I have a suggestion. One problem I have always had in the game is that selling high value loot is not worthwhile. If you have lordly loot, you will have to sell it at a dramatically reduced price to a common merchant.
I propose some system of black market/exotic goods merchants that will buy your high end loot from you at their full value. They could also have a decent collection of high end items of their own. The balancing comes from their nature as black market merchants. Although they will buy your goods at regular merchant value, all gear sold by them has a 2x or 3x price modifier. Weapons and chest pieces of armor could be 3x with the rest being 2x normal price. You could make them hard to find to further balance them, but I think this would be a good addition to the game. I get so frustrated when all my companions have excellent gear because I hate selling everything else at a fraction of its value.
This idea provides an incentive to players to take the risk of fighting tougher battles for the chance of a higher reward. I also have some lore reasons for this to be in place.
Each king of the factions charters all of his blacksmiths. That means that each suit of armor made is for an actual soldier that needs it or is about to need it. Along the lines of Freelancer, each suit of armor belongs to a certain type of soldier. While a low tier "plate armor" can be made by any smith, the "lordly plate armor" will have come from a chartered blacksmith because the King employs all of the best smiths in his realm. Each piece of armor or weapon would have a maker's mark to clearly indicate the smith that made it.
So, the high end items are black market items because no one outside of the king's realm can legally have them. If you are found with a weapon made by a blacksmith with a Royal charter, the punishment is death. That explains the exorbitant price, and it generally makes sense. Things like these were fairly common practice in medieval times in various parts of the world. I hope you all like the idea. At this point, I may have to teach myself scripting to make it if someone else doesn't, lol.
Thanks for reading,
Draconis