Own
Moderator
1. Recipes. Wipe the recipe menu when the 'Inspection Update' comes out. Have a blatantly obvious inspectable in each area that adds that areas recipes to your crafting list. A note tacked to a tree, or a sign, or some scribblings in the dirt. Give it a [?] that doesn't vanish until players inspect it like quest markers, to ensure they don't overlook it.
This removes the confusion of having endgame items populating your crafting menu, and lets players know what they can actually potentially craft given where they are in the story. If players see a long list of things they can't craft yet in their menu they're not going to be bothered to check their crafting menu often, if ever. Finding new recipes in each area, however, will motivate at least one check per area to see if anything is an improvement.
This also opens up the possibility of receiving rarer crafting recipes from quests as a reward, checking bookshelves or any other means.
2. Bosses keep their drops at the same chance they already have to drop their items. However, they also 100% drop the schematics for any droppable item they have. This means you can have a 20% chance to get a Phaseman Helm, and also have it guaranteed unlock in your crafting menu if it doesn't drop.
The only problem with this is bosses like Gigaslime, where you're forced into a cutscene, unable to loot anything. The Slime Cube can just be turned into a craftable you need 20 or 30 slime to craft, or allow the arena Gigaslime to drop his stuff, I dunno. Maybe have it be an arena reward, for having any amount of points above 0.
This removes the confusion of having endgame items populating your crafting menu, and lets players know what they can actually potentially craft given where they are in the story. If players see a long list of things they can't craft yet in their menu they're not going to be bothered to check their crafting menu often, if ever. Finding new recipes in each area, however, will motivate at least one check per area to see if anything is an improvement.
This also opens up the possibility of receiving rarer crafting recipes from quests as a reward, checking bookshelves or any other means.
2. Bosses keep their drops at the same chance they already have to drop their items. However, they also 100% drop the schematics for any droppable item they have. This means you can have a 20% chance to get a Phaseman Helm, and also have it guaranteed unlock in your crafting menu if it doesn't drop.
The only problem with this is bosses like Gigaslime, where you're forced into a cutscene, unable to loot anything. The Slime Cube can just be turned into a craftable you need 20 or 30 slime to craft, or allow the arena Gigaslime to drop his stuff, I dunno. Maybe have it be an arena reward, for having any amount of points above 0.