Hey guys!
I just found out that a dev posted this very detailed write-up on reddit regarding player feedback on the Trait system (and some other, related things). I thought I'd "cross-post" it here so people can see :)
Traits | Economy | More
Hi all!
Since there have been quite a few questions and concerns surrounding Trait Points, I thought I'd would be helpful to post all the info in one place. First, a few bullet points, then I can talk about them in detail below:
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Trait Point Cap Amount isn't set in stone (could be 60, 75, etc)
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Trait Point Cap isn't going away (but can certainly be adjusted, see above)
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Some Traits are highly desired / considered "musts", while others are not
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There are more Trait related elements coming down the line
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Dupe Trait Books should be granting Scrap and EXP (until EXP capped)
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Scrap Drops and Respec Costs are being looked into
Trait Point Cap
First, I want to assure you that the Trait Point amount of 60 isn't set in stone. When we originally started playtesting, it was 50. As we got more players into the game, we moved it up to 60. Over the course of the project, as we added even more players into our tests and received even more feedback, the actual values on Traits were adjusted and 60 generally felt pretty good. Some people wanted more, some people didn't mind less, but we found that the more gear players had access to, the more they found ways to make interesting builds where Traits and Gear could complement each other. This is what we had in mind.
With the Trait cap in place, it allowed us to add Traits that we never had in R1. Things like, Ammo Reserves, Longshot, Strong Back, Untouchable, Regrowth, etc. Well, to be fair, we could have added those in R1, and for the original game, maybe we should have, but we also knew it was raising the baseline powerlevel, which made balancing every difficulty even harder. This is because we had to consider, for each difficulty, what the powerlevel of the player was at 0 Traits, at Max Traits (up to 1000 in the end), and everything in-between. We could have kept adding more difficulties, but we felt it got messy. So that's something we wanted to keep a closer eye on in R2, especially because we want to have a solid foundation that can expand in different ways without making balancing even more of a precarious undertaking.
In R2, we didn't want players to have a permanent baseline 6m increase on every gun, or constant Regeneration, permanent additional iFrames, or constant 50% Ammo forever. Not only does it take away from the concept of builds, it leads to things like 13m base Range Double Barrel Shotgun, ADS Cancelling perma iFrame, reduced Ammo Economy (because more ammo reserves means more pickups - it's percentage based), reduced overall importance of healing or grey health... all without any tradeoffs. In a way, this is what happened with R1. With perma Glutton, our baseline consumable use speed became whatever Glutton was. Your max health became whatever Vigor was. Along with "nothing" (new character Traits at 0), the All Traits / No Trade-Off variation became the baseline the new "potential" baseline which had to be considered.
With new Traits like the ones mentioned above, we wanted there to be tradeoffs / choices. Players would gain a few things of their choice and have to forgo other things. We added 2 additional Trinket Slots and Mutators (as well as Fragments) so you could supplement your Traits to help fine-tune your character. You can absolutely get strong in certain areas, but you can't be strong in all areas. The goal was to drive players more towards specific builds where your Archetypes, Trinkets, Mutators (and everything else) all come together to make a cohesive strength in those areas.
You may ask why any of it matters, and really, it comes down to overall build diversity. With all of those things as potential permanent buffs - in addition to the balancing issues mentioned above - it reduces the need for all of the other elements we created. We wanted to make a ton more useful Trinkets. However, an issue arises when the majority of what they provided could become permanent Traits, the vast majority of people end up slotting only damage. There was no real desire to use other things, and that creates a huge problem when we wanted to more than nearly quadruple the Trinket count from R1 retail.
With the cap, we noticed all throughout testing, and still to this day, people are using many other rings to supplement their build. The additional 2 Ring slots go hand in hand with the Trait cap. For example, you can use Heart of the Wolf for a big increase to Movement Speed and Stamina. You can use Ring of the Robust for Health and Armor. You could add Lithic Signet for Damage Reduction, or pick up Wind Hollow Circlet for raw Reload Speed, etc. This was the goal.
