Since this is the topic of progression, and the current progression revolves around books, I would like to paste here the suggestion I came up with that I put on a Steam forum.
Firstly, I think the Book System makes sense. I can probably figure out how to make fire on my own, and I could maybe make a makeshift axe to do my stuff, and those could probably get better and better over time. But *with* instruction, I could probably learn these things faster, and better. And I definitely don't know on my own how to make an iron axe. You could give me all the materials and tools but since I don't know the temperatures, when to dunk in the water, how to hammer it, it would probably not come out properly. Maybe not even functional to any degree.
But gameplay wise, it is a little boring to find magazines most of the time and them being the most important things to loot. Sure, if I drop a Steel Sledgehammer then I would have skipped all my Hammers but I would still want more books so that I can eventually make a maxed out one. And I personally rarely use Steel weapons because I prefer the ones that use less stamina, at least on the streets.
My suggestion is a bit similar to what others said, make things a bit more hybrid.
For example, I think that all Stone Tools should progress as you level up. You could read books that enable you to have Iron tools, but you would only unlock access to them at Lv6, when you unlock Lv6 stone tools as well. Then you have access to your currently learned Iron Tools, and you could even read enough to give you access to Steel Tools, but Steel Tools would also be locked until you got a "Progress Point" that you get after leveling up like 5 levels or something.
I don't think that the progression of the books need to be changed much, like you could even reach Iron Harvest Tools the same way, with the same amount of books, but they would be locked behind being Level 6 or 7.
So you get that every 5 levels or something to upgrade from tier to tier. From Iron tools to Steel tools. From Iron Weapons to Steel weapons. From armors that don't need Iron to armors that use Iron then armors that use Iron to armors that use Steel.
You could even have harvesting tools, salvage tools and repair tools in the "tools" category since this is a point to unlock progression, and not limit things too much. Same goes for "Iron Weapons" and "Steel Weapons" put traps, robots, drones, everything in there. Or not. Maybe even use Progression Points to upgrade vehicles.
So I believe it would be:
-From Armor without Iron to armor with Iron.
-From Iron Armor to Steel Armor.
-From Iron Tools to Steel Tools.
-From Iron Weapons to Steel Weapons.
4 Points
(If consider Vehicles: From Bike to MiniBike, then Bike, Then 4x4, then Heli)
Another 4 points, so 8 if you count vehicles.
I'd say you give the player only half of the points needed every 5 levels. And put the others in a Special Magazine called "Improve Yourself" or something. This would make people need to specialize instead of learning everything, and loot more, but they would still eventually learn everything so they don't feel that "before patch it was better" because in the long run it will be the same.
I also think that books could give some sort of incentive. Like 1% bonus to something per book read with a cap to 10%, like cooking books make your cooking 10% faster, Hammer Books can increase up to 10% dmg. But this is something I would be fine without.
I believe that a system like this would make players need to choose more about their builds instead of having everything and skip progression too much. And sure, let's say you drop a Steel Sledgehammer and skip a lot of progress, maybe you could have a debuff using something you are not yet familiar to using. Either read a book until you can craft steel hammers, or unlock the progression of Iron to Steel Weapons, then you don't have debuffs anymore. I think this could help with progression skipping that sometimes happen. And even with the debuff it might still be worth it, but balancing everything is not simple. Maybe having an Assault Rifle with a debuff is better than the AK without debuffs, but maybe also have their durability run faster or something.
As for getting too much books while looting and books being the most valuable rewards from POIs, Quests and such, it's mostly a matter of balancing what they already have. Fiddle with the drop rates, that sounds easier to do. And if they balanced JUST THIS PART and ignore everything I suggested, I think things would be a lot better!
For example: I think all airdrop supplies should give at least 1 low tier weapon bundle (pipe or iron) and at least 1 food piece, because it feels odd to open one and find just construction blocks and books, I think a survivor would get really @%$#ed if they found just that.
Have less cookbooks appear in places that are not drawers or cabinets, have more weapons show up, even if stone or bone, this is kind of balancing that I think it's more fiddling with the rates than coming up with something entirely new. And that part alone improved would make things better for me, though I think that something like I imagined would be nice to make the progress a bit more logical, because currently, with how GameStage and progression works, you could just be lucky and buy a lot of books and have great weapons unlocked very early if NPCs and loot gave u a bunch of books, making the progress have less sense.
I forgot to mention I think that adding more variety of weapons and such would be nice.
Or maybe even add unique recipes for a special shotgun, rifle etc, maybe not something that completely makes the other weapons useless, but unique in a way. Maybe a heavy 1 bullet rifle with a slow-ish reload that can naturally pierce enemies or even blow them with the impact, etc. I also noticed that most weapons have innate better damage most of the time. Maybe the LMG shouldnt necessarily have more dmg per shot (I'm 99% sure it does or at least it says so) because it already has a bigger clip. Balance things a bit more so that it doesnt became an obvious choice. The reason I still use hunting rifle on the streets is because with a silencer it is less louder than a repeating rifle, for example.
