Hello there!
I have been looking over the game system for quite a while when I play the game and I decided to make a huge change suggestion for the eventually coming update series that will fix the game for majority of players (I seem to be mainly unaffected on my PC although I do notice some minor bugs, I do not have visual glitches as are being described by many users on consoles or some PCs)
I have been wondering why there's even a crafting system attached to the character growth spreadsheet.
Personally I haven't been able to craft anything that would last more than 5 minutes until I picked up a same type of item, just much better.
If I might suggest a few drastic changes for your consideration for future updates I would be much obliged to see any constructive feedback about this further down the road. Keep in mind I have been wondering about all am about to mention here for quite a long while, it was not easy to compile all the information I wish to share here.
Now, first of all I would like to suggest changing or even overhauling the character growth screen, changing it entirely.
I do understand the developers wanted to create vast amounts of variety in character customization but as it stands now, it's pretty broken and in some places it's downright exploitable.
So what needs to be changed ?
Entirely everything.
Lets start with skills like Brawling, Blades and Cold Blood.
They all fall into Melee skills.
We have Assault which has Rifles and Light Machine Guns but we also have Annihilation and Handguns skills that all fall into Ranged Weapons skills.
I strongly suggest reassigning skills to make it clean and proper.
Here is what I think each Attribute should have as skills:
Precision:
Stealth - this stat should keep improving players ability to remain undetected and dispatching enemies in covert manner, basically as it was.
Engineering - (this stat should also allow better use of hacked robotics like turrets, cameras, or drones instead of only improving players handling of damage over time effects on themselves and on enemies, as well as grenades radius effects, this stat should focus more on practical aspects of engineering when hacking machinery.
Accuracy - (this skillset should cover all critical chance and critical damage multipliers for all ranged and melee weapons, which would propel players to invest some points into the Precision Attribute to increase their skill. It should have Ranged weapons multipliers on left and Melee weapons multipliers on right, while in the center you should use general multipliers.
Body:
Athletics - This skillset should vastly concentrate on enhancing physical ability of V's body.
Melee Weapons - this skillset should only focus on V's melee ability in combat, Blunt weapons perks on left side, bladed weapons on the right side, universal perks in center.
Heavy Cyberware - (this skilslet shoudl dictate what type of cyberware V can install, the more advanced or heavier the cyberware the higehr stat is required to function properly, for example, if you want a dermal plating, you'd need 6 in Body and Heavy Cyberware. This stat would improve naturally as V uses basic cyberware weapons like standard mantis blades, monowires or projectile launchers, as well as leg enhancements)
Intelligence:
Breach Protocol - mainly as is with the exception of crafting perks.
Quickhacking - mainly as is with the exception of crafting perks. Higher levels would give a chance to craft more quickhacking cards for free.
Security - (This skill should be required to allow players to hack higher level security doors, jackpoints or even drones and robots. This stat would grow naturally like any other skill in the game right now as the player uses them, and would require of players to invest more points into this Attribute in order to improve further.
You can easily consolidate many pointless perks into more interesting ones
I also strongly recommend removing Crafting from character screen entirely and making it a separate feature usable from workstations in buildings or from V's apartment.
Like I already said, there's hardly any crafting item that can't be replaced by an item players can pick up randomly from enemies, buy at stores or find in the open world by looting random lootboxes. Personally I think crafting should be limited to drugs and quickhacking cards which would be expendable while using them.
This would make crafting more viable, and players that take the cyberware hacking build would actually feel more inclined into investing in security skills that allow players collecting quickhacking components.
Crafting could also be used to remove useful mods from weapons we no longer need, by disassembling a weapon we can collect the mod from it and some components that can be used in making stronger mods.
I would also like to suggest focusing crafting of mods instead of clothes and weapons in order to direct players to visiting the many shops in the game. As it is I only visit a shop once in a while when I haven't found a suitable upgrade on the street.
I would also suggest changing item drops from weapons to ammo or components, there's really no need to have a system for looting straight out of Fallout where enemies drop whatever they had and players still loot everything and just disassemble what they don't need and sell components for 5x more money. it's really not helping.
Looted weapons and armor should be sold if not needed, but most people simply disassemble them and sell components because those give more money and as I mentioned, crafting doesn't really give any decent results as players will find a better item on the ground.
