How to make clans more appealing?

Started by Fujikoma, January 26, 2014, 05:09:49 PM

+1 to more leaders and/or family members in the same area. I think this is sort of what staff have been going for to an extent with the GMH and noble houses and I like it.
All the world will be your enemy. When they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.

I really like the idea of putting in on-grounds housing units for life-sworn merchant House employees.



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The young daughter has been filled.

I'm not looking forward to matching wits with you ... but that said:

Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 10:47:39 AM
Ten feels like a lot. If the three GMHs are each at cap with ten lifesworn, and have a number of non-lifesworn besides, you're plausibly getting into situations where half the people online could be GMH. And, as I believe I've mentioned earlier, most of these GMH roles are in a certain sense "bad roles" - whether they're rigorously staffed by martinets or filled with lackadaisical slackers, there's likely little effect on the Agent's ability to load up special orders; they are shielded from most conflict save that sparked by personal disagreements, and to a degree even the conflict between city-states; most of the roles are neither gritty nor harsh, but ICly are supposedly highly desirable soft jobs. Kurac, the grittiest and most conflict-ridden GMH, can possibly justify so many PCs in the name of keeping Luir's running. I'm less convinced by the others.
While 10 may be high, I think you have to remember that the playing times of various people vary. Yes, all ten could be online at once, but that's incredibly unlikely. We have maybe 15 PCs in the clan I am in, and there are a ton of times when I log on, there's sixty people online, and there are only 1-4 of my clan around. Still, sure, I'm good with lowering that number to 5, same as the NHs.

Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 10:47:39 AM
This would be great, but I think the effort involved to put so many crafts in place is undoable. Lots of basic things which have been in shops for ages can't be crafted. What's commonly seen in shops is a tiny proportion of the item database. It could eat a staff member's time for a solid year and not be done, I think.
Unless writing up a craft is way harder than I think it is, I don't see how that's possible. At just 10 a day, average, one staffer could do 3600 a year. And I can't imagine that 10 a day would eat up much of the day. I guess I could be wrong, though.

It was my impression that it's the approval chain that takes the time.

Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 10:47:39 AM
Oh, hell no. The cartel structure is already a huge part of the problem. Arm has a shortage of protagonist-antagonist pairings which have any teeth to them at all. The last thing we need is for the big players economically to be even cosier.
Just because Salarr lets Kurac buy raw goods from them doesn't mean a thing, if you ask me. How's that different than Kurac buying silks from Kadius? It's just a different good. And I can't see how the cartel structure is a problem, anyway. Independents should be at odds with the GMHs. That seems like conflict to me.
Wynning since October 25, 2008.

Quote from: Ami on November 23, 2010, 03:40:39 PM
>craft newbie into good player

You accidentally snap newbie into useless pieces.


Discord:The7DeadlyVenomz#3870

You have to create each individual item based on a template, and then create a craft list. It's a bit tricky, at least on the one MUD I ever played on, to do it on the spot.
Quote from: Adhira on January 01, 2014, 07:15:46 PM
I could give a shit about wholesome.

The items are already created, though. All you are doing is doing the craft list.
Wynning since October 25, 2008.

Quote from: Ami on November 23, 2010, 03:40:39 PM
>craft newbie into good player

You accidentally snap newbie into useless pieces.


Discord:The7DeadlyVenomz#3870

I think I would like to just see a LOT more to do in a clan.

I could get past the monotonous schedules and the low pay if I was guaranteed that I had a chance to participate in a colorful RP event at least once a week, and there were longer story arcs that weren't simply the same old thing over and over.  When I played in the Byn, my best chance at getting in on an RP event was shuffling my schedule around to try and make sure that I was around for a desert patrol. 

That's really a tall order when you consider how much work has to go into these things, but in the past, while I was playing, I got the impression that a lot of RP events were single-clan planned things that MAY have had some immortal intervention to make the puzzle pieces fall into place.  A lot of that can get cut out if clan leader players were allowed to conspire together OOCly (with staff oversight, so maybe on a closed board or during scheduled chats) to create clan-vs-clan or clan-co-ops drama and story arcs.  Doesn't have to a fully planned thing, but enough to get the ball rolling. ("Hey, Kuraci leader player, how much drama do you think we could drum up if my tribal clan got blamed for a spice shipment raid?")  I don't really know how these things go down, but I -do- trust veteran plans in leadership roles enough to think that they would put fun of play for everyone and the creation of an interesting, treachery-filled story ahead of their personal gain or character safety. 


