DISCLAIMER: That is my HO and this thread opened for active discussion.
Hi, Mark!
1. Durability
Yeah, I know you don't want to make wearing out gear. But I hope you might reconsider.
Since Ember have to incorporate some of sandbox elements, it's pretty essential feature that also makes crafting and crafters very valuable. It should not be hardcore as fk when your rifle is blowing up in your hands after 50 shots fired, but the system I'd love to see is something like that:
- Items have max durability.
- Each repair decreases max durability
- An item considered beyond repair at certain stage (let's say - 5-10% of max durability value).
So you can delay/eliminate gear overstack + make crafting as one of the essential parts of gameplay.
Personally I like crafting, and I like when I know that my work rly matters.
2. Loot
To make crafting even more meaningful it could be great if most of the loot will be obtained as spare parts/crafting ingredients wich should be used in crafting to make any gear your character needs.
So you're traveling in the open world, thumping raw mats, fighting aliens and looting weird devices and techs to make sick guns etc. Feels much more fun than just looting imba lazer from a mutant beast that does not even have hands to hold it
Once again, this makes crafting and crafters valuable and encourages social interactions.