Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Why did you kill crafting?

After getting frustrated trying to find out how to dismantle items I looked into crafting on the wiki and forums to find out that not only is this mechanic gone, gear crafting in general is.

What the fork where you thinking?

There are players who hate crafting, and I can understand that given the fact that almost any game has to have crafting now, but in a cRPG environment?

Crafting should be there and it should be one of many ways to get gear.

Really disappointed and I just try to believe you ran out of time and crafting will return in your first or second big overhaul later on.

Crafting is a double-edged sword; The problem with crafting in RPGs is that it devalues adventuring. My personal view on the matter is that loot should come from killing things, finding hidden treasure and completion of quests. Not combining cowskin with needle and thread to make [Best Boots in the Game] without ever having to leave town.

I want my good items to have a story more exicing than 'oh I just made that out of things I found on the floor'. Though I wouldn't mind if there was some way to change or shuffle stats around on a piece of gear you really like -- because the random loot generation in this game is a bit awful. I don't want int on my 'requires 14 strength' chestpiece, and it would be nice to have an option to somehow 'reforge' it to have better stats.

I would like to be able to "craft" existing equipment to keep it at the right level - add some exotic metal to armor to push it up a couple levels or similar. Something so you don't have to just throw away good stuff that you have out grown.

It is not necessarily a double-edged sword.
In the 1st game, the craft was pretty clever. It would only upgrade your current equipment, not create a new one.

You still had to loot good gear then add some elemental resists on it.
You could sharpen your weapons and put poison/elemental damages on it.

It led to interesting strategies where you could put all your resist on fire for example, then cast a fireball at close range and heal from the explosion while killing everybody.

This is not an issue if some rare materials come exclusively from powerful bosses.

I prefer crafting the most powerful item since it makes the process of obtaining gears more memorable. RNG may also be controlled if players are able to craft gears for different builds with the material

I totally agree, but the problem here is that I, for example, didn't use most uniques, not even the good ones, because by the time I got them, vendor items were usually better (and necessary), because the level differences are very, very big.

Which is why I'd love to see a hybrid... excessively good and interesting uniques which grow with the player level (the Eternal Armor is very, very well done!) and "upgrade your self made items when you progress", for example at level 5 you unlock the first + primary attribute point for your chest, at level 6 you unlock the first + civil ability point on your belt, etc...

Add transmogrification, a system with achievement-based vanity design options (across playthroughs) and special "crafting reward quests" and you're done.

However, killing a level 20 enemy everybody and his brother on the Internet is raving about how supposedly hard it is (it was not, btw...) and getting a meager level 18 item for your level 22 character doesn't work that well.

Oh, and the shopping @ level 22 was horrible... watched two episodes of ST:DIS on Netflix on my right screen while I waited for the vendors to restock on my left screen before I engaged the "oh so hard enemy" (seriously?), because there were almost no useful items. Which is why I finished my first playthrough 01:00, not 23:00...

I like crafting and customization. This could add very interesting theorycrafting as well (the irrational RNG for shop items and drops is not helpful in this regard - what is the reasoning behind +2 Finesse on a "requires 14 strength" chest piece?).