4 hours ago, Vaeliorin said:Back before A21, I use to spend maybe the first couple weeks looting, and then the vast majority of the rest of my time building (often another 3-4 weeks). After A21, I have to keep looting for much longer (5-6 weeks or so to max out every magazine) instead of doing what I want to be doing, which is building large bases. With your suggestion, I'd have to spend even more time looting to get the whatever it is I'd need from the high tier chemical lab to repair.
Was this just a mistake when you write "max out every magazine"? If not, it isn't a surprise you can't do a builder playstyle if you try to get too many magazines useless to you.
I am not saying the builder playstyle is as easy as before, but you still should be able to do it without 6 weeks continuous questing. You just need a source of income and you need to collect a few specific magazines and only up to specific points where crucial recipes are learned. The rest can be bought from the trader. And even in late game you can get more magazines from the trader or from tours every 7 days to loot all newspaper boxes in a city, without doing any quest or entering POIs.