Firstly I’ll just say that I’ve sunk a embarrassing amount of hours across both betas. I’ve very much enjoyed the experience overall, but for me beyond performance issues which I am sure you will sort I feel the grind is somewhat more detrimental to the experience when the scale of it is grasped.
Starting off every store refresh should have at least one type of weapon in it (after they have been unlocked) of at least Grey level every refresh. People should be able to play with these weapons and not be stuck behind arbitrary RNG/ability to timesink looking at an hourly store. The stats would still be randomised on these weapons but at least having them available would be a helpful start and also lessen the “oh it says I’ve unlocked something but it’s not in the store, that’s weird/sucks” feeling that you get after being told something is now technically available to you.
Using the Catachan combat knife as an example I’ve streamlined the Traits and Blessings while also breaking blessings into two categories: Blessings and Sub-blessings. I have not knowingly edited the values I simply propose that they should be defaulted to max level in an effort to mitigate grind.
Traits would generate as they are now with a possible trait combination of 36 down from 630
Traits
Executor = +5% on Repeated Weak Spot Hit. Stacks 5 times.
Haymaker = +4% to Instakill human-sized enemies on Chained Heavy Hit. Stacks 5 Times.
Lacerate = +4 Bleed Stacks on non-Weak Spot Hits.
Mercy Killer = +50% Weak Spot Damage (Enemies with Bleed Stacks).
Precognition = +5% Weak Spot Damage & Critical Damage for 5 seconds on successful Dodge.
Ruthless Backstab = +50% Rending on Backstab Hit.
Shred = +5% Bonus Critical Chance on repeated hit. Stacks 5 times.
Smackdown = +10% Critical Chance for 2 seconds on Special Action Hit (Staggered Enemy).
Uncanny Strike = +20% Rending on enemy weak spot hit for 2.5 seconds. Stacks 5 times.
Blessings would generate as they do now except they would now get a bonus trait. I don’t have the exact figures for these and I don’t think it’s complete but it will serve as an example. As before streamlined to max. The change here is that each blessing each generates a sub blessing from the sub blessing list.
Blessings
+1 Wound(s)
+1 Max Stamina
+15% Toughness
+19% Max Health
+20% Corruption Resistance
+4% Combat Ability Regeneration
+12% Toughness Regeneration Speed
(Note the following should be able to be re-rolled as a subclass of their own)
+15% Damage Resistance (Gunners)
+15% Damage Resistance (Pox Hounds)
+15% Damage Resistance (Bombers)
+15% Damage Resistance (Mutants)
+15% Damage Resistance (Tox Flamers)
+15% Damage Resitance (Snipers)
+10% Stamina Regeneration
+12% Sprint Efficiency
+10% Block Efficiency
Sub Blessings
+1 Max Stamina
+4% Toughness
+4% Health
+12% Corruption Resistance
+8% Ordo Dockets (Mission Rewards)
+8% Experience
+15% chance of Curio as Mission Reward (Instead of Weapon)
So basically
{Blessing}
{Sub-Blessing}
{Blessing}
{Sub-Blessing}
{Trait}
{Trait}
The way this could integrate into the expanded store would be that each layer could be rerolled or swapped at the store for a cost (to be determined). Sub blessings now feel like and are bonuses, people that want to min max now have clearer goal to work towards editing their weapons, casual players can live a bit easier with whatever traits they get because the pool of potential combinations is lower but might be more willing to try a trait they weren’t initialy looking for at max level where the idea of upgrading that trait at a lower level (as opposed to replacing it for the desired one) would have never crossed their mind.
I do think Master-crafting should have further levels up to three that could potentially add another blessing and trait. Master crafted level 2 - Additional Blessing. Master crafter level 3 - Additional trait. I think this would allow people to work with less optimal stats by using complimentary traits/blessings/sub blessings. Obviously this would create a significant boost for top tier players but that just gives yourselves the opportunity to raise the difficulty ceiling in the future with above Damnation threat missions (Excomunicatus and/or Malleus would be my name choices!).
Cheers.