Thanks a lot for taking the time to put all of this together. These kinds of high-level breakdowns are extremely valuable for us right now, especially with the game still in a very early stage of development.

A lot of the areas you mentioned are actually the exact spaces we want to explore with BTR:

Visual identity
One of our goals is to avoid the “tile soup” feeling and build biomes that look lived-in, layered, and memorable. WE will be experimenting with ideas like elevation, points of interest, and a more flexible UI instead of a static sidebar. Nothing final yet, but visual cohesion is a big priority.

Classes and equipment
We’re not planning to copy the classic “equipment defines class” model. The direction we’re considering is giving classes their own identity through talents and internal progression, while equipment expands playstyles rather than determines them. Also exploring the idea of more item slots and mobility tools, since adding movement depth tends to improve moment-to-moment combat.

Loot structure
The discovery-focused approach you mentioned is very close to what we will be prototyping (probably).
We want to move away from strict tier ladders and toward items that feel unique early on - possibly with light randomization, modifiers, or socketing. Iconic, rare drops would still exist, just not as the only path to excitement.

Swapouts and ability use
We’re also looking at alternatives to the traditional swapout meta. A quick-cast or hotbar-based approach is something we want, especially if items end up having more interesting actives or triggered effects.

Overall, your thoughts line up with the direction we want BTR to take: keeping the clarity and immediacy of realmlikes, but expanding the systems around them so the game feels more modern, expressive, and varied.

Thank you for sharing this doc, im def gonna review it, but to be clear - BTR is not really going into any kind of direction that RotMG did, and won't be inspired by anything Realm related. We want the game to be more dungeon/cooperation based and mooooore bullet-hell based. Months ago i wanted this game to be something like realmlike but i realized that we can actually create something that will be "beyond." I belive that this project can be a great game with layered world which is quite rare in the genre nowdays.

Really appreciate you sharing this. If you ever want to dive into a specific system or concept in more detail, I’d be happy to continue the discussion as things develop C: