Octopus Overlords

Are there any examples of good economies in an RPG?

I most recently played Pillars of Eternity 2 and while money was a bit tight the first few levels, I'm now pretty sure I could buy every island. Looking back, it seems like every single player RPG is the same way.

Dragon Age: Origins is the only one I remember having to make some compromises even to the end on gear to purchase. The Gothic games I think were relatively money light, but they also didn't have much to spend on, so I don't recall having issues in the end game.

Beyond just end game struggles, I was thinking that RPGs are unrealistic in the handling of money. Dumping massive amounts of armor and weapons on the potion selling guy. There is no scarcity of either money or items.

DAO gave the illusion of an economy by having limited resources at the end game, though it was still an illusion.

Is it even possible to build a realistic seeming economy in a single player RPG without making it boring?

I've only played SWTOR as an MMO, so I'm uncertain if they are any better. TOR's economy suffered from a lack of consistency. There was almost a player driven economy sometimes, but drops were better, except sometimes player crafted stuff could be better, until the next patch when they flopped again.

I guess it depends on what you mean by good. It sounds like for you, scarcity means good.

I'm not expecting a realistic economy in a game where so much else is unrealistic. I'd think a realistic economy would be frustrating more than boring. I don't want a Monty Haul, but I also don't want to spend so much time just managing money either.

Some of the mods for Elder Scrolls titles heavily rework the economy to adjust to the player's spending habits. Dump gazillions of gold into the local economy on iron ingots and inflation goes nuts, the price of iron skyrockets, the nearest towns with iron mines get rich, etc.

Prophecy of Pendor mod for Mount and Blade: Warband had a pretty good economical component. Plus first-person beat-down's never get old.

I haven't played it yet, but it seems like Kingdom Come: Deliverance may have tried for the realism you're looking for.

It has been awhile, but I don't remember economics playing that big of a part in KC:D.
In fact, if I recall, I never really found much better armor or weapons than those found early in the game, so money was never an issue.

Alefroth wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:07 pm I guess it depends on what you mean by good. It sounds like for you, scarcity means good.

I'm not expecting a realistic economy in a game where so much else is unrealistic. I'd think a realistic economy would be frustrating more than boring. I don't want a Monty Hall, but I also don't want to spend so much time just managing money either.

Yeah, I suppose scarcity is what I’m looking for. I think maybe challenge would have been a better for me to use, with scarcity as a component. I agree that an actual realstic economy would be boring. Though having teamsters haul away the loot after I’ve killed everything might be amusing.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:10 pm Some of the mods for Elder Scrolls titles heavily rework the economy to adjust to the player's spending habits. Dump gazillions of gold into the local economy on iron ingots and inflation goes nuts, the price of iron skyrockets, the nearest towns with iron mines get rich, etc.

I didn’t realize they’d gotten that advanced. I haven’t tried it in years, thanks.

I’ve never played KC:D or Mount and Blade, thanks for the suggestions!

Freyland wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:14 pm Prophecy of Pendor mod for Mount and Blade: Warband had a pretty good economical component. Plus first-person beat-down's never get old.

Best Mod of any game ever Nice obscure reference as well.


IMO I should be filthy rich towards endgame and money should not be a problem. I AM the Hero and have the loot to prove it.

More thoughts: Is the economy broken or the game mechanics. Example: It doesn't really matter if John the Herbalist will buy anything and has bottomless cash to do so If I couldn't carry 12 weapons, 2 sets or armor, 5000 shiny baubles, 100 iron ingots, and 1 Minotaur head. So is the economy stupid or the strength of my back and bottomless pockets?

morlac wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:37 pm More thoughts: Is the economy broken or the game mechanics. Example: It doesn't really matter if John the Herbalist will buy anything and has bottomless cash to do so If I couldn't carry 12 weapons, 2 sets or armor, 5000 shiny baubles, 100 iron ingots, and 1 Minotaur head. So is the economy stupid or the strength of my back and bottomless pockets?

Could be either. In Morrowind I used to dump all the loot at the entrance of the dungeon, mark, load up, cast one of the intervention scrolls, sell stuff, recall... Obviously I was exploiting a game mechanic, but trying to “realistically” haul limited items to the store gets boring. I could not sell every little bauble, but the game seems to demand it.

I used to think the problem was a single coin type, such as gold, causing issues with pricing, such as an apple being worth the same as a dagger. DA:O used different coins, gold was precious. But... PoE2 used a single low level coin and the higher level ones were simply stored as 3x, 4x whatever the smaller denomination. Still ended up out of whack.

I have no idea what the answer is, especially in open games where one player could just do the main quest and another rob every house, do every side quest. I’ve just noticed that as RPGs move towards the end, they get easier and one aspect of that is the economy. I suppose I could limit myself, but I grew up in the 80s

Some of this comes from the LitRPG genre. I’ve been reading a few of them lately and they gloss over the economies for the most part or the economies are greatly exploited. It made me start thinking about what a good economy would look like in an RPG.

World of Warcraft has a huge economy. But you may not want to pay the sub. The nice thing about their economy is that you can make enough gold not to have to pay a sub.

Eve Online also has a big economy, don't know how they are doing subs now. Path of Exile has a big funky economy, I could never figure it out.

The Witcher 3 seemed to have a pretty good balance (at least as far as I've gotten - Level 23+/Skellige)

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:44 pm The Witcher 3 seemed to have a pretty good balance (at least as far as I've gotten - Level 23+/Skellige)

Witcher 3 is another game where you go from pinching pennies at the beginning to building out your own villa at the end with cash left over. In fact, the villa at the end may have been added specifically to deal with the fact that you have so much money in the end game, despite vendors with limited cash on hand.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:36 pm

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:44 pm The Witcher 3 seemed to have a pretty good balance (at least as far as I've gotten - Level 23+/Skellige)

Witcher 3 is another game where you go from pinching pennies at the beginning to building out your own villa at the end with cash left over. In fact, the villa at the end may have been added specifically to deal with the fact that you have so much money in the end game, despite vendors with limited cash on hand.

It didn't help. Geralt still had enough money to singlehandedly destabilize the Nilfgaardian economy. And every other economy. Not really sure why he's running around killing monsters, but it's not for money, I'll tell you that much.

Fitzy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:31 pm Obviously I was exploiting a game mechanic, but trying to “realistically” haul limited items to the store gets boring. I could not sell every little bauble, but the game seems to demand it.

And yet, did it actually, or was that just an impression? I'd bet that you could play Morrowind without ever selling a single piece of loot unless a quest specifically demanded it.

A good example of why player run economies are just better. Single player games that aren't actually business games have a hard time balancing all of the economic stuff, I've found.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:50 pm

Fitzy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:31 pm Obviously I was exploiting a game mechanic, but trying to “realistically” haul limited items to the store gets boring. I could not sell every little bauble, but the game seems to demand it.

And yet, did it actually, or was that just an impression? I'd bet that you could play Morrowind without ever selling a single piece of loot unless a quest specifically demanded it.

Huh. Maybe i need to play again.