by Robben_DuMarsch » Sun Dec 11, 2016 10:45 pm
Localization in Haven?
It's pretty easy to make just about anything, anywhere, almost entirely self-sufficiently, with nearly the same efficiency as any other spot.
There are "biomes," but as soon as you step back from the biome level, the world is homogeneous in that you can get all you need in your general area... then you can most often bring anything you need back to your settlement and never need leave again.
In LiF, there are seasons and weather simulation.
Crops hardly grow in the north for long periods of 30 real life days and die when snow frosts cover them.
In the southern fertile lands, they have a much shorter winter and a longer farming season.
High quality wood is more available in the northern forests.
High quality metals come from specific mountain ranges and deposits.
Marble is only available in a few select locations.
Etc, etc.
On top of geographic availability of basic resources, there is an underlying regional resource system that provides regional variants of otherwise mundane resources, bound to specific map locations, which are the only locations where you can get those regional variants. For example, a southern oasis or isolated island would be the only place to get "Region 13" wood, which may be randomly selected as a requirement in a rare crafting recipe (consumed on use) that a blacksmith unlocks while producing regular goods.
Think of Dwarf Fortress when a crafter has a strange mood, and begins to work on an artifact, but demands very specific resources.
tl;dr
LiF has "scarcity" and asymmetric availability of goods depending on where you have settled, driving trade.
HnH does not.