsolete once I crafted a bed.

Parry feedback. The parry needs a little more visual feedback to aid with timing. I'll leave it to the devs to sort it out. I think I have the parry timing down, but it took hours of practice. There has to be a better way.

Otherwise, I like this game, and can't wait to see how it evolves over time.

[gr33dl0ck]

Originally posted by Tórç:

Originally posted by ffrotty:

4. marker your map with resource nodes (maybe timers appear when mousing over). most people who legitly did say, the clay grind, use markers to mark the nodes. everyone should mark every node they come across on every map. since that's the case, just make that happen automatically when you find stuff. same goes for chests. anyone farming minded is going to mark all the chests "potential loot nodes" on the map.

I disagree with this because it would invoke an unnecessary farming simulator aspect to the game, making it more prominent. Instead of cluttering up the map, manually placing a single maker for the area where the resources are is fine without futuristic capabilities.

I'd rather have access to a big node cluster which is guarded by themed boss.
- A meadow full of chopable trees guarded by an axe wielding logging foreman
- A glen full of ore nodes guarded by a rock monster
- A beach of pond guarded by a fearsome amphibian monster
- Tracking down a pack of leathery animals, killing them all including it's leader for a huge bounty of hides
- Same for wolves and their materials

To all of that add: No timers.
"B-but..."
NO. TIMERS. At least not the time wasting kind we currently have.

[Tórç]

Originally posted by gr33dl0ck:

I'd rather have access to a big node cluster which is guarded by themed boss.
NO. TIMERS. At least not the time wasting kind we currently have.

This would be cool if they later on introduce boss hunting...besides bounties.
Chance of boss loot plus its guarded resource would probably need a limitation however. Perhaps the they don't reset until the other resource boss types are defeated.

[S-Lbuki]

These 'speed increase' effects have never worked, not even for a single frame.

[ffrotty]

Originally posted by Tórç:

Originally posted by ffrotty:

4. marker your map with resource nodes (maybe timers appear when mousing over). most people who legitly did say, the clay grind, use markers to mark the nodes. everyone should mark every node they come across on every map. since that's the case, just make that happen automatically when you find stuff. same goes for chests. anyone farming minded is going to mark all the chests "potential loot nodes" on the map.

I disagree with this because it would invoke an unnecessary farming simulator aspect to the game, making it more prominent. Instead of cluttering up the map, manually placing a single maker for the area where the resources are is fine without futuristic capabilities.

the game already is a farming simulator if you do it legitimately. i only know of 2 silver nodes but i need a lot of silver to upgrade.

clay is a big need as is spruce, and knowing that "clay is in all the zones" is useless versus marking exactly where you can dig on the map to plan routes is, same with spruce (2 in the watery part, 3 on the shore, 4 up high, etc.)

i don't see the difference. marking the map saying "silver is here" in general is less useful than saying "silver is exactly here."

Witcher3 is the definition of map clutter and it was fine, because you could clear the map and it felt robust showing all the things you revealed.

Originally posted by gr33dl0ck:

To all of that add: No timers.
"B-but..."
NO. TIMERS. At least not the time wasting kind we currently have.

I don't mind the timers: the entire game has timers at its core (respawns, weekly/daily bounties and challenges), droprate vs. inventory space and travel time. An extreme reduction of timers would be every time you teleport or rest at a whisper the entire world resets, all node gathering is instant, all build and craft is instant, there are no daily or weekly limitation but even with all that it wouldn't change the need to, say, gather 60 clay or dozens of silver whenever you want to upgrade an item

the biggest roadblock with timers is having to wait to smelt ore or nodes to respawn (exploited by just starting a new realm) and if that gets further reduced in progression it's a good carrot on a stick. Perhaps the endgame state / reward for spending the time is smelting is instant because of some unlock, or you can eventually have buildings/structures like clay pits and tree farms to generate it (but that would be on a timer in this current system).

Maybe there's an ultimate endgame where you build out a treefarm/clay pit/whatever mine and that material becomes removed from any crafting requirement.

in other words, the time it takes to get X silver bars to upgrade an item is currently split up (time to get to the nodes, time to mine the nodes, time for nodes to respawn, time to get to the smith, time for smith to turn ore into bars)

That smithing time is obnoxious if it's the only thing you're doing. But while it is smelting you can run the crucible / farm an area or go on some other material route.

if played efficiently the timers don't really impact anything and without them the time for other things would be more pronounced unless there were mechanics to move them to 0. I wouldn't mind that, it would take tedium out of the game and give a good progression to unlocks.

Farm X of some material tediously and if you invest enough parallel resource you never need that material again. As it stands, I think a lot of these issues center around not knowing how much these systems are expanded (is the next buildout 40 hours?) and minmaxing act1 of a game.

After doing the tedious clay farm, do you ever need clay again?

Further, I think a lot of this stuff is only annoying because there is no secondary benefit to the act of doing it. when running a silver/clay route, you're only interested in time it takes to get to the node and push the button.

Trivial solution to a lot of this would be to add floors to crucible that are RNG that give you tons of materials. An entire floor of just random critters, with a 10% spawn rate in a run. Or as was posted above, areas of focused farming.

"Liberate the clay pits" or "enemies have taken over the silver mine" and once you get them you have a passive town income.


To that end I'd propose 20. Have city producing materials passively. Yep, still on a timer but it would be another parallel accumulation that lets you do other stuff while it's happening. My problem with silver farm and I think the main problem with timers a lot of people have is that it currently feels like it stops/interrupts gameplay. While I think that's on the player to play inefficiently, I'd rather be playing crucible than running past mobs to get a few taps on a silver node.