Sadly the badly implemented loot system brings back memories of Divine Divinity where I got used to savescumming because there were only two rings and one pair of leggings with slots in the whole story... Fortunately merchants tended to refresh their items at every visit in that game, which helped with the rest...
It's a real shame as D:OS is otherwise a fantastic game. Beautiful graphics, terrific soundtrack, immersive and entertaining storyline, versatile and creative character concepts. (Which imho are the main reasons why one would decide to replay the game. Not the random loot.) I guess while other games have evolved since -- and we got used to some form of a smart loot system as Drachen mentioned previously -- the Divinity series is still stuck with completely randomly created and totally randomly placed junk you would sell immediately. I wholeheartedly agree with some points of criticism mentioned beforehand:
You'll simply feel cheated if you end up with a blue item worth 80 gold from a boss chest which you got some nice orange loot from last time, and of course this will encourage you start savescumming. I don't even think this loot needs to be completely fixed and manually placed. It might be enough to make smarter random loot tables with guaranteed quality loot for the more important fights.
The number of completely empty barrels and crates is outrageous. Instead of placing them there why not make sure that generally useless items like a rogue armor with +1 STR (but not DEX) don't get created at all? There's so much real trash in the game no character could ever profit from.
The crafting system is currently fun and interesting, yet there should be far more variety in it. Why can't crafters create bracers or helmets? Why can't they enhance necklaces and rings? Making characters with higher crafting skills be capable of adding more attributes to an item might be the answer. (In which case items should stop granting crafting bonuses. It's currently too easy to get to crafting 5 without too much investment.)
The reason why the current random loot system is dreadfully boring is the very low probability of getting an item that is actually useful to someone in your party. Sooner or later all you'd be interested in will be the value of the loot. (To savescum at merchants, obviously. -- Oh, no, never! -- Yep, merchants are a problem as well. At least they should sell all skillbooks. And more ingredients. And...)
I realize that some of these topics can be -- or were already -- addressed by modding and that some others might be impossible to change in this game. Yet I think this is a topic that should be considered by Larian at least for future games. Please change something that has never worked. There doesn't seem to be any shortage on creative ideas in your ranks otherwise.
