Just started running ACKS and I feel like the players are already learning the rules better than me. Also some of the rules, like requiring 1 week just for a cursory asking around as to where to find a mage locally, don't make sense, when just using the recruitment rules. I feel like B/X with some extra rules for that sort of stuff would be better. There's also nothing in there for stuff like alchemy, no foraging tables to get ingredients, or anything else cool like that. The magic item crafting system just seems to be "find 100 troll skulls and now you can make a +1 sword, except if you managed to kill 100 trolls then did you really need that extra +1 to hit / damage?"
I don't know what to do. It feels tempting to try to write something that is basically ACKS but better. Less spread-sheety and more focused around some kind of cellular-automata-based system for simulating domain play, plus a crafting / magic system with actual depth to it.