I think I'll post my big post on immersion problems as well.
I already suggested, remove this absurd amount of traders and replace them with improved looting and quest rewards.
- Make the prison island more dire and tone down the difficulty of enemies. You will feel a much better immersion effect of freedom after you left the island, if only there you find real traders to spend all your treasures.
- Let enemies drop more of their loot. Killing your guard and taking is stuff to strengthen yourself is normally kind of a no-brainer-method of prison breaking. They already improved some of the looting with more unique, but the traders will still make the loot pretty pointless soon?
- Let prisoners and so have their secret stash of skill books or so, which they will share with you, if you did a favor for you. Don't make the trade so openly. Like the healer in the Seeker camp, who seels healing skills but knows nobody in the camp who could heal those desperate for healing? That is the biggest bullshit scenerios ever?
A lot of those changes, and Hivers as well
could be done, but Larian would have to put in a lot more additional things to the prison, and it's debatable whether they would consider that worthwhile considering that the time spent in prison is only until level 4 and half the first act.
The Arena surely would need more fights and probably more difficult fight after the first. But on the other hand, how the hell are they getting so tough fighters in a dire prison. Why could they not just prison break with those?
This is another issue with the prison. I think it could be solved by having some level 12 guards, at the gate and a whole new floor of them. Guards which the players don't have the ability to beat in combat can only be dealt with by avoiding combat, and it neatly explains why we can't kill all the guards and free all the prisoners.
