My mod idea centers on the imbalance of the values of items in Skyrim and how easy gold is to come by. In my first playthrough I had nearly 200,000 gold by the time I was level 30, and as many others have experienced, this begins to ruin the immersion and soon the "fun" of the game. Loot in dungeons become meaningless, and when the prize becomes meaningless, the reason for going soon becomes meaningless too. Add to that there is nothing to buy with 200,000 gold, as the most expensive town house even was only 25000 (+13000 upgrades), and the greatest part of the adventuring aspect of Skyrim outside of quests- seeking a fortune- is flat.

I am a user of realism mods like the excellent "Economics of Skyrim" which do enormous work toward redressing this. Using that mod's Merchant Difficulty Setting as well as its Regional Values, the bulk of the above problem is fixed. My mod would center on filling in the gap on one comparatively minor, but yet remaining flaw in the Skyrim system.

That flaw is in the value of gold - the metal gold, not the currency, which I'll call "Septims". (I am also a user of the excellent 'Skyrim Coin Replacer' mod which redresses the strangeness of 4th era Imperial money in 4000 year old crypts.) Since gold ingots use the same mesh as other types of ingots, finding a gold ingot means having a HUGE brick of gold - judging by appearances, bigger than would fit in a single hand.

The gold ingots in Skyrim look to be pretty much the same as this real life example seen here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Delivery

The thing is, first of all, where smithing recipes call for gold ingots, I'd say that the amount of gold that fellow is holding there would certainly allow me to make more than two gold finger rings, wouldn't you say?

Second of all, the gold brick that man is holding, while comparably sized to the in-game gold ingot, is worth $638,000 going by today's value of gold. It's 400 troy ounces, and gold is about $1600 an ounce right now...

In Skyrim it could get you maybe (2) Hunter's Hotpots. Or if you're thrifty, maybe (4) cheese wheels. But hey, train your speechcraft and you could maybe get 5 for 1!

Of course, gold is high right now. But even going back to the 80s or 70s, gold was still $400 or so an ounce, making an ingot of that size about $160,000 or so. A gold brick of that size could buy you a pretty decent house in real life. Think back to the middle ages, before advanced mining techniques, and gold was even harder to come by. This is why gold has been the basis for money since time immemorial in civilization.


This is because that giant, two hand sized gold ingot is worth no more than 100 septims in the game. I'd like to correct that in a balanced way. The answer is not to simply make them more valuable, as money is already too easy to come by. Here are the proposed balance and immersion changes my mod would make:


1. The mesh and texture for the "gold ingot" in the game would be displayed as visually quite smaller to represent the smaller amount of gold needed to craft rings or apply some thin layer of gilt or plating to a sword or set of armor as called for in crafting recipes. The name would be changed to "Goldsmiths' Ingot", and the value would be set to 208 - perhaps still believable that you could pay for a meal at an inn for you and your companions with a 2 finger width tab of gold.

2. Much like the silver content in the Roman denarius was gone by the 4th century, so are septims debased in the 4th era! The Empire's on its last legs and just fought a major war with the Aldmeri Dominion, so of course septims aren't 100% real gold anymore! However, a good metallurgist can extract the 20% portion that septims do still carry to make that 200 value "Goldsmiths' Ingot" with the smaller mesh. Simply would add a recipe to the smelter: "Goldsmiths' Ingot/ ingredient- 1000 septims", and another, since the game only allows one crafting output product: "6 Copper Ingots/ ingredient - 1000 septims". The modern Septim is debased with Copper (Corundum). I would suggest using the "antique gold" coin retexture mod, as it adds a coppery look to septims that makes it believable that they might have been debased.

