I recently came back after a long hiatus and am shocked to see that after almost a year of Early Access these three areas haven't improved at all.
LOOTING
Looting in this game has to be one of the most boring and unfun mechanics I have ever seen in any game with loot. It is just straight up junk...vendor trash. It is useful for about the first 5 hours of your playthrough and that is it. Instead of the excitement and anticipation a looting mechanic should generate, it just just another boring click. Sure the money you get from loot is useful but that is it. In any case the looting mechanic is so boring that 10-15 hours into a playthrough I find myself not even looking at the loot, I just click loot all, run to a city and click sell all and that is a horrible mechanic. Worse by mid game, once money no longer ever becomes an issue, it become a nuisance having to take it to town to sell so I find myself abandoning it even after a big battle fighting multiple enemy lords and the king. Looting should be exciting. I should always want to see what goodies I got after each battle and there should always be a chance something amazing or at least something potentially useful for my or my companions but we get nothing, no excitement, just boring trash loot over and over and over.
I am not sure why Taleworlds decided on such a complex mechanic to control loot but I can't help feel that the game would be 1000x better if looting was as simple as an RNG loot drop list that included at least some useful good or even great items.
BUYABLE ITEMS (OR LACK THERE OF)
This is another issue that ruins the game for me. There is nothing to buy until at least very late in your playthrough and even then the best stuff is never available. I know this is due to the production system and also that this production system is part of the issue why there is no loot and while great in theory, it sucks in practice. First of all, within the first minutes of starting a new game, I should be able to find amazing, high end items in the shops. This is important because it gives me goals to work toward. I need to see an amazing, but expensive piece of armor or sword and say to myself, "Damn that is cool, I want that but it is going to take me a long, long time to get it". Second, even without that, the best items need to be buyable well before 30-40 hours into your playthrough, I mean most AAA roleplaying games are almost complete 30-40 hours, having to wait that long to buy decent items is ridiculous. Also to be honest, I almost never see the real top end stuff and it is frustrating to see your own soldiers have better gear than yourself, the king.
Again I will say the same thing as I did about looting especially since I know the two are tied together. I just don't understand why Taleworlds would opt for such a complex system that obviously doesn't work when the game would be 1000x a better experience if shops just had a RNG list with set prices based on a cities prosperity actually allowing us to buy the best items day one IF we have the resources.
INFINITE MONEY
This is another major issue in my mind and I think it is tied to why production of buyable items and looting is such bad mechanics. Basically we just get too much money. Making money is only an issue for the first 5-10 hours in game and then only if you rush into a large, all elite army without building up your passive income sources. However, within this 5-10 hours you will easily get 2-3 workshops running and this will be more than enough to pay for a decent army. One you get here, it just snowballs in. You end up getting the rest of your shops open, get your caravans running and you got more money than you need. Add in the loot that is only good for selling and the gold starts piling up. Then you get a town and you will never run out of money again. Usually by 20-25 hours into your playthrough, you have at least a million of not millions of gold piled up and can buy anything in the game....if there was anything to buy. Best thing is just get 300 trade then you can just BUY all the fiefs in the game without even having to fight a single battle. I think this fact is taken into account with the looting and production systems and is one of the reasons why Taleworlds keeps you from having nice things. Basically looting a 300K items just make the infinite money system worse.
In conclusion, I realize Taleworlds was trying to build a complex living and breathing economic system and I applaud them for it but it just doesn't work. Its too complex, so complex that it ruins the game. Honestly since it has been a year with literally no progress at fixing the issue, I feel it just needs to be scraped. Use the KISS principle.
For Looting, just created a random loot table based on culture. Based on the size of the fight, have it generate 70% vendor trash, 25% decent items and 5% good or exceptional items for loot. Keep the loot down to maybe 20-30 items total.
For Production, similarly to looting, create a list of items that could be available in the shops based on culture. Assign values to items in this list so the cost can be 100% controlled so as to not cause a player become an instant millionaire because a decent items dropped. Make the appearance of higher end items be tied to the Town's prosperity, the higher the prosperity, the higher the chance of a higher end item being available for sale. Tie the pricing into the prosperity of the town. This allows for complete control of the economy. By using this method you can easily control the value of items, the value of loot, the value of trade, everything because it is developer assigned values rather than based on a complex formula that has already demonstrated as not working.
Finally, make earning gold harder. Reduce player income. This can be achieved because the pricing is now controlled and you don't have items worth 300k floating around out there. Because you know the prices of all items a player can buy and acquire, the amount of income a player can make can be more easily tailored the the economy.
In any case, Taleworlds has to do something and from the posts I have seen, small tweaks here and there aren't enough to fix the underlying issues.
