Then the loot should be hides, and I should sell them at the nearest city.

maybe needs a bit of balancing.  killing a troll army is no easy task and should be reflected in an equivalent reward.  i also agree with wolves not carrying coins.

Monster killing gives a lot of money, but it is balanced(IMO) by the amount of gold late game troops require.

For instance, recruiting a dragon costs 2000 gildar. A full squad of 12 of those costs 24000 gildar. Upkeep of that squad would cost 600 gildar/turn, i think(estimate based on the peasant who costs 12g to build and has 0.3 upkeep, 1/40 of the original cost).

If you are killing trolls for sport, i think you are in a stage where the game assumes your armies cost you a fortune in wages each turn.

Maybe require researching a special Questing tech before killing monsters yields large amount of money ? You might need to know monsters' habits to know where their stashes might be. And in case of intelligent monsters, you might need to know their languages to understand notes or letters they carry.

This is not what I call broken at all. Should possibly be considered no 24504 on the list of things to fix. Its cool to sometimes get some extra cash, nothing wrong with that. This is a single player game and balance isnt all that matters. Fun trumps everything

I don't mind that you get gildar for killing monsters. Its nice to get something for killing them apart from XP (especially given the fact champions could be a bit stronger and worth the time and effort). I'm sure if Stardock feels the gildar amount is unbalanced they can change it and they probably will since as most other mechanics are looked at and tuned.

What I'd like to see is a drop system from monsters for items and maybe even items that start a quest. Hardly the most original idea as this is standard RPG fare but it'd definately add to the game in a positive way and would not be difficult to implement.

I appreciate that not everyone plays this game the same way, but I LOVE this game primarily for the adventuring!  If I wanted to just build a civilization and go to war, I'd play Civilization.  Now I wont tell you to do that, but I just don't understand why you would be interested in Elemental if you're not interested in the features it offers.

I would love for monsters to give some random loot, that would be great.

"Monster Economy" ruins game - this is an Adventure game not a strategy/wargame

What? I thought it was a turn based strategy game with RPG elements.

If you get a wolf hide for every wolf, a spider egg for each spider and so on, this could be the basis for many quests. Or you could just sell them in the cities. After you sell 10 wolf hides to a store some new clothing could emerge for sale. Even better if its troll hides

I think this kind of solution is the best, for many reasons:

1st: Why do society acumulates any kind of money? It's a measure of your possessions and the value of your work, that you trade for stuff that you don't have, so the society gets balanced: people work to offer a service and in return they get something so they can enjoy the services of others as well. Why would monsters acumulate gold, if they are not organized in any kind of society? What's the point for them? Specially in the world of Elemental, where the most inteligent races are just restarting the civilization almost from scratch. So it's valid to assume that if the most inteligent races are just starting to rebuild the world, the lesser races would have absolutely no society at all, and if no society, no reason to carry heavy stuff like piles of gold.

2nd: One wisely told this already: it's ridiculous that you kill some wolves and gain more money than a GOLD MINE CAN PRODUCE IN SEVERAL TURNS (witch can represent a month? a week? whatever).

3rd: You don't have to bury the idea of killing wandering monsters being lucrative, you just have to admit that they way you can do it need to change. Some people are arguing that in the late game armies cost a fortune cos they need the best items that are expensive. So what if those awesome monsters with 100 in atack droped the weapon they carry that makes them have 100 atack, instead of money? So you can equip your late game army with a late game equipament in a more logical way? Is that a new idea? Everyone that plays any RPG knows that it is exactly how it works. You bust your ass to kill the powerful guys not for money, but for the rare equipament that makes them powerful. And in case of monsters that have "natural weapons", they can provide other valuable stuff that can perharps create items otherwise unavailable: killed a mighty dragon? Then get his claws, or teeth, and make a rare sword with it. Get his scales and make an armor with elemental resistances. Killed wolves? Get enough hides and recruit troops with leather armor for a cheaper price. Killed trolls? Get their blood in vials and make rare potions of regeneration in the next city that has the apropriate building. There are many things that can be done, much more interesting things than just give you gold, that will add to the game's lore and experience greatly.

