How can we encourage more trading?

[OvShit]

Yeah, but jungles and deserts are right out.

Here is an idea. So, we`d have mildly-cold forest region(taiga), mild forest and, maybe, steppe.
Taiga(well, I`m not sure if this name is right chosen) is what we all know and love - countless forest of firs and pines, mild forest contains all other types of trees and steppe is eternal moorish-grassy land. There will be no grass by default in taiga(although it can be planted), as well as there will be no mountains in steppe. What for crops, steppe has better growin` rate/bonus to a ql, as it`s warm enough. Taiga, on the other hand, has the better chances of having metal but lesser rate or crops growing. So, the world will be somewhat like a pie - with three climate slices. Pick one, hearthling.

[Chakravanti]

trading would need to be a profitable lifestyle. Meaning a mobile claim system and a player built coined economy.

[Koya]

2 Chakravanti
We are working on such market with coins... it could be done long ago and 1000 times easier if coins was unique in production and vending stands was non thiefable... but we have what we have... now we need to work on 16 000 bricks for wall and 90 000 stone laid tiles of land...
Not to count 500 vending stands...

[SpidersEverywhere]

I have idle visions of a world sloping down from mountains on one side, through hills, forests, mountains, grassland and coasts to an ocean with islands, each climate zone best suited to certain crops, food hard to come by on the mountains but rich with minerals, and proper tributary river systems flowing down from the highlands and merging into great wide rivers that flow to the sea...sailing trading trading boats and barges up and down a river, trading for spices and exotic food at the islands, fish on the coast, farm and ranch products in the grasslands, lumber in the forests, game in the hills, minerals in the mountains, selling each product where it's in greatest demand. No fast travel. The journey takes days. That's trade.

[Monkeytofu]

Unless character specialization is added (or enforced) and somehow alts were made less likely to be used (don't know how this would go, have some ideas but no good ones) you will never see trading as you see in real world economies/ other simulations. Making land segregated for fertility or 'mineability' will be pointless because people will just continue to make their usual mine alts like they have been and have no large wall in the way of doing so.

Until you see real villages pop up (the ones right now are just glorified BOYS ONLY tree houses) where people come together to trade the basic goods and trades between each other, you will never see any real higher level trading.

If I can cut down a tree, make the pieces, make the table, make the utensils, and make all the food that goes on it, there is absolutely no reason I would seek out someones help in doing so.

On the topic of coins: coinage is also made useless by the fact there exists no 'ground level' forced specialization. Currencies exist because a carpenter may want a pig but the farmer does not want the carpenter has to offer. There has to be the NEED of others skills and objects with strict limitations on what individuals can produce.

Until the "Jack of all trades" gameplay is ended by us (never happening) or forced, you will never really see successful use of coins, villages, and "real" trading.

[stonedrydar]

one simple way to encourage trade would be a "demilitarized" marketplace, meaning where noone can steal or attack someone and the option for every hearthling to quick travel there. if that place existed id probably check every day, it would be crowded with players id imagine and have this market atmosphere.
atm its more like u see half the stands empty/raided and corpses lying around, pretty much no people. has more the feeling of buying things after midnight in a dark side street than a market. it would also make it interesting for people just to spend time trading, e.g. u start with a brick and after 10 trades u got 2 bricks and 2 seeds.

[Jackard]

"European climate" stretches from Sub-Arctic to Mediterranean, so that's no reason not to have very varied climate zones.

doesnt matter. and "european" was the wrong word, the setting is slavogermanic

devs have repeatedly stated that they will not introduce tropical or polar regions, although they are interested in having seasons and colder areas. (probably mountainous)

[Lahrmid]

Figures, they are after all - Swedish. Couldn't live without precious cold weather

[krawco]

I have idle visions of a world sloping down from mountains on one side, through hills, forests, mountains, grassland and coasts to an ocean with islands, each climate zone best suited to certain crops, food hard to come by on the mountains but rich with minerals, and proper tributary river systems flowing down from the highlands and merging into great wide rivers that flow to the sea...sailing trading trading boats and barges up and down a river, trading for spices and exotic food at the islands, fish on the coast, farm and ranch products in the grasslands, lumber in the forests, game in the hills, minerals in the mountains, selling each product where it's in greatest demand. No fast travel. The journey takes days. That's trade.

All that in Hnh? Dream on =D

If this post was actualy an idea for the topic it would be a very nice sarkastic summary of most other ideas here =D

And for the topic, I think all stuff should loose quality when used. All tools you work with such as saws, axes, or shovels should get damaged and require repairing like carts, herb.tables or hives. But after repair they drop QL a little (how much QL could be affected by QL of material needed for repair). But this would make the game very hard for those hermits and small villages who get their high QL stuff from towns.

Unless character specialization is added (or enforced) and somehow alts were made less likely to be used (don't know how this would go, have some ideas but no good ones) you will never see trading as you see in real world economies/ other simulations. Making land segregated for fertility or 'mineability' will be pointless because people will just continue to make their usual mine alts like they have been and have no large wall in the way of doing so.

Until you see real villages pop up (the ones right now are just glorified BOYS ONLY tree houses) where people come together to trade the basic goods and trades between each other, you will never see any real higher level trading.

If I can cut down a tree, make the pieces, make the table, make the utensils, and make all the food that goes on it, there is absolutely no reason I would seek out someones help in doing so.

On the topic of coins: coinage is also made useless by the fact there exists no 'ground level' forced specialization. Currencies exist because a carpenter may want a pig but the farmer does not want the carpenter has to offer. There has to be the NEED of others skills and objects with strict limitations on what individuals can produce.

Until the "Jack of all trades" gameplay is ended by us (never happening) or forced, you will never really see successful use of coins, villages, and "real" trading.

Amen

[Avu]

Again clueless retards come and preach the mighty ultraspecialization having no clue whatsoever of the implications. People play games to have fun not to be assembly line workers. Who the fuck would play the game if all they could be proud of was making spoons because that's their ehm trade. Let it fucking go. Find another way to wank to your dream merchant profession capitalist pigs.