I don't think these people even play the game hahaha go to search on youtube it tells you all the good set you can get.
I don't actually think the random loot is the biggest problem. Rather, it is the aggressive Borderlands style scaling of stats based on item levels, which will make a level 30 white item much stronger than a level 20 legendary. This is somewhat immersion-breaking and encourages a very detached approach to your gear.
And I think that a better approach in a "cyberpunk" game would have been the opposite. Make your gear special. This legendary jacket may have started out as a low level item, but it has been with you for a long time. You have cared for it, modified, tweaked it inside and out. It is now special in ways that random junk couldn't hope to be.
I actually think the TES games got items right in a number of ways. A lot of random loot pools, based on leveled lists, but also a lot of handplaced stuff, and items were defined by their general quality rather than by "item levels". This created an incentive to check out drops but it also allowed players to keep using a cool item they found 14 levels ago.
I would take that over the absolute weirdness of CP item mechanics where an epic or legendary item from a while back is somehow complete rubbish compared with random vendor-junk.
Just throwing it in there, but in Baldur's Gate 2 you can pick up a very cool sword, Daystar, about 15 minutes after leaving the intro dungeon. I typically do that and the sword stays with me for the rest of the game, because it is that useful. But it is not a general purpose weapon, so the overall game balance is not broken and looking for cool stuff doesn't end just because I find that item.
The same would not work in CP77, for obvious reasons. In part because of the item levels, and in part because items themselves just don't matter much. Their stats do, their mod slots do, and their visuals might have subjective relevance, but what the item actually is plays no role. A straw hat or a combat helmet, it is all the same. A bikini top or a bulletproof vest, it makes no difference. Heels or heavy combat boots, who could tell them apart?
As a consequence, the gear choice essentially becomes a matter of hunting for the highest item levels that you can tolerate the visuals of, until that point in the game where you can afford to hunt for mod slots instead.
And I think that a better approach in a "cyberpunk" game would have been the opposite. Make your gear special. This legendary jacket may have started out as a low level item, but it has been with you for a long time. You have cared for it, modified, tweaked it inside and out. It is now special in ways that random junk couldn't hope to be.
I actually think the TES games got items right in a number of ways. A lot of random loot pools, based on leveled lists, but also a lot of handplaced stuff, and items were defined by their general quality rather than by "item levels". This created an incentive to check out drops but it also allowed players to keep using a cool item they found 14 levels ago.
I would take that over the absolute weirdness of CP item mechanics where an epic or legendary item from a while back is somehow complete rubbish compared with random vendor-junk.
Just throwing it in there, but in Baldur's Gate 2 you can pick up a very cool sword, Daystar, about 15 minutes after leaving the intro dungeon. I typically do that and the sword stays with me for the rest of the game, because it is that useful. But it is not a general purpose weapon, so the overall game balance is not broken and looking for cool stuff doesn't end just because I find that item.
The same would not work in CP77, for obvious reasons. In part because of the item levels, and in part because items themselves just don't matter much. Their stats do, their mod slots do, and their visuals might have subjective relevance, but what the item actually is plays no role. A straw hat or a combat helmet, it is all the same. A bikini top or a bulletproof vest, it makes no difference. Heels or heavy combat boots, who could tell them apart?
As a consequence, the gear choice essentially becomes a matter of hunting for the highest item levels that you can tolerate the visuals of, until that point in the game where you can afford to hunt for mod slots instead.
Yeah, I hate looter scooters. I do not play that kind of game and Witcher 3 was way too close to that style for me, did not realize this was going to be worse.
Totally agree. I despise RNG anymore and having to constantly grind and farm just isn't fun anymore. Borderlands 3 really put that final nail in the coffin for me.
I like how Resident Evil 4/5 handled weapons. Find a gun you like, just keep upgrading it to unlock the exclusive upgrades and go to town.
I like how Resident Evil 4/5 handled weapons. Find a gun you like, just keep upgrading it to unlock the exclusive upgrades and go to town.
I like loot in the game and I like having different stats for items, BUT (...):
I belive one should be able to change clothes colors at the very least.
Also players should be able to craft many different cloth styles with different fabrics and materials (say, plating, kevlar, aramyd, etc.). The stats should be based on the fabric and materials used and player would be able to choose the clothing style they like the best.
And for those whom don't want to have the crafting skill, there should be crafting NPCs of different levels on different areas, they would charge to craft and players would have to bring all materials to them.
I also hate that the loot scales with the player level, each area of the game should have set enemy levels and the itens droped should scale with the enemy level.
But the very best gear should only be craftable and sold by very specific merchants, makes more sense.
All in all I wish drops and items were more like classic RPGs, say Neverwinter Nights 1, etc., without the dumb level scaling.
