A lot of development time has been invested into the Athanor system and Weaves. Fatshark has stated that they do not want to throw that work away, so here is a list of what could be done to implement them in the main game, in a way that could please the community.
1. Put the Athanor in the main game and remove current boxes and gear :
- For each player account, upgrade the Athanor level, weapons and amulets based on hero levels and currently owned equipment. Give extra essence based on unopened boxes and unused crafting materials.
- Any player that has grinded enough gear to have multiple full-red loadouts for each career (not just hero) should be able to keep the same diversity of options with the Athanor system
- Add an illusion (weapon skin) system to the Athanor menu
- Add player skins / hats / portrait frames to the Athanor menu
- Add a loadout save/load system to the Athanor menu (like the loadouts manager mod), including a “bot setup” checkbox
- Add Okri’s achievements to unlock Weave-mode weapon skins (hard to earn but not super-elitist)
- Remove the old inventory menu and replace it with the new Athanor menu
- Award essence based on difficulty at the end of each game instead of boxes, a bigger amount for completion, and use quickplay bonus / tomes / grims / loot dice to earn a multiplier of the essence gain
- For example, “peasant” gives x1, “commoner” gives x1.25, “merchant” gives x1.5, “soldier” gives x1.75, “general” gives x2 and “emperor” gives x3
- Replace Okri’s challenge box awards with essence gains
2. Make Weave-mode a part of the main game :
- Create a “Weaves” map section in the main game, just like Helmgart, Bögenhafen etc.
- Add all Weaves “maps” in this section
- Add a “Wind” menu subcategory (like difficulty), or maybe a drop-down list, that lets you pick any available wind mutator once a map of this section has been selected
- Keep the “difficulty” menu subcategory, that lets you pick any available difficulty
- Make this section available after beating the Dark Omens map
- Eventually, add a map “progression” system just like Helmgart, to make map unlocking a new account-based progression system (along with Okri’s challenges, a Keep banner and more ?)
- Eventually as well, put the Dark Omens map into the Weaves section
- Keep the current Weaves game mode for players who are into leaderboards, reward top players with a big essence amount and reset the scores with each season
3. Options for future development
- Add deed mutators to custom games, maybe through three drop-down lists (as current deeds can have up to 3 mutators)
- Make wind mutators available for “non Weave” maps as deed mutators (only one active wind at a time, of course)
- Mutators reward extra essence at the end of successfully-cleared maps (maybe a different amount for easier / harder mutators ?)
- Add a cosmetic “shop” (Lohner’s emporium) and use essence for currency in this shop
- Include already-released weapon skins, clothes and hats in this shop, since they can no longer be found in boxes
- Give very expensive prices to some items (and maybe with limited availability in time), so that deed and seasonal players have a reason to earn all of that extra essence once their Athanor is fully upgraded
- The next DLC could add the Qhaysh and Dhar wind mutators along with harder, endgame-worthy maps based on them (Warhammer Fantasy lore fans will understand what this is about)