Shattered Kingdoms

You suppose we have a test server, but suppositions aren't facts. For one thing, we don't actually have a test server because we can't afford to host two servers. The only testing that happens now is on the machine in my own apartment, which can't be left turned on because it's old and noisy.

Again, this isn't WoW. We only have one server and you can call it the beta server if you like, because that's how it has always worked. If SK was a product that created profit, maybe that would change. But if I was trying to make a profit, this game wouldn't be SK, it would be WoW. A MUD that appeals to both RP and Tactics will never be a money maker.

We've largely fixed the prices for ammunition. We might fix prices for food in the same way. However, if an item is purchased the most, it has the highest demand and therefore deserves to have high prices. There are alternatives to buying food and ammunition. There are spells and abilities that create both, not to mention just eating body parts. So my sympathy on prices when it comes to these items is just not there.

Actually, there is no coded reason why ammo created with fletching should not be able to be sold to appropriate shops. This is probably just an oversight that needs a couple of builder tweaks.

Whatever, when you are down to less than 10 people on at a time maybe you will learn.

Question, if ammunition is set at a fixed price at shops, this means the price can never go down, correct? Doesn't that mean the scout is able to generate an unlimited supply of cash simply by spam fletching? From what I remember of playing one, they get quite the return in # of arrows fletched, and it doesn't cost them all that much time to do it?

I see no reason why fletched ammunition wouldn't work the same as other existing items. If you sold 10 arrows to a shop, the price would go down. If people actually bought those 10 arrows, the price would return to their starting value. No shop sells the specific arrows that come from fletching, so you could never buy more than had been sold.

This is one of the problems that commodities would solve, because prices could be increasingly de-linked from specific item vnums and linked instead to their composing commodities. Then one type of arrow bought and sold will have an affect on the prices of all other arrows.

As far as the economy reducing the game to 10 players, the data does not support the idea that the economy makes the game unplayable. Item prices are only high because you continue to buy them. If players actually thought they were too expensive to be worth buying, then the cost would decrease to a point where people found it worthwhile again.

I also point to the data that says that 65% of all currency in the game is in player hands and that this number has only risen since the newest economy changes. If things were too expensive overall, the amount of currency in player hands would be decreasing, as they are forced to dig into their savings to pay for goods.

I have put the future entirely into your own hands. Your actions determine prices. People are too used to spam buying 30 trail mixes from the shop. When behavior changes, so do prices.

I think that the return on scribed and brewed potions should be greater. Perhaps on staves and wands that are charged beyond their default number of charges, the same kind of increase. I would say that the best success possible with brew is around one in two vials. It should be reflected in the price that shops can give much more than it is now. If this is true, maybe we should also make sure that herbs, steaks, create food, fletch all have some very minimal return when sold. I could even see the idea where a scout can sell his tamed pet to a pet shop for a cut of imagined profit.

I think Achernar knows that his ideas are all ones that I support to some extent. We will continue to make changes as we see various weaknesses in the system, an example of which was the recent tweak to ammo pricing.

I see your vision Dulrik, maybe not as clear as you see it, but I understand basically what you're working towards.

Personally, I feel like you're trying to build something you can control. And this is your world, so you do how you please. But what are your thoughts on just letting the economy make itself happen? Like I was saying, opening up a bank system where we can stash stuff to sell to others. You don't even have to have an auction house, just give us a place to store things instead of carrying our merchandise. The economy would then build itself. Just a thought. You'd have a bit less control over prices and such, of course. Just a thought.

Titus while that would be a nifty idea and everything but... the auction house would be used as a place to hoard items. I don't know about WoW auction houses but the ones that I have used, usually you can actually set a price for something. So, to make sure you get to keep the item for later, you set the price to an obscene value, which either most people can't pay, or won't pay.

... Or you just store the item in your personal bank. The Auction House in WoW is used almost solely for selling items you don't want/need to other players that do. If you want it to sell, you have to undercut everyone else selling it or wait for prices to drift higher.

There's no point to money in SK past learning skills and buying stuff for "trade skills" like Brew or buying food unless you take tribunals into account. I don't. Maybe if a mage decided to sell their Enchants to people which I've never seen, or shamans selling their potions, but otherwise, who cares about the economy? It's useless fluff that just means a few more dozen monsters to kill.