Most of the time - I explain each my suggestion, this time I didn't and got a lot if minuses
So why do I actually suggest to increase the upkeep of Arbalest or at least leave it the same:
1) Everyone here should understand that Arbalest users are extreme class. They're not meant to be the main mass of crossbow users. You can check all classes and you will see the same - players don't tend to use the highest tier weapon because it's too extreme and expensive. They rather prefer more balanced weapons. A lot of examples: Rus Bow over Longbow even though Longbow has better damage and projectile speed; Jarids over Throwing lances; other polearms over Elegant Poleaxe; great swords over Flamberge; NCS over Long Espada Elsavona etc. How many Heavy Crossbow users do you know? There were some of them in the past but now I don't know a single one, even though MW Heavy Crossbow is a little bit more accurate than MW Arbalest. Regular Crossbows are something rare, Light Crossbows are only used by Horse Crossbowmen.
2) Arbalest users are meant to be expensive. It's probably my fault that I popularized medium-heavily armoured arbalest users. But it's not my fault that people got it wrong. The thing is that you're meant to lose money playing with medium/heavy armoured Arbalester. Why I made it in my guide? The answer is simple: this guide was made mainly for those who didn't have 15+ generations so they were about to retire a lot. And they were not about using Arbalest on low levels, so by the moment you reach viable level (i.e. 25) for using Arbalest - you already have a decent amount of money to spend on upkeep until you reach lvl31 to retire again. So by the moment you reach needed generation - you already have a decent amount of money to play further than lvl31. Also, I personally don't lose money with my gear (46,100 gold price, 3224 max upkeep) and my gear is ultra expensive.
3) Making classes expensive is one of the worst ways to balance, but still it works in some cases. There are a lot of Arbalesters now (not as many as archers though), more than it's supposed to be. Expensive classes stop randomers from playing them, but never stops dedicated players. So making it less expensive equals making it more popular. And if you make it more popular you'll make another wave of classes so everyone will whine about enormous amount of arbalest users (and we already have overpopulated ranged division).
Poll