Slatefox that ooc communication idea just creates too much of a contrived feel to it. It wouldn't be the same as having the event actually happen.
Quote from: Adhira on January 01, 2014, 07:15:46 PM
I could give a shit about wholesome.

Quote from: evilcabbage on January 28, 2014, 06:21:55 PM
Slatefox that ooc communication idea just creates too much of a contrived feel to it. It wouldn't be the same as having the event actually happen.

I'm all for a tribal clan to just up and decide to raid Kuraci to get the ball rolling (not actually saying to do that, just going along with the theme of my earlier suggestion).  I just see it ending kind of prematurely and rather flatly, seeing as how staff would kind of have to sneakily encourage Kuraci to actually -have- a shipment to raid in a place not completely overrun with insta-jailing/insta-killing NPCs. 

I just end up viewing clans as what AOL RhyDin guilds used to be: insulated.

Quote from: The7DeadlyVenomz on January 28, 2014, 04:33:27 PM
Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 10:47:39 AM
This would be great, but I think the effort involved to put so many crafts in place is undoable. Lots of basic things which have been in shops for ages can't be crafted. What's commonly seen in shops is a tiny proportion of the item database. It could eat a staff member's time for a solid year and not be done, I think.
Unless writing up a craft is way harder than I think it is, I don't see how that's possible. At just 10 a day, average, one staffer could do 3600 a year. And I can't imagine that 10 a day would eat up much of the day. I guess I could be wrong, though.

I think you underestimate how many items an old mud can acquire. I would be completely unsurprised to find the number of uncraftable items in the DB was greater than 3600.

Quote from: The7DeadlyVenomz on January 28, 2014, 04:33:27 PM
Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 10:47:39 AM
Oh, hell no. The cartel structure is already a huge part of the problem. Arm has a shortage of protagonist-antagonist pairings which have any teeth to them at all. The last thing we need is for the big players economically to be even cosier.
Just because Salarr lets Kurac buy raw goods from them doesn't mean a thing, if you ask me. How's that different than Kurac buying silks from Kadius? It's just a different good. And I can't see how the cartel structure is a problem, anyway. Independents should be at odds with the GMHs. That seems like conflict to me.

Independents and GMHs have conflicts in the way flies and flyswatters have conflicts. It makes for fundamentally uninteresting stories unless there is some prospect that the indie might win in the end. And since there is no realistic prospect of this, there's no tension for a Merchant House hunter when they run into an independent, and the only tension for anyone at all comes when a Merchant House decides to single out and crush an independent - historically, though I understand this is less the case now, this was usually because they were a PC, even though in terms of influence and threat the picked on PCs were normally way behind those NPCs who've got so far as to secure a spot in the bazaar.

A large proportion of the playerbase being on what counts as approximately the same side, and no real threat existing to that side in game, is a recipe for dullness. It's a configuration with nothing much for a story to hang off. It lacks room for ambition, it lacks antagonists, it lacks any form of danger or risk. You put two Houses side by side and tell them they're bitter rivals and give them something they can properly tussle over, roleplay will start sparking all by itself and they'll devote themselves to plotting one another's downfall. Put them side by side and tell them they're friends and... well, you've still got nothing. You need more story elements to make that alliance interesting, but in the actual case we're dealing with, there are no permanent story elements in play that challenge the position of the economic powerhouses.

More than this, stable friendships between the powerful make telling stories involving them consume vastly more effort. To illustrate, if we imagine a large intervention, such as a gang of arsonists burning a whole House compound to the ground, in a placid setting in which all the powerful are more or less allies the tendency is toward a rebound after the shock: their friends will rally round, help the damaged House rebuild, and all will be much as it was before much time has passed. If such an intervention were carried out in a tense, charged situation with Houses at each others' throats, the drama would intensify and spin off in all directions: rival Houses will fall under suspicion of causing the incident; some of these rivals will exploit the damaged House's temporary weakness; other groups who are unfriendly to the rivals may work to cast more suspicion against them and deepen the enmity; the weakened House may find itself stretching to make new allies and making promises that are likely to cost it dear later. In the first case, whichever imm is trying to keep the players in the House interested will need to come up with something else new after just a little while. In the second case, the intervention keeps on giving, and occupies a great many of the surrounding clans as well.


