Hey, i have now played for several days and am at level 8 of the game. It’s fantastic except for the bugs but i am usually quite resistant in regards to that. However lately i saw a trend that i think is a bit detrimental to my enjoyment.
As a man of Sir Radzyg i feel i am still a peasant with a sword. i started as one and medieval society will not allow me to progress much further. I have saved Hans Capon which has rewarded me a horse, a gift worth a nobleman, okay. Then i witnessed the raid on Heuhof and now my lord has given me the task to find out what happened. I have not beenraised in the ranks at all, i am a soldier to a medium level nobleman. My equipment right now that i didn’t get from my lord, is this:
padded coif
long chaincoif
open helmet with aventail
halved saxon gambeson
Hauberk
lightweight brigandine
Milanese gloves
Vambraces
padded chausses
chainmail chausses
light brigandine chausses
Boots
From those items, i bought only the hauberk, the gambeson and the boots. I found the brigandine, the rest is from bandits. The game seems to scale equipment of bandits to your level or your own equipment. Which is fine on paper but it results in an inflation of money and equipment. The last bandit chief i killed had the chainmal chausses on him, they are worth 1000 Groschen. clearing that one banditcamp western of Rattay brought me equipment worth ~2k groschen. The most expensive piece of armor the rattay armor merchant stores is a dyed breast plate i believe for about 5k. At this rate, if i keep fighting anyone i will be richer then my lord. Add to that the treasure maps that provide the player with free expensive loot and you can basically skip the midgame in terms of equipment.
This poses a lot of problems for the immersion. I am now referenced as a knight for example. Or it poses questions like, if the bandits own equipment worth so much, why are they even accosting pilgrims and peasants on the paths?
I would do two things to adjust for those problems. one, keep ordinary bandits to bandit equipment far longer. Gambesons, the occasional old helmet or ragged chainmail. Also, introduce a reduced max durability for crap equipment. Chainmail is quite easy to repair, leather armor is not. putting a 60% cap at the effectivity and durability of scavenged parts could nerf them to the point where they are not worthy to repair or keep. They ould lose charisma stats as well, because people would see how ragged they are. That way, bandits and poor knights could were armor without it impacting the economy quite as much and giving the player an incentive to actually buy the stuff he wants to own with money earned by quests and not selling the 10th hunter’s gloves. Which are way too expensive by the way. Because the basic system of having to maintain and repair your armor is great, it should be that way. YOu should take care of the stuff and try to reuse it. But the availiability should then go down as well.
This is of course way too late to change and is also just my opinion, but maybe you can think about it for a sequel or expansion 