Almost everyone can agree that making money is too easy because loot sells for a lot and smithing gives the player the ability to print money as it currently stands. While this thread is not about smithing, I think lowering the sell price of high tier weapons (maybe by putting a soft cap?) and making smithing actions (smelting, refining & crafting) pass time after exiting the menu would be a good start.
All equipment's buying and selling values could be decreased in price, with higher tier equipment's prices being cut proportionally the most (or maybe have an increased chance of spawning in towns to decrease the price?) while increasing the AI's loot/denar conversion rate to keep their income the same (or maybe even a bit higher), but then money would become even more useless for the player, not to mention the negative effects on the ironsmith and wood workshops.
If we decrease the player's ability to make money from selling loot, smithing and maybe mercenary contracts (but not trading because it's ironically a slow to make money), but then convincing lords to join our faction becomes much harder and the already tedious and grindy late game becomes an even worse experience. So then we would need to decrease the cost of convincing lords to join our faction as well.
I'm not going to talk about workshops, alleys, caravans, trading nor about prosperity, village hearths and item specific demand, because frankly it becomes rather complicated and I'm not that knowledgeable on these subjects. I think that @Flesson19 can provide better solutions than I can on workshop, alley, caravan and trading profitability in general so I'm leaving those subjects.
So, what do you think about the other sections? Do you think that decreasing the price of equipment (while changing the loot/denar conversion rate so that the AI can keep up) and the cost of convincing lords to defect (and maybe the profitability of mercenary contracts?), as well as increasing the time it takes to complete smithing actions, therefore decreasing the overall amount of money in the economy would make the economy make the game better? If there is something else you think can/should be done, or there's something I got wrong, please feel free to comment on this discussion.
All equipment's buying and selling values could be decreased in price, with higher tier equipment's prices being cut proportionally the most (or maybe have an increased chance of spawning in towns to decrease the price?) while increasing the AI's loot/denar conversion rate to keep their income the same (or maybe even a bit higher), but then money would become even more useless for the player, not to mention the negative effects on the ironsmith and wood workshops.
If we decrease the player's ability to make money from selling loot, smithing and maybe mercenary contracts (but not trading because it's ironically a slow to make money), but then convincing lords to join our faction becomes much harder and the already tedious and grindy late game becomes an even worse experience. So then we would need to decrease the cost of convincing lords to join our faction as well.
I'm not going to talk about workshops, alleys, caravans, trading nor about prosperity, village hearths and item specific demand, because frankly it becomes rather complicated and I'm not that knowledgeable on these subjects. I think that @Flesson19 can provide better solutions than I can on workshop, alley, caravan and trading profitability in general so I'm leaving those subjects.
So, what do you think about the other sections? Do you think that decreasing the price of equipment (while changing the loot/denar conversion rate so that the AI can keep up) and the cost of convincing lords to defect (and maybe the profitability of mercenary contracts?), as well as increasing the time it takes to complete smithing actions, therefore decreasing the overall amount of money in the economy would make the economy make the game better? If there is something else you think can/should be done, or there's something I got wrong, please feel free to comment on this discussion.