» Tue Sep 06, 2011 11:33 am Why would a barter system be troublesome to implement? A full barter system was implemented in both FO3 and New Vegas.
I kind of like the idea of certain items having no value. It keeps us greedy players from stripping the environment bare of decoration to sell it all. Plus, I do think it represents the relative value of the item to the player character - you don't need it, you can't sell it, and you can't use it, hence it is worth 0 gold.
And yeah, most medieval societies worked with some sort of barter system, but honestly, what merchant is going to buy a bunch of spoons from you? Or a fork, a ball of wadded up yarn, and an ink well? Who are they going to sell them to? It is still just worthless junk to them as well. You try going to a pawnshop in real life and trying to get money for balls of yarn and a handful of silverware. You'll get laughed out of the store.
And if I were a merchant in Skyrim, I damn sure wouldn't buy food off a stranger that just walked in out of the mountains. He probably has a steady and known supplier for that sort of thing rather than relying on buying vegetables that have spent days at the bottom of a stranger's pack.
I just want Skyrim to have things WORTH stealing in people's houses. You know, gold, gems, jewelry, heirlooms, grandpa's old magical boots, etc. Maybe even artwork like paintings and statues. Then we can be respectable thieves, instead of emptying the houses of their contents for a grand haul of 10 gold. I stopped stealing from most places in Oblivion. Just wasn't worth it.
I kind of like the idea of certain items having no value. It keeps us greedy players from stripping the environment bare of decoration to sell it all. Plus, I do think it represents the relative value of the item to the player character - you don't need it, you can't sell it, and you can't use it, hence it is worth 0 gold.
And yeah, most medieval societies worked with some sort of barter system, but honestly, what merchant is going to buy a bunch of spoons from you? Or a fork, a ball of wadded up yarn, and an ink well? Who are they going to sell them to? It is still just worthless junk to them as well. You try going to a pawnshop in real life and trying to get money for balls of yarn and a handful of silverware. You'll get laughed out of the store.
And if I were a merchant in Skyrim, I damn sure wouldn't buy food off a stranger that just walked in out of the mountains. He probably has a steady and known supplier for that sort of thing rather than relying on buying vegetables that have spent days at the bottom of a stranger's pack.
I just want Skyrim to have things WORTH stealing in people's houses. You know, gold, gems, jewelry, heirlooms, grandpa's old magical boots, etc. Maybe even artwork like paintings and statues. Then we can be respectable thieves, instead of emptying the houses of their contents for a grand haul of 10 gold. I stopped stealing from most places in Oblivion. Just wasn't worth it.
Are you sure you know what you want? You said you stopped stealing from most places because it wasn't worth it. Well, then why do you want valueless items? Hmm, who would want yarn, or cloth? A clothier perhaps. What about a few extra forks? A restaurant would have use for a few extra forks, for the right price. Maybe there are others out there stealing the forks from the restaurant, so they need a few spares. I still disagree with balancing the value of items based on the usefulness to the player and not usefulness to the player character. In our real world there are some valueless items that only have sentimental value, and I'm fine with the old mans lucky coin (made of a worthless metal) being worthless. But items like a couple feet of cloth, a ball of yarn, or a shovel, all would have value to someone in our world, back in the middle ages. You just have to find a buyer.
I can't remember if this is true or not for Oblivion, but in Morrowind most barterers bought items specific to there specialization. If an item wasn't in that group of items they were interested in, well they didn't buy it because it was worthless to them. I think of the player, when it comes to bartering, as a general salesman; can see the value in most items. And that's the way it should be in game because Bethesda doesn't know that I decided my character used to be a farmer and now places high value on tools of that trade. A scythe, hoe and a hand full of seeds would be worth something to my character because they know how to make a living using those items. So BGS can't say that those items should be worth 0 coins.
