by Zamte » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:16 am
Part of the problem is, people play the game largely to do their own thing. I started to play because it reminded me of some other games I've played, except better because it was persistent. I wanted to build my own little empire with some friends, and just enjoy making my mark and doing my own thing with the world. It's nice to offer them use of your facilities in exchange for just keeping them up, but then they're playing in your world, and not their own. A lot of people would much rather play without metal than have the game handed to them in such a manner.
The problem in this economy is that most things are in easy supply. There are a few hurdles of course. For instance right now I have no wheat, which means no straw, which means a bit of a wall I can't overcome until I get the wheat. Once I get it though, I can keep replanting it every time and suddenly the wall is gone and I now have too much straw. This system of too much or too little doesn't work, because the situations are extremes. Before you get these things (straw, metal, silk) you are desperately in need of them, and once you have them (this may apply less to metal) you can continue to just churn more out. They go from being priceless to being fairly worthless. Somebody with an established farm thinks nothing of straw nor wheat seeds, but for me right now a wheat seed would be a miracle.
For a real economy to come around, you have to have items which can be worked towards at every point of the game which are all reasonably valuable to everyone at every stage of the game. This makes them more liquid and more transferable. Metal would be good, except it's not available widely, and because not very much else is available.
Another issue with the trading, and the mines, and just in general is, in order to have a good location you need several random variables (clay spots, water sources, mines, proper land type) to come together all in one spot. I found a good spot with a well on grasslands near forest for trees, and I'm enjoying it, however as soon as I decide to go for a mine, chances are really low that there will be one anywhere near me, let alone a good one. They need to make it so that mines and wells can be placed anywhere. However the well water would be lower quality than the water obtainable from other places, perhaps even cause it to give 0.2 Black FEP each time you drink it so that it's not desirable but usable. Make mines placed in random locations random ore, and low chances to be found. Then you could make dowsing rods find good quality well locations, similar to how they do now, and make it so rustroot extracts can be mixed with a nugget of a metal type in order to make it track down a mine specifically of that type.
These would allow for everyone to have their basics, but for those willing to hurt in one area (bad water for instance, or having to be out of range of animals) in order to get a good mine of a specific type, or to get good high quality well water. As long as 90% of the items are so common nobody wants them and the other 10% are so valuable and rare that nobody wants to give them up for anything the others have available, then nobody will trade. Currently, if a newer player such as myself wants to establish trade without joining a preestablished town, we need to go searching over half the world map for higher quality water, soil, clay, or what have you, and while this is doable, it is a lot of effort, and requires a good base of operations and a fairly established character in order to pull off. High exploration, survival, a boat, and a good supply of food and water would be required to get any distance.
It's a really fun game, but I think balance wise it has a long way to go in things like this. The quality system is a good idea, and if the entire game was based on the premise that everything was moderately easy to get at low qualities, higher qualities would be required for most of the advanced stuff, and would require more looking, work, and luck to get. However it'd mean that if you had anything at high quality it'd be worth trading for other things at high quality. Then it wouldn't so much be about what is worth most, or what is worth something at all, but about having something, and getting it out there to trade.
