Agree, there should be a certain overall morale which cause the force, including the lords, to entirely route.
If you get far enough into the game money becomes irrelevant and there needs to be some kind of money sink for the last tier of progression otherwise you can get fully kitted in the first year, only the best gear is 20k+. My typical start is running around doing tournys and i can normally get a full gear set, 1 or 2 tiers under the lordly tier. Not sure how you are playing but maybe roam around a bit more to other faction territories.
First off, I don't give a **** about the player having too much money. Taleworlds should really leave it alone until the fix the economy in general and not just nerf money makers while inflating prices unreasonably. The economy is obviously still very unfinished anyways and there are more pressing matters than too much money. Better the player is overpowered than under-powered, especially during a beta.
Second, equipment should not be a money-sink. What should be costing you in order of expenses are:
Army wages/upgrades > Fief upgrades/maintenance >>>>>>>>>>Personal equipment.
Consider this from a balance point of view. Playing on realistic, what would you rather have?
A) The equipment worn by Cataphracts
or
B) 50 Cataphracts
Obviously the answer is B, but the game treats it like the equipment is so much more valuable. The cost of a full set of Catapharact armor costs more money than upgrading 50 Cataphracts, even if you factor in the cost of all previous upgrades to get to that level.
It should be the other way around; maintaining a force of elite units should cost you a ****ton to upgrade and maintain while equipment should be a trivial expense once you get some money coming in.
They do passively train but very slowly, they have expressed that they want troops to level up by actually fighting and surviving.
This is why you get peasant-only armies once every lord has been wiped out a few times.
Obviously elite units should be veterans of combat, but it should be feasible to train units up to at least tier 3 out of combat in a reasonable amount of time. No one likes peasant waves.
It also makes the player overly cautious of engagements, which shouldn't be the case when the game is all about fighting battles. Sure they should get a bloody nose if they choose poorly, but if players are hesitating fighting equal battles cuz they're afraid their elite units will get taken out there's a problem.
They reduced it to 1 influence for every 20 prisoners, i believe. They did this when they balanced out the influence gain across the board (couple policies got changed as well).
Perhaps this should be the case with normal troops, but lords should give a ****ton of influence if you turn them in. You're essentially removing a whole army from the enemy faction for as long as they are imprisoned.
And merc contracts should pay a lot more and pay consistently, not due to any influence.