More player agency in crafting (End game idea)

Disclaimers and assumptions at bottom, I humbly propose an... ambitious method.

The exact implementation should not be the focus, but rather what it enables and the value it brings

Problem Statement:
There is very little player agency in "crafting".
Player agency in crafting is desirable.
Crafting today boils down to "Should I use the next currency item on this item?"

With the path being "Base item -> Uncommon -> Rare"
Where each step has a 90%+ chance of failing to turn into a desired item (Especially in the end game, where items need to be extremely powerful)

Some end game currency is able to mildly influence this percentage.


In my humble opinion player agency should be:
1. Tied to killing monsters, with the less "downtime" the better.
2. Require it to use player resources (time/currency/knowledge/maps)
3. Easily extended or have the underlying statistics modified (To enable tuning in between leagues)


Please consider allowing players a choice to undergo a large crafting project.
The choice being "Do I run this waystone for loot, or do I run this to craft my project?"

Flavor options:
1. Using the same way Doryani/Atziri gained power.
Power through sacrifice (Sacrifice being the monsters the player kills)
2. Capturing the corruption in the rares of the map and infusing it in our project.
3. Using the blood/souls as fuel (Kurai ancestors stuff?)

Proposed implementation:


The above UI uses different pieces of PoE1 mechanics to make a whole new system.
1. Expedition "step" crafting
- Sinking currency/resource to perform one of three crafts
(Selected from a pool of weighted crafts)

2. Crucible "heat" system, but heat is persistent as project continues
- Longer crafts become more dangerous and risky
- Link heat and difficulty of content

3. Trialmaster trial modifiers
- Pool of debuffs to apply
-- Static debuffs (% Life/% skill speed) as heat increases
-- Special crafts (Koam for ex) make all project monsters deal % of damage as bonus fire

This can even be locked behind finding the "super special crafting bench" on the map atlas.

Offscreen in a hideout, a player would "lock in" an item to the project.
This would give a "map fragment" that contains the craft itself
- Similar to incubators in PoE1
- Or allow the map atlas to switch to a "run for craft" if the project needs to stay bound to the player.

On map selection, placing the waystone + project fragment will update the UI with the "new" set of map modifiers.
Clearly stating "No loot and no XP will be gained, instead the item will gain X% of the next crafting step"

If a map is failed, the item is lost forever.
- This still incentives hunting for ground loot as:
-- "backup" projects
-- In a better starting state
- Preserves the "no loops"

Heat gained can be reduced by map content
- This incentivizes running map content (Breach/Expedition/Bosses)
- A boss + Expedition makes a project craft step 10 heat instead of 15

When an item is deemed "complete", "good enough", or "not worth the risk" the player unlocks and removes the item.
BUT it costs a vaal orb slam to unlock
- Randomization and non-determinism
- No further crafting allowed on the item
- Vaaling crafted items are a player meme, lean into it!

Main Takewaway
1. A player choice to engage or ignore.
2. More crafting on an item = more difficult, making risk vs reward weigh on players decision to continue.
3. Smaller/useful low impact crafts (Swapping of resists/attributes) can be balanced around pool weights and heat gained
4. Non-deterministic.
- Players never guaranteed the perfect craft step is offered.
- Ending vaal slam
- Available craft steps (And weights) can be tied to leagues/content unlocks
(Did you kill a pinnacle boss, congrats they can now show up as a craft option! Did a new league release, bam they have very common crafts in projects)

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Gameplay Loop this implementation would be:
- The Crafting bench from PoE1 is now a giant anvil.
-- You Set and seal in an item into an incubator.
-- Player selects 1 of 3 craft options
- Anvil spits out map fragment
(containing the details of the item + craft)

Then in atlas, put fragment + waystone in.
Map loads with any modifiers from crafts heat, and drops no items.

Incubator takes a few maps to pop:
1 map for a "weak" flip cold to fire res craft
10 for a "powerful" Aug speed craft

Player plays maps, eventually runs the # of maps needed in no loot mode (Via placing the fragment in it)
Incubator "pops" (item isn't returned, stays a fragment).

Place incubator back into crafting bench
You are prompted to select one of 3 variable & 1 guaranteed option:
Option 1: Divine the prefixes, 5 divine cost, adds 10 heat, takes 3 maps
Option 2: Corrupt 4x, take highest tier corrupted implicit, 10 vaal cost, 1 map, force finish craft
Option 3: Remove fire add speed, takes 10 annuls and 5 divines, 50 heat, 5 maps
Option 4: Stop crafting, take out. 1 vaal, 0 maps <-- permanent

Repeat until you like the item, don't want to run a map with that much heat, or die and lose item

To pop item out of incubator, select option 4.
Vaal it and bail in crafting bench ui.
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Caveats:
There is a constant push and pull between what players want to be able to do and what how much the game should allow them to do.
There may be plans to reintroduce more player agency in crafting.

Assumptions:
1. PoE2 will never be able to "loop" a crafting step until an item is in a desired state.
Based on the removal of Alterations and changes to chaos orbs.
(Because if a loop can exist, a single base item is all that is needed. Invalidating ground drops)
2. PoE2 does not want to incentivize standing in a player hideout crafting items.
Based on the reduction in # of Expedition Craft Steps allowed; and the changes in the available choices.
(The gameplay loop should always be "kill monsters for more player power")