[Kenshi 2] Material Variety Crafting Minigame

[Armaroyk]

Something I often think about when playing Kenshi is how to add to the longevity of the exploring experience. I might have come up with some Ideas, this is going to cover the item crafting mechanics:

1. Item attributes

2. Crafting materials and uncover hidden recipes

3. Fighting styles and how weapons and armour correlates


Item Attributes:

This type of suggestions is not new, concerning the variety of weapons and armours currently available in Kenshi 1. The collection of items is good, adding the condition variations making it even larger. But, I though more on a different system that could be added to the existing one, mainly the magic attributes used in classic hack 'n slash games. Magic would not fit with the current lore in Kenshi but that could easily be remedied. It could be called "Modified" or something to that extent, adding an attribute like "slightly more slash damage" or "more armour penetration, but higher weight". An armour could have spikes, adding damage to attacking unarmed melee. The attributes could also be graded, like shitty dust bandit junk armour or masterfully modified samurai armour. Now adding this alone would not be much because one modification just makes a certain item become another item that is already in game. I also don't know what added things would be appropriate, because I don't know what setting Kenshi 2 will be at.


Crafting materials and uncover hidden recipes:

I think crafting needs to be more complicated, or maybe more complex but not necessarily harder to understand. As it is in Kenshi 1 you only have one base material, iron metal, and that base material can be combined with another material, Copper, creating a higher tier material. What if there was 10 different base materials, like titanium or chromium, that could be combined with 100 secondary materials like coal or glass, just then you would have 1000 new combinations multiplied with the existing variety. Maybe you could use more than one secondary material to some valuable base materials adding even more combinations. Okay so how would this work? Different materials could be found as resource nodes, higher value is more difficult to find. Some materials could be gathered from slayed beasts, some have to be crafted. Maybe even some materials could be salvaged from looted gear. A system would be in place, making you sort of stuck with shitty materials, even if your character is good at crafting, making you eager to find out more about other more valuable materials to make better items.

So what type of system would this create? Now it is not only the condition that determines the effectiveness of the item, but also the materials used. Different types of materials makes different attributes to an item that is of the same type. The materials also changes the look of the item, changing colours, and maybe other aspects as what the developers sees fit to implement. Now it is not only about improving an item with better materials, maybe different materials add things that suits different play styles.

Also, something that I feel would add to the longevity of the game, is to make the attributes of combining different materials hidden until the item is crafted. Like alchemy in Skyrim, you find a bunch of materials, but you don't know what is what. You just have to experiment with the thousands of different combinations that is out there!


Fighting styles and how weapons and armour correlates:

I don't know if close combat fighting will even be a thing in Kenshi 2, because it will take place before the "collapse", suggesting a highly technological society. But, if it will be like Kenshi 1, like many games depicting Japanese fighting styles, the fighting stance is used. This could also be used in Kenshi, making leveling in different stances separate. The stance system would also make a valid use of the different types of items that could be crafted, contributing that better is not always better if the item used is for a stance that the player don't use, or are not sufficiently trained in.


I hope this added some inspiration as to what could be done, in some way or another. Not only would it make the gameplay more varied, the enemies would also be more diverse, you never know what you would find on them, and maybe you try to pick out certain enemies based on the appearance of their gear to try and figure of if it would be worth attacking them.