Will crafting balance come in alpha 22 or is crafting dead?

[Krougal]

I still think everyone makes a bigger deal out of this than it is.

The way I see it, crafting is a guarantee. Quest rewards are a crapshoot.

Yes, I do feel like it's a kick in the ass to get the next tier or a higher QL as a reward right after I crafted one, but that's life.

 

Yes, quest rewards are generally better than what you can craft (another reason I use the QL6 crafting mod, to make crafting more competitive). If they were nerfed then we would all scream that the quests aren't worth doing because the rewards suck. It seems to be a very hard act to balance for some reason.

 

My current game for example, there are a few mods I don't have recipes for. Notable among them are banded armor and advanced muffled connectors. Two things that I want in pretty much every piece of armor so I am going to craft a lot of. Rad remove again, goes in pretty much every weapon. I am at the mercy of finding or getting them as rewards and the few I have are precious and finding them is exciting. Of course once I have the recipes I will make a handful more, or likely I will have found all I need by then it seems, but one way or another post scarcity is inevitably a thing.

 

[warmer]

2 hours ago, Krougal said:

Game was released on console, that means they have to cater to the "filthy casuals".

I own it on PC and console, what does that make me? Any blanket statements to justify your position will always have holes in it.

 

The term "filthy" to describe casual gamers is hilarious. The people I know with the worst hygiene also happen to be "hardcore gamers"  Oh the irony...

[Krougal]

9 hours ago, warmer said:

I own it on PC and console, what does that make me? Any blanket statements to justify your position will always have holes in it.

 

The term "filthy" to describe casual gamers is hilarious. The people I know with the worst hygiene also happen to be "hardcore gamers"  Oh the irony...

 

You do have a valid point, but man, you people are taking this too literally.

I didn't make up the term.

I guess being a very old ex-NYer, I am used to pretty liberal use of idioms; they aren't meant to be taken literally.

Bunch of nitpickers around here 😛

 

Oh, and to answer your question, by virtue of owning a console, you are a "filthy casual", the fact that you own a PC is superceded by the lowest common denominator, which is the console. No holes there 😛

 

I'm just jealous because it is not worth the fight to get the wife to relinquish the tv. After 20 years you learn to pick your battles.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Krougal (see edit history)

[Roland]

1 hour ago, Uncle Al said:

But if I'm now going be offered a T5 baseball bat instead, then I'm better off totally ignoring my perked weapon and using the bat, rather than the T3 stone spear I can currently craft. Now not only is my magazine hunting invalidated, my perk choices are too. That's even more horrible.

That’s crazy talk to me but I’m not obsessed with only using the most powerful weapon in my arsenal to the exclusion of anything else. 
 

To me, getting that bat would be a fun alternative that would be worth switching to since it’s high level of damage would make up for the lack of perked abilities. It definitely would not invalidate my progress in spears. 
 

Any advantage over my spear that the baseball bat might have would only be temporary as I continued to craft better spears and gained more perception and spear perk abilities by spending points. 
 

I think your characterization of it is a wild exaggeration. 

1 hour ago, Krougal said:

It seems to be a very hard act to balance for some reason.

It’s hard because it annoys/pleases people to varying degrees and there is no way to make it pleasing to everyone other than making an option for rewards:

 

1. Dukes only

2. Items below lootstage

3. Items equal to lootstage

4. Items above lootstage

 

Then people can choose the setting that best fits their own sensibility. 

[Krougal]

40 minutes ago, Roland said:

It’s hard because it annoys/pleases people to varying degrees and there is no way to make it pleasing to everyone other than making an option for rewards:

 

1. Dukes only

2. Items below lootstage

3. Items equal to lootstage

4. Items above lootstage

 

Then people can choose the setting that best fits their own sensibility. 

Well, it could be pretty easily modded I guess. Although it's probably a non-trivial amount of work since it is a lot of data entries to tweak.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Krougal (see edit history)

[hiemfire]

35 minutes ago, Roland said:

Any advantage over my spear that the baseball bat might have would only be temporary as I continued to craft better spears and gained more perception and spear perk abilities by spending points. 

"Temporary" with your suggested exclusion would be when you finally craft a quality 5 steel spear after 30+ real life hours of game play not using spears, but perking into them and some how getting better with them, and leaning on clubs or other weapons that you get of higher tier to get you through those 30+ hours because the spears you could craft won't keep up with the GS scaling.

