@Neanikos - yeah, I couldn't resist the temptation to play the alpha myself, but stay strong.
Now for a major suggestion I've seen mentioned elsewhere in the forums, although considering the amount of work that would be involved, I'm afraid it might be too late to implement before release:
please, Larian, NO RANDOMIZED LOOT - all loot found on enemies, in the game world (especially in containers like barrels and crates), and (to a degree) within merchant trading inventory should ideally be hand-placed according to the surrounding context. In my opinion, here's why:
1)
Randomized loot breaks immersion: For example, finding silver ore (!) and eyeballs in barrels outside the tavern is just goofy. In such barrels, you should find junk like empty or broken bottles. Or again, having merchant trading inventory scale to the player's level (as if the game world were centered around the player, and not an independent and organic system) is nonsense - see also "game balance" below.
2)
Randomized loot encourages save-scumming: Currently, if you need an item for crafting, you can try to load and reload (and reload) until some random crate coughs up a set of antlers. A much more logical and fun system would be to get the antlers off of a deer. Weak example, but you get the point.
3)
Randomized loot ruins game balance and the fun of exploration: At least based on my experience so far, one player may happen to hit the RNG right and get an Uber War Scimitar of Godly Smiting from some orc grunt (or from Esmeralda, who happens to know the player is now level 7 and therefore somehow "deserves" her legendary stock) that does 120 damage. These types of items should be carried by bosses, or tucked away in difficult areas of dungeons, or hidden in secret vaults; in other words, the player should have to work for them - see also "save-scumming" above. The whole idea of level-scaled and/or wildly randomized loot, so unfortunately ingrained in the "traditional" CRPG, needs to be killed with fire. Repeatedly.
Anyway, these are my one-and-a-half cents. I should say here that I also deeply appreciate Larian's bravery and transparency in releasing the alpha to thousands of opinionated gamers. Regardless of whether they change the final product to 100% match my own personal RPG tastes, this is the kind of interaction with players that builds trust and loyalty. So to any devs who might be reading this - thank you!
