I love Valheim, 743 hours and counting at the moment, and it's going to be a stable game in my playlist for a long time to come. I do however have a very few suggestions to improve this stellar game.
Some minor suggestions.
1. The "alternate" armor sets.
I absolutely love that each tier of the game has two sets of armor available, it's a great idea. However, there are a few drawbacks to the alternate armors.
There are two main issues, in my opinion. First of all, if you enjoy a certain set bonus, you can't keep using that set bonus throughout the game. The issue is, the armor will become less and less competitive the more you progress. If you get the Troll Hide armor and want to have a playthrough focused on stealth, you'll get more and more vulnerable as the game progresses, as you armor rating relative to the damage of the mobs keeps deteriorating.
When you compare normal armor and alternative armor on equal tier to each other, they're rather competitive to each other. You loose some armor, but get a bit higher movement and some kind of nifty bonus for using the alternate armor. However, as you progress, the alternate armors constantly change what skill they focus on, and what playstyle they advocate. Black Forest is Stealth, Swamp is Archery, Plains is Unarmed and Mistlands is Magic. So you can either change to a new alternate armor, or be woefully under armored.
What I would suggest is to allow you to "unlock" a set bonus. If you craft a full set of alternate armor, you "unlock" that set bonus, and when you craft a new set of alternate armor you can choose to apply any previously unlocked set bonus (or choose the new set bonus). So, for example, if I craft a full set of troll hide armor, I unlock the Stealth set bonus. Then, when crafting Root armor, I'll have a small button next to where the "Style" button is, where I can pick a set bonus. That way, the people who enjoy a specific set bonus, who want to focus on that build, can have a viable armor set throughout the game, instead of just for a single tier or maybe two.
Second issue is that Workbench level doesn't scale at the same pace as forge level. For example, when you're in the swamp, using materials obtained solely in the swamp, you can upgrade your Iron armor to level 4, but your Root armor can only be upgraded to level 3. You'll need Obsidian from Mountains to get a Root armor to level 4.
This means that with Root armor already having a lower armor rating, you'll have to endure even less armor and durability because you'll be unable to level up the two armors to the same level. A very simple fix would be to adjust the requirements for building the Tool Shelf so it doesn't include Obsidian.
2. Wisp-Bound Chest
As the game progresses, the labor of sorting inventories and chests increases, and I think it's probably one of the least favorite aspects of the game for many players. Brainstorming a bit on the issue, I got an idea for a simple piece of furniture that could alleviate the issue once you reach the Mistlands.
Basically, the Wisp-Bound Chest costs perhaps 20 Yggdrasil Wood, 10 Black Metal and 3 Wisps. When anything is placed in a Wisp-Bound Chest, the three Wisps bound to it will start to move the objects to other chests, that aren't Wisp-Bound Chests. They'll only place objects into chests where at least one of those are already present, and they'll have a maximum range of 25 meters from the Wisp-Bound Chest. It is a slow process, but it will steadily empty the Wisp-Bound Chest into nearby chests.
The chest therefore acts as a "dump chest" where you can quickly dump stuff in, and if you've set up your base correctly, the items will get sorted by themselves. By requiring at least one of an item to be present in a chest before the Wisps will put items in it, you can basically set up how you like your items to be sorted by going around and placing at least one item in each chest to designate what it will hold (or more than one, if you want it to hold multiple items).
3. Making the Trader a bit more useful
The Trader is a fun feature in the game, both Haldor and Hildir, but once you get the few items you need you rarely need the trader again. I had an idea that would make the trader a bit more consistently useful, while alleviating a slight annoyance.
My idea is basically this. Let the trader sell metal ore, but only ore two tiers behind your current tier, based on which bosses you've slain.
So, when you've slain Moder, you can buy copper and tin ore.
When you've slain Yagluth, you can buy iron ore.
When you've slain The Queen, you can buy silver ore.
It won't at all make your general progression easier, as it won't be a way to easily get any relevant ore. It will however add in the game a way to stock up a bit on that earlier game ore if you end up needing it (as you sometimes do since some furniture requires it), and to get it without all of the hassle of going back into a lower tier biome to mine it. It also makes the gold and valuables you accumulate stay relevant even after you've bought the few mandatory items from Haldor.
It basically accomplishes two things.
Keeps the trader relevant.
Reduces the annoyance of having to go into a very easy low-tier biome to mine.
4. Please improve the Cart
Nothing much to say here, the cart is just so tough and frustrating to use. Even filled just to a third capacity, it becomes nearly impossible to maneuver, and I often end up having to create a path for it before transporting ore from one place to another, and even then it still gets stuck. Sometimes I've ended up spending so much time clearing a path for it that I think it would have been faster just running with the ores one stack at the time.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/17zfxrn/four_small_suggestions_for_valheim/
