Mod idea: Economy overhaul

[raney]

tl;dr version - Is it possible to change the sell value of items on a case-by-case basis?

 

Elden Ring feels far more grindy than its Souls brethren. It encourages you to specialize a build, but simultaneously asks that you pour your hard-earned runes into Vitality if you're not a professional at not getting hit. But on top of the fact that you're splitting rune levels between Vitality and probably two other stats, you reach a point early on, when the amount of runes awarded for overcoming a difficult challenge can be pitiful (i.e." I *FINALLY* beat the Crucible Knight in the evergaol. If I could do that twelve more times, I'd have enough runes for a whole level!"). Maybe the leveling curve is too steep, or the rewards are too little... but what if there were a way to alleviate some of the grind without touching either of these?

 

The aim of this mod is to provide an additional avenue for earning runes, that 1) rewards you more when specializing your build, and 2) gives a bigger payoff those times when you find yourself hitting your head against a wall over and over, only to realize that all of that effort was for some summoning ash you'll never use (Or ash of war, weapon, armor, spell, crafting material, etc). I propose an economic overhaul that basically makes everything more valuable across the board, but also uses more nuance determining the value of specific items.

 

Valuing weapons, armor sets and shields would be pretty straightforward. For commonly dropped equipment, maybe the selling value could be 500 runes instead of 100 (Or have it be a set amount proportional to the runes earned from killing the enemy). The things that you can only acquire from treasure chests or finishing a major quest would have a more dramatic increase based on how much trouble you have to go through to get it.

 

Spirit Ashes, Ashes of War, Spells and Incantations, I see being treated the same way. If you can only find it at a mid to late-game area, I should be able to get a decent fraction of a level's worth of runes when selling it.

 

Consumables and ammunition would take a little more effort to price. Arrows, for example, have the standard vs. crafted to take into consideration, as well as if they're fletched (which by all measures should increase the sale value). The pricing would be something like:

Bone < Bone Fletched < Standard < Standard Fletched < Fire, Lightning, Ice, Magic, Poison, Holy, Bleed (all bone) < ditto (all bone + fletched) < ditto (all standard) < ditto (all standard fletched) < Special arrows like Trina's, rot, and the ones that can't be purchased.

Golden Seeds: Just realized that I can't sell these, even though I should be able to. Can't upgrade the flask anymore, so every time I find one it feels pointless. 10k a pop would be a good start.

 

Conclusion:

Right now it's just an idea, and I'm more interested in if it can be done rather than asking someone to go and do it. Personally, I think a change like this would improve the feeling of adventure in the game, while trimming down the time normally spent grinding. But it could also backfire and make people want to grind more. On the other hand, it would improve the prospects of exploring dangerous areas very early on in the game, adding some extra opportunities to get stronger, faster (for those feeling particularly adventurous).