Ok so haven't gotten to work just yet, but definitely getting close, when you're able to deep dive into thinking about the game, that's when you know you're on the cusp of diving in and kicking ass.

Burnout for me goes like this, one day i wake up, after weeks of pouring every ounce of creative and technical energy I have to the point i get loopy at the end of the day, and my brain just goes, "Nope, you can't do that any more" kinda like how you can't think of the name of the band that just started playing on the radio, well at some point my brain stops affording me ideas of what to work on, and optimism to get to work. Then for an extended period when I think of my game, and what to work on, it's met immediately with "NO! NOT THAT AGAIN, NOT THAT TORTURE." This mindset SLOWLY dissipates to apathy where I just don't think about the project, and when I do it's like, "ugh, when am I going to be excited to work on that again. There is so much to do, it's all so tedious, will this ever end?" But then randomly one day i'll think of the project and the thought will be "Oh yeah that cool thing I'm working on that I'm pretty good at and will be better after i tool around with a few things".

Anyway, rambled about that more than I planned. To the point! THE PLAN!

So things are starting to fit together in my head about what this game is and how it's going to be played, and the moment to moment play and decisions and discoveries the player is going to make. So the BIG epiphany is multiple mods is too much for one item, I have been very intentional in most all modifiers requiring active play to maximize, I don't have several modifier that maximize damage passively, everything builds on play, so if something enhances crit, you are wise to attack from the back more, or if something deals bonus damage to stunned targets it encourages you to enhance your stun stats and to stun enemies. The progression and playstyle choice all build on each other to motivate the player. 3 mods per item is overwhelming and makes things muddy, I want the player to get a really big bonus to one type of play and get excited about that, about building their session around maximizing that style of play, of changing things up to get a new play experience around that cool thing whether it be big charged attacks or stealthy glass cannon builds. I want the player to think, OH WOW, I GOT THESE REALLY COOL DAGGER, this lets me backstab for huge damage, let me go over here where i know i can get a ring that enhances my stealth, and let me go here to farm pearls where my build is most powerful and i can use that farm to buy things over here...

As it stands players just find items, get overwhelmed by too many mods that are diluted to balance power and they just play the same every time, kill, get random crap, kill stuff. While i want this mindless play to be viable, i also want there to be great depths to the trenches of gameplay of the SeaCrit oceans.

I am kinda bummed though, because the vast majority of work for these systems was building up random prefixes and suffixes, and that's going to be severely limited now, but I don't think i have to remove them, I just need to overhaul the system (ugh) such that prefixes and suffixes are more rare and accentuate the core modifiers that are found on the item. So instead of getting a sword that gives crit, damage, and bonus armor reduction in equal amounts, I'll be tuning prefixes and suffixes to be much more tertiary stats, such that they don't muddy things in play or in the players head. A small amount of lifetap, a tiny 10% damage boost, a 25% regen bonus. These are the sort of bonuses suited to prefixes and suffixes on items.

I want the player to be able to look at a dagger and know immediately, OH COOL THIS WILL GIVE ME BIG BACKSTABS. And on rare occasions they will find a dagger that gives big backstabs AND a 20% movement bonus. This will give the game structure and flow, it will give the players tangible build goals,  while giving just the right 

I'm discovering what this game is as I go, it's not diablo, it's more action packed with more involved and exciting bonuses that can easily become overly complex. So moving forward I will be doing spring cleaning, removing excess mods, revamping UI to better display the now scaled down bonuses, and adding new areas with less fish and very specific loot drops with the proper amount of randomness.

Feeling really good about this plan, it feels like everything is coming together and the core gameplay loop will soon emerge!