Andor's Trail

What do members of the community think about introducing a fairly simple economic model into the game? Merchants could buy only what they need - eg a potion maker won't buy swords, and an armorer won't buy insect shells, or else they'd buy them at a steep discount to resell them later. The price could also rise and fall based on supply and demand - the more meat you try to sell to an innkeeper, the lower the price goes. Players would have an incentive to seek out new markets for what they're selling, and even to engage in some minor trade, eg buying stuff cheap in Fallhaven, then transporting it to Prim, which is experiencing severe shortages (until the player saturates the market). It would make gameplay more sophisticated, and save the lives of thousands of small rabid dogs in the fields west of Fallhaven.

CM

PS I'm willing to help code it, if there's interest.

That could be interesting.

I have heard rumors of the poor starving people in Blackwater who would probably benefit greatly from an increase in trade to their region.... but of course, they would have to pay extra for the risks we would be required to take to bring supplies to them.

I like this idea and was thinking heavily on it the other day. It would seem un realistic to go to sleep buy everything go to sleep and do it again and again. We could also get meat and other food items and sell them to the inn as a small little quest

Thinking of some ideas along these lines:
(The #'s are *SELLING PRICES* on a scale of 1-10, 5 being regular price, 1 dirt cheep, and 10 ludicrously expensive)

Blackwater Mountain Area: (Prim and BWMS)
Foods: 6 (slightly higher than other areas)
Weapons: 9 (High demand due to possible war between the cities)
Misc Stones (Rubies, gems, etc): 5
Armors: 9 (Same as weapons)
Potions: 7 (Higher than normal)

Vilegard:
Foods: 4 (City is near a busy trade road, food supplies are bountiful)
Weapons: 4 (There is a smith in town with decent gear)
Misc Stones (Rubies, gems, etc): 6 (The jeweler/Priest in town might buy these at a higher price)
Armors: 4 (There is an armorsmith in town)
Potions: 6 (regular health potions sell low buy status boots ones may be higher than normal)
Bonemeal Potions: 10!!! (They are banned and in high demand among the shadow followers of this city)

Just some random ideas (I used to examples for the comparison just to show how two cities may vary in prices to sellers)

Fire Lord - I agree that the price differences are a good idea. If we combine that with specialization (merchants buy only what they can use or sell) and saturation (the first meat sold in the Fallhaven tavern is worth 25, but the 500th is worth 1, and they won't buy the 501st), I think we have a simple but sophisticated model.


CM

carceris-magister wrote:Fire Lord - I agree that the price differences are a good idea. If we combine that with specialization (merchants buy only what they can use or sell) and saturation (the first meat sold in the Fallhaven tavern is worth 25, but the 500th is worth 1, and they won't buy the 501st), I think we have a simple but sophisticated model.
CM

I absolutely agree. A combination of these ideas would create a very dynamic world for the Andor's Trail players.

A big +1 from me on this idea! Run with it CM!

Also depends on how much you buy to say you buy 10 potions as merchants stock goes Dow the price for the item goes up

I agree, sorrow. For example, the first bonemeal potion might cost 50, but it could skyrocket to 1,000 or more each if someone starts buying hundreds of them.

Another Question: Does the inflation slowly balance itself out over time?

For example: (Using the same 1-10 scale from my last post)

You sell 1,000 gems to the Priest in Loneford (He buys them to make Rings/Amulets)
Now the price you can sell them at would be lower than normal ~4 or a ~3

Would your selling price go back up after awhile (Maybe XXX steps or XXX in game turns)?

I think I remember reading in another thread that we don't have time yet. We do have turns for respawn, regen, etc, but no sense of time passing (eg the guard never gets around to leaving his post to get drunk). Once we do have time, we'll have to figure out whether the play occupies hours, days, weeks, or months, before we can know its effect on pricing.

CM