reducing upkeep in a system that is flooded with gold and heirlooms is more like a bandage for a broken leg cure IMO. I believe the point of upkeep was to create a playing field based on how well you are doing, allowing you to equip better gear. It is game balance around money. From my 2 weeks of playing here, I think, that it helps to make the game a little more fun and fair across the board.
However, I believe the issue here is the hand-me-down's. You've got a lot of folks that are not beholden to the upkeep system and can simply laugh at it while they where their full plate bec and throwing spears every single round. Reducing the upkeep allows us lowly folks to gain more money and compete on a higher level with the aristocrats BUT, just creates a game environment where a few months later we'll have a similar problem just with more people.
But while we're talking about gold you might as well reference exp. ~2 weeks for level 31 and a loom point? It's no wonder they are selling at newborn prices.
Upkeep should be tweaked on various items and optimized, agreed, Probably more import is the way that repair happens in this game. Auto-repair rapes your gold supply and ought to be fixed first and foremost. but upkeep does serve a function towards game balance, otherwise there might as well be a couple of each item category. (and well, in many cases it already feels like that). Another problem with the money/exp/upkeep is that the market is a joke. Gear is all <20,000, and the marketplace (looms) is for 200k+ items, and trading your friends for straw hats.
How you going to play that game? Your going to get 31, and sell your soul for +1 damage or a few hundred thousand. Seems like the game went from one end of the spectrum to the other.
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