[Roland]

9 minutes ago, hiemfire said:

"Temporary" with your suggested exclusion would be when you finally craft a quality 5 steel spear after 30+ real life hours of game play not using spears, but perking into them and some how getting better with them, and leaning on clubs or other weapons that you get of higher tier to get you through those 30+ hours because the spears you could craft won't keep up with the GS scaling.

Are you simply comparing dps stats between the two weapons and discounting the added bonuses of Perception and the Spears perk?  You won’t get any stamina reduction for the bat. It would be way more expensive to purchase the perk that increases swing speed for the bat than it would be for the one for spears.  It doesn’t seem to me you are bringing those things into the equation or that it is that you think they are negligible bonuses compared to the raw damage stat numbers. Personally, I think all the perk and attribute and support perk bonuses do matter and it isn’t going to take as long as you guys claim to equal and then exceed the worth of the bat by continuing to progress your perk path on the spear. 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Roland (see edit history)

[hiemfire]

17 minutes ago, Roland said:

Are you simply comparing dps stats between the two weapons and discounting the added bonuses of Perception and the Spears perk?  You won’t get any stamina reduction for the bat. It would be way more expensive to purchase the perk that increases swing speed for the bat than it would be for the one for spears.  It doesn’t seem to me you are bringing those things into the equation or that it is that you think they are negligible bonuses compared to the raw damage stat numbers. Personally, I think all the perk and attribute and support perk bonuses do matter and it isn’t going to take as long as you guys claim to equal and then exceed the worth of the bat by continuing to progress your perk path on the spear. 

You're stating that the perks make up for the difference in capability between a fully modded off spec weapon and an on spec weapon 2-3 quality levels lower, or more, and that excluding weapons you're specced into from quest rewards and, iirc, trader loot won't result in a long lasting capability disparity between the two. I'm saying, and I think @Uncle Al likely agrees, that I doubt you're correct.

 

Even if you are correct, what is a player going to reference to be-able to accurately tell that without having to break out a pen & paper or a calculator while flipping through multiple tabs in game while eating the time to the next Blood Moon or gamestage threshold (noticeable when the zombies get harder)?

Edited August 9, 2023 by hiemfire (see edit history)

[BFT2020]

3 hours ago, Uncle Al said:

I'm actually coming round to the idea, posted elsewhere but I forget by whom, that quest rewards should ONLY consist of dukes. That makes them inherently self balancing, as you can only buy what's available from the traders, and traderstage scales off level. Personally I think Daring Adventurer is totally out of whack, but apart from that, traderstage works pretty well.

 

You might be talking about me and my style of gameplay.  My trader mod that I actually posted in the mods section does that as one of its changes.  It removed all trader awards to only Dukes and made a small boost to Dukes earned since you don't get the items anymore.

[Riamus]

To me, if quests only rewarded you with dukes, they'd feel completely pointless.  Dukes are a minor necessity only needed for a very limited selection of items (solar and filters and a few decorative things that can't be crafted).  Unless you are actually buying things from the traders, dukes have little real value for most things.  Not only that, but people are upset that traders are such a big influence right now.  If you only give dukes for rewards, that puts even more focus on buying things.  It may take out rewards as being powerful but it just shifts that to buying from the trader.  You already get money to buy things as it is, but with such a change, your only incentive from a quest is to buy things from a trader.  It's a worse state of affairs than we have now.  Far better to adjust the rewards so they scale instead of being solely a loot table.

 

I wouldn't even bother with quests and would only scavenge if all I could get was dukes.  I rarely spend what I get as it is.  I do quests because I can get actual rewards that have value.  Dukes aren't valuable to me except when I want solar and I really don't like the current situation with solar.

[Krougal]

8 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

 

You might be talking about me and my style of gameplay.  My trader mod that I actually posted in the mods section does that as one of its changes.  It removed all trader awards to only Dukes and made a small boost to Dukes earned since you don't get the items anymore.

 

Seems to me like "kicking the can down the road" since now instead of RNJesus for quest rewards, you get cash to spend on....RNJesus trader inventory?

I don't think it would make the "trader haters" camp happy.

How is that working out in practice? I mean I guess you are happy with it since you are using it and put it out there for others to use.

 

[Roland]

1 hour ago, hiemfire said:

You're stating that the perks make up for the difference in capability between a fully modded off spec weapon and an on spec weapon 2-3 quality levels lower, or more, and that excluding weapons you're specced into from quest rewards and, iirc, trader loot won't result in a long lasting capability disparity between the two.

