Why are we still identifying items?

Given how garbage and RNG heavy crafting is, i only focus on currency, high-value items or items that can turn into large sums of currency via orb of chance (like stellars) otherwise the gear is just ignored. If crafting wasn't so shit i would care about gear more. i'll just use my currency to buy the gear i want. Seriously GGG give us a better crafting system.

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TheFilthxo#3768 wrote:

At that point your lootfilter plays for you.

I've seen it brought up multiple times, but is it really the case? After all, most ARPG's ditched unidentified drops years ago (is there another recent one that still does the id scroll thing?). I don't think Grim Dawn or say, Last Epoch gameplay suffered much because of that. Is "pick up - use id scroll - throw junk away" series of motions really that different from simply not picking stuff up at all? Is it really a meaningful gameplay element?

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Kirana#3430 wrote:

They are not saying every possible permutation of items needs to exist in the database. They mean literally each individual item that is identified has a unique database entry. If items drop identified already, then they need both more server computing power to handle all of the extra requests to randomly generate the mods on those items, and more database space to store all of those items (at least until the instance gets cleared up and the items on the ground poof).

Still, other ARPG's somehow manage to handle that no problem?

While unid items are not in my personal "top 10 issues with PoE2" list, but I don't think they add anything either. Like lots of other things (well clicking in town? unremovable socketables?) they are just a leftover from Diablo 2, and show GGG's obsession with that game.

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Kirana#3430 wrote:

They are not saying every possible permutation of items needs to exist in the database. They mean literally each individual item that is identified has a unique database entry. If items drop identified already, then they need both more server computing power to handle all of the extra requests to randomly generate the mods on those items, and more database space to store all of those items (at least until the instance gets cleared up and the items on the ground poof).

As a side benefit, it creates a market for gambling on unid items.

How does that have anything to do with unidentified items or not? The items are clearly determined when they drop, identifying them is flipping a boolean flag from false to true (or true to false depending on how you look at it). Literally nothing changes from a database perspective.

As you indicated yourself, items can be sold while unidentified, so how would them being unidentified somehow reduce load on the database? That makes no sense.

With regards to your side benefit, it's interesting that they have yet another design that promotes trade when their dev manifesto says they don't think trade should be a mandatory or focused thing. So they have once again designed a mechanic that is contradictory to their words.

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Tristavel#6889 wrote:

Still, other ARPG's somehow manage to handle that no problem?

While unid items are not in my personal "top 10 issues with PoE2" list, but I don't think they add anything either. Like lots of other things (well clicking in town? unremovable socketables?) they are just a leftover from Diablo 2, and show GGG's obsession with that game.

Well, those other games either

1. Are willing to eat that extra expense to make it work
2. Are not always-online games and thus can offload that work to the local client
3. Are not as popular so it isn't as taxing on the servers
4. Don't have as complicated and robust of a loot generation system as POE
5. Don't have an economy that would be significantly impacted by the game instantly telling you when a valuable rare drops without the player manually looking at it.

feels good to wonder about what you re gonna identify. but only works if the loot is not in the thousands of items and always trash. in d2 loot was way more scarce and high chance of being good. might be a unique for some other classes but still, was relevant. uniques were good in d2. not almost all trash.

poe 2 is very different.

i d prefer they reduce the item count but it didnt happen in poe 1, it probably wont happen in poe 2 in the next two years

I actually appreciate the moments created by identifying items, except for the fact that the inventory is way too small with all of the currency and scroll drops.

Unfortunately, there are a number of things that blizzard patched out of D2 and D3 that are currently in POE2, and inherited parts of POE1 that make the game awkward. Identify scrolls and gold cluttering up the screen are good examples. All of the "currency" that doesn't automatically loot to the stash is another. "We don't want there to be a need for loot filters" is a good goal, but they will never reach it.

The fact skill points are random drops on the ground yet are embedded in a menu and called gems and skills instead of just skill points awarded and refundable per level is a problem. Then there's the passive tree.

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Kirana#3430 wrote:

Well, those other games either

1. Are willing to eat that extra expense to make it work
2. Are not always-online games and thus can offload that work to the local client
3. Are not as popular so it isn't as taxing on the servers
4. Don't have as complicated and robust of a loot generation system as POE
5. Don't have an economy that would be significantly impacted by the game instantly telling you when a valuable rare drops without the player manually looking at it.

Point 5 is my primary concern. Giving lootfilters the final say in the item economy is rather sad. Nobody would ever have to pricecheck useless junk in global chat anymore, as the lootfilter would've hidden it from the get-go.
You can never trade for your dream-item 17 str 32 fire resistance, 10% movementspeed str boots, because the lootfilter hid it and it therefore does not exist in the economy. Further, there would be no learning curve in item valuation, as the loot filter will do it all for you. 35% MS boots will drop with the divine cue, colour and border, etc.

Additionally, right now the entire crafting system is basically identification scrolls to the power of n. If we're removing them, why not go all the way and only have 6 stat items drop? It seems silly to have to "identify" 5 proppers by throwing on exalts, only to realise it was garbage all along.
(I know the crafting system is likely placeholder and hopefully entirely unfinished, but still!)

id items automatically when you port, ez

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Tridus#0514 wrote:

You answered your own question: it's a vestigal leftover from 20 years ago.

That's it. There's no actual reason for it anymore except "Diablo 2 did it". It's one of several areas where PoE 2 feels archaic.

The game itself seems to realize how pointless it is by giving you an NPC that does it for you, but at that point why bother with it at all? Especially with how few items you can carry (another vestigal holdover that mostly just slows the action down and has you spending more time managing "stuff" instead of doing the fun part).

Removing it entirely would both save some pointless time for players, but also let them remove the otherwise worthless scrolls of wisdom and help reduce drop clutter since it's not like they're even worth picking up outside of act 1.

No, no, no! buy from the vendor the scrolls of wisdoms and sell them to the unwise in the Alva currency exchange!

The answer is very obvious: so that you have to make informed decisions about what you pick up.