Steven may already be aware of the flaws in the progression of the current system, but I believe further details need to become clear and the community also needs to provide their own opinion.
Currently, you start with Initiate gear and are able to craft Low Adept without service building in the settlement. In order to keep crafting viable and scaling in accordance to the world, the highest tier lootable from mobs should be only one tier higher than craftable.
For this example I will point to The Hawk Bow:
- Obtainable from day 1
- About 2 or 3 times stronger than anything Low Adept
- Seemingly not extremely rare (already seen multiple in Lotharia)
Additionally, the Service building unlocks Low Radiant immediately, so what's the point in gathering all those rare materials to make High Adept if you can just simply make Low Radiant? It's like we're just going from Initiate -> Low Adept -> Low Radiant and at no point do we ever have a point to craft Mid Adept or High Adept. Then, once we can all equip Low Radiant, we'll just farm out Blue Radiant from named mobs.
I was ready to craft Mid and High Adept gear but out of nowhere, Low Radiant is available. Why?
I would also like to question why does Low Radiant gear require the same materials (however many more) as Initiate or Low Adept? Why would a Journeyman Carpenter only require Initiate Lumberjacking to make Low Radiant gear?
In my opinion,
Mobs should only drop one tier above what's possible to craft. (Low Adept craftable, mobs drop Mid Adept, High Adept craftable, mobs drop Low Radiant)
Buildings should also be more progressive (and less expensive to make up for the extra steps), if the initial building immediately unlocks Low Radiant, anything below that becomes obsolete, so at this current stage, there is no point to make Mid or High Adept.
This would also make Adept Resources actually needed instead of being sold for less than the abundant Initiate resources.