I have been looking over the game system for quite a while when I play the game and I decided to make a huge change suggestion for the eventually coming update series that will fix the game for majority of players (I seem to be mainly unaffected on my PC although I do notice some minor bugs, I do not have visual glitches as are being described by many users on consoles or some PCs)
I have been wondering why there's even a crafting system attached to the character growth spreadsheet.
Personally I haven't been able to craft anything that would last more than 5 minutes until I picked up a same type of item, just much better.
If I might suggest a few drastic changes for your consideration for future updates I would be much obliged to see any constructive feedback about this further down the road. Keep in mind I have been wondering about all am about to mention here for quite a long while, it was not easy to compile all the information I wish to share here.
Now, first of all I would like to suggest changing or even overhauling the character growth screen, changing it entirely.
I do understand the developers wanted to create vast amounts of variety in character customization but as it stands now, it's pretty broken and in some places it's downright exploitable.
So what needs to be changed ?
Entirely everything.
Lets start with skills like Brawling, Blades and Cold Blood.
They all fall into Melee skills.
We have Assault which has Rifles and Light Machine Guns but we also have Annihilation and Handguns skills that all fall into Ranged Weapons skills.
I strongly suggest reassigning skills to make it clean and proper.
Here is what I think each Attribute should have as skills:
Precision:
Stealth - this stat should keep improving players ability to remain undetected and dispatching enemies in covert manner, basically as it was.
Engineering - (this stat should also allow better use of hacked robotics like turrets, cameras, or drones instead of only improving players handling of damage over time effects on themselves and on enemies, as well as grenades radius effects, this stat should focus more on practical aspects of engineering when hacking machinery.
Accuracy - (this skillset should cover all critical chance and critical damage multipliers for all ranged and melee weapons, which would propel players to invest some points into the Precision Attribute to increase their skill. It should have Ranged weapons multipliers on left and Melee weapons multipliers on right, while in the center you should use general multipliers.
Body:
Athletics - This skillset should vastly concentrate on enhancing physical ability of V's body.
Melee Weapons - this skillset should only focus on V's melee ability in combat, Blunt weapons perks on left side, bladed weapons on the right side, universal perks in center.
Heavy Cyberware - (this skilslet shoudl dictate what type of cyberware V can install, the more advanced or heavier the cyberware the higehr stat is required to function properly, for example, if you want a dermal plating, you'd need 6 in Body and Heavy Cyberware. This stat would improve naturally as V uses basic cyberware weapons like standard mantis blades, monowires or projectile launchers, as well as leg enhancements)
Intelligence:
Breach Protocol - mainly as is with the exception of crafting perks.
Quickhacking - mainly as is with the exception of crafting perks. Higher levels would give a chance to craft more quickhacking cards for free.
Security - (This skill should be required to allow players to hack higher level security doors, jackpoints or even drones and robots. This stat would grow naturally like any other skill in the game right now as the player uses them, and would require of players to invest more points into this Attribute in order to improve further.
You can easily consolidate many pointless perks into more interesting ones
I also strongly recommend removing Crafting from character screen entirely and making it a separate feature usable from workstations in buildings or from V's apartment.
Like I already said, there's hardly any crafting item that can't be replaced by an item players can pick up randomly from enemies, buy at stores or find in the open world by looting random lootboxes. Personally I think crafting should be limited to drugs and quickhacking cards which would be expendable while using them.
This would make crafting more viable, and players that take the cyberware hacking build would actually feel more inclined into investing in security skills that allow players collecting quickhacking components.
Crafting could also be used to remove useful mods from weapons we no longer need, by disassembling a weapon we can collect the mod from it and some components that can be used in making stronger mods.
I would also like to suggest focusing crafting of mods instead of clothes and weapons in order to direct players to visiting the many shops in the game. As it is I only visit a shop once in a while when I haven't found a suitable upgrade on the street.
I would also suggest changing item drops from weapons to ammo or components, there's really no need to have a system for looting straight out of Fallout where enemies drop whatever they had and players still loot everything and just disassemble what they don't need and sell components for 5x more money. it's really not helping.
Looted weapons and armor should be sold if not needed, but most people simply disassemble them and sell components because those give more money and as I mentioned, crafting doesn't really give any decent results as players will find a better item on the ground.