IMO a good game offers the players dilemmas in balance.
Right. But in this case the dilemma would not be around "which is the best way to go for me", rather than "let's see which items are available right now for me", which is not the same.
This would further balance items based on the average opinion of their users, not the dev team. This change takes power from the devs and gives it to the users.
But upkeep itself doesn't really work for balancing, because there are players with millions of gold. So only the players without gold would be limited.
You will not be FORCED as you write it, to wear anything. You can do whatever you want, just like now, if you have the money for it, or grind for it.
And what if they don't? Upkeep already limits players who want to play as tincans or heavy cavalry constantly, which is still understandable somehow (although I don't see any reason why tincans or heavy cav couldn't be balanced to be only as effective as a spearman or an archer), people without money, which would be beginners mostly, would be even more limited.
Those who would feel this change the hardest are those who are:
* Hovering just below their income capacity/upkeep
* Wearing stuff A LOT of others are wearing
But as others start to use other stuff, your stuff will go down in price as a consequence.
I think there are a lot of people who are hovering just below their income capacity, it's only natural. They would all suffer from it, if they use the most viable items for their class, which is nothing bad, it's just what the current game balance makes them do if they want to maximize their character.
You know what I mean? Other people wearing the same items like you is rather a "random" factor, instead of a "balancing" factor, but I think balancing out the pros and cons of a build, including the "budget" for equipment (if a limit which defines a budget is existing at all
) should rely on stats and clever character planning, instead of "now let's hope not too many people decide to use what I want to use"...
It makes minmaxing really difficult, but I think players do have a right on minmaxing, it's an important part of RPG for some people, same as grinding or reenacting someone. Everyone has his preferences, and I don't like the idea to be forced to use something inferior or to look differently just because of the actions OTHER players do. I don't like being dependant on them.