A few years back, Iceblade — the sole developer left working on the Forgotten World project — began posting reflections on various aspects of Ultima 9 on a dedicated subdomain for the project that was set up here at the Codex. He stopped posting these in approximately 2019, as real life asserted itself and demanded more of his time and attention.

However, as of this month, he’s begun posting reflections on U9 again, beginning with a lengthy essay concerning the in-game economy:

In Ultima IX, it has been 20 long years since the Columns and Cataclysm occurred. How have these towns been surviving? It is implied that the whirlpools have been crippling trade and presumably for years not just a few months. Few of the towns appear to have pushed to gain self-sufficiency in terms of food. Further where is the mining to get the iron ore and other materials needed for weapons and tools coming from. Covetous is closed down and Minoc/Cove is inaccessible. Obviously, this poor approximation of an in-game/in-universe economy can be blamed on game deadlines and cut content/development. Even so, it remains that another pillar of verisimilitude of the Ultima world is lost; thus, hollowing out Britannia one step further.

Other issues abound with the Britannian economy. The pricing of items is rather extreme and imbalanced. Gold coinage is quite common throughout the game world unlike in previous Ultimas. When hostile creatures die, they often leave a dozen to several dozen gold coins or even 50-250 pieces for tougher enemies. These values are considerably more than the loot drops encountered in any previous Ultima. In fact, most monsters didn’t drop much if any loot and even monsters like dragons mostly dropped a handful of gems. And unlike in Ultima 7, most items you loot can be sold even if for 1/5 of the purchase value. Speaking of purchase prices, item prices are quite high relative to previous Ultimas. Beverages and food (when available) costs 3-15 gold, most adventuring gear costs at least 40 gold if not more than a 100. Most weapons regardless of effectiveness costs more than 100 gold. Most armors come in sets of 6 individual pieces with leather costing dozens of gold coins, chainmail in the hundreds, and plate mail pieces costing one to three thousand per piece. By comparison, plate mail armor pieces in U7 cost a few hundred gold each and were much more common to encounter as loot drops from human enemies. Apparently, the loss of the Britannian mint forced Lord British to debase his coinage down to 10% resulting in massive inflation. That 10-gold piece tax seems rather meager now when you can kick a few giant rats and pay that off.

The full essay goes on for some length, and is well worth a read if you have the time to spare. Few people know more about the inner workings of Ultima 9 than Iceblade has painstakingly figured out, so you can count on his writings to be both insightful and detailed.