Quick follow-up from my previous post, having played a new game for about six hours.

So, of course, the in-hindsight entirely predictable outcome of removing/gutting all other major resource faucets in my game except for alchemy is, alchemy is even more relatively profitable than before. And it really is shockingly profitable once you discover the high-value potions. (For instance, blue butterfly wing plus blue mountain flower, both cheap and relatively common ingredients, make a two-effect potion that sells for 80-100g.)

The house rule I set to not loot bodies feels bad. It feels like leaving money on the table. Plus there's a certain lizard-brain satisfaction to running through a dungeon and coming out laden with the possessions of your vanquished enemy. That satisfaction feels like a core appeal of Skyrim, and taking it away lessens the thrill of dungeon diving.

I think the obvious solution of a mod that blanket nerfs the rates merchants are willing to give you, while inelegant, might be the way to go. I always kind of dislike that in RPGs merchants will give you like 20g for an item ostensibly worth 100g, but I see the necessity here. Trade and Barter looks good. I also really liked the idea of Trade Routes but apparently it has some unpredictable interaction with Ordinator perk trees.

I've set the Devious Follower debt to a base of 500 daily, with a level-based increase of 100 per level (previous I went with 1000 base and 50 level-based). I'm not sure yet as the effects haven't kicked in, but I think this should have the desired effect of cranking up the financial pressure as I start to level up.

Live Another Life is great. I started arriving on a boat to Solitude, which actually works really well. I come through the gates, and get to witness Roggvir's execution, a dramatic introduction to Skyrim and the Imperial/Stormcloak subplot. Though a bit later I did find a couple of radiant encounters on the road that would have made a lot more sense in Whiterun - the Honningbrew revelers and the two Alik'r harassing a random Redguard woman. I always assumed they were tied to a location, but apparently they are chained to the player character, wherever she might be.

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At this point, with a few restarts under my belt, I want to try to codify what I feel is the "ideal" playthrough, for me. What kind of experience do I want out of a playthrough of Skyrim + Devious Followers?

In a nutshell, I want to be put in the mindset of a struggling adventurer living hand-to-mouth.

• dungeon-clearing should be lucrative but not excessively so - ideally I should come out of a daily dungeon loop (kill-loot-return-craft-sell) with roughly enough to pay the follower, the toll collector plus a room at the inn. Sometimes I should come out ahead, other times I should make a loss. If anything goes wrong, like if the follower gets downed a few times or I don't plan my trips well enough, that should put me in the red unless I've had a long streak of moderate success beforehand and built up a nice nest egg.
• the various money sinks: inns, tolls, food etc., and alternate money faucets like waitressing, begging and performing should remain relatively relevant.
• financial ruin ideally shouldn't be reliant on big RNG "nukes" that I have no control over such as everything being stolen while I sleep. If/when I go into debt, it should be by incremental cuts and failures. I should be able to see it coming and either fail despite my best efforts or pull through to fail another day.
• I should feel comfortable enough to really actually do my best within the confines of the game mechanics, without relying on limiting myself with house-rules so as to not break the game.
• in a similar vein, I want to not have to constantly fiddle with the MCM mid-game to adjust settings, either in my favor or otherwise.
• the Devious Follower's demands should escalate steadily at roughly the rate or slightly above the rate of my increasing ability to make money (due to higher Speech, better potions, more valuable loot). At some point I should be pressured by economic necessity to start taking deals.

Is such an experience even possible to configure for? And more importantly, will I get there before my interest runs out? I don't think I have an unlimited amount of restarts in me. At some point (soon, I suspect) the novelty of replaying the first dozen hours over and over again is going to run thin.