LE Skyrim Economic Overhaul

[Krem]

I've an idea for a very large overhaul of the Skyrim economy, which will make gold far more valuable, by reducing supply and increasing demand. To counter this, the player can go into business..

 

 

No minerals outside of mines.

Mines that are in use are locked and guarded.

Blacksmiths & Alchemists only sell finished products.

Magic vendors don't sell filled soul gems.

Soul gems that can store larger souls, can collect multiple smaller souls; four rank 1 souls equal one rank 2 souls, and so on.

Everything costs 5 times more, while selling items give 5 times less.

Only specific merchants sell raw materials; hunters sell pelts & alchemic fishes, overseers of mines sell ores, and herbalists sell flowers. Hunters & herbalists do not live in towns, but wander and have their own camps in the wild. The stocks are small, limited, and expensive.

Smithing & alchemy level up far slower.

Smithing requires more metal.

Smelting down armour & weapons gives only a small portion of the metal that went to create the products.

Arrows can be crafted.

People have less-advanced armour & weapons, and are generally poorer (with exceptions)

Shops, mines, farms, and housing can be bought, sold, and rented.

New NPCs can be hired to mine, farm, fish, hunt, search for alchemical ingredients, and various other shops.

Prices, wages, rent and focus of operations can be changed.

Gold from quests is drastically reduced.

Weapons and armour can be damaged, and are reduced in quality with use. They must be fully repaired before being improved or enchanted. If damaged too much, weapons and armour can break, leaving only husks that can be broken down.

 

Houses and stores can be changed to each other. The more houses for sale/rent, the lower the price of housing. The more shops, the lower the price of goods.

 

Shops can specialise, or be general. Merchants can be hired to sell, buy and manage each shop; the better the merchant, the better income the shop provides, but quality merchants also require higher wages.

 

Gatherers of various kinds can be instructed to drop off their items at a storage, directly in a shop, or to workers who work with gathered items. Craftsmen can, too, store their items or add them directly to a shop.

 

Shops, storages, mines, and houses, can be broken into and robbed. Merchants can be cheated, gatherers can be robbed & murdered. The rate of crimes can be reduced by working with the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves' Guild, and by paying for protection. They can also be paid to attack competition.

 

Businesses can be invested in, bought, taken over, worked for, and sabotaged.

 

Trade routes between cities, settlements and mines can be established.

 

Bodyguards, watchmen, and guards in general can be hired, trained, and commanded.

 

Thugs can be hired to shake down townpeople, wanderers, shop owners, house owners, and business owners. Guards can be bribed to ignore said thugs, to leave the dragonborn's business alone, and to aid the dragonborn against competition.

 

New mills can be opened up, as well as mines, caravans, teams of explorers/adventurers, and various other businesses.

 

Assassins will be hired against the dragonborn and key employees.

 

Entire new towns can be established, with taxes, housing, businesses, laws, guards, and anything else of importance. The jarl of the region must be paid tribute to, or the hold's guards will raid the town frequently.

 

Farms can be instructed to farm various agricultural items, be it food or alchemical ingredients.

 

Higher wages yield more productivity, up to a point, due to less corruption, more work, and more loyalty of the employees.

Higher profits increase the amount of burglars, robbers, bandit ambushes, and assassins.

Higher prices and rents increase the amount of theft, and new shops are more likely to open up in houses the player does not own, as well as decreasing the number of customers. People like you less.

Lower wages decrease productivity, "lost" goods, give a chance of employees going on a strike or event revolting against the player, claiming their workplace for themselves. Workers may also quit, possibly stealing goods and tools for themselves.

 

New towns face bandit raids. Walls and turrets can be constructed, guards can be trained, and various other defense measures can be taken. Castles can also be built.

 

Constructing houses, walls, etc., costs resources. If the player does not possess the stone, lumber, and whatever else required, he must pay extra gold. Builders and planners must also be paid; the higher the wages, the sooner the buildings will be ready.

 

This is not finished, of course, and any input is very welcome, be it criticism, praise, calling me mad or asking to have my babies.

[OrphenFire]

I have to say, this sounds awesome. One idea that springs to mind is also the ability to usurp the throne of any Jarl. You should be able to take over his/her hold by assassination, threatening, bribing, or even assaulting his/her city with an army. This would make Skyrim so immersible, it makes me wet just thinking about it.

[Krem]

I thought about it, and that'd be wonderful! Politics and economics go hand-in-hand in fantasy (and IRL, unfortunately), so that would be, again, wonderful.. But I was hesitant to include it due to the massive amounts of extra effort regarding quests and such.

[OrphenFire]

I know. It's a super complicated issue when you take the preexisting quests and storyline into consideration. There are already some issues in vanilla Skyrim, like when you win with the Stormcloaks and then go to Solitude, some of the stewards and Jarls that are housed in the basement still think they are in their original city lol. It was a little confusing. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a massive "Frenzy" spell to start a nice brawl, though. (I solve all of my problems with brawls)

 

Perhaps parts of the political aspect would be unavailable unless certain essential quests have been finished.