Moving forward, we aren't against adjusting the cap value, but the gear was designed around a cap being present. It doesn't have to be capped at 60, but if it's too high or if there is no cap, it diminishes or almost completely invalidates many of the Trinkets we designed to supplement Traits. This would be unfortunate since we added so many new ones to the game.
Desirable / Less Desirable Traits
We know there are Traits that many consider to be "Must Haves", and a few others that aren't nearly as desirable. We have a few things planned to address this. That being said, even without the less desirable traits, you have to pick between (a generally agreed upon) 20 viable options. An example always comes up "Who will ever spec into Ladder speed?", and I get that, but as mentioned, even without the less desirable Traits there are a lot of strong options that you'll have to weigh - which Traits can you forgo because you have Trinkets to supplement the build. As for the weaker options, tuning will help bring their value up (not by nerfing the current Traits), but we know that not all Traits are considered equal.
While I can't talk about the specific plans in detail at this moment, our goal with Traits is to make sure your selection matters and that there are pros and cons to what you choose to spend your points on. Traits are not meant to be the "end game" grind in Remnant 2. It's a different game. That being said, we definitely understand the desire to keep playing in a world you love, with mechanics you enjoy using. This is part of the reason there are so many bespoke rewards to obtain and unique Archetypes to play.
That's not all we want to do. We have plans to lean into things for the grinders and those that want more things to work towards. We play Remnant 2 a lot. We enjoy playing it and we want to keep playing it, too, so we definitely understand where some players are coming from. The good news is that we've had these plans for a while. We wanted to make sure to do it right, so we set the foundation first.
Trait Books, Resources, Economy, Engrams
Duplicate Trait Books should be granting EXP and Scrap. We are looking into it. The goal of the extra pickups was to help players level up the dozens and dozens of Weapons in R2 as well has help players afford more Concoctions / Consumables which also helps to supplement your Trait Build.
Part of the issue right is that some things are pricey, and the player doesn't have many resources early on. This was intended as we wanted to make sure the player is making choices (that scrap/resources mean something), but that doesn't mean the values are perfect. Part of the fun is experimenting, and we want to make sure you have more room to do that, especially early on.
We are currently looking into a few potential tweaks to resoures that come out of Chests and Rare Chests as well as the amount gained from duplicate Trinkets to make exploration even more rewarding. With a bit more resources from exploring and picking up duplicate elements, players should have more room to experiment.
Additionally, the cost to convert an Engram into an Archetype will most likely be reduced. We don't know the exact value, but we want to make sure you can access those additional Archetypes a bit sooner while keeping some money in your pockets. Oh, and while we are on the subject, we are looking into removing the Trait Point requirement to Dual Archetype. If removed, this would allow players to start Dual Archetyping the moment they had access to another Engram. TBD, but it's definitely being talked about.
Respeccing
We are aware that players are finding Respec a bit too costly and a bit clunky. In regard to the cost, this is an easy change. In regard to the fluidity of respeccing, that's another challenge. We have quite a few ideas on how to make this more seamless, but I don't want to promise anything too specific at this time. I do, however, want players to know that we understand, and we are on the case.
Closing
There are quite a few things we are looking into, but we want to do them right. Making too many big changes all at once can lead to some unintended consequences. That being said, it's important to us that you all know that we hear what you're saying. We want to keep supporting Remnant 2 by adding more biomes, puzzles, gear, and perhaps even new ways to play, but we need to make sure the foundation stays solid so it can support everything that comes after it.
Thanks for reading. We appreciate your feedback. More info soon!
If you have any additional feedback on Traits, Economy, or Respeccing, please post it in this thread. Thanks!!!
Obviously posting here won't do them any good, so I left the link at the top of the post :)
Edit: I'm on mobile, but I tried to format the post to closer resemble the original and make it easier to read
I swear on the traveler, if I just bank enough motes, some of his glimmer will trickle down on me. I can feel it