Re: Olympia workers and Earning Power

From: srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 03:57:04 +0000

There are definitely some problems with money in Olympia.  Training
and maintenance costs are both unbalanced and artificial.  It seems to
make for a good game balance, but it does seem a bit strange.  Why
does it cost more to train 10 men for the sword than 1?

But I think the real problem is that there aren't enough interesting
and diverse ways to earn money in Olympia.  Few of the skills have
"USEs" that can bring in money, and some that do require some fairly
laborious and lengthy game-playing (i.e., using Equestarian 2).

I think the "right" solution (albeit not an easy one) is to have a
more complete economy, and I think this is where Rich is going.  For
one thing, markets should be more-or-less staffed by players and not
be the automatic supermarkets that they are now.  There should be "raw
materials" in various provinces which can be harvested and brought to
market, and a base economy of farming/livestocking.  This would lead
to some interesting interactions as people tried to protect various
resources.  And interesting things happening if there was, say, only
one unit in the game capable of making longswords.  He could price
them very high, but he might get robbed, and so on.

As a start, maybe there should be a "FARM" skill that would be cheap
to learn, and which could be used effectively in plains areas to
generate income.  But the number of farmers in an area would be
restricted - as more moved in your income would go down.  Similarly
for "FORESTING" in woods areas and "MINING" in mountainous areas.
Maybe "FISHING" for coastal areas.

-- Scott T.

References

Olympia workers and Earning Power
rob@ccc.govt.nz (Rob McNeur)
Thu, 16 Apr 1992 15:26:02 +0000

Referenced By

Olympia workers and Earning Power
rob@ccc.govt.nz (Rob McNeur)
Thu, 16 Apr 1992 15:26:02 +0000