This game is very enjoyable, however, there are some things that could be improved. Character creation is one such thing. I found myself creating the same character whenever I start a new game. It is always an Imperial / Adventurer / Explorer. I would like to try something new but deviating from this path feels like crippling myself. Consider races, for example. An Imperial gives you an equivalent of 11 insight (10 from resourcefulness and 1 from savvy). A Tarkian gives only 2, while a Dajmahan only 1. I'm not taking goods and items into account because they are much easier to acquire than insight.

I agree... up to a certain degree.

Actually, nothing can beat an Imperial Adventurer Explorer. As far as I can see, he has only benefits and no drawbacks.

Examinating the three components, I find the least imbalance in the third: the explorer scores with ressoucefulness, the other both with equipment pieces and crew that are - at least in my opinion - helpful.

In the professions group, the higher diversity makes the rating a bit more complicated - as soon as one omits the Adventurer. While perks can be translated into insight equivalents easily and goods as well as crew members can mostly be disregarded (the according coin equivalent is gained really fast enough), reputation is a matter of its own. It takes some time to acquire it, and it may "open doors". On the other hand, during the first time, the things behind the doors will usually be too tricky, so it will hardly hurt to wait with knocking. However, at least the Criminal migth be worth considering because he starts with reputation level 1 at the Loaders Guild, and this is helpful in TorZag's Shelter early. The Aristocrat does so with House Venari if he's of Imperial Race. Another background that might be considered due to its at least proper insight equivalents is the sorcerer's apprentice. But I can't find a reason to choose one of the remaining backgrounds.

The races... they not only provide the few boni that are explicitely mentioned, but they also determine the available backgrounds and they enhance or reduce some perk limits. And that can hurt because - as far as I can see - there's no way to overcome those restrictions lateron. So yes, I agree with VNV that it feels like crippling to choose an orc or dwarf.
And for what?

There could be two options.
One is what is called "colour" in Pen&Paper-Role Playing Games. It's simply something else to play an slender tarkian artisan or an brawny orc (former?) criminal. Unfortunately, up to now I found myself playing the same vagrus all the time. Everyone reacts the same to every of my characters, and I never have different in-character-options reflecting the background (except in a single talk to a nice young man of high birth, up to now). But often even my politest vagri have to be rude as... well, they are forced to by 'circumstances', somehow. And none had ever been more impressive than another one.
The other option is that they got specific options lateron, and they have to pay for it from the beginning. I have a hunch where such options could be hidden, but up to now no orc or dwarf reached the necessary level to check...

Thanks for responding, GMzH!

I have a suggestion about how races could be re-balanced. Each race gets one free leadership perk, two attribute perks, and one special ability. Imperials are not included (not sure whether they should keep resourcefulness).

Tarkians
Exploit, Charismatic, Savvy. A small bonus to reputation reward for trade tasks, no reputation penalties for trade tasks (for opponents and adversaries)

Dajmahan
Encourage, Dexterous, Tough. -x% consumption, +x foraging and hunting base chances

Half-Elf
Traverse, Dexterous, Perceptive. x% chance every day to get one extra movement point, +x vigilance/flee

Dwarf
Boost, Strong-minded, Tough. +x% to cargo and workforce

Orc
Command, Mighty, Tough. +x% to defense and combat strength

Nice to see that I'm not the only active member of this forum :-) .

I like the special abilities :-) . However, as the game mechanics is hidden from our eyes, it might be a doubling of what the attribute and profession perks shall do?

Some of the leadership perks are duplicates: Boost is also granted to the Veteran, Command to the Mercenary, Traverse to the Trader. And I would see imposed ones as a general drawback, too, because it would only enhance the costs of the leadership perks that I make use of.
Profession perks would serve better, maybe? Tarkians already have Persuasion and Evaluate, Dajmahan could get Survival and Hunting, Dwarfs Engineering and a Gadget, Orcs Survival and the Totem, Half-Elfs the Luck Talisman and, as they are varied, an Insight point to spend. In return I would remove all goods from the start packages.

Yes, you' re right about duplicates. It's not easy to balance things without introducing changes that might require extra coding and/or new dialogues. Also, the game will probably change a lot before release and what seems balanced now might become op later. However, I agree that goods should be removed (doesn't make sense for your vagrus to haul coffee beans up north where they are produced). Extra crew members should probably be removed as well, because they are useless during the early stages (I always get rid of all scouts in Kernak's Waystation).

But balancing character generation shouldn't be rocket science, should it?
There are a few 'fields' that are more or less well separated from each other. All insight equivalents can be handled strictly mathmatically, that's easy. All other things can be equalised by the necessary days to acquire them. Reputation can be achieved (more ore less only) by doing trade tasks, so the calculation is avarage reputation per delivery day. So if I need a reputation of II to get a piece of equipment that would otherwise be granted during character generation, it is worth 90 + 130 reputation points, and if I am offered (statistically) 15 tasks earning 5 points in average with an average delivery time of 12 and then a mix of 8 of those tasks and 12 earning 8 reputation with an average delivery time of 15 days, then the time equivalent is 15 * 12 + 8 * 12 + 12 * 15 = 456 days. Everything that is necessary to know is the offered stock of tasks and their reputation and delivery times.
That's far from being perfect, of course, because some things can be achieved on different ways and others are more restricted... but it can at least make balancing a pure calculation task with known values for a first attempt. Fine tuning can still be done on it.

And... I wonder whether we can got a "Tainted" at some time (maybe DLC) - as few chains as possible, as much freedom in generation as possible... (If "Tainted" comes as race and background, one could combine them for maximal freedom or for getting more options based on the packages already available. The calling could be obligatory one of the three.) In that case a price for shifting minimal and maximal values is to be set, of course, and that can't be neither insight nor day equivalents... and it would need another generation window because at the moment, the player can't influence those settings. I don't agree to that. Scouts are said to be more useful when doing exploration tasks that are not available yet. And the workers can be helpful when another cargo slot is needed because there are very few available in Kernak, and sometimes no mounts at all.

Dev member here, just do not have rights on this forum yet. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, we see a lot of good ideas are here. At later stage of developement, we will return to this part of the game for a new round of polish and actually more races are coming to provide options beside the required rebalancing.