[Krem]

Hrm.. instead of becoming a Jarl, I think it'd be better to have puppet Jarls (plural, yes indeed-ily-doo). More realistic that way, I think, seeing as the other Jarls and, if siding with the Imperials, the rest of the Empire, would be suspicious of a rich merchant overlord suddenly becoming jarl of several holds after the other ones died.. :P

 

Although, to be honest, I'm pretty sure Bethesda will add a DLC/expansion that'll further the main story, regarding the Moot and such.. that'd open up the floodgates for even more political mischief. :3

[OrphenFire]

You're right. Having hidden influence over the people is much better than being the figurehead. Figureheads get blamed for everything (they're essentially the paid fall guy) while the people pulling the strings never have to worry about being caught, cuz nobody even knows they exist (or at least how deep their influence runs). I think an interesting questline, if you make it as far as becoming the man being the curtain pulling the strings, would be to have a small group of conspiracy theorists start plotting to free Skyrim from the corruption of the "puppet master" (which would be the dragonborn). They don't know who exactly it is running everything behind the scenes, but they have enough resources to find out. So you have to squash their plans by whatever means necessary (assassination or bribery). But also, you don't actually know who THEY are either. It will take some investigation on both sides.

[Krem]

Possible to be on the other side, too, if we can program it! To have (custom) merchants grow if you don't do anything, devouring other businesses and starting their own merchant empire.. Or, of course, you could work for him.

 

But, not to have it stale. If it's simply "if you don't have X amount of Y after Z time, then Q happens" it'd be boring.. Much better to have it dependent on actual actions, both by the dragonborn and NPCs; have them compete with prices and good, and the best (IE most corrupt) one would get official "help" with the competition to establish a forced monopoly, much like it is in the real world. (A free market is the worst place for monopolies, etc.)

 

Say, merchants A, B, C, and D are competing over one hold. Merchants A and B try to influence the Jarl and either the Empire or Stormcloaks, by trickery, guile, bribe or outright violence. C and D are honest. A convinces C and D to work "with" him to destroy B, convincing them that B is corrupt etc., and drives him out, and then A smashes the other ones. He then starts to spread out, being the complete owner of an entire hold's resources.. Think the Silver-Blood, but smarter, more aggressive and expansive.

 

We could have merchant factions waging open warfare, covert warfare, diplomatic and economical warfare, even merging.. The possibilities are pretty much endless.

 

And all this could happen without the dragonborn, be it before he starts to trade, while he works for a merchant group, or even if he doesn't play along in that part of the mod. :o

 

I mean, a part of this mod is simply modifying the gameplay, not really adding anything.. Although users of it would, hopefully, try to start their own business and/or towns.

 

Oooh! Taking over a cave/ruin and making them into outposts/towns/cities.. I shudder in anticipation!

Edited December 22, 2011 by Krem

[Velyanthe]

I very much like the idea of making a new city, and some of the final ideas you have on there, but I don't agree with the idea that only specialized merchants should have base materials. It doesn't make sense. Sure, the merchant could make as many potions as possible, but what if townfolk use herbs as remedies, rather than potions? There's also not very much call for poisons in towns.

 

I also disagree with the thought of no ore veins outside of mines. Less, yes, and perhaps more located in mountainous or deserted areas. Also some mines are fine with being shared - there is one by an orc settlement that, if you're friendly with them, they are fine with you mining ore, as an example.

 

An additional idea would be to vastly increase the amount of ore veins in the game, but also allow people mining them to collect the ore, rather than hammer mindlessly at the wall. Ore could be pickpocketed, but could not be mined from the depleted vein. Or, the vein could have less to take, after an NPC has visited it.

 

Vastly increasing costs, I cannot see happening in towns. Perhaps an increased cost for someone who is not well-known in the town, or for someone supporting the other side of the war (being a Stormcloak and buying from someone who sides with Imperials).

 

I was thinking the other day of Morrowind, and how I finished the game, then tried to make my own town and discovered that I had killed the thing in the cave that you need alive to make a town, as a source of eggs. It would be a pretty awesome addition to Skyrim, considering the amount of influence you can get. Thane of different holds? Dohvakiin? Known across Skyrim and Cyrodiil? Can't even build your own farm? A hunting lodge would be nice to build, too, with a constant supply of meat. Owning a trading company would be awesome, and you could add stores across the province, or convince merchants to join you.

[Krem]

The increase in price and removal of ores was done for economic reasons, since there's no need for gold once you have your gear.. but, yeah, the option to have minerals that simply provide less would be nice. I was just thinking of upping the scarcity of the mats to make gold valuable; I managed to make a full set of ebony armour in a few hours mining. The idea was to make mining it yourself to be a silly waste of time, so you had to either own your own mine(s), sneak into an already-owned mine and steal the ore, or to buy it. And being able to fast travel to a few cities to buy all the mats is too easy.

 

Remember, the point of this mod is to make money-making matter. In vanilla, money is worthless. A dungeon crawl or two, and you have enough money to buy all the mats you need for your armour, weapon(s), and even to outfit your companion! Seeing as money's only real function is gear (housing is free after a few quests), the final goal of having a full set of daedric/dragonscale, plus weapons, should be far off. A full set of daedric armour should costs as much, if not more, of a house.

[Krem]

And don't get me started on alchemy... A single potion that costs more than any merchant can afford? Absurd!