 

No I'm not because I'm not assuming the player will keep that on spec weapon that is 2-3 quality levels lower or more and play the rest of the game with that weapon while waiting to be able to craft the best version of that weapon. I'm assuming that as they find magazines and are able to craft better and better versions they will do so and the disparity between the bat and the spear will disappear much faster than you and Uncle are representing things. 

 

I would agree with both of you if we were locked into using that quality 3 stone spear for the rest of the game until we could suddenly craft a tier 5 iron spear but that is certainly not the case.

 

1 hour ago, hiemfire said:

Even if you are correct, what is a player going to reference to be-able to accurately tell that without having to break out a pen & paper or a calculator while flipping through multiple tabs in game while eating the time to the next Blood Moon or gamestage threshold (noticeable when the zombies get harder)?

 

Who does that? Who feels the need? I suppose the player would just use both weapons and when they noticed that they could kill an enemy with one or two less hits but that they were running out of stamina more often and not getting very many dismemberments or one shot decapitations from their non-perked bat but then with their raw stat weaker spear they were never running out of stamina, able to do more power attacks and get lots of one-shot kills by smashing off heads due to the perks granted by perception and Spear Master-- I dunno-- they might mostly use the "weaker" spear since it was more fun but keep the bat for variety since it is also powerful and sometimes you just feel like swinging instead of poking.

55 minutes ago, Krougal said:

 

Seems to me like "kicking the can down the road" since now instead of RNJesus for quest rewards, you get cash to spend on....RNJesus trader inventory?

I don't think it would make the "trader haters" camp happy.

How is that working out in practice? I mean I guess you are happy with it since you are using it and put it out there for others to use.

 

 

I've tried it and it is definitely much slower since what the trader offers for sale is significantly less quality than what he offers for rewards. While I acknowledge that there definitely is a "trader hater" camp, those particular gamers won't be made happy until the trader is removed from the game. Most people here are not trader haters. We like the trader and want to see a better balance between quest rewards and crafting progression. BFT's mod definitely fixes the problem but if you really like choosing an item as your reward it can result in an anticlimactic end to your quest and often the trader doesn't have anything exciting to spend your dukes on.

 

I got a tier 5 auger for my last quest reward and it was a lot more exciting of a reward than simply dukes would have been-- especially since I have 40k dukes now with nothing I really want to spend it on available.

 

I do want to try out his mod again but it isn't an easy change to make. Its definitely a nerf.

[Krougal]

16 minutes ago, Roland said:

I've tried it and it is definitely much slower since what the trader offers for sale is significantly less quality than what he offers for rewards. While I acknowledge that there definitely is a "trader hater" camp, those particular gamers won't be made happy until the trader is removed from the game. Most people here are not trader haters. We like the trader and want to see a better balance between quest rewards and crafting progression. BFT's mod definitely fixes the problem but if you really like choosing an item as your reward it can result in an anticlimactic end to your quest and often the trader doesn't have anything exciting to spend your dukes on.

 

I got a tier 5 auger for my last quest reward and it was a lot more exciting of a reward than simply dukes would have been-- especially since I have 40k dukes now with nothing I really want to spend it on available.

 

I do want to try out his mod again but it isn't an easy change to make. Its definitely a nerf.

Doesn't it limit you more or less to the weapon(s) you perk into? Granted this playthrough I haven't gotten away from Joel much, I don't even know what his specialty is but his weapon and armor QL have been @%$#. Quest rewards have been good.

 

I still prefer to use weapons situationally. While I forced myself to primarily use the baton and turret my current playthrough I still carry and use pistol, AR, sniper. Admittedly the sniper gets so little use I could save the slot. Even with no or low perks in them, they were still useful enough to me (granted I have a headshot mod). Honestly the baton is a lot better than it used to be, and lately I have become pretty lazy and just plop down a turret and get to looting while the turret "takes care of my light work". Int- Work smarter, not harder!

 

And then there is armor. I was pretty reliant on quest rewards to get decent armor early-mid game.

 

I mean I know the magazine thing is the first pass at it and if they don't drop it for something completely different in A22, I'm sure it will get some tuning. I've got mixed feelings about it. I don't absolutely hate it, like I thought I would, but I don't love it either. I like the way you can tune it by your perks, but I feel a little limited by it too. I was also very lost early game until I figured the new system out, so I was picking up perks and magazines and then wondering why I still couldn't craft anything, not knowing I didn't have enough magazines.

 

Maybe for my 2nd A21 playthrough I will mod the trader to pay you in duct tape!

