-Traders in general. Where do they get this shiny new gear every level (complained about this in several threads).
-Speaking about gear. Why is what Gareth sells better than Braccus gear? Must be finding some ancient treasury every level. Same for pig vendor.
Yes eliminate gear from merchants, so that so we have to fight with moldy sticks for the first 8 levels until escaping the island. (Sometimes immersion has to sit down and shut up for the sake of fun and balance.)
It's not all the gear from prison merchants I have a problem with. This can really be explained with crafting and exploration. It's mostly skillbooks updating each level and tier 2 skillbooks they start selling at level 4. Where do those come from? Also Fort Joy merchants selling level 8 gear is strange too. If both gear past level 4 and tier 2 skillbooks were eliminated from prison merchants we still wouldn't have to fight with sticks but it would be more realistic.
-Now to my favorite part about how I killed every magister on the island and nobody cares.
-When Amyro is freed Sahelia says something like only I'm destinied to escape and survive so she won't try. Now that'd be fine if every last magister in Fort Joy wasn't dead. Why can't I say "Sahelia there's no way for you to die. There are no magisters and no skeletons in the swamps left. You'll only need to walk some distance across the completely safe swamp"? Then again she might know something considering Gawin's fate...
-The elven woman waiting for Atusa. I can tell her Atusa is dead. Why can't I tell her to follow me so that I could lead her out of the fort?
-Same for Butters. Why no I'll help you escape option.
-Griff would probably try to establish his rule if all the magisters were dead.
-And so on for every other Fort Joy prisoner.
-Why can't I tell the seekers "Hey guys, Fort Joy now has no guards so you can go and free all the prisoners"?
-Griff gang is the same. Why nobody cares they died?
This is immersion breaking, yes, but Larian really doesn't want the migraine of having to program in a billion reactions for every NPC. That said it could probably be handled in a different way by simply having some guards which are impossible to beat in a fight. But that likely won't happen.
Larian really wants their cake and eating it too by giving players full freedom to kill everyone, but not wanting to follow through on the consequences.
It was fine in the first game because
1. Nobody played it for the story anyway.
2. Killing everything wasn't the intended way to play so most players didn't encounter the immersion breaking moment of no reaction to killing.
Here the story is really good and killing all the magisters is the intended way to play. Killing Griff gang is a legitimate quest solution too. So I think there should be some kind of reaction.
Being able to kill everybody is fine but kinda pointless if it changes nothing. The whole point of having freedom is watching how your actions result in different reactions from the world which is not the case with killing currently.
-Dallis fight. Nebora, I just fought Dallis herself and made her retreat. Why do you still want me to win the arena fight to prove I'm worthy? Griff, Dallis retreated from our battle. Are you sure you still want to attack me over some stolen drunadae? Even worse for every NPC attacking over a stolen spoon. Alexandar, why don't you remember me when we meet in harbor? I almost killed you near the Fort Joy gates.
Yes, this is odd. I honestly don't understand why Larian lets you fight and defeat those guys at all. It seems silly and that ladder could be easily removed and no one would notice.
This fight is fun though. It doesn't need the whole lot of reactions to it, just with Nebora, Griff and Alexandar. NPC fighting to death over a stolen spoon is a separate issue, I should probably list it separately.
All that long list of immersion-breaking stuff and you managed to miss a lot too:
- Where, exactly, are prisoners NORMALLY supposed to arrive at Fort Joy. You know, the ones whose ship doesn't wreck on the way there. The prison docks are in poor condition and have wrecked ships sunk at port. The east end of the island has a long hike through magister-killing-undead-infested jungle.
- Where the hell do the Magisters sleep and eat? They have no quarters, no storage, no kitchen. This island gets tons of storms judging by the shipwrecks everywhere, and the guards are apparently sleeping in the rain? Why don't they have a place to prepare food? The prisoners have a kitchen.
There are a lot of things I missed. Didn't list anything related to companions. Should probably add the whole thing with NPC having no memory.
I'll add what you listed to the list. I didn't really think about it when I played.
