First, let me premise that if someone at Larian may find the thread title a bit familiar, it's because I already started a discussion very similar on the Steam board /even if in that case it was almost instantly drowned by other threads).
Still, it's a topic I care about, so here we are...
The more I play around with this game, the more I convince myself this is going to be an instant classic.
The one, only, single feature I don't like to *any* degree is the randomized loot.
I really, really don't think it fits this kind of game.
Beside not liking it in general as a mechanic, not even in hack'n slash games, I think it's something that simply fails to reward a player in a commensurate manner in occasion of specific accomplishments.
Sure, finding an overpowered item randomly can be fun for a bit, especially in early game.
But with hand-placed loot for special items, you feel like you've earned it when you find something rare. The developers put it right there because they knew it'd be hard to get, so getting it is very satisfying.
Not to mention how with randomized loot you could keep getting shitty loot even from the most tightly guarded/hidden treasure, if you're unlucky.
Think about those artefacts in Baldur's Gate II and how lame it would be to replace them with randomized rewards that sometime may not even be worth the effort.
On a side note, it's also all sorts of annoying to reload a save game for whatever reason, repeat a battle/re-loot a container just to find entirely different stuff, not just because it's a bit immersion breaking, but also because it opens up the game to some silly exploits (i.e. if you're a OCD freak you can keep reloading before opening a chest until your luck strikes and you find something extremely valuable).
I know for a fact there will be people who disagree with me, but my opinion is:
dear Larian people, for future games/expansions you should definitely consider the idea to switch to properly designed/hand-placed loot for each area, leaving randomness just to the so-called "trash loot".
You are being selfish and wanting the game to only cater to your form of experience. You didn't actually put any of the benefits of the random loot in: Which shows you are not aware of them.
Your point about 'artefacts' in BG2 not being here is fictional because there are in fact fixed items within the game. Both spellbooks and valuable gear items. It speaks to the fact you're either not paying attention or have barely played the game.
The good thing is you did mention the problem you have: "It fails to commensurately reward the player". You expect your games to reward you in a way that 'feels good'. In a way that is psychologically satisfying and generates a triggered dopamine response. You are compulsively searching for the reward, the incentive in order to play your games instead of actually experiencing the game as a holistic experience.
What the randomness of the loot does is take the focus -off- of the reward and -off- of the fixed aspect of each character being completely pre-planned and puts it to a more entropic, more naturalistic way of playing. Where your journey is simply a journey and the details are your own. You get that killer orange amulet from a specific challenging encounter and you'll remember that fondly. You'll also remember the time that a particular enemy dropped a bunch of useless things and have a conversation about that. What you won't be able to do is -know ahead of time- the outcome of your journey. You won't ever be able to predict it, you will always remain surprised, and each time you want to come back to the journey the details and events of your experience will be different.
And there's more. The variance in loot allows for fluctuations in power amongst the characters in your party. This incentivizes tactical diversity...the right kind of incentivization. Of course this really makes OCD players sad because they often want to use one character excessively and plan around a 'perfect stratagem' with little deviance.
You're right in one respect: This game fucks with OCD people heavily. It makes winning conversations virtually random. It encourages you to fail at things to uncover actual content. It very much incentivizes just -playing things through- INSTEAD of reloading. Why are you so obsessed with that particular instance of loot when there are so many other ways to accomplish your goals WITHIN the game.
Your whole argument has been repeated ad nauseam and every person that posts this garbage has the same problem: They don't have any concept of anyone but themselves. They want the game to be THEIR experience rather than the wholly beautiful emergent narrative game that exists. It's an unfortunate consequence of the last decade of terribly manipulative games you've played...and it's time you stop letting the psychological predations of manipulative game design inform your sensibilities.
I'd suggest you go play the original X-com: Ufo Defense as a jumping off point to understand the intricacies of emergent narrative. Then play a bit of Ultima 7 to understand the type of world building and specific details that are utilized in this game. You simply show a shallow, dopamine-high focused approach to game playing that will never reward you properly.
It's the journey not the reward.
