The book system actually makes sense in terms of crafting, as they match up to a type of weapon/ tool, and the quality of said weapon/ tool, and similar regarding consumables like food and meds.
That is the problem. You are ONLY speeding up the leveling with XP sharing, but not the loot and crafting progress with loot frequency. Just set loot frequency higher and your time in pipe age will be shorter and your magazine progress faster.
I do not want to make a bad impression like I am against a
book system, absolutely I am for it, but some tweaking needs to be done as always.
I love the fact that with a progression system based on books, I have access to meds, food, and framing without spending a hecatomb of points to make my character meta-min-maxer on day 1 or 7.
This system (additional book system) always works perfectly fine only if the XP is set to 100%, loot abundance is set to 100%, and with no XP party sharing - I think it is a topic for another discussion.
If the values are disrupted then obviously books as a drop do not match up with the overall XP/gamestage player progression and the whole concept, as a result, goes to the murky lime pit. The recent concept is extremely linear and predictable to the core with proper values. I feel no excitement, and no cost/value except for, I grind thus I always get a dead simplicity.
Yes, we had that before the magazine system and it worked adequately, the advantage was a higher replayability. But crafting progress was VERY random, and especially in multiplayer x times faster than in single player. One player did find the pump shotgun recipe on day 7, the other never, and a group of players almost certainly before day 12. I assume TFP wanted to fix this. They could have taken different solutions but their solution was to reign in the randomness by splitting the crafting progress into much smaller chunks of finding 100 pieces instead of 3.
Before magazines speeding up crafting progress was ineffective because you could still not find that pump shotgun recipe even if you increased the drop chance for recipes, now with magazines it is dead simple. Increase loot frequency by a factor of 2 and you WILL increase the speed of progression by 2. Because of the law of large numbers.
So perhaps the recipe should always be available in Trader for a dime (if a player has a hard time finding one) - since players swim in dukes according to some. Like a list and once an eligible player gets it, a selected item grays out. Recipe might always be available for the player who excels in such build. Invisible for others (unqualified/non-perked) or available for 5-10x amount of a dime. Then a group of people will not go ahead of a single player (but it comes with a cost for a single player). The collection of all books could enable players to craft the final LvL 6 item, enlarge mod slots, create dedicated mods, etc... to extend hypothetical progression. Not by just some empty numbers but physically/materially viable.
So for example, for Lever Action Rifle I need a certain amount of points in my perk-tree and a schematic/books optionally. But a schematic (Lever Action LvL 1 to 5) might be always available in the Traders compound for a dime. Books might be optional or make available certain upgrades or only LvL 6 items. Idk if it is clear.
I mean, a group of people will always be more successful no matter the algorithm, economy, and reward system. Once one player hits LvL 6 weapon then he may craft it for others. The biggest problem with the progression stood in certain items, they simply had been too hard to obtain for a single player or unavailable in the Trader compound 24/7 or only on a given week time.
I've found that I spend a disproportionate amount of time harvesting resources and building structures by comparison to looting POIs which has put me at a disadvantage come horde night as mining does nothing but generate resources and exp. I generally have no issues assuming more of a "base mom" roll when playing on a server, but it does make the game harder if that is your primary style of play as the magazine system forces you to loot in order to improve your crafting skills.
So basically, pardon my French, without looting books dedicated to your exclusive build, You are effectively invited back into the trench hole. Right now, your friends cannot find a book for you cuz of current algorithms either!!! I feel like players get a huge amount of XP just from excavating and building, or upgrading to concrete. On top of that, if I find myself with a group of people, I receive XP party sharing points while they do a Traders mission (killing zombies). The final icing on the cake (XP stacking) - XP mod for the helmet, Nerd Heavy armor hat, XP mixture, Blackstrap coffee, here we go lads and gents... shooting through the stars with XP grind. Not everyone likes to just grind through POIs and Trader missions, without available books or schematics for dukes, they are doomed.
Branch out and explore, spend dukes at the trader for reading material. Make sure to thoroughly check POIs. You’ll get them pretty quick. Especially at burned land, and snow biomes if you are looking for rifle magazines!
I get them sooner or later. That's not a big problem. The issue is with dead simplicity and those who do not go through the looting-shooting grind will have a hard time to progress.
