I would be interested in hearing everyones opinion on pros and cons on having VT2 loot chest system in place in DT.
I personally think the lootchests in VT2 were brilliant (altho definitely adding to item bloat overall) and I simply cannot understand why they removed them and how DT ended up being so…unrewarding to play. No loot die from monstrosities (monstrosities literally dont add any rewards whatsoever afaik. Def feel way less rewarding to defeat without loot die), no lvling of a loot chest to validate the accomplishments within that mission to validate player effort and time put into playtime. No decent way of getting equipment other than an apparently super low chance of MAYBE getting something after a mission and the rng shop.
This is obviously just my opinion. I would LOVE for them to bring back the VT2 loot chests that lvl up depending on what you did in a mission (I do understand it would be more complex since now we have missions, missions with side objectives, missions with mutatos and any combination of those, but still).
What are all y’all thoughts on this? Are you for having VT2 style loot chests or against? What are your pros and cons?
I personally disliked VT2’s lootboxes and the attached crafting system. It extended the loot grind by way too much imo. TBH I preferred the first game’s loot system, because it wasn’t that hard to get the base item that you wanted and it was much easier to get the rolls that you wanted.
I’m one of those who view the RNG as getting in the way of me getting to the point of the game that I actually want to play. Complete builds putting my skills to the test.
Well, I am literally just talking about the reward of having a lvled loot chest that reflects the lvl of completion of the mission so to speak. It is a reward and gives you feedback that the time and effort you just put into the mission is rewarded. Unlike how it is now in DT where no matter how well or bad you did, you get a few coins (now some crafting resources) and thats it. It just isn’t rewarding.
I agree with your points about the crafting system and extending the loot grind, but those things are separate. You can have a lvld loot chest at the end of a mission. You could either use that equipment, sell the equipment or dismantle the equipment for resources.
Additional crafting/manipulation systems should definitely allow you to easily modify any said base weapon to create one suited for whatever you want it to be like.
I personally would also like a level of unique legendary weapon with unique special traits and alter how you play when you have them (rather than stupid reds where the only difference is max substats…). Oldschool style legendary weapons with unique name/model and special effects that are really impactful and feel special
I didn’t play VT1 that much and the bit I did play has been many many years ago at this point. Maybe I should give it another go and see what the progression system was like
The VT2 loot system wasn’t the best for a couple of reasons.
It took way, WAY too long to reach max loot level. I remember needing dozens and dozens of hours to reach loot with power level 300. The fact that the loot level was calculated across all characters and slots made it even worse.
Despite you leveling up your chests (and increasing the risk of failure), there was still an element of RNG involved. It feels crap to complete a full book Legend QP run and you don’t get an Emperor’s Vault. It’s not very common, but the very fact that it can happen, sucks.
No way of getting at least one guaranteed Red item, which could be a potential solution to #1. A really hard or time-consuming achievement (like completing all missions on Legend with a character for the FIRST time) could’ve yielded one Red item of choice. Lots of MMOs use this tactic of providing one endgame item if you beat the main story or similar. It’s a good idea because it’s like the game is saying “welcome to the endgame, here’s something to get you started”.
The stat re-roll system was tedious and annoying. I have like 200 hundred of each dust, just let me pick the stats I want and spend more dust to increase the chance of me getting the stat. Like 10 dust is +10% chance to get what I want (double the chance for reds or just make it 100%). Staring at a menu, clicking “Re-roll properties” until I finally see “+30% Block Cost Reduction/+5% Attack Speed” is not my fondest memory in VT2. It was just a colossal waste of time for no reason.
The crafting yields were abysmal and there was no way to increase them. That ties in with #4, where if you don’t have enough dust, you’re stuck with crap stats, and the only reason you can’t get them is RNG. That is atrocious.
On the flip side, despite the Weaves being poorly received for a number of valid reasons, I absolutely LOVED the Weave progression and gear system. I think they made it too easy when you could acquire Essence from regular missions but that was done after the fact and probably to encourage players to even play Weaves. That meant that in it’s “final” state, it was a tad too fast and forgiving (for example, swapping Traits could cost a nominal fee of 100-200 or something Essence instead of being 100% free), but it was a LOT more rewarding and most of all, RNG-free. You could also gear up your alts way faster than in the main game.
As far as Darktide’s current loot progression goes, it’s pretty unrewarding. The RNG item vendor is a bit of a silly idea. I love the Force Staff, for example, and I haven’t had any luck with getting a better one for two days now. I’ve gone up 4 levels (11 to 15), but I still have the same gear. Now, to be fair, they did JUST add crafting and I haven’t explored it much, but the fact that upgrading a weapon now increases the rating is a good start.
If I were them, I’d just port the Weave progression system, make it maybe 10% more grindy and less lenient, and that would be it.
The crafting system and loot chests were all part of the item progression system, and they have a very specific idea for how long we need to grind for the things that we want. If they do give us a guaranteed drop (or drops) off of a completed mission, I fully expect them to take something that we currently have away to keep it roughly what they want.
The biggest complaint that people had was that getting a weapon to begin with was the major RNG part of it, and for someone who didn’t play the game a lot (or speed run recruit difficulty) it was a right pain to get a weapon.
After getting a weapon though, it was all improvements because we had a choice to keep what we currently had or to take what the new roll was. We also rolled the traits and their numbers seperately, so you could keep the traits that you wanted while always improving the numbers involved.
VT1 system for itemization was perfection. It actually made me care about the items I was getting, not just consider everything vendor trash if it wasn’t a red or had a perfect roll. The only thing they needed to change VT1 was to make sure the item was for the character that played the mission.
Its still my favourite tide game. Absolutely worth a revisit, bot fix mods are great, could run the whole game cata with bots comfortably and im not the best player.