Damn it, stop making me rich!

[GonzoGamer]

I generally only care when there's nothing to spend the money on anyway. Like in GTA4; got a shitload of money but they took out all the stuff you would buy in a GTA game.
RPGs take a little while longer (good ones at least) because there's all sorts of stuff to buy.

 

[rofltehcat]

I'm lvl 21 or so and I'm already swimming in gold. This is mainly attributed to my looting habits, though. I don't pick up everything (otherwise I'd need to travel several times for each dungeon), I only pick up items with a good gold/weight ratio from the start. I still find myself overencumbered sometimes but it is nowhere as bad as my looting habits in Morrowind.

Another problem are the sidequests. Most sidequests give 400 or 750 septims each. At one point I was in a bar and one of the patrons asked me to bring warrior ashes to the town's priest. Was quite handy that the town's priest was also at the bar this very moment, so I got another 400 gold nearly instantly. Even if he hadn't been there, 400 septims would have been way too much for the short walk through town.

Another problem lies in game design where you theoretically get enough consumables to use a little on nearly every encounter but always save the stuff for 'later'. Sure, the last big fight I had in Skyrim, I used a lot of potions and stuff. But for the whole other dungeon (Labyrinthyan or whatever that mage quest dungeon is called... it is a really big one) I barely used anything.
I kind of liked Metro 2033 and Stalker where you could actually run out of everything if you weren't careful. Sure, you could have far too many rubels in Stalker, too... but the supply was pretty limited but when you are in one of the underground labs and your ammo is getting low and you don't know how long it will be until you are back in safety again... pretty intense gameplay sometimes.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I agree wholeheartedly, it seems I much prefer games when they kick me in a ditch and take all my stuff like FNV's Dead Money.

Dev's can't seem to cope with making people struggle with pennies anymore.

 

[DionysusSnoopy]

Playing KoA: Reckoning i have 2.5 million gold level 34 and halfway through the campaign and probably spent throughout the game about 600,000 on training and various upgrades for my safehouses. I have tons of potions and was given my weapons and armor as loot or rewards.

It was more fun and tense at the beginning when i was broke and a greater healing potion was 1/6 of my total gold rather than a batch of ten being far less than 1% of my amassed fortune.

 

[tgbennett30]

Reminds me of the old AD&D Dungeon Masters who would have our party get hit by thieves if we started getting a little too rich

Dark Souls is the closest game to that, IMO - where you lose all your souls (money) if you get killed and aren't able to get back to your bloodstain in time.

Heck, make that an option under "super hard core" or some such - you're getting bigger and badder all game long, which makes you a bigger target for thieves, and you have one quick tough shot at recovery before a thief who just took your best sword disappears forever.

Or else have gang attacks by rust monsters

 

[mastermarty]

You want a game that will make you work for your gold? Try Europa Universalis III. That game is just a management course in disguise.

 

[z121231211]

I hate having too many potions especially, and not just in Skyrim. I play through Kingdoms of Amalur right now, on the hardest difficulty, and 95% of the time I don't need anything but health potions. And hell, I don't even need those 90% of the time.

What I think RPGs should do is take out health potions, maybe even healing spells. Or make all healing items temporary (like the pills in Left 4 Dead). This may give more incentive to players to think about their situation because resources wouldn't be everything.

 

[defenestrate]

Step 1: Give money in an RPG weight.
Step 2: ?
Step 3: You're forced to reduce your profit!

Problem somewhat solved.

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

Play Dragonquest and frequent the DQVC. You will be skint within a few days.

 

[lord.jeff]

It'd help if games actually gave you something to spend money on, the only thing I ever bought in Skyrim was houses. I think adding in a hunger mechanic and other similar things would help quite a bit in slowing a player raise to riches.

 

[ablac]

I agree with you by the end of skyrim there is very little challenge because having the best skills and armor possible makes it nigh on impossible to die without throwing yourself of a cliff.

 

[Bostur]

I hear you. Virtual wealth is worth more if it is scarce. We will appreciate the phat loot more if we only get it occasionally.

There are ways to balance it. One approach is to use an economy that inflates with the player's level. If higher level players get more cash and have higher expenses it prevents the issue of getting behind the curve. It still makes it possible to be strapped for cash for a limited time. It's the part about higher expenses that many RPGs ignore.

