Before the subject :
First, I’m not english native language, I will use a translator and tried to keep the ideas comprehensible.
Secondly, Even if it’s not the same game and trying to copy its mechanics is not a good solution, I will, I think, compare to Vermintide 2 (VT2) because this game, after a while, has seen its game mechanics, being quite balanced, even if they are not perfect.
Thirdly, like VT2, I am a casual player. I only play T3 maximum on VT2 and the same on Darktide. I play for fun and I don’t look for excessive optimization. I might have a partial and incomplete view of the mechanics seen by a “competitive” player.
The reward system:
For me, mission rewards, crafting, and the store are necessarily linked. In VT2, each mission brought at least 3 items that could be used as new equipment or crafting materials. These rewards were upgraded according to the actions of the game rewarding a complete game and also rewarding the crossed difficulties. Also each level up came with a chest: 3 more items for the same uses as before.
In DT, no chests, no possibility to forge your weapons. We are totally dependent on mission rewards and the gnusmith. And currently this is a problem: The mission rewards are rare, a single item, random on its level and quality. The gunsmith is random and doesn’t have the whole catalog really available for our character. We often find ourselves having to wait for several refreshes, so several hours, for the item to appear and perhaps with very low statistics.
In VT2, all items can be created at the forge, as long as you have materials, this allows you to test, even with a lower quality, all available weapon combinations. In DT, not only you can’t create items at the forge, but you may never see the items unlocked in the store (my level 15 Zealot is still waiting to test the revolver…)
Here is my proposal to try to balance the reward/frustration side:
Have one item (only one) systematically at the end of a successful mission. The level and/or quality of this item is scaled according to the difficulty and the level of the player. The quality/level of this item increases according to the actions of the game, like the chest in VT2: everyone alive at the end = small bonus, grimoire/books collected = small bonus, boss killed = small bonus, demon banished = medium bonus (like grims, you have to reward unnecessary risk taking and Banishing demons is the essence of the inquisition ). And of course a part of chance.
To make the search for grimoires and books more interesting, in addition to or instead of the Ordo reward, it would be nice if they rewarded by steelplast (books) and diamantine (grimoire) scaled on the difficulty of the game. This way, those who grind crafting components will have a reason to pick up these items and go to higher levels.
I like the principle of unlocking weapons by level, it avoids starting your character with the couple of weapons that you will keep until the end. But, it would be much more comfortable to have this weapon (in basic version with modest stat) as a systematic reward when our character unblock the object. If only to be able to test its feeling in the meat-grinder. If we like this weapon, we’ll have to go and get it in the store and improve it in the Omnisiah.
Gunsmith:
Having a refresh and random system why not, I don’t mind. But with so few choices and a one hour refresh, it’s very frustrating.
The best thing would be to have all the items available at each refresh. The randomness would only be on the stats and effects.
But, at the very least, more choices and a fixed number for each category, just to be sure that you will have (for example) 10 ranged weapons, 10 melee weapons and 4 curiosities.
The Omnisiah menu already offers this separation during the consecrations, it should be the same for the armorer.
The hourly refresh is counterproductive: a successful mission takes, on average, 30 minutes (in T3 anyway). You often find yourself with nothing new to look at between two missions and that can be frustrating… especially if during the previous mission you just unlocked a new weapon.
I would make this refresh to ½ h. But above all, I would transform this refresh into a refresh token: Every half hour of play, the player earns a token (up to a maximum of 4) that he can spend on free refresh from the store. For example, I play 2 games, which take me a little more than an hour, when I come back to see the armorer I have the same choice as before my missions, but I have earned 2 tokens that allow me to refresh, for free, the choice of items. I can still do more refresh (up to 4 changes maximum) but the last 2 refreshes are paying in Ordo (and the price increases with each refresh). So, the more games I play, the more I can refresh the page. This allows a good dynamic of game, without being obliged to pass by the store between 2 for fear of missing a refresh…
The possibility of refresh against Ordo would be reset only after X hours (6 ? 12 ? 24h ?) which would avoid a spam refresh against Ordo.
Crafting:
I prefer to repeat myself, I’m a casual player, I probably won’t have the relevance of an end game player.
