Fable II features the use of a dynamic economy, meaning each town has their own economy which is affected by how much the player buys or sells in a town's market as well as how high or low the player charges rent on houses they own. The quality goods for sale are mostly proportional to the economy (For example, a 1-star economy will only sell 1-star goods (e.g. Expired Celery), a 5-star economy will sell 5-star goods (e.g. Sublime Celery), and everything in between. Higher economies also allow access to rarer items like Thunder's Strength Potion, but will also charge higher prices for the same items than in lower economies.
Fable III also features a similar economy system however it is much less direct with the only ways to check a town's economy status is by listening to the comments of villagers or checking a shop's prices. It is assumed that the economy is effected in similar ways to Fable II but this has yet to be proven. It is also possible that the economy of towns are instead entirely affected by only the Hero's choices made throughout the game (negative decisions effecting the economy appropriately).
Status of the Economy[]
In Fable II, you can check on the status of the economy by checking the signpost of a purchasable building:
- Town Economy - If this value goes into the negative, the economy is bad with the lowest value being -25% of the base value of the building.
- Shops Wealth - If the economy is bad, then the shops give discounts on their goods with the maximum discount being 25%.
In Fable III, there is no way to directly check the economy level. However there are visual and audio cues that give you this information:
- Shopkeeper Banter - Shopkeepers will shout their feelings about the current situations. They will say good things when the economy is going well, and they will beg everyone to buy stuff if the economy is bad.
- Furniture in Furniture Shops - The level of the economy is tied to the quality of furniture availible for purchase in the shops. Broken furniture is sold when the economy is bad, and luxury furniture sold when the economy is at its best.
- Furniture in Homes - When the economy changes, the quality of the furniture in people's homes change as well automatically over time. During a bad economy you will find the houses filled with Broken Furniture, and during a good economy you will find them filled with Luxury Furniture. The type of the furniture will always be the same, for example a Broken Chair will change into a Luxury Chair but never into a Closet, and the change in quality will only happen when the player revisits the region.
Upgrading and Downgrading an Economy[]
The player can upgrade an economy by:
- Buying a lot of goods (shopkeepers cannot make a profit without customers, right?)
- Lowering rent in player-owned houses (lower rents means more money to spend on stuff)
- Lowering the prices in player-owned stores (more profit for shopkeepers to buy expensive products)
- Redecorating rental houses with higher quality furniture
- Buying goods in a store when stock is high
Subsequently, the player can also downgrade an economy by:
- Committing crime
- Completing special quests that involve deliberately destabilizing the region (e.g. Temple of Shadows Quest)
- Selling goods in a store when stock is low
- Killing off the town's population
Advantages and Disadvantages of Economies[]
High Level Economies benefit from a greater variety of goods (including some rare items), higher rent and store profit, and overall increases in good quality, but suffer goods and property inflation.
Low Level Economies benefit from cheaper goods and cheaper property, but pay out smaller rent and store profit and offer limited, low-quality goods.
Notes[]
- Leading a trader to an area using the follow command will improve the economy of the area the goods are purchased in, not the one where the trader is originally from. This means you can raise the economy of otherwise difficult areas if you are a completionist.
- Some seemingly "empty" areas, such as Bowerstone Cemetary do indeed have wandering traders, they are just exceptionally rare and appear most often when the hero is nowhere near the location but looking at the region stats in the pause menu.
- Wandering traders who become the spouse of a hero will retain their ability to buy and sell items, however they will still wander, though it will be within the confines of the region the marital home is located in. Bower Lake for instance, you will always find your wandering trader wife or husband wandering the road between Brightwood and Bowerstone (not the marital house). The exception to this rule is the Serenity Farm which breaks the old wandering AI of the trader completely and they will always be at the marital home or windmill.
- See Marriage for more information on trader spouses.
- Steel weapons, master weapons and some clothing items will not appear on wandering merchants until you have reached the stationary trader that sells the items. For instance master weapons will not appear on wandering traders until the Westcliff stationary trader has been visited, while the Monk Outfit will not appear until the Oakfield Clothing Stall has been visited.