Material Progression

So, after learning you could make gilded lumber with metal and wood, then use it as regular lumber, I thought the other high tier materials like durable cloth, refined actions, reinforced leather, etc. would work similarly, working as cloth, actions, leather, etc respectively, and I was pretty excited by the possibilities. I absolutely love the tinkering aspect of crafting in this game, mixing and matching stuff to see how I can build out each type of gear, so you can see why I was so looking forward to reaching that point. But of course, that turned out to not be the case and it was a bit disappointing. I think it would be alot more fun if certain higher grade mats could be used in place of lower grade ones - marksman barrels in place of regular barrels, etc.

In addition to the extra customization, it would also help with progression, particularly with the guns and especially the rifles. It feels like the idea was that the Chassepot would deal huge damage, but slowly, the Metford trades damage for speed, and the Winchester trades even more damage for even more speed, at least if the base stats are anything to go by. But since the Chassepot can only use the basic barrel, stock, etc, it doesn't work out this way once you get the ranged damage increasing mats. I built a Chassepot and Winchester using Einaidia for all the metal parts and tier 5 swamp wood+einaidia for their wood parts.

at base stats, the Winchester deals 40% less damage, but (what feels like) 50% faster than the Chassepot. but at tier 3, my decked out Winchester only deals about 15% less damage (1,647 vs 1,935) for the same speed boost, making the Chassepot more or less completely obsolete instead of keeping its original balance and being useful throughout the game. The reason it can't is because the Winchester gets more materials - and more bonuses - baked into it. So I built a second Winchester, using tin for the fasteners in the handle, the metal plate, and the gears in the action so it had the same amount of Einaidia as the Chassepot, and at tier 3 it came out to exactly 40% less damage than the Chassepot - the same balance as the base stats.

Again, I love tinkering with builds, so I don't think the solution here is to nerf the complex materials, but instead to let them be used interchangeably - letting the refined action count as an action, and visa versa, so the player can make a Chassepot with a refined action and marksman barrel once they've been unlocked, or a Winchester or Metford with the "plain" barrel and action, just like you can make the Chassepot stock out of gilded lumber or the Winchester handle out of plain lumber if you want.

This could also open progression up quite a bit in the early game. Right now, gun progression is always the same - Chassepot, Lancaster and Smoothbore in the early game, then nothing until you reach the watch and can buy two more guns of each type. A more interesting way could be to unlock all three early on, let the player learn the ideal situation for each (or which they want to main), and gradually unlock better parts to use as they progress so they can be built out according to their strengths but still be balanced with eachother and useful as the game goes on.