[Uncle Al]

Whether you use an unperked weapon for a short or long while wasn't really relevant to my point. My core observation was that the suggested system of 'keep giving overpowered rewards but only if you can't use them' was still horrible. It also breaks in multiplayer, as you just swap stuff between you. So long as trader rewards are an entire tier higher than what you can craft or loot, they're unbalanced.

 

In answer to a few observations above, along the lines of 'unless the rewards are great, nobody will do quests', that would be true if there was a real opportunity cost for doing quests. There isn't. You give up a bit of travel time and a more limited selection of target POIs for a potential reward streets ahead of what you can find, craft or buy. Target POI type doesn't currently matter that much, frankly. There's a bit of variation in the sealed crates, but the end loot is the same for everything of the same tier. Maybe if end chests used different loot tables depending on POI type it would be more impactful, but currently I will always clear a house 500 meters away rather than a garage next door, when the house comes with a cash reward and a very good chance of a top quality iron weapon or tool, and I'm grubbing around with mid quality stone.

 

Quests get you a cash reward, progression towards the VERY impactful end of tier rewards (which are a bit better balanced as they're once per trader and actually take some effort to achieve), and gives you progression towards improving trader stock. They don't need a huge item incentive as well.

 

The willingness to do scut work for the trader to get in his good books so you can buy useful stuff from them would be even more of an incentive if Daring Adventurer didn't so massively outshine the quest progression bonus to traderstage. When quest progression is giving 5% of your level per tier, and each level of DA is giving a flat +10, it's not hard to see why traders don't stock much useful stuff if you don't perk DA.

 

I'm really surprised that whoever designed the systems had the sense not to make lucky looter a flat bonus, yet didn't follow that model for Daring Adventurer. Currently, one rank in DA is the equivalent of having completed ALL SIX quest tiers for a trader, when you're level 33. Below level 33, it's better than ANY bonus to traderstage you can get by questing.

 

I feel quest tier should be way more impactful, more like 15% per tier, and adjust the base 100% of level to 80% or so. New traders would be a little bit worse than currently, the ones you've put serious work into would be quite a bit better. DA should give something like a free bonus tier (+15% per level) per point. Still very useful, but not insane at low levels as it is now.

 

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Uncle Al (see edit history)

[Krougal]

2 hours ago, Uncle Al said:

lot of good stuff

You make a lot of valid points. I'm not gonna rehash them all.

Much as I hate to admit it, DA is OP AF. I maxed it ASAP, it really is that good.

[Riamus]

Really, the only thing I like from DA is being able to take 2 rewards.  I don't care at all about the increased dukes.

[Krougal]

20 minutes ago, Riamus said:

Really, the only thing I like from DA is being able to take 2 rewards.  I don't care at all about the increased dukes.

It's not the dukes either. It is what it does to the loot stage of the trader.

 

 

[LipaCat]

19 hours ago, Maharin said:

 

我認為你對“內容”的定義非常狹窄。數百個 POI、數千種物品和裝飾品以及無限的隨機生成的地圖都不算數？像 Navezgane 這樣的內置雕刻地圖不算數嗎？輕鬆修改內容，已經構建了許多模組，可以讓遊戲隨心所欲地變得不同？這些都不算內容嗎？

 

那麼對你來說“內容”是什麼？這個遊戲中的獨特物品到底是什麼？請解釋。

 

Yes, it's undeniable that the development team has provided a wealth of Points of Interest (POI) and a vast array of building blocks, making 7 Days to Die exceptionally rich in its construction aspect. However, the game is not limited to being solely a building game; it also encompasses RPG and survival crafting elements. Unfortunately, these two aspects are currently lacking considerably in content. While mods can certainly contribute to filling this gap to some extent, relying on mods alone isn't a sustainable approach. These elements should constitute the core content of the game and shouldn't be delegated to third-party developers. This is 7 Days to Die, not 7 Days to Die: Darkness Falls, Sorcery, Rebirth, or similar mods. Moreover, enhancing the richness of the game's core can also facilitate greater potential for mods to flourish.

 

By "unique items," I refer to specific items that can only be obtained through interactions with Traders or by exploring designated areas. These items should assist players in progressing to the next stage of the game, such as certain workstation tools or components of weapons.

 

Currently, the game is structured with only four stages: Stone, Scrap, Iron, and Steel. Players can rapidly acquire a wide range of endgame equipment through Traders. In Alpha 21, you might find that despite your crafting skills allowing you to create basic handguns, you've already obtained an SMG through quest rewards. The issue at hand is the scarcity of game stages and the exceptional quality of Traders' rewards, isn't it?

[meganoth]

4 hours ago, LipaCat said:

 

Yes, it's undeniable that the development team has provided a wealth of Points of Interest (POI) and a vast array of building blocks, making 7 Days to Die exceptionally rich in its construction aspect. However, the game is not limited to being solely a building game; it also encompasses RPG and survival crafting elements. Unfortunately, these two aspects are currently lacking considerably in content. While mods can certainly contribute to filling this gap to some extent, relying on mods alone isn't a sustainable approach. These elements should constitute the core content of the game and shouldn't be delegated to third-party developers. This is 7 Days to Die, not 7 Days to Die: Darkness Falls, Sorcery, Rebirth, or similar mods. Moreover, enhancing the richness of the game's core can also facilitate greater potential for mods to flourish.

 

By "unique items," I refer to specific items that can only be obtained through interactions with Traders or by exploring designated areas. These items should assist players in progressing to the next stage of the game, such as certain workstation tools or components of weapons.

 

Currently, the game is structured with only four stages: Stone, Scrap, Iron, and Steel. Players can rapidly acquire a wide range of endgame equipment through Traders. In Alpha 21, you might find that despite your crafting skills allowing you to create basic handguns, you've already obtained an SMG through quest rewards. The issue at hand is the scarcity of game stages and the exceptional quality of Traders' rewards, isn't it?

 

Yes, but even if ou are right it could be fixed either through providing more stages OR fixing trader rewards. Now I know that TFP intends to publish this game with exactly this scarcity of game stages, maybe because they want to have room for 7D2D 2 on top or because they don't mind that modders fill the gap for veteran players. Likely both of this is the case.

 

So this leaves trader fixing as the only solution we have a chance to see in the forseeable future.

 

By the way, I don't see how more game stages help if you always get much better stuff at the trader than through loot or crafting. Sure, the trader will not give out end-game stuff in the first week, but it would still be OP. And eventually he would give out end-game stuff while crafting and looting would still give stuff that you got a long time ago from the trader.

 

In other words, in a race between rabbit and turtle it doesn't help the turtle to increase the race track length. 😉

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Krougal]

Yeah, more game stages doesn't address any of the problems in this discussion.

Honestly, I don't think it addresses any problems. It would just make new problems.

[Reth]

I'm a buider/crafter/quester. I play SP with *mostly* vanilla settings. I use some QoL mods to help with building. 

 

I enjoy A21. It finally solved some issues I had with 7D2D for a long time. 

 

Having said that, I have to agree with the OP. I have crates upon crates of various components that I would love to use to make something, but I have no real reason to craft. T6 infestation PoIs have better loot than I can make and a lot of it. A single run can yield a dozen or more purple quality objects of various types, something I cannot make at all. And that doesn't include quest rewards. Of all the parts I looted, I only used steel tool parts early in the game, as everything else was either looted or given as a quest reward.

 

I would love to see crafting expanded. I will, of course, add some recipes myself through modding, but I strongly believe that the base game should have better recipes as well, especially mid to end game stuff.

[BFT2020]

19 hours ago, Krougal said:

 

Seems to me like "kicking the can down the road" since now instead of RNJesus for quest rewards, you get cash to spend on....RNJesus trader inventory?

I don't think it would make the "trader haters" camp happy.

How is that working out in practice? I mean I guess you are happy with it since you are using it and put it out there for others to use.

 

 

My mods are more designed to work together, so just using the trader aspect of it is not the same experience I have when I play the game.

 

Note, everything I state about how the game plays from this point on is based on A20 gameplay as I am still translating my mods over to A21 and been a bit slow about it (working on the crafting one right now which is probably the most time consuming of all the updates - not sure why I chose that one to do next).

 

Since I removed the ability to repair gear, crafting and buying items from the trader becomes more important.  Even with the mod that I added that reduces degradation with firearms use, a gun will break before you finish a bloodmoon horde if used extensively during the BM horde (specifically at later stage BM horde nights).  So if a trader has a nice pump shotgun for sale, I will purchase it if I got enough Dukes on hand so I don't have to craft another one right away.  Or I spend Dukes on crafting materials so that I can craft that piece of gear I want if I am short on them.

 

My mod was never intended for the trader haters camp; but for those seeking to still keep traders relevant to the game, but not as OP as they can be in vanilla

 

18 hours ago, Roland said:

I've tried it and it is definitely much slower since what the trader offers for sale is significantly less quality than what he offers for rewards. While I acknowledge that there definitely is a "trader hater" camp, those particular gamers won't be made happy until the trader is removed from the game. Most people here are not trader haters. We like the trader and want to see a better balance between quest rewards and crafting progression. BFT's mod definitely fixes the problem but if you really like choosing an item as your reward it can result in an anticlimactic end to your quest and often the trader doesn't have anything exciting to spend your dukes on.