 

[Agow95]

Your complaining that at high level you are too good, I thought that was the entire concept, if I spend a month becoming max level I want to feel like I'm max level, the level 50 Arch-Mage/Harbinger/listener/guildmaster/all of the above shouldn't beg for scraps from the tables of lower level people or the bodies of weak-ass bandits

 

[DoPo]

I feel your pain OP (and others that said the same) - many games just don't stop giving you stuff. If we go back from Skyrim to Morrowind, the thing was friggin' ridiculous: I start with only my clothes at my back and a handful of money. There is nothing actually stopping you from making money and you can do quite a profit even if you don't abuse the game. The first time I played it I came to a point where I realized I didn't even want to pick up money. It was just a waste of time to do it. I had several items that cost more than the economy of Balmora and the only way for me to wate some of the money was to train skills...which made me even more powerful and made more money (even more) obsolete as I literally had no need for money to take over the world.

Bethesda are a huge offenders here. But so are a lot of other games, mostly RPG but not always. For example, there is Assassin's Creed 2 - you start off pretty broke, with time you amass some money but you have to spend them for equipment/upgrades. I was pretty much broke most of the time in the beginning as I poured everything I could into the villa. And when I finished...nothing. I was left without a money sink. I didn't even get to pay for periodic repairs or something. And the damn thing just hosed me with more money I had no need of. Same thing happened in Brotherhood, but much sooner - at some pont I had no real need to renovate the other buildings, it was a pointless task - I had all the money I needed and I was constantly getting more.

Names escape me, but even games that don't have currency are not immune to this - healing potions are one thing to shower gamers with, for example. Shooters seem slightly easier on this aspect - there is a limited amount of ammo you can have...however if you have over a dozen weapons to choose from, it's suddenly irrelevant, as you'll barely be able to deplete one of the ammo types and there would be so many more to choose from.

To all people who say that mods can fix the thing - you are missing the point, the fact is that this is a trend in video games and the existence of such mods proves it. I'd rather I have mods/cheats to increase my resources than vice versa. I suppose the point is to satisfy the gamer by giving them a lot to play with but the effects are the opposite - it makes the game boring. Everything turns into a boring grindfest - why should gamers bother to use their wits and think of tactics to reduce damage done to them or similar? They could just go straight to the fight and shower in healing potions while mashing the attack button. Not creative but it works. And they don't lose anything because wasting healing potions is not hitting their resources. There is literally no reason to not do it.

 

[370999]

I don't know OP I tend to find that in rPGs I expect to be the badass monster near the end of the game. Usually the game makers care smart enough to include more powerful enemies and the like to balance out your new herculean strength. That said everyone likes to be powerful especially after not being strong.

I remember one game in new vegas where I palyed as a stleathy hand to hand character fighting for the legion. My God, taking care of both Camp McCurran and that camp near the lake was fucking hard and that was near the end of the game.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

and they don't really expect that you will pick up everything

which almost everyone does.

If they don't expect that by now, it's their fault for being so ridiculous. Seriously, this is a thing in pretty much all their games.

Anyway...

I had this problem in Saints Row the Third. I'd unlocked almost everything well before the end of the game, with little incentive to do more. More cash than I knew what to do with, and so on. And I'm technically already handicapping myself by not having the immunities and infinites, and I hate games where the only way to get any challenge is to artificially limit yourself.

Not quite in the same boat in Kingdoms of Amalur, but I've got like 250K in cash, armour and weapons that may not be the best but certainly are more than enough to handle enemies to my scale, and so many health potions I routinely sell them off. And if I did spend money on better equipment, I'd likely only make the process easier. I have a feeling it won't be long before I have half a million in reserve and the same problem.

I like some level of progression, but there's a fine line between becoming a badass late game and cakewalking through the second and third act.

The problem in Saints Row The Third is, that you don't need more than the fully upgraded pistols and the dual-pistol skill. Every other weapon except an infinite-rocketlauncher is worse.
And i feel you.. i've been there. I had the city controlled in the midst of the game and played the last chapter with absolutley everything unlocked. <.< Immunites are stupid.