I also noticed that you're not addressing another loot-related issue of the first game: the lack of real, impactful differences between weapons/armors of the same category (why picking a mace instead of a sword or an axe, for instance?).
I like it that way. Picking a specific kind of melee weapon is just a visual choice and that's how I want it. Too often in RPGs I end up with a weapon that has awesome stats but looks kind of bad or unfitting.
And breaking up melee weapons would make melee chars even less balanced compared to mages and rangers.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that random loot is necessary evil and I'm not talking about a game-breaking issue, but you have this (wonderful) game where everything is carefully designed, thoughtfully handcrafted and hand-placed... And you have the random loot, which simply doesn't fit the context.
I respectfully disagree. Imo a mixed system serves the games best, randomized items included. DOS 2 offers multiple character, origin stories, party combinations, quest outcomes. Everything is made to offer multiple playthroughs. That's why randomized items are actually a good choice because 100% manually placed items would be really boring if you play the game for a 2nd or 3rd time. Having randomized items means that you can still be surprised. But I agree that the system shouldn't be 100% randomized. It should offer both the element of surprise and a range of manually placed items for the collectors.
