Let's discuss Geas economy.

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Olrane
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Let's discuss Geas economy.

#1 Post by Olrane » Sun May 03, 2015 8:54 pm

Hey folks. I'm back at least for the time being and I'm coming in trying to have a fresh, newbie perspective on things. One of the things that has always been a concern of mine is economic balance (as opposed to the common concern of PvP fighting balance).

So, in order to get an idea about things, I have a number of questions.

1. What do your characters do in order to earn money? What are the yields like in terms of time invested?

2. What do you spend money on, on a consistent basis? Do the costs feel fair, low, high?

3. What kinds of "special" non-recurring purchases does your character make? How do the costs feel?

4. What kinds of things would you LIKE to do to earn/spend money, but can't justify due to payout/costs feeling off?

5. What kinds of economic interactions do you partake in, involving strictly other player characters?

I made this thread as my character spent over a gold buying meals of Stuck Boar at the Growling Flame and still not filling his belly. It reminded me that a lot of things could be tweaked, but that the only way for them to be tweaked is for us to get good data, talk to each other, and work out what things ought to be. Only by talking things out can we get any idea of what things should be, because each of us has a very different experience in game, with different IC and OOC biases.

As far as general feel goes from my perspective, copper coins are downright cancer. They feel worth less than US 1 cent coins. A bronze feels like a nickel, a silver feels like a dollar, and a gold feels like a ten dollar bill. I feel that we need larger coins than gold, maybe platinum pieces? I really like the idea of "cash" and cash just is SO clunky in Geas.

Rewards feel really weird from the newbie perspective. Discussing simply the newbie areas, gremlins have an absurdly good payout economically, but they're usually ignored quickly because they're terrible from a skill-grinding perspective. Nibblers give pretty poor rewards, even in the treasure chests - which require passing a trap and acquiring a key or picking a lock. I'd like to see the rewards improved in the chests and also I would like to see keys break after one or a small number of uses so that one must complete the attic fight again.

Having good economic rewards in place is essential as a motivator for some roleplay. We've had the discussion over and over again here that it's bad roleplay to "go hunting" with an OOC motive to grind skills. If there's an IC motive available, we will be able to take it!

I ramble. I want to discuss anything and everything regarding economy and roleplay here, because I feel it's one of the biggest areas with "room for improvement" in this game.

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Allurana
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Re: Let's discuss Geas economy.

#2 Post by Allurana » Sun May 03, 2015 9:33 pm

Well, here's some thoughts that came to mind from reading that:

If NPC repairs are still costing a static 1 bronze coin per item, I feel it would be an improvement if the price was more dynamic based on the value of the item and the amount of damage being repaired.

Pub food should be even more rewarding and filling than simply eating wild mushrooms or berries- this does not seem to be the case currently.

Food in general I guess could stand to be revised in how filling it is. For instance, apples should probably be much more filling than they currently are. In the case of pub foods, most prepared dishes should probably be as filling as a full meal, rather than needing to eat multiples of them to fill up.

It would make sense if copper coins had more use. Copper and bronze are supposed to be the poor man's wage, with silver and gold being for the wealthier of people.

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Eluriel
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Re: Let's discuss Geas economy.

#3 Post by Eluriel » Mon May 04, 2015 1:04 am

As a newbie, I found it very hard to keep up money-wise due to all the investments one needs to make early on. Now that I have reliable sources of income, I am earning money and saving it up without anything really big to spend it on unless I want custom items.

It seems that big purchases come through character to character interaction: you have that cool gear I want; I need 10 training books; etc. I've heard guild armor can be expensive as well. But I think the biggest things I've had to purchase are a horse and a locker and then custom items.

I agree with the opinions on pub food--it doesn't fill you up as much as a handful of mushrooms and it costs money. Seems kind of silly.

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