Ignore the shenanigans title and read please : )
I’ve come across quite a few people unsatisfied with the lack of progression past level 30 other than just trying to tighten out weapon fits. There should be other forms of progression to keep people invested in the game and I feel like one of those forms of progression can come in the form of cosmetics. Now we have the commissary, but that doesn’t feel quite as rewarding and most are just recolors of equipment we already can get which is… alright, but not quite what I’m looking for.
I suggest taking a look at a game like Deep Rock Galactic. One of the reasons I’m pointing to it is they have a crafting station… that includes… cosmetics!
What I’m trying to suggest here is we should get a similar crafting station for cosmetics and allow us to earn unique resources on the different difficulties/levels/areas that allow us to craft unique and interesting cosmetics!
Hell even the recipes for cosmetics can be hidden in the maps at random places (Similar to Grimoires/Scriptures). So you can treasure hunt for schematics for cosmetics that will unlock account wide (So if you find a Zealot Cosmetic while running around as a Veteran you can craft it on your zealot or veteran or whoever else and you still get it for your zealot)
This I think will help keep a lot of players invested by having a constant influx of new cosmetic content that can be hunted for and crafted by simply playing the game. Originally I would suggest using Diamantine and Plasteel, but I think new resources would be better served in starting everyone out on an even grindy playing field.
The Loop would essentially look like this.
Players go into a mission, they collect new, unique resource types related specifically to cosmetic crafting, maybe they find a schematic for a new cosmetic, and with the resources they collect on missions they can craft said cosmetic or keep grinding until they have enough resources to do so. Just… take a look at Deep Rock Galactic and you can see what I mean.
ALTERNATIVELY… there is another similar idea. You can hunt for schematics but instead of injecting a bunch of new random unique resources to hunt for in the game, you can have a purification altar. What this altar does is instead of getting actual schematics you get tainted gear that can be purified by doing challenges. (Think penances) You activate the Altar and apply whatever tainted gear you have to it and you get X amount of random challenges to do specific to the class the cosmetic is for. The amount of challenges and difficulty of challenges scale with the quality of the cosmetic. So a Legendary cosmetic might have 6 challenges and all of them would be difficult, but not impossible to get and might require higher difficulty mission participation to complete. This allows some cosmetics to reflect a player’s skill rather than what they can purchase with their wallet. It also gives a sense of accomplishment for getting a unique piece of cosmetic gear that you can’t just buy, but have to work to unlock. This challenge system might also force players to try out new playstyles they wouldn’t have tried before to complete said challenge.
Thank you for reading! Thoughts and ideas and constructive criticism to this suggestion would be appreciated!