Improvements to Crafting

When I first came to POE I thought that the crafting system was great, better than any I have seen in an RPG. Now that I have played it for some time, I can see there are some flaws. Here are a couple flaws to the system and possible solutions.

More Predictability, Less RNG

As of right now this game is heavily based on RNG and luck from killing monsters to crafting. RNG can be very fun and exciting but it has gotten to the point where the most effective way of collecting items is through trading. Farming and crafting are very similar in the way that they are both unpredictable means to getting gear that you want and it can take a lot of time to get good results. Trading on the other hand gets you exactly what you want and when you want it. Crafting should be changed to a system that is different than the RNG that is associated with farming.

People often get discouraged in the current crafting system because they end up blowing all of their currency to craft items. This way of crafting leaves the player with no currency wealth and nothing to show for it. Overtime the player would have spent enough currency to buy an item much better than the one he wanted to craft. However he wanted results and wanted them quickly, so he put his hopes in the RNG gods and they let him down. This is the kind of thing you hear about in so many threads about people quitting the game.

Crafting should be less about RNG and more about progressing. Using crafting materials should better your items not just be luck of the draw. Leave the RNG to monster slaying and actually finding loot and crafting materials. As of now first you have to be lucky enough to find crafting materials and then you have to strike being lucky once again when you use the crafting materials. Orbs should be meaningful to find because you know that they will improve the gear of your choice.

A Change to Jewelers and Fusings

In a recent patch GGG tried to make blacksmith wetstones and armour scraps more beneficial to help socket and link your gear. However it is still all based on RNG. Even if you have 20% quality on an item you still have to get lucky to roll a high number of links and sockets. This was a great idea to make crafting more predictable and I think they were on the right track if only they would take it a little bit further.

My solution would be when using a fusing or a jewelers orb on an item that has 20% quality it automatically gains 1 socket or 1 link and removes the quality of the item. See what happens there? Crafting with wetstones, armour scraps, jewelers, and fusings have become ways of progressing your items when you use the currency on them. Now it is less about RNG and more about actually making your gear better and viable for later use.

As of now a few things should be balanced to make this system better. For example using fusings and jewelers on items without quality should be less likely to produce good results. This way when people find an item they want to craft they cannot go from 1 to 3 or 4 sockets very easily. Instead they will have to spend currency to progress that item there.

Also the chance for superior items to drop should be decreased. We all know the recipe to created wetstones and armour scraps and it is very easy to do. If these currencies become more beneficial people will be trying to pick up all of the superior items that they can... which is a lot. You would find yourself going to town a lot to sell items or collect them in your stash in order to do the recipe. Right now superior items are just wasted space on the screen that hardly anyone will pick up. Making them more beneficial and harder to find will make the people interested in crafting actually look for these items and be excited when they drop.

This specific change should be made to jewelers and fusings because it will help people play the game the way the want to. Not only with crafting but also with their character's build. A person may find an item that has amazing stats for their build but they cannot afford to use it because it doesn't have the right amount of links or sockets. So a player does one of 2 things with the item.

1) They can expend a bunch of currency in their item in hopes of getting the result that they want.

2) Store it in their stash for later because they are all out of currency for the moment and forget about it for now.

With the system that I propose it would be easier to get the results you want if you have the amount of currency required. If you don't you will keep it in your stash and slowly progress the piece of gear until it is ready. Once it is ready it will be awesome and you wont have to sacrifice any of the skills you wanted in your build to use it. A random number generator should not be what stops you from playing the build that you want to play.

A new Item rarity

Magic items have 1-2 affixes that are easy to control what are on them when crafting because the currency is cheap. Rare items on the other hand have 3-6 affixes that are difficult to craft because they require expensive currency, so when you mess up crafting on a rare it hits you hard. There should be another item rarity in between that takes place when there are 3-4 affixes on an item. It would be could be called an uncommon item and could take the color of yellow, while the 5-6 affix (rare) items take the color green.

Some of current currencies could be changed in order to accommodate for this new item rarity. The problem now is that going from the 2nd to 3rd affix is a big increase in price than when going from the 1st to 2nd affix on an item, and going from the 3rd to the 4th affix is just as expensive as going from the 5th to the 6th affix. It is a big gamble when you exalt a good regaled item because exalts are very expensive and there are many possibilities that can be rolled. Adding the 6th affix should be more costly than adding the 4th affix because the 6th affix is what makes the difference in a great item and a godly item.

