Preface: I posted this months ago, but it’s not showing up in search for whatever reason, so I’m reposting it with a little bit added so it can be seen and acknowledged (I also posted this in the steam forum, so I was able to get it copied over from there).
We can combine the best of both worlds of the omnissiah and the requisitorium- the ability to choose specific item properties, and the need for engagement in core gameplay to achieve those goals.
My suggestion is to be able to choose specific properties for your weapon, and those properties start at rank 1. To improve them, you just play the game normally. No need to play waiting games or pulling the slot machine handle. You just need to go into missions and complete tasks akin to the requistorium, such as killing a number of scabs or monsters, or performing tasks related to the property.
For instance, ranking up a bonus crit chance property on a weapon could be an x number of crits done for each rank. Ranking up blessings that require consecutive hits can rank up with ‘hit an enemy x times, y amount of times’ or something like that.
In this way, playing the game the way you want to play it further improves the way you want to play the game. Really quite simple, and engaging with the core gameplay loop.
The requisitorium can be reworked as a system for people to order in a specific weapon of their choosing with specific stats and properties, which can then be taken to the omnissiah to unlock those properties in the way I mentioned. So, in that case, you’re given a gray weapon, but with guaranteed properties of your choosing as you use it and upgrade it. So, plasteel and adamantine are still used to increase an item from gray to blue, etc., and unlock the properties held within the item.
What does this mean for the item shop? Well, that can still be used for non-premium skins and the such. I believe the primary interactions for progression really ought to just be between the requisitorium and omnissiah.
I also believe this should meld well with lore and not literally ‘crafting’ anything, but rather a series of improvements on something that already exists within the weapon, which appears to be the direction the dev teams want to go in, but this way interacts directly with the core gameplay and with far greater player agency, adding in a touch of skill-based interaction.
It allows people to choose gear they want from an early level, which makes it accessible at all levels of play because it’s not fully unlocked from the get-go. New players will play the game and get the materials and ranks necessary to improve the item over their playtime, and people already in the endgame will likely already have the materials necessary to unlock everything if they want to try out something new. All they’d have to do is run a few games with it to get it up to par.
Afterthoughts:
Higher difficulties could give greater ‘xp’ to ranking item properties on a strong curve, so it’s less of a ‘slog’ to get it up to par. Also gives reason to have xp bonus on curios.