LOOTING
Looting in this game has to be one of the most boring and unfun mechanics I have ever seen in any game with loot. It is just straight up junk...vendor trash. It is useful for about the first 5 hours of your playthrough and that is it. Instead of the excitement and anticipation a looting mechanic should generate, it just just another boring click. Sure the money you get from loot is useful but that is it. In any case the looting mechanic is so boring that 10-15 hours into a playthrough I find myself not even looking at the loot, I just click loot all, run to a city and click sell all and that is a horrible mechanic. Worse by mid game, once money no longer ever becomes an issue, it become a nuisance having to take it to town to sell so I find myself abandoning it even after a big battle fighting multiple enemy lords and the king. Looting should be exciting. I should always want to see what goodies I got after each battle and there should always be a chance something amazing or at least something potentially useful for my or my companions but we get nothing, no excitement, just boring trash loot over and over and over.
I am not sure why Taleworlds decided on such a complex mechanic to control loot but I can't help feel that the game would be 1000x better if looting was as simple as an RNG loot drop list that included at least some useful good or even great items.
BUYABLE ITEMS (OR LACK THERE OF)
This is another issue that ruins the game for me. There is nothing to buy until at least very late in your playthrough and even then the best stuff is never available. I know this is due to the production system and also that this production system is part of the issue why there is no loot and while great in theory, it sucks in practice. First of all, within the first minutes of starting a new game, I should be able to find amazing, high end items in the shops. This is important because it gives me goals to work toward. I need to see an amazing, but expensive piece of armor or sword and say to myself, "Damn that is cool, I want that but it is going to take me a long, long time to get it". Second, even without that, the best items need to be buyable well before 30-40 hours into your playthrough, I mean most AAA roleplaying games are almost complete 30-40 hours, having to wait that long to buy decent items is ridiculous. Also to be honest, I almost never see the real top end stuff and it is frustrating to see your own soldiers have better gear than yourself, the king.
Again I will say the same thing as I did about looting especially since I know the two are tied together. I just don't understand why Taleworlds would opt for such a complex system that obviously doesn't work when the game would be 1000x a better experience if shops just had a RNG list with set prices based on a cities prosperity actually allowing us to buy the best items day one IF we have the resources.
INFINITE MONEY
This is another major issue in my mind and I think it is tied to why production of buyable items and looting is such bad mechanics. Basically we just get too much money. Making money is only an issue for the first 5-10 hours in game and then only if you rush into a large, all elite army without building up your passive income sources. However, within this 5-10 hours you will easily get 2-3 workshops running and this will be more than enough to pay for a decent army. One you get here, it just snowballs in. You end up getting the rest of your shops open, get your caravans running and you got more money than you need. Add in the loot that is only good for selling and the gold starts piling up. Then you get a town and you will never run out of money again. Usually by 20-25 hours into your playthrough, you have at least a million of not millions of gold piled up and can buy anything in the game....if there was anything to buy. Best thing is just get 300 trade then you can just BUY all the fiefs in the game without even having to fight a single battle. I think this fact is taken into account with the looting and production systems and is one of the reasons why Taleworlds keeps you from having nice things. Basically looting a 300K items just make the infinite money system worse.
In conclusion, I realize Taleworlds was trying to build a complex living and breathing economic system and I applaud them for it but it just doesn't work. Its too complex, so complex that it ruins the game. Honestly since it has been a year with literally no progress at fixing the issue, I feel it just needs to be scraped. Use the KISS principle.
For Looting, just created a random loot table based on culture. Based on the size of the fight, have it generate 70% vendor trash, 25% decent items and 5% good or exceptional items for loot. Keep the loot down to maybe 20-30 items total.
For Production, similarly to looting, create a list of items that could be available in the shops based on culture. Assign values to items in this list so the cost can be 100% controlled so as to not cause a player become an instant millionaire because a decent items dropped. Make the appearance of higher end items be tied to the Town's prosperity, the higher the prosperity, the higher the chance of a higher end item being available for sale. Tie the pricing into the prosperity of the town. This allows for complete control of the economy. By using this method you can easily control the value of items, the value of loot, the value of trade, everything because it is developer assigned values rather than based on a complex formula that has already demonstrated as not working.
Finally, make earning gold harder. Reduce player income. This can be achieved because the pricing is now controlled and you don't have items worth 300k floating around out there. Because you know the prices of all items a player can buy and acquire, the amount of income a player can make can be more easily tailored the the economy.
In any case, Taleworlds has to do something and from the posts I have seen, small tweaks here and there aren't enough to fix the underlying issues.