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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Transporting Goods, Functional Economies
I just learned about the game and backed it like, today. And I've been watching some of the Q&As and reading, but I find myself wondering how resources get used.
What I know:
1) You can use caravans to transport goods between nodes.
2) These goods can be sold, or used in crafting.
3) Node development is tied to experience, and not (necessarily) resources.
(presumably successful caravan routes do contribute to town growth, but in the same way that other activities do - abstractly)
So I guess my question is, what happens to goods once they reach a town, presuming the player isn't keeping them in storage or something?
If a player decides to sell the goods, do they enter a public market? Are players the only people accessing the market, or does the town itself use/benefit from goods that enter it? Does a town passively generate resources?
This is important, I think. It's easy to imagine markets (absent a passive resource sink) getting flooded with goods nobody wants because they don't contribute to a combat meta that becomes popular, or whatever. It's hard to balance a purely player-driven economy because players often want very specific things. If 'food' as an item isn't terribly popular, for example, are food items (and thus food-related crafting) going to crash in price because players aren't buying them?
I'd like to believe that in some fashion, producing resources and goods for a town is always worthwhile. I hope that towns (and the NPCs that occupy them) use resources, and perhaps even benefit from them, and perhaps even convert them into processed goods. If I sell wheat to a town, that wheat should do something even if players don't want it.
The easiest thing would be to have goods in nodes deplete over time, probably in relation to how large the node is. Larger nodes 'use' more resources/goods. This makes it easier to sell goods at higher level nodes, because there's a constant drain which depletes stockpiles and keeps prices high enough to warrant players selling goods there. Where a lower level node would not deplete stockpiles as quickly, meaning stockpiles would grow more easily and prices would plummet to account for it. (I wouldn't be surprised if this or something similar is already in the game, or planned)
A slightly more in-depth thing would be to have node production and development reliant on resources and goods being available. In order for a node to build a blacksmith you would need to transport the required building materials there, and once built, the blacksmith would need a steady supply of iron and other crafting materials in order to keep producing its goods (weapons and armor) which it would 'buy' directly from the market. If iron dries up, the blacksmith stops producing, or faces other consequences. These kinds of internal exchanges would regulate the local market in a more organic way - a town with a blacksmith would deplete iron faster than a town without a blacksmith, making it a useful market for iron sellers.
To take that to its natural conclusion, it would be nice if there were 'trade goods' which have no real use to players but are used by nodes specifically, and act solely as a source of income for crafters and gatherers. Higher level nodes may require higher level goods that reward higher level crafters/gatherers. These would be a source of cash for players that would be more reliable than 'player used' goods, and may positively impact nodes in some way, perhaps making specialized goods available, or allowing the construction of special buildings, or improving the strength of town guards, or whatever.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Really excited about the game, obviously. =P
What I know:
1) You can use caravans to transport goods between nodes.
2) These goods can be sold, or used in crafting.
3) Node development is tied to experience, and not (necessarily) resources.
(presumably successful caravan routes do contribute to town growth, but in the same way that other activities do - abstractly)
So I guess my question is, what happens to goods once they reach a town, presuming the player isn't keeping them in storage or something?
If a player decides to sell the goods, do they enter a public market? Are players the only people accessing the market, or does the town itself use/benefit from goods that enter it? Does a town passively generate resources?
This is important, I think. It's easy to imagine markets (absent a passive resource sink) getting flooded with goods nobody wants because they don't contribute to a combat meta that becomes popular, or whatever. It's hard to balance a purely player-driven economy because players often want very specific things. If 'food' as an item isn't terribly popular, for example, are food items (and thus food-related crafting) going to crash in price because players aren't buying them?
I'd like to believe that in some fashion, producing resources and goods for a town is always worthwhile. I hope that towns (and the NPCs that occupy them) use resources, and perhaps even benefit from them, and perhaps even convert them into processed goods. If I sell wheat to a town, that wheat should do something even if players don't want it.
The easiest thing would be to have goods in nodes deplete over time, probably in relation to how large the node is. Larger nodes 'use' more resources/goods. This makes it easier to sell goods at higher level nodes, because there's a constant drain which depletes stockpiles and keeps prices high enough to warrant players selling goods there. Where a lower level node would not deplete stockpiles as quickly, meaning stockpiles would grow more easily and prices would plummet to account for it. (I wouldn't be surprised if this or something similar is already in the game, or planned)
A slightly more in-depth thing would be to have node production and development reliant on resources and goods being available. In order for a node to build a blacksmith you would need to transport the required building materials there, and once built, the blacksmith would need a steady supply of iron and other crafting materials in order to keep producing its goods (weapons and armor) which it would 'buy' directly from the market. If iron dries up, the blacksmith stops producing, or faces other consequences. These kinds of internal exchanges would regulate the local market in a more organic way - a town with a blacksmith would deplete iron faster than a town without a blacksmith, making it a useful market for iron sellers.
To take that to its natural conclusion, it would be nice if there were 'trade goods' which have no real use to players but are used by nodes specifically, and act solely as a source of income for crafters and gatherers. Higher level nodes may require higher level goods that reward higher level crafters/gatherers. These would be a source of cash for players that would be more reliable than 'player used' goods, and may positively impact nodes in some way, perhaps making specialized goods available, or allowing the construction of special buildings, or improving the strength of town guards, or whatever.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Really excited about the game, obviously. =P
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Comments
[quote quote=15327]
If a player decides to sell the goods, do they enter a public market?
[/quote]
Each town will have their own local-public market, here everyone can sell/buy but only to the town and only if you go to the market. The town can benefit from the marked place by setting taxes on deals, basicly like you would in the real world. However if theres a metropolis focused on economics in the area, then there will be created a "global" marked for that area. From what I gather when they say marked its more like a localised auctionhouse, and not markedstyle (but who knows right ;) ).
[quote]
The easiest thing would be to have goods in nodes deplete over time, probably in relation to how large the node is.
[/quote]
Maybe they will maybe they won't, but there where some clues in the recent videos like "when the marked is flooded with a certain goods type, players may choose to export it to cities with out this goods" (not exact words). Basicly not all goods can be made in everynode, not unless they get raw material from the outside. Basicly the idea is that you wanna force players to go on tradeventures.
[quote]To take that to its natural conclusion, it would be nice if there were ‘trade goods’ which have no real use to players but are used by nodes specifically, and act solely as a source of income for crafters and gatherers.
[/quote]
I feel like I remember them saying somewhere that they want it to be real goods all the way, but I could be wrong. So you have to travel around to find the best markedprices, basicly like you would irl.
Hope this helps a bit, otherwise someone smarter will probably come along and correct me ;)