There is absolutely no reason, gameplay or lore or otherwise, to hard-limit our crafting and refining abilities. In a game where we have no ability to control the weapons we can have, we should at the very least be able to modify the perks/blessings at our leisure of the weapons we DO find. This just makes weapons feel less personal and like prized possessions. We already have so much RNG in this game, give us this one ‘karking’ thing to control at our discretion.
Frankly RNG as a whole in the game needs to be looked at and drastically toned down. It is doing the opposite of making me want to play more, which I figure is the whole point these systems were implemented to begin with. There are way too many unknowns and lack of guarantees to make me want to continuously keep playing, even if the game itself is fun. here’s a list of all the RNG off the top of my head:
Blessings
Perks
Emperor’s gifts
Shop weapons
mission selection
Mission Modifiers
mission difficulty (sometimes a difficulty isn’t available at all! WTF!)
Weekly shop items
Now add on top of this the few things we DO have agency over come with a caveat - the biggest being that changing a perk on a weapon/curio locks the other perks. WHY?! This just adds a kick in the teeth to us getting something we may actually want from the slot-machine systems in game already. Just let us have full control over a weapon and it’s perks once we own it - why is that NOT the case? What is the mentality behind locking these perks? I really, genuinely want a developer’s answer to this because it’s just baffling to me - it makes no sense from any angle.
All of these are barriers to continuous play. Give us the ability to create grey weapons and level them up, and don’t lock perks/blessings and we will have at least SOMETHING to control that lets us have a drive to keep playing. As it stands right now, EVERY ASPECT of the game is completely random, and so there is no incentive to play.
My issue with this statement on crafting is that there’s no substance to it. You can project whatever meaning you’d like onto such a vague sentiment.
Personally, my core problem with crafting so far is that in order to start doing anything, you need to find the exact weapon you’d like with a high modifier score and a single decent perk. What constitutes a good modifier score is unclear, but it seems to be ~380 max, based on players compiling data. We don’t know because the game not only doesn’t tell us but also sometimes has errors in its own calculations, and there’s no way to increase these numbers and there may never be since the devs have not specifically said anything about it. Consequently, in order to even begin crafting, you have to shop camp. Which isn’t crafting.
I don’t really care what their internal plans are. I either want it in my hands or for them to specifically lay out what their plans are so I can evaluate whether to bother playing or not. I’m not dropping a dime into this experience if it has no endgame, and if I have to wait years for the broom handle to be pulled out of their investor’s behinds.
If you are waiting for a high-roll weapon to start crafting you are basically f*ing over yourself. There are plenty of weapons in 330-360 range that are worth upgrading.