What I like
How items are handled is fantastic and a perfect use for the medium's strength of offloading crunch. I love it. I'm a big fan of having items automatically used from open containers or the ground instead of requiring them in hand. Not having to fumble around for the correct item in your hand and juggling things along the ground and back saves so much time and unnecessary effort. Money in physical containers instead of donkeyspace is always welcome.
The piecemeal armor system is also great. There's not much you can do with it now, but when more armor types are released, mixing and matching depending on the situation could be fun. It's a system which should be utilized to its full potential in the future, it's too neat not to. I'm happy wearing no armor to a fight is to be avoided at all costs.
Weapons differing widely in form and function, where bigger doesn't always mean better, is so refreshing. Every weapon has its intended role, and if you want to cover additional bases, you're choosing to sacrifice defenses and container slots/space to carry more. It's a very real balancing act. Knowing what you're getting into and bringing the right tools is wholly satisfying.
Materials mattering in armor and weapon construction is awesome. Steel being a rarity has caused some fun and is a tiny boost above iron while being substantial enough to feel highly rewarding when affordable. Or gifted in some cases. The dynamic between ferrous metals and non-ferrous metals is a fun one, where non-ferrous are for the living and ferrous for the unliving, but each can often be used on the other for less effectiveness. And that loss of effectiveness is just annoying enough to make you seek the better option. If enemy types had greater variation, I imagine a lot more people would bring a trusty iron dagger with them wherever they go.
What could improve
I doubt item management will need many tweaks. There's always gripes for every mechanic, but It's in a really good spot.
There's currently no mechanical reason to remove armor beyond weeding using more energy. Shields should take damage from attacks, and I'll argue for higher equipment degradation rates. Higher degradation wouldn't mean much without a larger array of defensive and other non-attacking options. I feel weird roleplaying heavy injuries in near pristine armor. If your armor isn't shredding before you do, it's not doing its job, but I know profession incomes tie into repairs and it's not clear cut.
Being able to choose damage types would be welcome. Currently weapons are balanced around multi-type weapons being overall worse than single-type weapons. This isn't a bad thing - necessary for balancing - but the implementation is subpar: damage type cannot be chosen. A frustrating lack of control arises when characters use incorrect damage types for a situation requiring another, forgetting basic human functions. Weapons should be balanced with less types making room for more quirks or less energy or what have you. More types shouldn't be a drawback weapons must compensate for with better stats elsewhere. I recommend choosing damage types for higher energy expenditure, one higher RT on attacks, etc. Rebalancing may be needed afterward.
- I recommend Battle Brothers as an example for what weapon systems can be. Example: most daggers can Slash for a pittance of damage against armored foes, or can eat great fatigue and lower hit chance to Puncture and avoid armor. This aim penalty can be offset in a myriad of ways and heavily rewards planning ahead. You feel smart.
Weapons can feel samey to me at times, and I imagine this will grow as more weapons are introduced. Unique effects would be welcome, nothing big, but nothing ignorable. Enough to make you choose a basket-hilt broadsword when fighting someone who favors hand hits. Or a rondel for its pierce damage using puncture resistance in grappling. Or one of the infinite polearm variations because it poles its arm in some specific way. Said bonuses also allow creation of weapons with identical stats to be separated by their bonus, if any. I wouldn't add bonuses without taking something away from the weapon first. Avoiding the power creep of 'this is cool' requires a lot of planning. And is where a universal balance guideline the game is built upon comes in handy, but that's for another day.
I'm not too hot on the slash damage bonus. It's too random on multi-damage weapons and adds another damage increase into the growing pile. The intent is good, placing slash weapons into chaff thinning roles, but some oddities arise. Hacking is a percussive blow with a bladed edge but has no damage bonus. Rapiers, unarmored dueling weapons built for thrusting, deal more damage slashing unarmored foes. I'll give early rapiers were hefty beasts, yet those are accompanied with systems emphasizing thrust first and percussive blows after, much less push cuts and pull cuts.
I think material sharpness bonuses could be turned down a notch, riversteel especially, as it's got too much of everything at the moment. Durability, damage, nether repelling, it's like a cheat code. I'd recommend similar for other high tier materials: they should be better than their mundane counterparts, but as a happy bonus, not a massive boost which makes others without something special feel left out.