My frustration with the system is the constant attention it requires. It shouldn't need that. Yes, food should eb important, I get that. But it shouldn't be a constant fight for the people that need the food to convince the people that have the food to sell it. They should want to sell it, to get the money.
Perhaps what we need is to make rural regions produce less gold, and thus give the lords more incentive to want to sell their food. That way their apathy toward selling their food would hit them in the wallet.
I On one hand, this makes sense. On the other hand I am unsure this would do a rural Lord any favors. What about the realm that has made it illegal for lords to sell food outside the realm and push the lords into selling food for really cheap prices? When my character became a region lord of a rural, I was looking forward to bringing in extra income via food. Then I found that the existing food culture made it difficult to turn much of a profit without putting the lordship at risk. I have been slowly working on changing this but it is taking time.
I think this is a two fold problem. If you want to drop rural lords income, you also need to consider the 'food belongs to the realm so just give it to me' problem...
