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« on: June 06, 2020, 05:52:59 pm »
THE PROBLEM
Look. I like the game, in fact its hard to say I like it, more so its captivating. Possibly in a bad way, similar to those stupid clicker games that addict some people.
I have around 50+ hours on this game so far. Here is the thing. AT LEAST 10 of those hours has just been me traveling between my loot stashes and checking merchants trying to deal with the stupid amount of loot I have stashed in random barrels and such. Being put into a constant spiral of nickle and dime travel fees mixed with the HYPER artificial time gating of vendors and how the economy functions is really taking its toll.
"HAHAHA you added an NPC (al fabet) to mock the players trying to sell stuff because you are completely aware of the system you created"
Ya its not really that funny, its like a joke being retold dozens of times, at some point it just gets annoying. Now I...understand, the time gating and limiting the amount of stuff a player can sell; I still think its a poor design/choice since it just seems like an artificial time gate rather than a meaningful feature, as a cheap way to reduce the player from being stupid rich, but there are a handful of ways other games get around this just spit balling: lower overall sell price of goods, reduce loot drops (not a fan), add money sinks (which this game ACTUALLY has, so wtf?).
However, THAT is actually not my issue, not entirely. MY issue is that there are SOOO many merchants in the game, and to keep track of their ever changing "what I will buy" list is just mind numbing. I could understand if they kept a strict list of things; medical vendors thankfully do this...for the most part. However merchants like general merchants and gun merchants can be VERY picky instead of just ARMOR they want leather, riot, or vest, EXCLUSIVELY! They also only want boots or helmets every turn of the century. Mix it all together and you have a big pain in the ass.
The only sane option a player has since the game is FULL OF LOOT, is to literally go to every merchant, take pictures of what everyone wants, then go to their numerous loot stashes and see if they have the right stuff, then go back. That, is, in,sane. It sounds simple and not that bad, but as the game opens up and you get access to 10+ merchants maybe dozens, and you STILL have hordes of loot after visiting them all, doing it on repeat just turns into that time wasting drone like cookie clicker crap I mentioned earlier. The game added a built in speed hack for god sakes, more than likely because of this tedious as all hell routine the economy thrusts upon you, which is just asinine.
Its 2020. I get the developer has some autistic hate for certain QoL features *cough* respeccing. But here is the thing. This is a game, not a CRAZY IN DEPTH SIMULATION (I have literal telekinetic powers and can't open doors remotely, I can leave expensive loot on the floor in the slums and come back to it hours later with none of the desperate NPC's stealing it), a game. QoL is a term for a reason. Games are limited as a medium, quality of life features are explicitly created to alleviate the burdens that come with those limitations. People also don't want to hate/feel like they are wasting time with a game. Maybe masochistic whackjobs do, but not most people.
THE SOLUTION
Add an item in game, lets just call it "shopping list". Each time you interact with a merchant you get a list of what they are currently looking to buy, this item records that, boom, done. Have it operate just like the quest log, you click on the different settlements, then the name of the merchant then it shows the list of items they want.
"The merchants restock though"
I am aware. This can can be told to the player in game via a simple note when using the "shopping list". When the player checks the merchant(s) and their stock has changed, simply add a "note" saying something like:
"Its been awhile since I stopped by, this vendors stock has probably changed".
That way the player knows 2 things.
1. They can go recheck the merchants for new stuff (an unexpected side bonus)
2. Lets the player know that the merchants are now looking for different items.
If the player sells everything the merchant is seeking, the list should simply update to:
"This merchant is no longer looking to buy anything"
Just like that al fabet guy always has on his merchant screen.
The other thing that could be done to reduce tedium is you could base how picky merchants are via difficulty settings. If people want the tedium let hard mode and or dominating players have the system exactly as is. For easy, have the merchants not be limited on what they will buy at least in their category, i.e: Weapon merchants will always take all armors/guns whatever and the player is simply limited by how much money the merchant has, exactly how bullets and batteries are always being bought by the respective merchants.
Have that be the easy difficulty trading, while normal still has the limited amount of items one can sell to a merchant, just have them be less picky, i.e: On normal let the weapon merchant only be looking for 4 armors, however its ANY armor rather than specifically vest/leather/metal. That way its the same concept as now just a little more lax.
Then hard/dominating can have the system exactly as it is now.
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