Shattered Kingdoms

I'm going to have to test this out but I don't think it's true/feasible.

Given brew success rates (let's say 80% for brewing heal, I know it's an over-simplification), let's try brewing healing vials in delicate crystal vials (fluctuating around 5 platinum a piece).

To make -any- money on this venture, I have to be able to sell these imbued vials for greater than 6.25 platinum. Can you really do this?

Since there's right now a HUGE discrepancy between the selling and buying prices of other items, like armor, in stores (you'll often sell a ring for 1 platinum and its immediate listed price is 6 platinum), I am highly skeptical that you could sell imbued vials for anywhere near this price.

I'll post logs after I test it.

[Edit] And though I left it unsaid, if you're actually going to lose money on this brewing venture, nobody's going to reduce the price of vials by doing it because nobody is going to do it.

You do not appear to have correctly followed the conversation. I was answering yes to the question: "Does it correctly haggle the price down for all 10 items?" I was not claiming that you will automatically be able to profit from selling brewed vials, only that buying in bulk is cheaper than buying one at a time.

Actually, you were answering the question of whether selling a "brewed" vial would reduce the price of the empty one. My comment was meant to demonstrate why that would never happen. That is, no one is going to sell brewed vials because they'd lose money on it.

Separately, I thought you had intended to make brewing a viable way to make money. You agree then that this is impossible the way things are set up?

[Edit] And for crystal clarity, I'm not talking about bulk at all right now.

Okay, you are right. That was an earlier question I had also answered yes to, therefore I am the one who failed. Bad me. However, the answer was correct. Selling a vial will lower the cost. Whether you would sell the vial or not is a more complicated question than you are making it out to be.

You cannot sell it back to the shop you bought it at, therefore you have to sell it to a different shop. The shop you choose will make a difference. Each shop has a different buy and sell percentage - aka some will offer you more money for your vials than others. Also, if you choose a shop in a different kingdom, you could be offered a lot more for it due to inflation.

There is also the question of when you sell it back. Are you going to sell it back instantly or wait awhile? If you hold your vials while the price continues to rise from other people buying them, then you may be able to sell at a profit. Entire trading markets are based on this principle.

Does any of this mean you can make money by selling a brewed vial? I don't know - that's not something I tried to test. However, we added code in the past to inflate the price of vials with spells in them, so the bulk change can only improve your chances.

Thanks for engaging on this Dulrik. I guess what I would propose is that while any kind of inflation is in place affecting the price you buy an empty vial at (which is a pretty safe assumtion these days), you'll never be able to sell them at a profit no matter where you go and who you sell it to. In fact I think there is probably a hard cap on the amount you can receive as a PC for selling something (no such cap exists on the buy side).

This means that for all practical purposes, the only way to drive down the price of a vial is not to buy them, which (a) doesn't work (see prisoner's dilemma) and (b) doesn't accurately replicate a true market because there's no mechanic for new suppliers to come into the market and stabilize prices.

Note I'm using vials as my example but the same goes for scrolls or useful midbie armor, etc. The only way to drive down prices is to abstain.

The way the economy works right now is my very least favorite aspect of SK. Even if we could just reset things once a month it would go a long way to making things less painful.

I find it challenging not to throw a tomato or two when you put yourself in the stockade like that.

But I'll just say that you should advertise your code updates more, so that we can appreciate you, since bugs advertise themselves. I mean, I don't know about everyone else, but I like having reasons to be proud of you.


My thanks to you and anyone else involved with the updates and patches. In case that wasn't obvious.

PS can these features get propagated to help files once they're fully implemented kthx

We were doing a few more test cycles on the live machine before announcing it, so as to make sure there were as few bugs as possible. Obviously one of the tribunal leaders noticed the tax feature in the last 24 hours, so that tipped more people off that there were actually new features.

I want ARBITRAGE!