I started a new run with a fresh character and I have some things to get off my chest. I usually make a character per patch (not for any particular reason, I just get bored, leave, never finish the game, see a new patch, make a new character). Every time there's a new patch my game runs fine. If for some reason I make a second character mid patch then I start seeing bugs, glitches, etc. Maybe it is tied to the number of saves? Do I have to wipe all my old saves for safety before making a new toon?
Anyways, the most fucked one is not having my sandevistan activate. Either I bash the E key and nothing happens or worse, I see the icon pop up but time is running at normal. It actually gives me a sense of excitement to never know if things will go as planned in a firefight or I will get fucked by the game. Maybe they can re-brand this bug by changing the sandevistan description, "10% chance of failure" or whatever. Fucking CDPR.
Now, what I wanted to rant about was the inventory and crafting system. I just can't wrap my head around the design roadmap of the system. I don't understand what the end game of it all was. First of all, there is no Robe of Vecna in this game. There is no Amulet of Power; There is no shield of balduran. There is no item that is a fundamental game changer (For Clothing - Guns and Cyberdecks don't count. Satori is still pretty good, and the Tectronic Ripper is great).
Armor was fucking useless in the game so all the vendors could sell a legendary piece of gear. If armor is mostly cosmetic and the only difference is how many mod slots you can chuck in then, by all means buy whatever the fuck you want. This was a good design choice.
Since armor was useless, all the mod slots went into crit chance and crit damage. Slap 4 mods of 15% crit chance + the already busted perks and that was it. This was a gamechanger moment because crits ignored enemy defenses. You had something that looked like a strategy and had a goal I could plan around. NOPE says the snownigger and revamps the crit chance and crit damage bonuses. Now crits are a happy coincidence but the bullet sponge enemies are still not smart enough to make the combat worthwhile.
At the same time you change the vendors so there is an unlimited number of mods for sale of all levels. Buy, wait 24 hours, buy again. I can live with that, I can plan ahead what I want on my gear. I can buy the gear I need and work around any gaps in my defense.
NOPE says the snownigger and revamps the defenses of game to include Armor and Mitigation. Mitigation is a stupid concept because you are marrying it to gimped gear. If I invest all my time into getting high mitigation gear I go from 50 to a whooping....65% chance of having the bullet graze me. This is retarded, it's not a worthwhile investment by any chance, I'll stick with my useless armor which still can make my ass get 1-shot by a 9mm at level 50. The only defense you need is heal on kill and keep on killing. Tanking 10 guys with AR's is suicide and will always be suicide.
Then someone with 100 IQ said, "maybe have the tech skill affect crafting. Get it maxed and you can craft god-like gear?", which was a smart choice. Now I know that I can get good gear and plan for it if I invest enough time and resources into my skills. It's like my fucking choices matter! Do I have less combat options but more gear choices? Can I survive with shittier versions of my gear in exchange for 3 more stat points? Do I want to max out both Cool and my attribute of choice? But then the SNOWNIGGER said, "but then the players can have too much choice and agency and will require them to plan ahead. We can't have that! each game needs to be randomized and unique like my polyamorous xir-gf! We are removing mod recipes from the vendors! Now each game has randomized loot in all containers in the city. Because all tactics are based on random luck, right?"
So this is where we are right now:
- Legendary clothing and gear cannot be bough, only found randomly in missions or a bargain-bin legendary can be crafted once you hit 12 (18 actually since you need the perk). To balance it, the snownigger made it so that legendaries have less mod slots but have an inherent ability to them. For example, David Martinez's jacket has 5% Mitigation Chance and Placide's trenchcoat has 50% reduced electrical damage. You can be immune to shock damage with a white mod or with a tech perk.
- Mods recipe's can no longer be bought, only found in the wild. This means that you can accidentally go though the whole game without armadillo, which is what gives you armor. Armor which only makes it so that you die from 3 hits instead of 2 if you stay in the open. To balance this, the bonuses of mods were systematically nerfed until made irrelevant. I haven't chipped a single one and never saw the difference.
This is schitzophrenic. Gear is absolutelly irrelevant, save for 1 or 2 pieces which can and WILL always be bought from rippers or received from missions. Otherwise you might turn this game into a walking simulator.
To wrap it up, there is no end-all, be-all gear because even if you get it...it's still mediocre. Do you want to revamp the gear system so it's fun again? Make a Robe of Vecna. David's Jacket should give you 25% Mitigation Chance - BAM. Too Op? Lock it at level 40. Give me back clohing blueprint vendors. Make them a fired corpo that went, "the company has terminated me and I need 200K eddies to start a new life in Brazil. I can jack one last blueprint from the company, it's yours.". Too op? Make it so it's a player choice. If you could have one armor blueprint, guaranteed, which would it be? Predator for higher combat damage? Deadeye for Crit Chance? Balanced one with crit chance and crit damage? Finally, make legendary clothing appear as guaranteed drops like Placide's Jacket and Johnny's Pants. Make a quest just for the Corpo's suit instead of hiding in some place in the world. I will bumrush for those corpo pants as soon as I'm out of Victor's Clinic: you know it and I know it; so make me work for those pants.