This should be an interesting post for lots of you out there. It turns out that when you have no encumbrance, you're not actually free of the load yet. If your encumbrance is on the edge of lightly(barely at none), you're still taking a penalty. I don't have any logs of this, but I first noticed it when my swimming roundtime went up when I had no encumbrance. At first I thought it only effected swimming, but that also isn't the case. Back when I was hunting big peccs, I would fill up a bundle and appraise one. They'd be at "slightly less skilled", for defending myself. My encumbrance was at "none". So I go to sell the bundle, nothing ranks while I'm gone, and the appraisal changes back to "less skilled". I fill up the bundle again, still no encumbrance, they go back to "slightly less skilled" once again.
So I'd like to end this post with a question. Is there a possibility of making a change here, and maybe adding in a "barely" encumbered? Clearly, penalties are still given if somebody is just under lightly encumbered.
Thanks,
Vetokend