Again, I believe that in the world of CP2077 it would make more sense the very best gear could only be purchased via very specialized sellers or crafted, and not droped.
Lastly, I believe iconics and legendaries should be MUCH stronger, like a lvl 20 iconic shod be stronger than a lvl35 rare item of the same category.
I belive one should be able to change clothes colors at the very least.
Also players should be able to craft many different cloth styles with different fabrics and materials (say, plating, kevlar, aramyd, etc.). The stats should be based on the fabric and materials used and player would be able to choose the clothing style they like the best.
And for those whom don't want to have the crafting skill, there should be crafting NPCs of different levels on different areas, they would charge to craft and players would have to bring all materials to them.
I also hate that the loot scales with the player level, each area of the game should have set enemy levels and the itens droped should scale with the enemy level.
But the very best gear should only be craftable and sold by very specific merchants, makes more sense.
All in all I wish drops and items were more like classic RPGs, say Neverwinter Nights 1, etc., without the dumb level scaling.
Again, I believe that in the world of CP2077 it would make more sense the very best gear could only be purchased via very specialized sellers or crafted, and not droped.
Lastly, I believe iconics and legendaries should be MUCH stronger, like a lvl 20 iconic shod be stronger than a lvl35 rare item of the same category.
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Actually the game is missing sexy outfits by a long shot for a cyberpunk universe. Many already complained about it. Anyways, players should have a variety of different options to chose from so if one wants to cover up more or less it would not be a problem. The Cyberpunk Pen and Paper RPG rulebook actually had lots of sexy outfits by the way.
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Having the loot scale by player level doesn't do this game any favors, that's for sure. Especially if you're not a crafter it feels like you're getting punished for picking up cool things too early.
There is way too much emphasis placed on the crafting skill. Like not being able to remove mods without it is awful, since it means any character that isn't a crafter is wasting the few good mods they find if they put them in a piece of gear that isn't max level.
There is way too much emphasis placed on the crafting skill. Like not being able to remove mods without it is awful, since it means any character that isn't a crafter is wasting the few good mods they find if they put them in a piece of gear that isn't max level.
There should be crafting NPCs for those whom don't have the crafting skill. The NPCs would charge to craft items and the player would have to bring them the materials.
They could fix this if they scaled weapons dynamically to user level instead of locking them to the level they are found by the player. Crafting would need a bit of a rework in order to remain relevant, but that wouldn't be a big deal given it desperately needs a rework to begin with.
The New Vegas model is my personal favorite that I've encountered. Simple weapon damage scaling with skill, crafting/repair is relevant but not intrusive or grindy. Making special ammo cartridges the focus of crafting is great because it provides a meaningful advantage and a fun mechanic, but isn't must-have.
The gearing system in this game is poorly designed and implemented. Crafting breaks any concept of balance. The damage scaling is ludicrous and the armor stacking is out of hand. Randomized loot and crafting results isn't fun. The upgrade system is terribly executed with exponential material component costs. Iconic weapons require a heavy investment in technical skill to fully upgrade unless you wait until high level to loot them (not an option in many cases since they can be missed)
It all seems like they didn't bother to game test any of this
It all seems like they didn't bother to game test any of this
Yes, scaling weapons to user level (or skip scaling entirely and let additional damage come from skills, perks, and attributes) would also fix the item level problem.
There would then of course be a lot of completely identical drops but the solution to that is to clean up the drop lists and maybe have more than 2-3 types of power pistols, 2 types of power SMGs, et cetera.
No it wasn't a mistake. It was just poorly made or maybe misunderstood. Probably just missing features due to deadlines.
Looter shooter philosophy revolves around the urge to upgrade and get stronger. In order for that to make sense, there must be challenges, outlets for the constantly evolving power. In CP, there are not. At a very early point in the game, you one-shoot everything on very hard. There are no "Badass" and "Super Badass" and "Super Mega Badass" enemies like in Borderlands. Real bosses are scarce (I only had a slight problem with Odo, there should have been at least a dozen enemies like him). At a relatively early point in the game, you just upgrade for the fuck of it, you know you don't need it. You crit for 10x enemy health with a one-shot.
Second, the upgrade, modding, crafting system is not cool. The gear lost its cool due to cuts. This seems unimportant but it's very important. Where are the cool weapon modding screens from the reveals? Where are the different animations for different damage types? DoTs (burn, poison, etc.) don't matter because you one-shoot everythin.
Third, I can attest for it, some stats are bogus. They don't do what they say. In my personal opinion, this is the biggest crime against the word "RPG" a developer can ever commit. Once the player realizes that his precious "+10% to crit chance" might just as well do fuck all - the thing loses its magic forever.
