About the container issue" I'd like to see the combination of three factors:
1) There should be less containers in general. Period.
2) Merging some of them in a single lootable entity is not a bad idea at all if technically feasible for Larian.
3) The "highlight key" (currently ALT, by default) should highlight lootable containers in the area that aren't empty. I honestly don't care if "it spoils the surprise" if you didn't check them already. It's one of these cases where preserving the pacing of the experience and reducing the amount of inventory busywork would be immensely beneficial to the experience, in general.
Absolutely agree here.
About the economy in general, I won't go into minute detail of any tweaking necessary, but as a general rule, Larian should avoid the massive sense of inflation of their previous games. It's fine that the party gets richer over time and can afford extremely expensive stuff later in the game, but the sense should be of general consistency. For instance it's perfectly acceptable to see a merchant list from the very beginning something way too expensive for our possibilities, but have that thing maintain the same price across the entire game.
Also, as persona preferences: merchants inventory should be static (let them have a certain amount of generic replenish-able items, a set and finite amount of "unique goodies" and that's it. Any possible "refresh" over that, if really necessary, should be pre-determined at certain points in the story, not randomized at regular intervals.
Yeah, these are issues that are present in more modern RPGs which were solved by RPGs decades ago. The adventurers mart had many items you would not be able to easily afford at the start of the game which retained a fixed value throughout the game. Likewise, in Dragon Age there was usually 1 item per vendor which was exceedingly valuable. The amount of gold a player had didn't increase much throughout the game, because they were usually saving for these items. It gave money a sense of value.
Another personal preference: I'd rather see a merchant inventory being something "virtualized" so we could cut down the exploitability of pickpocketing to break the economy. Ideally pickpocketing should work like it did in BG2 and other Infinity Engine titles: instead of having full access to whatever a merchant or NPC is selling/you sold him, trying to pickpocket him should translate in checking his (separate) "pocket inventory" where one or two valuables of choices are the options (i.e. an unique magic ring, a key to a locked chest/room with an additional treasure, etc).
I like that the entire stock of a merchant can be stolen, I just do not like that the stock is on their person. If it was in a container somewhere and suitably guarded it would make much more sense to me from a realism perspective.
2. The amount of money that exists within the game relative to the cost of the items you would wish to spend money on is not restrictive enough, which makes money feel worthless.
I agree. But I also think that the pricing of items need to be worked on (and I hope this is one of those things that just hasn't been dealt with yet developmentally). There are far too many items that should cost more than they do. Why are books worthless? Books should be valuable. Why are silver plates and wooden bowls worth the same? There is no internal consistency in the current system. The most glaring example is the coins you find in the Goblin Fortress, two silver and one gold coin. The gold coin is worth 1 gp. Reasonable, right? Well, the silver coins are also worth 1 go. Each.
Consequently, I really think the game needs the addition of silver (and maybe copper) currency, a la Dragon Age: Origins. Food should be priced at just a few copper or silver, as should wooden bowls. Silver plates should be valuable. Coins should be worth themselves in coins (duh), and so on. Furthermore, by adding subcurrencies to gold coins they wouldn't just be able to avoid pricing low cost items at the same 1 gp, they also wouldn't have to resort to ridiculous gp inflation to price really valuable goods, like magical items. It's a win-win solution.
Adding smaller denominations of currency would go a long way towards solving the problem, yes. I thought of it initially but didn't propose it because I suspected we would not see it happening, but who knows, maybe we get lucky.
Well they're not all rust monsters, Sharp, merchants need to eat too you know!
You know what I meant :P
