Post by SongRune on 2022-05-19 14:02:46
I'm not a fan of "adding special restrictions to trading, so that players can level up the ability to not be restricted". There will already be players that specialize in trade, that learn the supply chains for their area, that focus on moving goods to where they're needed and extracting a profit from the process. All of these things are achievable without a mechanical profession, and the personal skill, market knowledge, and time and resource investment from the player will determine strongly how much they can gain from their efforts.
All of these skills and developed edges already exist without a "coded in" profession, and the people who build up these personal skills will have far more market power than those who don't. They'll know where to get this particular resource (and the good ones will know where to get it when it's out of stock in the usual place). They'll know what players are up to as a whole, and what nodes are likely to need what resources soon. They'll know the best routes for moving their products with the least amount of risk, and they'll know how seasonal or node based player behavior affects their various options and opportunities.
These are things that a "you can't have a better stall until you grind X trades" can't emulate. Such a system only makes it harder for these types of players to get started and limits their options further on. The economic powerhouse type of player wants other players to have proper stalls and sell things. Each stall is another opportunity to make a profit off of someone with different specialties, or to leverage their specific market knowledge to get a better deal that the player they're buying from didn't know about.
If you want to reward these players for their power, use gold . The resource that they will have more of than anyone else, that represents the fruits of their personal economic mastery. They will be able to invest in opening more stalls, on the basis of their own personal economic power, the fruits of their labors, rather than a "you have completed X trades, or dispatched Y caravans" type of stat. But honestly? Even this isn't really worth it. Even if you gave everyone a top tier stall (but do see the wiki for what Ashes offers), the players who've built up their market knowledge and their personal economic skills will just make money faster from all the ones who didn't build enough.
In the end, by locking the economic potential behind an artificial class, you limit the economic mastermind's power. These players find crazy and interesting ways to make money. They want "a pile of treasure the size of a house", not Trading level 'Professional 3'. No system can be perfect, but one that limits other players only gives them less to exploit.
All of these skills and developed edges already exist without a "coded in" profession, and the people who build up these personal skills will have far more market power than those who don't. They'll know where to get this particular resource (and the good ones will know where to get it when it's out of stock in the usual place). They'll know what players are up to as a whole, and what nodes are likely to need what resources soon. They'll know the best routes for moving their products with the least amount of risk, and they'll know how seasonal or node based player behavior affects their various options and opportunities.
These are things that a "you can't have a better stall until you grind X trades" can't emulate. Such a system only makes it harder for these types of players to get started and limits their options further on. The economic powerhouse type of player wants other players to have proper stalls and sell things. Each stall is another opportunity to make a profit off of someone with different specialties, or to leverage their specific market knowledge to get a better deal that the player they're buying from didn't know about.
If you want to reward these players for their power, use gold . The resource that they will have more of than anyone else, that represents the fruits of their personal economic mastery. They will be able to invest in opening more stalls, on the basis of their own personal economic power, the fruits of their labors, rather than a "you have completed X trades, or dispatched Y caravans" type of stat. But honestly? Even this isn't really worth it. Even if you gave everyone a top tier stall (but do see the wiki for what Ashes offers), the players who've built up their market knowledge and their personal economic skills will just make money faster from all the ones who didn't build enough.
In the end, by locking the economic potential behind an artificial class, you limit the economic mastermind's power. These players find crazy and interesting ways to make money. They want "a pile of treasure the size of a house", not Trading level 'Professional 3'. No system can be perfect, but one that limits other players only gives them less to exploit.