I've been playing a bunch of Fallen London lately, and I find it interesting how they do "pyramid qualities": Achieving level X in something requires +X points.. 1 for level 1, 2 more for level 2, 3 more for level 3 etc.
The question: What if typically-linear variables like "gold" were made pyramidal, with items costing a fixed amount of "levels"? E.g. The player has "Wealth 5", gains 5 more gold, bringing them up to "Wealth 6", which then requires 6 more points, etc. eventually reaching a point where it's harder to reach a higher wealth level.
But a potion costs a fixed 3 Wealth, a weapon costs 5 Wealth levels and 2 Reputation levels.
"Pyramidal" is just one way to do it, I'm considering other ways like diminishing gold drops, taxes, etc, but a "progress bar to Wealth X" seems the least player-unfriendly.
Expectations: Use it or Lose it; I expect this to discourage grinding and to encourage "planning for buying X", not earning extra "wasted" Wealth (6 gold is worth 1+2+3 -> Wealth 3 in the beginning, but barely increases your level later on). Theoretically, this would keep the player switching activities and moving around, but I'm wondering if anyone has any takes on it.
PS: looking for tag suggestions for this quesstion as well.
