as experienced players know, crafting is a huge part of progression in LE. currently, crafting is shown to new players in 2 very subtle ways: a tooltip popup alerting you that you can open the forge and craft items at any time, when you’re on your way out of the council chambers in act 2, and a quest that requires you to open the forge in the outcast camp to complete it. i think my idea will give newer players a better idea of how vital crafting is, and will also make auto-loot of crafting mats a feasible idea.
i think we should meet an NPC when we get to the council chambers for the first time, who appraises our gear and tells us we need to head to the forge to prepare ourselves for what’s to come. this NPC could even drop some random shards, or if the devs are feeling very generous, some shards that are relevant to leveling characters, like resistances and basic damage shards. this NPC could then also provide us with some kind of doodad that enables the auto-pickup that is so frequently requested.
prior to this meeting, crafting materials would drop as they currently do and would require interaction by the player to pick up. this would help avoid the concern the devs have expressed about auto-loot causing new players to not recognize that they have even obtained an important item. after meeting the NPC who tells us that these shards are vital for our success, we automatically vacuum shards into the inventory, where they can be sent to the forge with a click. i think this is really the best of both worlds, because it clearly communicates to the player that this is an important part of the game while simultaneously removing the tedious chore that picking up shards can feel like after hundreds or thousands of hours of playtime.
i’ve been tossing this idea around in my head for a few days, but i’m sure it could use some adjustment. i’d love to hear any other players’ ideas to make this idea stronger, so let me know what you think.
If it’s the council chamber stage, a void or elemental/fire res shard for the bosses would be nice. Also think it might help if you deliberately had to pick from multiple bases to reinforce that aspect of crafting.
That said, I also want it to be skippable/optional. Nothing annoys me more than forced tutorials for crap I already know.
I’d love to have auto-loot, but I don’t think this idea is enough.
I don’t think players who want auto-loot are unaware of the importance of shards/crafting. I think players just find it tedious. When I’m trying to get through an echo as quickly as possible, I’m not looking at what shards I get anyway. I just grab it because it’s on the ground and worry about it once I get back to town.
Heck, most of the time I’m too damn lazy to even look. I just auto-store them because it’s tedious inventory management as far as I’m concerned. The only time I check is when I’m bothering to craft in bulk.
Edit: As for the importance of shards, I think most of the time they don’t feel important because they’re not. Unless it’s a mod that you need or think you’ll need, it really is just junk that sits in your inventory (and thankfully takes up no space!).
Edit 2: Also think they’re too common to be cared about and really give you that buzz that you’d get from that perfect item.
my idea would literally just be a dialogue screen, maybe with just enough emphasis that new players can’t close it without looking at it. i’m not talking about a quest that holds your hand through the crafting process or makes you craft an item to complete it. i would also hate if there was a forced tutorial section for every character.
it’s not experienced players that we’re concerned with here, but making sure new players are properly introduced to a central and vital mechanic. i’ve talked to several people who are already in monoliths and didn’t even know crafting was a thing. i think a better introduction would help prevent that, and enabling autoloot would just be a nice bonus since virtually everyone wants that after playing long enough.
I really like the idea of some “pre-boss fight quest”, where a npc tell you you need to “prepare for the boss fight” and gives you some crafting shards for a resistance that is very important on that fight.
For example the Pannion Students (A boss fight where there is an ability of each elemental type) . You get either like 2-3 elemental resistance shards or maybe 1 or 2 shards of each individual resistance.
Combine that with some good dialogue/explanation and they player could choose to “prepare their gear”, befor facing the boss.
This could be done multiple times throughout the sories for all the different bosses/chapters
Maybe another one of those short “prepare quests”, before you enter the divine era the first time (chapter 7). There you get a harndfull fo fire resistance shards.
This would be nice rewards for solo characters whiel also serving as a “tutorial”
that’s true, but there’s no known solution for PEBKAC errors.
there’s also the fact that my idea is basically already what the game does (you get the quest in outcast camp that points you to the forge and the npc comments that your gear needs some work), i’m just proposing a slightly more in-your-face version that happens earlier and justifies some kind of auto-loot feature for shards.