4th: Since the pursuit of quests can also be a winning option, to focus in monster hunting should remain a viable way to keep your empire going somehow.

Well, there is a lot more that can be added, but I think this 4 arguments are the most basic and stronger ones to justify an overhaul on the monster loot system.

Cheers everyone.

This. 'nuff said.

Noteworthy observation + recommendation.

Yes! OH GOD YES! And then add in alchemical processes, and the ability to turn said loot into more interesting thing!

Imagine, to hunt spiders in order to have enough poison glands for all your archers, that would be epic!

Medallion of teleport, Shrill-hunting anyone?

... I know those are lame ideas, but really something like an extensive loot list would be awesome! Just do not turn everything into "sell this for gildar", let's have some interactivity!

The best balancing mechanism would be to condition the amount of loot by the relative combat rating of your army and the monsters, just like xp is modified in DnD. That way you can’t plunder thousands at low risk, if you want big loot you have to risk your army

Um... just wanted to point this out, but to fix this, set the "world" level difficult to easy, while cranking up the AI difficulty in game setup. If you do that the mobs that spawns aren't very powerful, so they won't drop tons of Gildar. Just saying...

Good idea.

Indeed. I am pretty sure that the devs will make the necessary changes.

Didn't mean for my Title line to sound overly harsh.

I think my point is this: my economy is so small it just feels cheap and ludicrous to have monsters be "the" source of income..... would much rather see multiple paths through the game to a healthy economoy - not one that forces you to monster farm.

So if I want more gold I should leave part of my army behind ? I should prefer units with underrated CR value ? Should I bring a small army and a powerful spellcaster ?

The last thing I want to do is have to micro all of my heroes and drag them back to cities to sell things.

I don't really get why we get income for killing spiders.  The cost of upkeep for an army to patrol the forest is much higher than the value of what a bunch of miscellaneous monsters are going to have on hand.  The fact that your troops get experience, and your kingdom is defended, is reward enough.  I think if the monsters were more aggressive, attacking cities and improvements, this would further the need to kill monsters.

Part of the issue for the need of income from the monsters right now is the costs are out of wack for hero gear. You can blow up to 1-2k easy just to deck out 1 hero. For a kingdom generating even 50-100 gold extra a turn, that is a lot of turns doing nothing else at all. Most armies run at least 2 heroes in them (typically a caster and a hero to increase movement). Cash up front is also needed to fuel building big units as well since you have to pay the entire cost up front.

Right now, I use monsters as extra income and also a training ground for new troops and heroes to get them several levels before marching off to do battle with the enemy if I have one.

Another part of the issue is the relatively low risk of engaging monsters and taking no losses. (Monsters are mostly melee and have to march up to you. Make them stop short and then your big unit crushes them. Add archers and its pretty much a joke).

Finally, the spawn rate can be crazy. I had a section where I had two armies on full time critter duty. So much was spawning there that both would get 1 fight a turn for sure if not more. Great xp, but it gets old dealing with it every turn.

I would not mind seeing drops other than cash off some of the more rare creatures, but not on the common trash. Most of it would be an exercise in moving around killing creatures and then heading into town to sell all the junk you got for cash. This is a tedious enough task as it is already.

lol.  was just making a suggestion.  as in "if you don't like this style of game, go play something else".  like "if you don't like first person shooters, go play tetris" or "if you don't like a game that blends adventure with civilization building, go play civilization".  

condescending piece of intertrash.

that would make hunting critters even more tedious than it already is. 

for all of you "it has to be realistic when i kill the imaginary monsters" folks: seriously?  this is the way it has been since the dawn of gaming.  you skimp on the realism to make the game playable.  constantly going back to town and selling the "loot" just adds another step to the process.   please stop begging the designers to make this game more micro-managy! 

If it weren't for the MOBS I would have no economy (9 cities, two gold mines, OUCH!)

That's exactly my point greggbert - it is in dire need of revision imho.