Hey Subquake, thank you for your hard work, you created amazing mod, I've spent ~300 hours on this playthrough and every one of them was fun.
Its very well balanced, but couple of things still require some love, so I'd like to leave kind of short feedback too.
I've been playing on Nav, difficulty - survivalist, no loot/block respawn, hordes every 7 + 4 random days. Started with 100% loot, changed it to 75% pretty soon tho and I'm sure last gives way better experience with lower chance to skip some tiers/qualities of weapon/tools/armor or ruin economy by finding way too many high-value items. I'm on day 91, lvl 57, tier 5 cleared multiple times, not much content left, hordes trivial at this point, guess I'm done with this playthrough. So about stuff that imho could be improved:
1) traders lists - u did great when lowered chance to find gas cans there (and especially barrels), but traders range of products still bit too generous. I was able to buy ~60% of collectibles from them, ~80% of gas, ~99% of titanium. this is a critical issue, as I'm seeing it, all of those are vital resources that should be gained through exploring/fighting, not by simple transaction. its not even about prices, its about devaluation of core gameplay. I'd rather move more titanium to high-tier loot and leave only scrap/rebars in trader lists, but not ingots and plates (or significantly lower max amounts available). considering books - mb makes sense to leave only one book available at time from one trader if that's technically possible.
2) gas recipe - I understand that 2000 research point is no joke early, but once u did the research, gas gets extremely cheap resource. that kills good chunk of low-tier fuel-efficient vehicles and totally devalue small amount of gas that can be found in a loot. I mean 20 shales + 1 coal for a full can is like 5 min of player's time, it shouldn't be like that on any stage of the game if I understand your approach toward gas rarity. Mb worth adding rare resource to recipe, like acid or mb even beaker, and increase crafting time significantly (mb couple of hours per can). simply increasing share/coal amount in recipe wont help, it will only encourage grind.
3) research costs - I mostly agree with your values, but armor/weapon/tools qualities still need cost reduction, after 300 hours I got only 2 of them since most can be found before significant amount of research point gets available. I don't mind S being expensive (getting it via research table should be a last resort), but at least lower tiers should be cheaper because of its availability and low slot amounts. pls consider smth like 100 for D (1 slot), 250 for C/400 for B (2 slots), 1000 for A (3 slots), 1500-2000 for S (4 slots).
4) vehicles - I rly like how u made every type of them useful at some point on for specific task. some still require stats tuning tho: bicycle/minibike pair - last suppose to be an upgrade to former but that doesn't feel like that, for a modest amount of stamina bicycle gives same turbo speed without gas usage and annoying noises. and cargo difference not that big with cargo bags installed (450 vs 600). old coupe due to its fuel efficiency and speed feels like an absolute winner for a trader/short loot runs among sedans (mb worth nerf it or slightly upgrade other sedans). and repairable 4x4 truck way too common in a wild to invest in its craft.
5) extractors - bit too inefficient for its build cost, could use slight buff. and ehm, noices from oil extractor - I'm sure its squeaks drive crazy a lot of ppl, not only me. I know you are jesting about building them away from main base, but seriously, could u make them less noisy please?
6) skill growth multipliers - I've been using extensively:
Sniper Rifles - got only 12, too slow growth (mb related to natural slow fire rate of hunting/sniper rifles)
Bows/Crossbows - 49 - okish, but considering usage of it all the time in sneaking it could growth slightly faster
Spears - 55, ok
Lockpicking - 39, opened all found safes during 300 hours, guess it could grow faster
Looting - 61, ok
Animal Harvesting - 12, killed and gutted every found animal, way too slow
Clubs - 18, way too slow
Woodcutting Tools, 64 - fine
Diggin Tools - 49, fine
Mining Tools - 45, could be faster (I depleted 3 full veins, one iron vein gave me 80k of scrap iron, its 4 in-game days of mining)
Shotguns - 24, could be slightly faster (my fortitude is low tho), same issue as with rifles
Heat/Cold reses - 12/5, found/crafted proper dresses early, so it basically stopped in growth from certain point, mb make it grow all the time when player in relative biome?
Handguns - 29, could be faster (have high Agility)
Athletics - 59, fine
Sneaking - 58, fine
Assassin - 36, could be slightly faster, I've been one-shooting most zeds in Tier V missions with crossbow from sneaking, its like 1/5 of my 4k kills
Turrets - 4, extremely slow, have high Int and been using multiple robots during all horde nights
Trading/Missions - 18, very slow despite running all available missions on 3 days trader timer and selling bigger part of valuable stuff
Salvage tools - 93, could be slightly slower
common suggestions about skills - as you know from FO series exponential bonuses growth is way more appealing for a player, so instead of let say Assassin's plain bonuses 20/40/60/80/100 would be way better to grant 15/35/55/70/100 with adding small balanced perks on level 3 and 5 (smth like 1/3% chance of instant kill). its just an example, I'm sure you know about this approach.
7) map icons - I used to mark repairable vehicle early and found no proper icons. could you add a couple? mb for sedans, bikes and trucks?
ok, I'm half way about suggestions, but its already too long to read without loosing attention, guess its better to stop. excuse me if some of them sound rude or intrusive in any way, you did a very well balanced mod overall.
hope some of those come in handy. Merry Christmas and happy New Year!
