that is me, ive been covering workshops and caravans since 1.5.10 early access giving the devs all the data in the hopes they would help them out, but after the 1.8 economy change and nearly doubling the price for shops they have practically destroyed them as money makers. I am doing testing right now for 1.2.7 and a couple look decent so I plan to make a video for them. But word of warning, workshops after 2 years are still terrible and no help from the devs. It's easier just to stick to make millions smithing since we can cheese millions a month smithing while shops might make you 5000 in the same time frame. Caravans aren't much better, tiny bit buy still need help. Caravans, workshops, economy and trade are really my specialties. Fighting and tactics i lack in
Seems like weapon smithing is an easy way to make lots of money since I keep seeing and hearing it mentioned, but that makes me even more leary of trying it for myself since I didn't like the grind of it when I first tried it blind for a week or so near the start of this yea.
I've enjoyed the trade side of these games since I got into Warband on PS4, so I've always been interested in it in Bannerlod what with YouTuber Halcyon even making a let's play/guide of the style concluding with buying out the world. Certainly an appealing goal for the Trade skill at any rate, but I know Workshops do nothing for it (although Caravans do, apparently, not sure if it always did since I recall that being a 1.1 change).
I'm braced for impact but with 2 years of my "hoarding velvet" strategy I've managed to stabilize income from Workshops well enough that they're not costing me anything while providing hundreds of velvet units per year. Considering the very cheap cost of Raw Silk, I'd tempted to say I've found a good niche for Workshops as suppliers of cheap luxury goods to be sold abroad and 50% "hold in storage" for Velvet seems to do all right in limiting halted production and avoiding going under 10,000 capital. Caravans have been surprisingly solid; I remember on 1.0 losing my first caravan and losing loads of money with it and avoiding it for a long while and dabbling in 1.1 before waiting for the current patch to make it to PS4. Now, I've got 2 going for 2 years now, and the first has long since paid its cost of construction and is just pure profit keeping me in the black (or green, lol) with a second one seeming to do all right in the last year or so it's been running. Note that I've begun all this roughly 1 year into the playthrough, or somewhere around 1185, and I'm noting this in Summer 1187.
I'm interested in seeing how buying out local velvet dyewoks and converting them to (anything else) before selling them might bolster their value since I'm interested in a long term business-focused playthrough until my clan's wealthy enough to either enroll as a vassal with deep pockets or, one way or another, skip vassalage and become a ruler through the power of money! Failing that, it's nice to have a huge bank account earned from global tourism and minimal risk to my character's life lol.
Also, thank you for advocating on this side of Bannerlod to the developers since it's probably a relatively niche side of gameplay compared to the more conventional loop of fighting battles to accumulate power and wealth. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and all that.