3. A new object item called "Bullion Ingot" would be created which would use the OLD mesh/texture of the regular gold ingot. This item will be valued at 5000 septims. This item would selectively replace the in game gold ingots that were placed in treasure hordes - for example, the wreck of the Icerunner. Remember when you cleared that bandit cave and the chief had one regular (100 gold) vanilla ingot? Heh. It'd be more believable that the Blackblood Marauders would have targetted that ship if there was real gold bullion on board. So that gold ingot you'd find would be worth its value: 5000 septims. The same goes for that skeleton found on that island in the northeast with 7 gold ingots nearby, obviously salvaged from a shipwreck. It's not a treasure trove unless the gold has value.

4. Using a smelter, a "Bullion Ingot" can be broken into 24 "Goldsmiths' Ingots", and vice versa.

5. A true gold coin called the "Imperial Ducat" will be added to loot lists for dungeons which are not too old - such as Potema's. The Imperial Ducat would be valuable for its weight in pure gold, but also because it depicts Tiber Septim - a subversive artifact to have. A new mesh/texture for the Imperial Ducat would have to be designed, and it would be worth 1/5 of a "Goldsmith's Ingot". I am imagining the words "TIBERIUS SEPTIMUS IMPERATOR OMNIUM TAMRIELLUM" ringed around his head on one side, and on the obverse, the White-Gold Tower with the words "AERA TERTIA NOVA" ...

6. Prices of homes in Skyrim will either be doubled or tripled, to account for the existence of these gold bullion items as well as to make their value more realistic in the economy. It's hard to make value calls for a fictional economy, but if we want to approximate the way of life, we might as well take a cue from the economy of the real life middle ages.

Judging from the real life medieval prices seen here http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medprice.htm , a cheap sword was about 6d (ie, iron sword), while a "merchant's house" was L33-L66. Knowing that there are 12 d (pence) in 1s (shilling), and 20s in 1 L (pound), then 33 L would be (33*20*12) = 7920 d. If an iron sword is 6d and, say, Hjerim was our example of a "merchant's house" at 7920d, then their values would be 1320:1. If the ingame iron sword is kept at 25 septims, then proportionally, Hjerim ought to cost (1320/1)=(x/25), x = 33000 septims.

If we consider Proudspire Manor to be the equivalent of a "House with a Courtyard" at L90, then that would be 21600d. To equate the medieval d to our Skyrim Septim and the cheap sword of then to the iron sword of Skyrim, (21600:6 = 90000:25) then Proudspire Manor ought to cost 90000 septims, a fitting price for the excess gold one has even mid-game, and enough to make one joyous at finding gold bullion!

7. Items like gold bowls, candlesticks, etc would be renamed to "gold plated" bowl, etc, to reflect their value, which would remain unchanged. True gold items could be added and hand placed, however, to represent real value and a target for thieves.

8. The texture for "gold ore" would be changed so that it appeared mostly rocky with a few flecks of gold in it, enough to justify that when the dross was eliminated from it, an amount of gold equal to no more than the new "Goldsmiths' Ingot" in size would be present. However, during any activity of mining a gold deposit, there would exist the possibility of finding "gold nuggets" of 4 different sizes- the same as the small chance to find gems. The "gold nuggets" would have the same texture as the old gold ore, but of various increasing sizes. Two "gold nugget-large" s could be combined in a smelter to the gold bullion sized ingot.



What does everyone think of these ideas? I'd really like to make it, but I would need help with the meshes and textures. I think it would do a lot to finish rebalancing Skyrim's economy, and most of all, to find that feeling of excitement when seeing the glitter of gold.

I like these ideas, and agree that gold should be more valuable, as should silver. I mean, one trip around Kolskeggr mine will net you over 50 gold nuggets as wide as your head! But then they're only worth the same as a couple of iron swords, or a hide tunic? I mean, I was paid to go into the mine, and kill all potential witnesses? What kind of a business plan is that?
I'd probably do away with gold mines, or make the ores extremely rare and off the beaten track. I'd make up for it by putting those nuggets you described into the gemstones list, so they show up when mining normal ores, and in chests/bandit encampments.