Shattered Kingdoms

Even Ardiths make mistakes.

Wrong, but spoken like a true liberal.

Please do not turn this conversation to Rand. Let's just drop it.

Anjin doesn't know wtf he's talking about. The end.

Years of experience, for which I am grateful to you.

The issue I am speaking of is the inability of the player of SK to get the goods/services that they desire and which other capitalists can provide them in exchange for lots of money. While the fantastical world of Pyrathia has a capitalist system, the game economy of SK has a barter system. This is because the currency cannot buy certain forms of production which the players most value, such as enchanting, brewing and scribing. These forms of production are specifically limited to players, even though NPCs in the magical capitalist world of Pyrathia would be willing to sell them.

This creates an economy of player hours, not an economy of coins- a barter system.

Not only is that inefficient by itself, but having a game with a barter system take place in the context of a fantasy world with a capitalist system undermines the game's effectiveness at simulating its world.

If these are problems, and they are the problems to which you refer, you have not solved them. This is not because of a failure of yours as a coder, but because you have made the principle decision to protect the value of the "player hour" by making it so that only players can provide certain useful things which NPC merchants should also logically be able to provide.

Players grinding for gold instead of grinding for enchant / brew / scribe is not more grinding, it is different grinding. For every player hour spent grinding gold, a player hour would be saved by the NPC who turned that gold into an hour's worth of enchanting / scribing / brewing, etc.

Yes, Hello, OA. I heard you the first time.

I was responding to one of ardith's ideas.

I didn't respond to you the first time, because I thought it was pretty obvious that:

1. Letting players get services from NPCs doesn't stop them from doing it the "old fashioned" way. This would not replace one grind with another, it would give players options on how to grind.

2. Gold can be gained by completing quests, fighting things for their loot, or getting it from other players. These are all more fun than PC magical item creation. Even if gold farming in its current state is not fun, it's reparable. Quests and loot can be added and balanced. PC magical item creation cannot be made fun.

Actually, Anjin, the reason that this is an idea which will never in any shape or form get implemented is because the point of SK is player interaction: That's why it isn't a single-player flash game. While enchanting is a grind, as is gathering coin, having others enchant your stuff -requires- PC interaction, even if the requirement can be very minimal. Gathering coin does not require such. I highly doubt that Dulrik is going to put in a change that favors players who like to "play with themselves," as it were, and I support that.

Well-said Edoras.

Enchanting, scribing and brewing are all solitary activities, a special sort of aloneness that exists even in crowded inn rooms.

People benefit from cooperating with each other to kill things and take their loot, they also benefit from working together to solve quests. Gathering coin does not strictly demand player interaction, but it benefits from it. Even if this were not the case, Dulrik and the powers that be can change where gold comes from to make it more or less of a social activity. Casting a spell is always going to be solitary.

Furthermore, if coin was actually worth something, anyone wanting money would have an incentive to interact with everyone with money. The depressingly low rate of economically driven player interaction can be easily traced back to the fact that players have nothing universally valuable to one another.

Players valuing the money of other players creates more interaction with those players, not less. There is no story without conflict, no conflict without desire.