Still only getting useless gear from shop

I say it is entirely their design that is causing expectations to not match what they are trying to achieve with their “design intent”.

Most of the itemisation system is almost 1 to 1 to their previous games but with additional inconveniences and obstacles that is blatantly there to stretch the time they want the itemisation to be ‘relevant’

The main differences are the timers on Armoury Exchange and Melk’s Shop, the initial lack of targeted item crafting/buying (that was also attempted to be explained away in the most flippant and jarring way possible), the stat distribution RNG, the addition of tiers to the perks and trait-equivalent blessings, locking one perk or trait when the other is rerolled/replaced and the massive pool of base ratings items generate with compared to V2 (5 v 100).

What did they improve from the previous Tide games’ systems? Pretty much nothing. Grudgingly, maybe the perks, since the variability of the variables has been replaced by less tiers, but it gets overshadowed by the hostility of the locks and perk reroll system.

It just feels like they didn’t learn a single thing from their previous games and in effect to again extend the itemisation system it removes so much player agency or the ability to work towards anything that isn’t a dice roll. Of which there isn’t, everything is a dice roll.

On paper, each layer of itemisation RNG may have seemed ok and reasonable, but when you have 6+ of them all layered together it goes out of control really quickly. They are trying to improve some of it, certainly, by tweaking the ratings of items that appear, increasing the availability of higher tier blessings (and nerfing the Armoury even harder, don’t forget).

The thing is, they eventually ran some numbers and saw how bad it was, yet they still double down on the core of the sytem.

They are simultaneously trying to cater to the potential 1000+ hour players, casual players and the grinding players by having an effectively endless grind but I believe they are still missing the point on what kept those 1000+ hour players going. It certainly wasn’t the itemisation. But I’m sure the itemisation is surely pushing some, if not a good chunk of, people away with how aggressively RNG it is on a game that isn’t a looter shooter, a MMO, a gacha game or a Diablolike.

4 Likes