Hi there.
I’m making a 2D roguelike and I’m planning on using a loot recycling system that could work very well in Borderlands.
TPS introduced the Grinder as a way to recycle gear. It’s a nice way to get some legendary weapons but does not answer a specific late game issue: the hunt for the perfect weapon.
Depending on your style of play/build you might not only be looking for a specific legendary/unique but for specific parts as well (practicable slowhand, DP harold, bladed slag rubi, inflamable thumper, barrel3 fiber, flying sandhawk, etc…)
Not only does this take a LOT of time, but some of these weapons are quest rewards that are not easily farmed (you have to alt-F4 or alt-tab to replace your save with a backup, etc…). It makes the farming for ideal gear nigh impossible.
Introducing the WEAPON BENCH !
The bench is the solution to this problem. It does not replace the Grinder, but gives you an other way to recycle gear you don’t need and can provide a good reason to go mobbing instead of having the end-game be running between raid areas.
Here’s a concept view of the UI:
What does it do?
The Bench takes a specific weapon that you want to modify. You can then sacrifice some gear to change specific parts of this weapon, depending on the slot you placed them in.
In the example above we have a Fire Maliwan SMG (purple). By sacrificing 3 other SMGs we changed it’s element, stock and grip.
Rules:
- You need to sacrifice an item of same rarity or 1 level lower (blue or purple for a purple item).
- You can’t replace the body or special parts (red text/legendary parts)
- It costs 5 Eridium (or whatever currency the game has) to sacrifice a white item, 10 for green, 15 for blue, etc…
- the sacrificed items must be of the same type (shotgun for shotguns, pistols for pistols, etc…)
- the level of the final item is an average of the level of the main item and the level of all the sacrificed items.
- (optional) you can create unusual combinations, like explosive snipers, elemental Jackobs, etc… Possibly making the weapon unstable?
What does it mean?
You can get your Practicable CC by sacrificing 4 shotguns and paying 50 Eridium if you start with a white shotgun with a vertical grip attachment.
You can keep your legendary/quest reward on level by sacrificing enough weapons (averaging the levels). No need to wait until max level to pickup that quest.
You can switch the element of your weapon before hand if you’re expecting special enemy types (specific zones or raids). No need for a hail/sand hawk/pimpernel or each element type. Just spend 3 Eridum and find a Rifle/SMG/Sniper or the right element to sacrifice. Again, making mobing and finding green/blue items in chests more valuable.
You can fine tune your gear to your charcater/playstyle, making sure you have +crit for sniping or +magazine size for Tediore chucking etc…
You can optimize your gear for end-game raiding, getting the max stats on your roid shield, weapon etc…
Works as a currency/loot sink, maintaining your interest in the basic game loop a bit longer.
Some details might need more thinking (type of items you can modify, pricing, etc…), but I’d like to know what you think.
Edit1: Increased the price of sacrifice to 5/10/15/20/25, doubled size of illustration.
