@smugumin @suquili >the pic of the left has challenges of varying difficulties and you decide what to tackle
This part is actually a problem, mainly because so many developers are adverse to any form of real challenge. Instead of handling things by making later game shit beat your ass if not well prepared, most games just use a cheap level system that doesn't have synergy well with the open world. This leads to either nothing being able to be done in a high level area, or the areas scaling directly to you.
This also leads to situations that, while it is the player's fault, many end up blaming the devs for. Getting high level or rarity shit early from a high level zone, dipping out, then cheesing everything. If equipment is one of the only metrics of power, then this can get especially bad (which is a common complaint for BoTW and ToTK).
Honestly the solution to these problems is very simple, but it's one that scares developers and turns away quite a few players. Just make everyone have equally high lethality. Make the areas distinct and interesting while making them all dangerous no matter what you've got. Let the player find solutions to problems rather than making the solution "just grind." Then again, that's me talking from the angle of a guy who likes when guns function as guns even in an RPG. I want bullets to be almost always lethal, whether hitting me or an enemy.
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