Changing alchemy, chaos, and regals

To implement a new item rarity and address some of the problems mentioned before, these 3 currencies need a makeover. Alchemy orbs and chaos orbs are too much of an RNG currency. They randomly place 4-6 affixes on an item. This is essentially like finding a rare item drop. Chances are there will be maybe 2 affixes you like but you probably wont like the rest for your character. The only difference between finding a rare item and crafting one is that you get to choose the base item type, which is not that helpful because the rest is left to RNG. Crafting should put the player more in control rather than the RNG gods.

Alchemy should take the place of regal. It adds 1 affix to a magic item to make it uncommon. Now we will have more control of our crafting because alchs are much more common than regals, we don't immediately waste an expensive currency on a 3rd affix to an item. You would not need to use eternal on your item just yet because if the alch fails you can just start over from scratch. If your alchemy succeeds, well then it is time to use a chaos orb.

Chaos orbs add 1 affix to an uncommon item. They will place the 4th affix on your item. You have 3 great stats that you like on an item, so you roll 1 more with a chaos. If it fails, don't feel too bad you have not wasted a lot of currency yet, you can start over and try again. If it succeeds it is time to regal.

Regal orbs transform an uncommon (green) item into a rare item. NOW is the time to use your eternal orb if you have one. You are getting into expensive currency and it has taken you awhile to craft this perfect item for you. Now is not the time to mess up. This is your 5th affix. If it works it is time for the final exalted orb.

Externalize your item once more and hope for the best when you spend your exalts for the 6th and final affix.

Simplified it would look something like this

"

• 1. Transmute adds 1 affix to a white item making a 1-affix blue item
• 2. Augment adds 1 affix to a blue item making a 2-affix blue item
• 3. Alch adds 1 affix to a blue item, making a 3-affix yellow item
• 4. Chaos adds 1 affix to a yellow item making a 4-affix yellow item
• 5. Regal adds 1 affix to a yellow item making a 5-affix darkgreen item
• 6. Exalt adds 1 affix to an olive-green item making a 6-affix darkgreen item

-Brigs

See how this system provides for a much more controlled and progressive crafting experience? As opposed to just blowing away currency and hopping for the best every time. Crafting should happen 1 step at a time making your character better and each step should become progressively more costly. This is a complex game and there should be multiple ways to get gear not just rolling the dice and trading.

Crafting at Lower Levels

Is that a thing? While leveling up people tend to pick up high end currency and saving it for later because it seems useless to waste good currency on a level 22 item.

I also have a big problem with the items as quest rewards. I have been killing rares, unique monsters, waves of mobs at a time, crafting items, and opening chests for the last 20 levels, and you think your measly rare item is going to be better than anything that I have... well sometimes it is but usually it is garbage that ends up selling for a few alteration shards. This becomes more true for these types of quest rewards in cruel and merciless, their items are essentially worthless every time.

What if we could introduce lower level crafting instead of these silly quest rewards? For example once you complete a quest in Act 2, Gruest will add a socket or a link to the item of your choice. This can only be used on items lower than item level 25. So instead of receiving either an upgrade or 4 alteration shards, you will be receiving an upgrade to the piece of gear that you choose.

In act 3 you have completed a quest, receive your reward from the Gemling queen who will add 1 affix to the item of your choice. This can only be done on items at ilvl 35 or lower. This will have the player make a decision about their favorite piece of gear they want to upgrade because the think they could use it for awhile.

TL;DNR
Crafting should be more predictable and more of a progression system. Trading should not be the best way to get what you want. Crafting should offer a different and fulfilling system than just RNG. Leave RNG to monster drops. Jewelers and fusings should not be the RNG that keeps you from playing the build that you want to play. Low level crafting should occur through quest rewards.

While I believe RNG should remain a key part of crafting, I do agree that there needs to be a more predictable, progressive way of crafting, especially at early levels as you mentioned. This is why I really like your idea about quest rewards that aid early level crafting. Having the ability to "exalt" an early level item would be VERY cool considering the first time you get to actually use an Exalt Orb is level 60+...

+1 for early level crafting rewards.

Also check my signature for a couple of ideas for improved crafting. ↓↓↓↓↓

Thank you for taking time to read my post. I also believe RNG should hold a part in crafting but not so much as it does right now. I checked out your posts and they were interesting and helped inspire me to finish my thread.

