Itemization - A Dive into dopamine hits without the downs - 3 Part Discussion.

In this topic I want to discuss a reasonably close concept to how good itemization can work. This includes drops, crafting currency, crafting bench and alternate advancement.

Much inspiration from this comes from Diablo 1 which if you don't know how that works I made a post about it: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3713317 This method will then expand on end-game to something more modern and tactile. First I'll start this by talking about drops.

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ARPGs are about killing monsters but they're also exploring and being immersed in the map. Even tactically. Opening Chests, secret rooms, everything should feel like it's worth doing.

We do this my smoothing out the differences between, white mobs, rares, objects and bosses. Then we start to eliminate lower rolls as level increases but still allow the pool to grow overall.


Example: Monster level = ilvl, Objects = -1-3 ilvl, Rares = +3 ilvl, bosses = +5 ilvl.

What is required after this baseline is that the ratios don't change as level increases. Assume this is monster level 20. This would mean white mobs are obvious ilvl 20, Objects are ilvl 17-19 (5-15% decrease) Rares are ilvl 23 (+15% increase) and bosses ilvl 25 (+25% increase).

If you were to do the same at level 60 the %Increase and Decrease would not change.
Example: Monster level 60 = ilvl 60, Objects = -3-9 ilvl, Rares = +9 ilvl, bosses = +15 ilvl.

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Obviously these numbers can be adjusted but the point should be clear. No matter your level, everything maintains value for your time. The number of rolls just killing white mobs, the free rolls from interacting with objects, secrets and the bonuses from killing harder enemies.

The second part of this is removing Affixes as level increases. The overall pool is not going to stay the same as I mentioned. You need to work more for higher gear but very low tier rolls would not occur. This Affix concept carries into crafting currency as well.

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Most Importantly. Give the players reason to explore and second glace the scenery.

Use the dynamics inherent to an ARPG to enhance the experience and prolong any given adventure. If the player wants to. As example maps have a random chance to create sub-areas via secret or random, the player explores through this fighting enemies based on this new area, perhaps a boss then it leads back out. League can then overlap this creating even more dynamic adventure.


This is the end of my summary on base itemization.

Part 2)
This part involves the Crafting Bench.

It will not add Affixes but instead allow you to mutate items similar to Harvest. Swap Lightning Resistance to equal Tier Fire Resistance. Swap +Fire Damage for a different damage type. Swap ES or Life, Swap Atk Speed for Cast Speed. Perhaps Swap a Life Suffix with a Life Prefix.

It is intended to help the player invest resources and time to prevent from bricking an item after the first part of this topic. Of course there will always be a point when it might be better to just get another similar item with better crafting currency rolls.

Your 2 roll off item becomes 1 roll off or 1 roll off becomes ideal rolls. It works similar to the original but instead of adding a less than high tier roll and being blocked by Prefix + Affix numbers it can instead change a roll of equivalent tiers. Much like the original. Only one thing can be changed.

This does slightly overlap with the purpose of Chaos Orbs in PoE2 but it can also be used as a more expensive but deterministic method giving higher value to this currency.

I will include more on this depending on player interest.

Part 3)

This is where the most investment on your items occur.

It will account for roughly 30% of an items power potential by using an alternate advancement method similar to Crucible though global in nature. It will take player time and investment outside anything you can simply buy but again there will be some brick prevention concepts in mind. Potentially a good use for Annul Orbs which will remove a node but reset your total progress.

The player is in search of 3-4 ideal passive effects for their weapon but must progress that weapon by playing instead of sitting and crafting. If you work your way to and reveal say node #2 and do not like it you can remove the node for another random one. You must then progress though your set node #1 to see the new node #2. Passives are not going to be strictly stat based and will have tiers.

Changing the tier of nodes could be an alternate use of Divine Orbs.
I see no reason Uniques can't partake in this last portion of itemization.

I will include more on this depending on player interest.