Idea: Change in how Expedition Currency/Vendor's function

This is just an idea that I've bandied around with a few friends, but our common consensus is that expedition currency and the vendor options just feels stale and inconsistent with the functions that other end-game systems currently serve.

Every other endgame league mechanic functionally adds a way that enhances how players look at items. Delirium allows for juicing maps and adding character notables, breach adds catalyst currency for enhancing rings/necks and has breach rings as league-specific base, ritual gives access to omens which allow for slightly more deterministic crafting, but expedition is essentially slightly better Alva gambling.

Proposal:

I'm tentatively calling this process "Discovery Crafting" as it fits with the overall theme of Expedition classically.

Change expedition currency into a resource to use for a new crafting system that can be used for existing dropped items rather than as a source of crafting on pseudo random items. This is achieved either through talking to one of the vendors and selecting a specialized crafting option, or by the addition of an expedition discovery bench.

The crafting system itself will be similar to what is already performed on the vendor items but instead are not limited to whatever random bases the vendors supply. Instead, players will use it synergistically with other crafting tools to be able to create better item outcomes overall. This system isn't intended to replace other crafting tools, such as omens, but instead give additional options that players can use at different stages of their crafting project.


Mechanics:

At the core, this system functions similar to level-up systems in Rogue-likes in which a player is presented with multiple options to choose from when performing a crafting operation. Each of the currencies, other than the Sun Artifact which retains its current function, instead allows players to skew the options presented slightly by weighting certain types of modifiers more heavily. Players will get to choose which currency to use when attempting to "Discover" optional outcomes from the item. Each item will have a counter on the total number of Discovery crafts that can be performed on the item. This value can be static for all items or a range that is determined based on the item or random factors. The item is then locked into the crafting process unless the player pays a substantial cost in Exotic Currency to pull it out mid-craft to perform other crafting options on the item.

Once the player chooses the type then they will be presented with multiple options to select from to modify the item, with a different currency requirement for each outcome presented. Players then must have the available currency of the selected type to select that outcome or may leave it with the options in the vendor window until they obtain enough of the currency to perform the operation. Alternatively, players can use an Exotic Coin to skip the options if they don't like any option presented.

Each time this operation is performed the Discovery counter will increment until the item is no longer discoverable.

Options for Currency types:

There are a few different routes that I can see this being implemented but ultimately I think the best method would be to have it increase the weight of specific types of crafts. Example(s) of this might be:

* Black Scythe increases outcomes that remove modifiers from an item or modify suffixes
* Order Artifacts increase outcomes related to prefixes on an item or chances to replace mods with a certain tag
* Broken Circle Artifacts increase meta outcomes: chances to increase existing mod tiers, reroll modifier ranges, or corrupt an item and add a corrupted implicit and end the craft

Ultimately, the amount of weighting this adjusts would be an element of balance but would allow people to try to target, yet not guarantee, specific types of opportunities on crafting their item. I think this positions expedition significantly stronger as an option for players to invest time/resources in and fills a niche in the "make drops matter" crafting ideal for poe2.