Yliakum has never been a "steel" economy, because of several issues that I have noticed with crafting:

1. Few Crafters since crafting is considered such a grind that only a few brave souls venture there. It is "elitist" but will take only a serious powerleveler with a diehard penchant for swordmaking to go there.

2. The stablity of the system puts a lot of strain on this lot, with horror stories about steel stocks turning to piles of dust due to server crashes.

3. Several who started on this path have given up because of the above difficulties.

4. It takes a long time to really reap rewards of gaining craftmanship. You can predict the quality of sword and swords less than 200Q are hard to sell.

5. Now, with the "Gold" economy going bust...the market for Crafted Swords have shrunk to only a few "richies" who can afford it. In fact, loot weapons also dont fetch much money these days.

The cycle of demand-supply has never been completed, to make a steel economy possible. Gold was the abundant source of funds, but its dried up. Guild wars are far and few and not a happening thing, to kickstart a demand. Its the same with Duels..with points reset.

Seems Yliakum will never be a "Steel economy".

I was selling steel for 2500 trais earlier. Now, I can squeeze only 1000-1500 trais. Thats because of few crafters and how much they need to stock up.