I have edited my post included 2 more sections in this thread that might address some of the problems you have for crafting. Check under A new Item rarity and Changing alchemy, chaos, and regals

I really like the new additions to the thread.

Adding an item-rarity type that is in-between magic and rare is a terrific idea. The color would have to be a different shade of green however because quest items are already green. Perhaps DarkOliveGreen. I went ahead and placed dark-green as the top tier item color just because green was associated with top-tier set items in the diablo games.

In addition to your suggestion on "Changing alchemy, chaos, and regals" I suggest changing Transmutes to always adding the first affix only. Augments would add the second affix.

I also suggest replacing what you want chaos orbs to do with my "refine" orb, only by name, leaving chaos orbs to do what they do best.

The way you suggest changing currency mechanics is notably more simplified and less costly. Combining your ideas with mine, crafting "2.0" would take these 6 steps:

• 1. Transmute adds 1 affix to a white item making a 1-affix blue item
• 2. Augment adds 1 affix to a blue item making a 2-affix blue item
• 3. Alch adds 1 affix to a blue item, making a 3-affix yellow item
• 4. Refine adds 1 affix to a yellow item making a 4-affix yellow item
• 5. Regal adds 1 affix to a yellow item making a 5-affix darkgreen item
• 6. Exalt adds 1 affix to an olive-green item making a 6-affix darkgreen item

*UPDATED*
Alterations would swap out the 1-2 affixes on a blue item for 1-2 new affixes respectively. Chaos would change all 3-4 affixes on yellow items respectively, and a new orb: Entropy Orb would change all 5-6 affixes on a darkgreen item respectively.

Dark olive green would be a fine choice for color and green being the top tier of items would be fine by me as well.

I agree with you in that chaos orbs could still be beneficial if they would change any color item to the same color item, except most people would only use them on the higher tiered items. If chaos orbs had this function though it kind of defeats the purpose of having alterations except they would be a lesser chaos orb. So it seems that you would either need to keep both and add a 3rd orb for the mid tiered items or get rid of all of them.

I personally think that augments should stay in the game as is. However I would also change transmutes to just adding 1 affix to an item. That way the whole crafting sequence retains the same progressive structure. So all in all you will only be adding 1 affix at a time to your crafted items.

Sounds good. Updated previous post. If it looks good to you, would you add the important portions to your first post?

Yes, thank you. I love your chart. I will keep out the different names of new orbs and such to keep it simpler in the original post. I feel like my wall of text is throwing a lot at the people as it is for now and I would like to see what others think of this idea so far.

bump

^

I have a counter-suggestion.

Going past magic items can take you down one of two roads: rare items, or ensorcelled items. (Green is already taken by gems, people; you can't use it.) With rare items, you get up to six affixes; with ensorcelled items, you only get two affixes, but they are at double the strength you can find on magic items. Thus the choice between is whether you want three different things, or a double helping of your favorite thing. Ensorcelled items would follow the same naming conventions as magic items (e.g. Vigorous Imperial Buckler of the Rainbow), but the text would be purple to highlight the difference.

Some new currencies would be added:

• A new orb would turn a normal item into an ensorcelled item; this orb would be about as common as Orb of Alchemy.
• A new orb would turn a magic item into an ensorcelled item with the same affixes, simply doubling the values; this item would be very rare, probably about as common as an Eternal Orb.

A few currencies would gain new uses:

• Chaos Orb would reroll the affixes on both rare and ensorcelled items.
• Exalted Orb would add an affixes to either a rare item with less than 5 affixes or to an ensorcelled item with only one affix.
• Orb of Chance would gain an chance to turn a normal item into an ensorcelled item.
• Regal Orb would add two affixes to a magic items to turn it into a rare item. This is separate from this suggestion, but I feel it should be done anyway; 3-affix items shouldn't exist.

In general though, I disagree strongly with OP. The problem isn't randomness, it's a lack of choice in what can be created; randomness is actually a good thing, it keeps the game unpredictable and therefore fun. Add a lack of choice to that randomness, however, and your goals never change, and all randomness does is determine how quickly you proceed towards that fixed objective — a slow crawl some days, a quick spurt on others. OP's suggestion would be different, but equally tedious; mine would force players to make interesting choices.