Weapon system complete overhaul

[sirvink]

1. Make every lvl 60 class weapon of it’s type EXACTLY the same in damage, weight, durability, armor pen, etc, for it’s weapon class. All daggers the same. All Katana the same. All pikes the same, etc.

2. The only differences between weapons of the same class would be the names and appearances (skins).

3. All those lost unique features we love so much? Glow, +5 attribute, poison, bleed, life drain, extra damage… all of those move from weapon specific to a special weapon feat system. The feats which can be learned by defeating certain legendary creatures, completing dungeons and imply finding them via Obelisks or various specific recipe locations. All being awarded by completion of whatever goal and NOT by RNG recipe drops.

With Siptah, I feel the RNG recipe slot machine or loot drop is going too far now. For PvE it is livable, but in PvP, to be fully competitive, you need to be on equal footing and spending 2 years of RNG to get that one all important feature is not a good way to go.

4. (This part probably needs a lot of tweaking to create a good balance) You can apply TWO weapon feats to each weapon class. Such as make your daggers poison and life drain, or bows bleed and armor pen. There would be a server based timer cooldown for switching out the feats froma weapon type.

Yes, this makes it a bit more like other games where you can add Runes, Gems, or Enchants to your weapons.

Personally I think this would create a more balanced and easily maintained balance for a PvP weapons system. I think it also allows the player to have a bit more flexibility to choose their preferred weapon style. Yes, there will still be advantageous choices to one weapon over another in certain scenarios, but for that one super special weapon property that only comes on one weapon today? Now it can be applied to any weapon you like.

I considered a system where you enable the weapon feats to be active o the player and not tied to the weapons, but I like the idea of swapping between weapons mid battle to achieve different results. What I don’t like is carrying 20 weapons and this should really help reduce the number of weapons we carry and store in chests. I’m a big fan of inventory and storage reduction, because I am a hoarder.

End results should play well for both PvP and PvE. For PvP, you can tailor your weapons for the best possible function, to fit your attribute build, armor choices and play style. For PvE, you can choose your favorite weapon skins go go along with your favorite weapon feats and play style.

Also in PvP, from what I see out there, the most successful PvP game situations are generally where the game offers a very equal opportunity for players, to have the same gear and skills. RNG to get gear doesn’t achieve that goal. Make a lot of time and effort to “get it all”, but make it reasonable to be able to get there.

Having to find balance between 200 different unique weapons is not a task I would want as a developer. Having to balance a handful of skills across a handful of weapon types is far more appealing AND offers much more dependability and confidence to the player base.

In PvE, some weapons have awesome characteristics and just look dumb. Others look fantastic (thank you art department!!!) but have the stoopidest (because misspelling it feels right) features that make it pointless to carry. WHY!!! I wanna look really, really cool and not get penalized for it.

Just an idea and maybe just a starting point for a much better idea from someone else?

Final note: Armors… yes, apply this system to armors. I’ve been wanting armors to get a similar overhaul for ages. Choose your style, because it looks damn good! Add heating or cooling. Add features (just like above). Done. Learn new armor feats? Add it in to your armor feat slots (or however).

[Testerle]

@sirvink

End results should play well for both PvP and PvE.

for me as a pve player, the collector and hunter aspect is an important part of the game. aligning all weapons to the same stats reduces this aspect to recipes, which are then also available at fixed locations according to this proposal. this effectively removes the collector and hunter aspect of the game. that’s a 100% no from a pve player.

one is to have the weapon, the other aspect is the way to get there. this aspect is cut very much here

[tobi04]

@Testerle

that’s a 100% no from a pve player.

100% no from a pvp player too.
If somebody wants good perks on a weapon, he should farm that weapon. Otherwise there is no real point in farming legendaries. And it is very possible to pvp in craftable gear. Legendary armors and weapons just offer you that slight advantage that is totally justified considering that you actually need to farm for it.

[sirvink]

the collecting is still happening though. Now you are collecting feats to apply to weapon standards. I am however suggesting that the collection process be less RNG and more targeted to the kill, task or special spot located. My biggest concern with the RNG, combined with hundreds of unique weapons, is potentially never finding the right weapon to fit your specific play style or PvP build.

This system would be intended to give you a chance to have more customization for the physical style you prefer AND the features/attributes you need.

There is a great mod out there called Fashionist, which allows you to wear the armor you need for it’s attributes, but can then customize it’s appearance to the look you most prefer. It is that kind of customization that I believe the core game should have. The added benefit would be a system that becomes much easier to maintain balance within PvP, reduce the cries of “nerf” and “overpowered”, which then result in great dissatisfaction within the PvE world as our favorites get marginalized to uselessness.

I’ll be honest though, I do expect it to be generally unpopular, but if it gets some discussions going on ways to improve over what we have today, life is good.

Think about our own leveling in the game. We level up, we gain points for attributes and feats, then WE get to choose how to apply those to fit our play style. Funcom puts out DLC and they are very popular. Why? It gives us more choice for how WE want things to look, rather than being forced into Classic Heavy armor, because it is the only choice for an encumbrance build.

So if your preference is for playing slot machine chests, I can understand this not being appealing. But honestly, the legendaries from chests are all weak now. Now we need the Eldarium weapons to be competitive. They are about 15% more damage and have more exciting benefits (because they want us to buy Siptah). But the grind for them on official servers will be insane time sinks.

I think I counted 113 Delving bench weapons. Three vault runs should give enough Eld for 4 delves. If you are delving a sword and there are 10 possible outcomes, then there is a 10% chance of getting what you want. To get all 113 weapons, it could take thousands of delves. 100k Eld maybe? More? 100k Eld would be 1400 vault runs.

How about looting bosses/Elder beasts? Once in a while one drops a full recipe or a 1/5th schematic piece. The only really good drops are from the siege beasts and those are hard to get on Official. I’ve been running a storm test that gives me 50-60 siege beasts each storm and 2-3 storms a day. I’ve done hundreds over the last week. Collected easily over a thousand recipes now and since RNG is king, I am a long way from completing my library of recipes.

Put it in perspective of what someone on Official can do and it is an impossible dream to collect them all - maybe? Maybe that was the goal all along? Maybe that is the desired outcome, to have people with their own unique weapons and be the envy of all on their server?

It’s late and I am rambling. But I hope this makes sense that I’m looking for more flexibility, more choice and an easier way to have weapon balance for the pvp side (which I never play). But you still have to put in time to earn all the weapon feats (styles and features).