Economic model design - Infinite Resources.

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

1700-1820 please. 

[John Jacob Astor]

23 hours ago, Sir Hethwill the RedDuke said:

Present economic model design states the following rules:

- players can build resource buildings in ports where they own a outpost

- building will produce resources ad infinitum at a cost rate in gold and labour hours

- players can acquire resources in port via contracts place for gold bids

- contracts quantities will be fulfilled by players, limited quantity but infinite by design, or AI euro traders, infinite quantity.

- resources are infinite, there are no shortages nor supply crisis

 

As a single-account player I view this as a very partial picture of the current economic design.

Large sectors of the shipbuilding and concomitant upgrade economy originate in dropped resources and not in buildings.  The more limited (and valuable) they are, the more likely they are to be dominated by alts.  The outpost and labor hour advantage provided by an alt provides leverage unavailable to a single-account player.

It appears to be impossible to compete with.

This is not the case with buildings which I why I voted yes.  Are there problems with the building model?  Yes.  It is currently crippled by the inability to see contract activity without entering a port, which stovepipes the markets.  And the ET (as currently implemented) overly suppresses the ROI on building production where it is applied.

But you can't lock new players out of the building model by using alts to kick the ladder down from the tree house.

Do not misunderstand me.  I am not anti-alt.  But I will not be a fan of any alternative to buildings that creates an inordinate structural advantage for them.

Edited August 14, 2018 by John Jacob Astor
clarification

[Vernon Merrill]

One thing that really needs to be said:  Scarcity of goods REQUIRES and severe re-make of mod and wood bonuses in parallel.  

[z4ys]

We had that suggestion by admin before we had clan conquest so its closed but in my opinion is was way ahead its time. Some altering. For example  carezones ( unlimted slots and only the really basic resources) could even make rvr interesting. (EU traders would ofc still work)

[John Jacob Astor]

On 8/14/2018 at 7:08 AM, Wraith said:

I still dislike the passive resource accrual and eurotrader mechanic intensely. It doesn’t intersect with either trading or combat portions of the game in strong enough ways.  I fully support the idea of fully player-driven economies but they have to be driven by “active” time in the game, not passive.

I would agree with this.  But of the two current production mechanics, drops are definitely the more passive.  At least with buildings you actually have to hit the crafting button, rather than just camp and buy.

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In the past I’ve put forth moving all meaningful, non-trade good production from resource buildings to discoverable, dynamic gathering/production locations. This is the kind positive feedback into both the economic and combat portions of the game that I think we need,

I am definitely more interested alternatives than I used to be.

My reservation here is has to do with the current PvP environment.  This is my first game like this and I probably don't have the context to see how I do this as a merchant without serving as a clay pigeon for PvP.

I have found escorts pretty much to be a non-starter.  Probably due to a combination of time zone differentials, the actual hours I log on, and the dysfunctional clans I have been in.  Fleets aren't of much use either.  In order to compete against alts in crafting for market I have found I need to max out labor hour perks which means fleet and combat perks appear to be mostly out of reach.

I could see this working, however, if raiders actually had to get my ship/cargo to port to get paid.  Probably doesn't matter whether the captured ship is added to a fleet, some portion of the cargo offloaded, or the AI sails it to port with a portion of the raider's crew.  Or some mix of this.  The point is to get rid of the current completely magic PvP reward and restore some realism to the raider/trader equation.  For a prize agent to pay out there needs to be a prize for the agent to sell off.

The OTHER thing that would reduce the bull's eye on me would be to remove the teleport for upgrades.  The econ alts then become actual targets on the water.  Quit treating ship upgrades like they have no mass.  This has always struck me as completely silly.

 

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in addition to global, dynamic contract market viewing, contract shipping (see @Sir Texas Sir ‘s past suggestions on that for how this works using “crated” goods), and finally safe zones that tier these production and combat costs and rewards to balance PvE and PvP play accordingly. 

I am all for this.

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If these were accomplished it would be a much different game, one that relies much less on alts, and I doubt that the dev’s have the will to do it. But portions of it could still enhance the game a lot. 

Yup.

As things stand currently the labor hour, outpost, and perk advantage provided by an alt is impossible to compete with in large sectors of the economy.  

 

Edited August 18, 2018 by John Jacob Astor
clarification