Looter shooter philosophy revolves around the urge to upgrade and get stronger. In order for that to make sense, there must be challenges, outlets for the constantly evolving power. In CP, there are not. At a very early point in the game, you one-shoot everything on very hard. There are no "Badass" and "Super Badass" and "Super Mega Badass" enemies like in Borderlands. Real bosses are scarce (I only had a slight problem with Odo, there should have been at least a dozen enemies like him). At a relatively early point in the game, you just upgrade for the fuck of it, you know you don't need it. You crit for 10x enemy health with a one-shot.
Second, the upgrade, modding, crafting system is not cool. The gear lost its cool due to cuts. This seems unimportant but it's very important. Where are the cool weapon modding screens from the reveals? Where are the different animations for different damage types? DoTs (burn, poison, etc.) don't matter because you one-shoot everythin.
Third, I can attest for it, some stats are bogus. They don't do what they say. In my personal opinion, this is the biggest crime against the word "RPG" a developer can ever commit. Once the player realizes that his precious "+10% to crit chance" might just as well do fuck all - the thing loses its magic forever.
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The drops wouldn't be identical since the randomized weapon attributes would still be a thing. There's actually a pretty big delta in quality just from those, e.g. you can roll a gun with 2.7x headshot, +Crit, +Crit Chance all together. Then there are the "super rare" or iconic attributes that varey occasionally pop up on regular weapons, like reduced spread or whatever.
So there'd still be an element of RNG and a reason to explore and loot. But MUCH less gear churning overall.
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Witcher 3 had the same issue, you find an amazing named sword only to replace it with some white generic after few levels.
Aerondight was a great solution to the scaling problem of a legendary. But ultimately, I just installed a mod that de-leveled all items and removed HP progression from NPC and PC.
In general, I do not like vertical progression for both damage and health/armor. It should be horizontal, leveling should open up different game mechanics and options (skills/perks) not plain boost to damage output.
It also breaks immersion that some street hobo has more hp and does much more damage than some elite soldier several levels below.
Aerondight was a great solution to the scaling problem of a legendary. But ultimately, I just installed a mod that de-leveled all items and removed HP progression from NPC and PC.
In general, I do not like vertical progression for both damage and health/armor. It should be horizontal, leveling should open up different game mechanics and options (skills/perks) not plain boost to damage output.
It also breaks immersion that some street hobo has more hp and does much more damage than some elite soldier several levels below.
I disagree, it is a first person action role playing game, it's kind of hard to not have looter and shooter, when you have two things; Shooting your enemies with guns, and then looting their bodies.... I mean we're just putting the looter and shooter label on it now but its very different to borderlands 3 lets face it.
Looter-shooter is a term for shooters where enemies drop a ton of loot and where you constantly have to look for new gear to replace your old gear. But a shooter does not have to be like that, nor does an RPG. Frankly, I don't think constantly checking whether new stuff is better than your old stuff is really adding anything of significance to the core gameplay loop. It just feels like busywork to me.
It is certainly not necessary for all enemies to have both junk drops and a weapon drop. It is very conceivable that a lot of items will be discarded by V as not worth taking a second look at. And the item level scaling in this game is unpleasantly similar to that in Borderlands 2. I don't know about BL3, as I have not played it.
I wasn't expecting ARPG loot like Grim Dawn, but apart from the fashion look, clothes differ from one another by only mods slot and base armor, that's it.
The entire game (as it is now) was a mistake! Almost every aspect of this game ist a bad joke and wouldn't have gotten a pass in any AAA game ten years ago... let alone in a current "next-gen" title!
By giving too much freedom to everything, it ultimately means that none of your gaming preferences matters ; a good RPG in my opinion should distinguish one gaming choice from another, get specialize in one thing (ex: being heavy armor), in exchange with less agility, and vice-versa you could wear nothing and jump higher, move faster.
Then, and since it's a cyberpunk game, there should be augmentations for compensate for the drawbacks, but can never replace the best gear since it would break the importance of specializing your char. For example, comparing two armors, the best bullet-proof skin mod should never equal the best bullet-proof combat suit...
And we're talking about combat system, I'm not even mentioning that your appearance ingame doesn't open anything in roleplay sense. To my opinion there are so many missed opportunities with this game.
Then, and since it's a cyberpunk game, there should be augmentations for compensate for the drawbacks, but can never replace the best gear since it would break the importance of specializing your char. For example, comparing two armors, the best bullet-proof skin mod should never equal the best bullet-proof combat suit...
And we're talking about combat system, I'm not even mentioning that your appearance ingame doesn't open anything in roleplay sense. To my opinion there are so many missed opportunities with this game.