Ideas of improving the trading sistem

[Randorn]

After being some weeks in Illarion and reading lots of post about the SMACC-prices, people giving things away etc i made some thoughts why the trade isnt working the way it should. The reason is pretty clear for me: Trollsbane is in a deep crisis of overproduction. Speaking more easy - there are too many craftsmen. Every newcomer can make basic shileds or helms, every carpenter can make bows and arrows after 2-3 hours of intensive work. But if so many people create items, who the hell should buy them?
SMACC is good, but it will never work. I personally keep these prices in mind when selling or buying stuff, but often there is a choise to sell something for a lower price or not to sell. I chose first.
So there are my suggestions:

1)Every single item should be breakable. Swords, armor, boots, music instruments can be broken in the real life as well as showels or axes, why cant they in Illarion? That will give more work to the craftsmen, since everyone will need to replace broken stuff. This can be made in two ways: items can be repaired by craftsmen, or they just break and dissapear. First is more realistic, second is easier to make.

2)Mining and lumberjacking should be made way harder. Now there is a 50% rate of finding something for a newb and 100% for a skilled miner. Reducing it to lets say... 10% and 50% will keep smiths from making such gifts as a plate armor. The success rate of blacksmithing and some other skills could be decreased as well (and the rate of goldsmithing - increased ).

3)Making items in the shop cost more would force people to buy them from craftsmen (such things as leather armor), and also would reduce the amount of the mad town-casters, cause they wont be able to buy the books needed.

P.S. These are only the suggestions, so any critic is welcome.
P.P.S. Forgive me my bad english

[Mishrack]

There is a very easy solution to this problem... Roleplay.

Real roleplayers do buy things everynow and then even though they already have them. All it takes is a bit of imagination... you've been in a tough fight with some demons, and afterwards you throw away your sword, and go buy a new one.

Some people actually do this, and theyarethe ones who keep our economy alive.

Secondly, I would like to warn all those peoplewho givethingsaway for free on behalf of Mishrack.If you happen to just give away things for free with no valid reason, he will become mighty angry and smite you where you stand.

[Lennier]

But I think the text is a very good compression of already existing topics. Do you readed them?

[Serpardum]

1)Every single item should be breakable. Swords, armor, boots, music instruments can be broken in the real life as well as showels or axes, why cant they in Illarion? That will give more work to the craftsmen, since everyone will need to replace broken stuff. This can be made in two ways: items can be repaired by craftsmen, or they just break and dissapear. First is more realistic, second is easier to make.

2)Mining and lumberjacking should be made way harder. Now there is a 50% rate of finding something for a newb and 100% for a skilled miner. Reducing it to lets say... 10% and 50% will keep smiths from making such gifts as a plate armor. The success rate of blacksmithing and some other skills could be decreased as well (and the rate of goldsmithing - increased ).

3)Making items in the shop cost more would force people to buy them from craftsmen (such things as leather armor), and also would reduce the amount of the mad town-casters, cause they wont be able to buy the books needed.

1) Gonna happen
2) Gonna happen
3) You can't buy most items in the shop anyway.

[Astral]

The reason we have too many craftsmen is because there is nothing else to do in the beginning. You start with a shovel and a hammer, nothing else. This is why nobody wants blacksmithed items, because most everyone can make them. Some people drop blacksmithing to play other roles, but most keep blacksmithing. I think if we gave more options to people at the beginning, such as giving new characters some extra tools, like an axe, saw, needle, some thread, etc. that it would expand the economy. It doesn't help the problem of having too many craftsmen, but it does help to spread them out a bit.

[Drogla]

Astral, i get that newcomers need more than jsut a shovel and hammer, but dont give tehm that and a saw and an axe and a needle. when the char is made there should be a dropdown list to choose. select carpenmter and get an axe and saw, sellect farmer get a flail, sickle, and 3 grain. something like that. you probobly ment that though.

[Dyluck]

And another thing, many people don't want to bother with learning another skill and doing a craft that takes a lot of work and brings in little profit. Just what the hell was the point of raising the price of thread, grain, and cabbage seeds anyways? That people would buy them from each other more? Well it's not happening, and now there are less tailors and farmers than I have ever seen in all my time in Illarion.

An average smith who can make a long axe just has to dug up a piece of iron and coal and hit it with a hammer and there's a profit of 6 gold.

The best tailor goes search for a sheep to get its wool, then goes to the spinning wheel to make it into a ball, then turn it into cloth, then buy thread for 2 gold (or learn some other thing he doesn't neccessarily want to do, in order to get thread), then makes the most profitable item from cloth which is what, 4 gold? All that time and work for a profit of 2 gold.

Same goes for the best baker who buys grain at 2 gold, grinds into flour, makes dough, finds fruit, and bakes a cake for 6 gold, all the time and work for a profit of 4 gold.

Blacksmithing sounds attractive enough to make money? I think so.

If more people are to be attracted to other professions, then the profit margins need to increase, either by reducing the price of resources, or increasing the value of the products.

[Roke]

In my oppinion the two solutions of Astral and Dyluck combined would be a terrific improvement (it seems that you two come up with great ideas). The great thing about farming, unlike tailoring is you can get withered seeds and grain without having to buy them , after a while. Another advantedge with farming is it is easier to role-play. A blacksmith concentrates entirely what they are doing while a farmer has to wait for things to grow, therefor he or she speaks to others. I believe if the baked goods were worth more, farming would become more attractive.

[Mishrack]

There is however very limited space, and I for one despise not being abletowalk around in town... when the whole square by the smithy is filled with grain, and if you as much as step near it, the very agnry owner (usually lizard ) comes running screaming profanities at you...

[Caranthir the great]

I agree with most ideas.
There are way too many novice blacksmiths dumping the prices, and just making the life of real blacksmiths more difficult.

But there is one thing that gives the farmers a certain kind of advantage over blacksmiths. What are they doing when they are waiting for the crops to grow? Yes. Talking to eachother, their firends. You can't really say that it is very stressing work.
Well, unless someone is trying to steal your plants, that is.

[Randorn]

Well, the problem with farmers is also that they cant make many different items. I saw many people who just dont like farming "cause its boring". Farmers should have more plants to grow.
#me thinks with some hope of cannabis plants for a pipe

Though i must agree with Dyluck about rising the price of common wares, i still think it would be good to increase price of some runes. At least the ones that can be used in offencive spells, especially flames.