So, I’m sensing some general unhappiness with the TF2 crafting and item drop system. The complaints can be summarized as followed:
Crafting:
1) Crafting is dumb and gay and stupid. What is this, WoW? Gay.
2) Crafting is a cool idea but the drops aren’t frequent enough to make the stuff I want to make.
3) I want hats.
Item Drops:
1) Item drops are gay and dumb and gay. Why can’t I just have all the stuff I want right away? Dumbgay!
2) Drops are a nice idea but I’ve played TF2 for 6,941 consecutive hours and I’ve only gotten an Ambassador which I already had anyway. WTF Valve.
3) I want hats.
My personal view is this: I want hats. But I also think item drops and crafting are both good ideas, though they could use some tweaking.
Here are my ideas to tweak the system without completely changing it:
When you get a item drop, instead of finding a random, specified item, like an Ambassador or a Pyro’s Beanie, you are instead told you found a class of item, like a primary weapon, or a Spy’s weapon. Then, you get to choose from a selection of those items.
For instance, you’re told you found a primary weapon. Instead of the game randomly picking one for you, you are shown a list of, say, three or five or seven of them to choose from which you can compare against your inventory. If you’re missing one, like the Direct Hit or Backburner, you can choose that one. If you’ve got all of the items displayed, you can at least purposely choose a duplicate to work toward something you’re crafting, be it scrap metal, a class token, or slot token.
Same if you find a class weapon. If you find a Pyro’s weapon, you can choose from any of the Pyro weapons. If you’ve got them all, you can then at least choose a weapon for a specific slot. So, if you’re working on building a primary slot token, you can choose the Pyro’s primary weapon and use it for crafting that token. I think this would make drops a little more productive even if their frequency doesn’t change. You’d have a better chance of finding the stuff you need to fill out your kit, and if your kit is complete, at least you’d have a better chance of getting an item you could put towards crafting tokens or hats.
For hat drops, pretty much the same thing. You’re told you found a hat but can choose from a random spread of different ones, upping the chances you’ll find one you like. You could also be told you’ve found a Demoman’s hat and then get to choose one from the entire Demoman fashion catalog. This way, hat drops can still be rare, but you’ll at least wind up with a better chance of finding something you’ll actually want to wear around the base.
