From a previous suggestion...

When anyone refers to forging or tanning it is the norm to consider yourself into it when you forge better than "store bought". The reason is because nearly every store bought dagger is the same as every other store bought dagger, same with armors, weapons everything seems capped out at a point. Now when you consider forged weapons and items you?re getting some very strong, very expensive, gear.

The game balance issues are with stores having an unlimited amount of wares. If some rich trader wanted to he could buy enough arrows to send him to the unloading zone a hundred times over maybe more. So if an arzfilt was actually much better than a crossing broadsword much better as a matter of fact, what would keep every HE user from buying one? People would easily save up and get the best armor and best weapon and you'd have a bunch of clones of each other. Forging fixes some of these problems but leaves a lot to be desired, variety, uniqueness, price.

So why not actually make better everything, swords, armors, gear like; bigger, better buckets (say that 5 times fast), more potent potions and herbs, unique clothing and fest like items available from NPC merchants but make them difficult to obtain without being far too expensive.

1. Stock, get rid of the endless supply of weapons. Maybe one really nice robe sword that appraises like a somewhat high forge blade does, is made every two RL months. Or hisan salve made by this alchemist in Muspar'i, but because of the seasonal nature of this hisan it's only available during the spring.

2. Moving shop, this would keep players on their toes. An Bowman that occasionally crafts superb composite bows usually has a shop around Langenfirth. Occasionally he'll moved down to Leth Deriel to visit kin and open a shop there and then rarely he will show up Horse Clan to replenish some materials and sell a few of his comp bows there and this cycle can take a RL year.

3. NPC buyers, this would increase the rarity of some items as NPC purchase them and take them out of the system making getting that steel hhr'ata with troll bone handle from Muspar'i that sells them once in a blue moon even more riskier.

Benefits:
1.Forged priced comparison, no store bought weapon should be as strong as the top end forged weapons, but they could be near. And this would give both the buyer and forger and middle-trader time to think, ?Why buy/sell this 40 plat forged scimitar when I/they can hunt religiously for one just a little below it and get it for 25 plats??

2.Traders can now become treasure hunters as well as their ever increasing venues of monetary gain. They could hunt out and purchase these uncommon or rare items for the original price and give a nice mark up when they sell them at mark up. Matter of fact the rarer the item the better trading experience the trader would get.

3.Nice weapons that wouldn?t see the vault. I have a really nice festival bastard sword that fit my character perfectly. It was pricey, didn?t see many like them, so I got it and hunted with it constantly. When I realized it wasn?t that great a weapon and putting me in more danger than was worth, it is now a decorative piece on the rack in my home. And I hate to see a wonder piece like that gather dust.




"Oderint dum metuant."