The fact that you can’t craft a weapon from scratch doesn’t bother me more than that… If I can have a real choice at the armorer to have a base to improve it after. Also, the fact that only one trait can be modified on both doesn’t bother me either: creating a perfect weapon requires a good base: the basic weapon must already have good stat and traits at the beginning. You don’t create a masterpiece on a blade that has been badly tempered and has cracks in the blade.
Nevertheless, it should be possible to have an impact on each line of the weapon.
On the statistics:
It would be normal that the level of the weapon be a pool of points randomly distributed among all the characteristics with a minimum and maximum fixed according to the level. Example (with limit and arbitrary total pool, I don’t know if it would be too strong or too weak): a weapon of level 250. The maximum attainable for each characteristic: 60%, minimum 25% total pool 200 pts (+/- 20 pts for the RNG) (so on average 42% for each stat) . A max level weapon (500 it seems to me): Max 80% min 40% pool: 300 (+/- 20) (average 60%).
We speak of course of naked characteristic, that maximum and minimum that we can obtain via the rewards of missions or gunsmith objects. Indeed to exceed this number, go to the Omnisiah :
Rebalancing:
Against materials, we can targeted one caracteristic to improve versus 1, 2 targeted caracteristics to degrade (or don’t target any caracteristic so that all the remaining ones are targeted but with less effect).
It is a rebalancing of the weapon by the Tehcpriest which redesigns the object to make it more efficient, even beyond what is normally possible, but this has consequences.
Thus, without touching the total point pool, the targeted characteristic would be improved at the expense of the one targeted for depredation or the 2 targeted (but the drop is leveled on 2 and not on only one carac) or on all the remaining characteristics but in small quantity if none was specifically targeted. This point gain is random but will have a minimum of 10% and a maximum of 20% (allowing to reach the perfect 100% of the targeted category.
You can try this improvement several times, but once you have set the characteristic to increase and the one(s) to decrease, you cannot change it.
Not having experience in this point, I don’t know if we should limit this possibility to one characteristic per weapon or to 2. But in this second case, a characteristic already targeted for a depredation, can’t be chosen afterwards for an improvement (what is lost stays lost).
Refining:
Second way to improve characteristics would be, always against material, from the scratch and not at the expense of another characteristic, but by increasing the total point pool.
Here, the Techpriest, takes the weapon to improve a point that was not refined at the time of its conception. It’s just to screw something or sharpen a blade. The result will not take the object out of the ordinary.
This increase would be on a targeted characteristic. From 5 to 10% guaranteed. Without being able to exceed the maximum foreseen by the level ( i.e : we cannot exceed the 80% for a weapon with 500). tryable several times obviously. like the rebalancing, I wonder if it should be unique to a stat or feasible on others. Of course if this characteristic has already been targeted by the rebalancing it can’t be refined and vice versa.
The other options of the Omnisiah are correct for me for now : being able to modify one trait out of 2. No problem, I just need to find/buy a weapon with a good trait already. However, I would like to be able to choose the new trait from a pool of several choices and not a total RNG.
Be able to generate a new random blessing or get a blessing from a previously recycled weapon. Perfect.
It would also be nice to be able to recycle your weapon to get a small amount of plasteel and diamantine. Obviously, depending on the level and quality of the weapon, you won’t get the same composition and quantity.
These few changes, with my vision, would leave a good part to the RNG, either in the gunsmith or mission rewards or crafting. would prevent to have “perfect” weapons easily and requires an investment to have an optimized equipment. But this system also rewards the person who will focus on improving his equipment: First at the game level, a full game on high difficulty will generate a reward close to perfect and also more crafting material. Then, thanks to the rewards or the gunsmith, the player has the base of his “masterwork” that he can bring to the techpriest to refine a secondary characteristic and sublimate one to 2 main characteristics. Modify a trait, generate a new blessing.
Obviously a full 100% item will not exist, but you can get a weapon with a pool of 330 points that can represent stats: 100% - 100% - 50% -40% - 40% if you have optimized 2 characteristics and refine a 3rd.
I am aware that is not a perfect system but I think that can improve the quality of use and the feeling reward for players who focus on a specific goal .