Quote Originally Posted by Inzoum View Post
Yes, arrows were cited as an example because initially during game design for version 1, the prices of all items were intended to be lower, but this made even low-cost arrows too expensive because of their expendable nature and high value of the minimum currency unit, so they adjusted the cost of *everything else* to balance things out.

Imagine a Marauder axe costing 300gil, you can use that axe for a few levels without having to pay any more than that.
For an Archer, let's say you use around 500 arrows to get that many levels, even if you lower the price of the bow AND arrows to 1gil each, it'll end up costing you at least 501gil.

Rather than making fractions of gil, they inflated the price of everything other than arrows, diluting the value of 1gil, so that arrows would be affordable:
Axe: 3000 gil
Bow: 2500 gil + 500x 1gil for arrows = 3000 gil

By integrating arrows into bows and replacing other consumable munitions into reusable items which can be sold at a higher price, they practically removed every 1gil item in the game, making the cheapest remaining items 10gil or more. In light of this, they shaved off that last digit from every price in the game (as well as from our wallets) in a process called currency redenomination (look it up, it's a very real thing), so that the munition-less items can be priced the way they originally envisioned it, without the need for large numbers.

There are still people who adamantly claim that we'll be poorer because of the lower numbers (or that they're being robbed of 90% of their fortune), but really, buying a 300gil axe on a budget of 1000gil, or buying a 3000gil axe on a budget of 10000gil is really a 30% hit on your wallet in both cases, so same difference.

Of course, some items will have their price adjusted separately from the redenomination process as they may end up being more or less useful after all the rebalancing they're doing in ARR. Bows will probably see an increase in price to account for the fact you don't need to buy munitions anymore. A weapon with the ability to stun occasionally may end up being more valuable if the mechanics behind the Stun effect are changed (just an example, don't think they'll actually change that)
I never knew the reasoning behind why they did the currency devaluation. This makes a lot of sense now! As a fellow Archer I'm quite thankful. Makes me wonder what the value of the more powerful arrows will be.