I have some issues with the changes
Refinement
* When using a refinement on an already refined piece, the previous mods are overwritten, instead of things being added to it? Intentional? Would make some sense, else I'd max up one resist and run all other resists in the ground and still get extra defence chance, then fight enemies that only deal 1 damage type.
* The resistances are always affected from the top to bottom resistance
* There seems to be no difference between defense and invulnerability components, I had invulnerable components that affected 1 or 2 resistances and defense components that affected 3 resistances
* Components are not stackable :gun:
* No way to remove refinement effects from an item (you'd think that applying an opposing component on a refined piece would first cancel it out, but now it completely overwrites and gives you all the stats of the new component type)
* The requirement to buy secondary resources from NPCs to turn your refinement resources into useful components seems bad design, because...
1) Good effects: NONE (for example, as effective gold sink or as fun game mechanic for players to engage in)
2) Bad effects: Hassle to players due to the limited amount of NPCs it is available on and the limited quantities they stock, more than doubles the amount of refinement related items that must be stored
3) You can remove this mechanic completely and it changes nothing fundamental about refining. Maybe consider doing that, to make the system leaner.
* As soon as resists are affected randomly instead of from the top, in PVE the best strategy would be to make a suit with ONLY +1 max resist of ONE resistance type (for example Energy Resist). Alternatively, sacrifice ALL resistances except one (example: energy resist) for your 90DCI and then go fight melee monsters that only deal this one damage type (for example, unbound energy vortices).
* I'm worried that the system can lead to unbalanced situations when people start min-maxing DCI or specific resistances (I'd definately sacrifice cold resist for DCI for example). I'd have to test it some more, but gut feeling has all kinds of alarm bells going off.
* Hit lower defense formulae are a headache. After re-reading it 5 times I understand now how it works, but I think most people will never understand it OR will misinterpret it.
Overall opinion: Overcomplicated system that adds no 'net value' to gameplay and seems to be highly abusable in some cases. I'd rather see it done away with, since it is another unasked for feature that doesn't fix the fundamental problems of the game at all.
Item Properties
* Mage armor STILL being treated as a PENALTY instead of a BONUS. It is taking up property slots and weight, thus it must GIVE something extra, not come with all kinds of disadvantages that destroy the advantage it gives. It MUST MUST MUST give lower mana cost and stamina protection as normal! Why else would I want the mage armor property, if I can just wear leather on which this free property doesnt consume imbuing slots/intensities. Yes mages will start running around in Mage Armor studded/plate, but that's what they're paying the extra property slot / intensities for (you can get 8 LMC in a regular slot and even more with the new loot system)! If you really don't like it then the inherent LMC bonus should only count for special moves, chiv, bushido and ninjitsu but that's additional complexity that we generally don't want.
* Balanced property being treated as a PENALTY instead of a BONUS by cancelling out the ability to parry. See above. A property, that costs slots/intensities, should NEVER come with penalties that nullifies the advantages
* Item inherent Lower Mana Cost is not listed on the item. Might be handy for new players.
* Off-topic: Useless properties such as Lower requirements property can be deleted or phased out to clean up the system
Armor Types and Materials
* It doesn't seem like an armor revamp while all of the following materials are still useless: DRAGON SCALES, dull copper, copper, bronze, shadow iron, gold, agapite, horned leather.
As proposed solution I'd like to identify what we want with each armor type first:
Leather/Cloth Armor - Medable
Studded/Bone/Hide - Will now give +3% lower mana cost, somewhat reduces stamina loss, has 1 additional base resist (should be fixed for hide or removed from the bone and studded), but blocks meditation
'Blacksmith' Armor - Gives the highest stamina protection, gives 1% lower mana cost, but is heavy (thus reduces max carry capacity), blocks meditation and is relatively difficult to craft
Samurai Armor - In addition to the stuff above, it gets Mage Armor property when crafted exceptional (this still takes up imbue slot, thus should NOT be a penalty, see Item Properties)
Dragon Armor - In addition to counting as blacksmith armor, it should give a resist bonus to one specific resistance cap and a resist penalty to all other resistances when all 5 matching pieces are worn. For all I care, Gold scale can count as any type (so wearing 3 black dragon armor pieces and 2 gold counts as a full set of black armor). I propose +5 to one resist cap and -5 to all others (not that they'll likely be anywhere close to this cap due to material properties, although with some jewels/spells/gorget/arms lore it is possible)
Woodland Armor: Gets nice properties from Wood, should still get +1 lower mana cost per piece, cannot med
Gargoyle Armor: Total resists reduced to 25 (it was slightly too much, but they will get a +2/+3 boost from resources, see below)
Now that that is done, time to fix the resistances of all materials:
Dull Copper: 14 physical resist, +50 dur
Shadow Iron: 4 physical, 3 fire, 8 energy
Copper: 2 physical, 2 fire, 7 poison, 4 energy
Bronze: 5 physical, 6 cold, 2 poison, 2 energy
Gold: 2 physical, 2 fire, 3 poison, 3 energy, +40 luck
Agapite: 3 physical, 3 fire, 3 cold, 3 poison, 3 energy
Verite: 3 physical, 5 fire, 2 cold, 2 poison, 3 energy
Valorite: 5 physical, 3 cold, 3 poison, 5 energy, +50 dur
Spined: 10 physical resist, 40 luck
Horned: 4 physical, 4 fire, 2 cold, 2 poison, 3 energy
Barbed: 2 physical, 1 fire, 3 cold, 4 poison, 5 energy
Black Scales: 12 physical, 2 fire, 2 cold, 2 poison, -3 energy
Red Scales: 2 physical, 12 fire, -3 cold, 2 poison, 2 energy
White Scales: -3 physical, 2 fire, 2 cold, 2 poison, 12 energy
Green Scales: 2 physical, -3 fire, 2 cold, 12 poison, 2 energy
Blue Scales: 2 physical, 12 fire, 2 cold, -3 poison, 12 energy
Yellow Scales: +2 all, +40 luck
(or any other distribution to make all resists equal)
