Many sandbox games have gone towards realism in this regard but have stopped short and still allow one person to run around with multiple sets of plate armor and other things in their backpack and run/fight normally.
True realism might be bad for gameplay, but I would urge LiF to consider going pretty close for the sake of balance in many areas including issues with pvp/looting and the pros/cons of wearing different armors, etc.
A tiered or gradiented approach to burden is a good idea too instead of just Unburdened and then suddenly Burdened.
I would suggest a couple thresholds like
- Unburdened
- Lightly Burdened
- Heavily Burdened
- Extremely Burdened
- You Can't Stand Up
At each threshold your character's movement speed, fighting ability, stamina usage, etc worsen until finally you can't do anything at all barely and have to drop stuff. If there are not tiers like this people will just run around with as much stuff as they can without being "burdened".
Also, something Gloria Victis is doing which is nice for balance and realism is that it takes time to loot various items, especially stuff that is worn by the character like armor - makes sense right? Certain items can make looting take more time too, like a coin purse, various bags and clips etc....
Just stuff to think about.