 

I got a tier 5 auger for my last quest reward and it was a lot more exciting of a reward than simply dukes would have been-- especially since I have 40k dukes now with nothing I really want to spend it on available.

 

I do want to try out his mod again but it isn't an easy change to make. Its definitely a nerf.

 

This is exactly my intent with my mod and appreciate the feedback on it.

 

It also requires a mindset change, or accepting that the traders are not as powerful as they are in vanilla.  There is probably going to be tweaks needed down the road, especially once I start playing A21 more with all my mods  installed.

 

I am also looking into changing the rewards offered.  Some thoughts I have is seeing if I can tie them to loot stage instead of a guaranteed level that they are right now.  And then balance out the T1 quests so higher level players can not just spam those out to get high tier gear if they are higher level.  Try to make the higher loot gear tied to the higher risk POI quests.  This would be a separate trader mod than the one I got right now.  Again though, the intent of this mod would be to slow down progression through trader rewards.

[Kalen]

Crafting tools and weapons mostly became obsolete when item degradation was removed, IMO.

[binf_shinana]

私は、「特定の装備を手に入れる」「特定の敵を倒す」など、目的を同じくする複数の要素間で完璧にバランスを取るのは不可能だと考えています。
必ず状況ごとにどれか一つが最も優秀な解決策になります。
クラフト、購入、クエスト、拾得の間について、自分はこれはできない、著しく苦手である、と明確に言えるでしょうか。
戦闘が苦手であれば購入に頼る可能性はありますが、得意であればすべての選択肢を同時に併用できます。

 

プレイヤーごとの「好み」によって判断することを勧めれば、問題を解決したように見せかけることはできますが、
依然として優秀な解決策はそこにあります。

 

有効なのは、「状況」が多岐に渡るようにすることです。
a21において、序盤は特定の雑誌に特化することで他の要素を優越しますが、その「状況」から変動はありません。
（雑誌は出現率を操作できるため、RNGに依存していない）
a20以前の設計図システムはRNGによって大きな「状況」の変化をもたらしますが、
強すぎる装備品を入手することで、後の状況変化を潰したり、
クラフトに必要な素材を集めているうちに、そのクラフト対象を手に入れてしまう問題がありました。

 

具体的な対抗策は、すべての要素を包括的にとらえ、すべてを調整することで
状況の変動を生み出すことです。

 

もっとも、この対抗策は「ゲームに遊ばれている」「状況判断が難しい」と考えるプレイヤーが発生します。
難しい。

 

(Google Translation)

 

I don't think it's possible to strike a perfect balance between multiple elements with the same goal, such as getting a specific piece of equipment or killing a specific enemy.
One of them will always be the best solution for each situation.
Between crafting, buying, questing, and picking up, can I clearly say that I can't do this, or that I'm particularly bad at it?
If you are not good at fighting, you may rely on purchasing, but if you are good at it, you can use all options at the same time.

 

You can make it look like you've solved the problem by encouraging players to make decisions based on their "preferences", but
There are still excellent solutions out there.

 

What works is to have a wide variety of "situations".
In a21, the early game dominates the rest by specializing in certain magazines, but that "situation" doesn't change.
(Magazines are not dependent on RNG as they can manipulate appearance rates)
The blueprint system before a20 brings about a big "situation" change by RNG,
By obtaining equipment that is too strong, you can crush the situation change later,
There was a problem that while collecting the materials necessary for crafting, the crafting target was obtained.

 

A concrete countermeasure is to consider all factors comprehensively and coordinate them all.
It is to create a change of circumstances.

 

However, there are players who think that this countermeasure is "played by the game" and "difficult to judge the situation".
difficult.

Edited August 11, 2023 by binf_shinana (see edit history)

[Scrubo]

From my experience i tend to agree with the crafting is broke pov, Tier 3 items are rarely crafted beyond a level 1 if you ahve not been lucky enough to loot one by then. but mostly quest rewards and looting are the only way to get gear at the corerct level, even speccing skills to maximize the book drops for certain drops does not beat jsut questing to get the items. only exception I have noteced is if you dont get an armor bonus bundle, or any luck with the pieces from them, you might need to craft a piece or two, (and the mighty Stealth boots)