I am God's advocate with the Devil; he, however, is the Spirit of Gravity. How could I be enemy to divine dancing?

Create a pc tribe.

They make fancy clothes and jewelry. They -hate- Kadius. Hate them with every fiber in their being because they firmly believe they are the best at making clothes and jewelry.

Create 2-4 sponsored roles and then people can choose that tribe as their starting location. And so the flames of war consume fashion.

I know this is a lot of work, I just want there to be a situation where wearing certain clothing items can all but get you knifed by Kadius. Or armor/ by Salaar, or whatever.

I would gladly donate my free time to craftable-ing uncraftables.
Quote from: Twilight on January 22, 2013, 08:17:47 PMGreb - To scavenge, forage, and if Whira is with you, loot the dead.
Grebber - One who grebs.

Quote from: long live miley cyrus on January 28, 2014, 08:09:39 PM
Create a pc tribe.

They make fancy clothes and jewelry. They -hate- Kadius. Hate them with every fiber in their being because [other IC reasons].


help Tan Muark
Quote from: Twilight on January 22, 2013, 08:17:47 PMGreb - To scavenge, forage, and if Whira is with you, loot the dead.
Grebber - One who grebs.

I think the staff don't want any more new tribes or clans that players create.
Fredd-
i love being a nobles health points

As a side note, I'm sure players would love to help contribute recipes for uncraftable gear.  I remember a few years ago with my Kadian, my staff was constantly asking for recipes for uncraftables, and was constantly giving them.

I think the main constrictor is staff time.  Our volunteer staff has a lot of stuff to do already.
Former player as of 2/27/23, sending love.

My only issue with making everything craftable is then if the GMH didn't have the crafters with a high enough skill/that specific skill then the customers are SOL.

Also, it's VERY had to get materials. I know most of you think the GMH has this great supply of materials, and it may look like it, but it's mostly junk that is never used but also never tossed. When you need 8 hides of a specific animal for that set of armor and THREE people want that set.... Yah, could take you RL months to get enough hides, assuming you don't rip any. Which you still do at the Master level. More than you'd think.

As much as I'd LIKE more things to be craftable.... I think in the long run it will just make things a lot harder and have a lot of players grumpy with the GHM.
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The man says, ooc:
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I love the players of this game.
That's not a random thought either.

Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 08:03:13 PM
Quote from: The7DeadlyVenomz on January 28, 2014, 04:33:27 PM
Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 10:47:39 AM
This would be great, but I think the effort involved to put so many crafts in place is undoable. Lots of basic things which have been in shops for ages can't be crafted. What's commonly seen in shops is a tiny proportion of the item database. It could eat a staff member's time for a solid year and not be done, I think.
Unless writing up a craft is way harder than I think it is, I don't see how that's possible. At just 10 a day, average, one staffer could do 3600 a year. And I can't imagine that 10 a day would eat up much of the day. I guess I could be wrong, though.
I think you underestimate how many items an old mud can acquire. I would be completely unsurprised to find the number of uncraftable items in the DB was greater than 3600.
Oh I'm sure it is. And I probably am underestimating the time required to bring everything in line. But I think the work required would be worth it in the long run. I mean, I might be wrong about that, too, though.

Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 08:03:13 PM
Quote from: The7DeadlyVenomz on January 28, 2014, 04:33:27 PM
Quote from: Quirk on January 28, 2014, 10:47:39 AM
Oh, hell no. The cartel structure is already a huge part of the problem. Arm has a shortage of protagonist-antagonist pairings which have any teeth to them at all. The last thing we need is for the big players economically to be even cosier.
Just because Salarr lets Kurac buy raw goods from them doesn't mean a thing, if you ask me. How's that different than Kurac buying silks from Kadius? It's just a different good. And I can't see how the cartel structure is a problem, anyway. Independents should be at odds with the GMHs. That seems like conflict to me.

Independents and GMHs have conflicts in the way flies and flyswatters have conflicts. It makes for fundamentally uninteresting stories unless there is some prospect that the indie might win in the end. And since there is no realistic prospect of this, there's no tension for a Merchant House hunter when they run into an independent, and the only tension for anyone at all comes when a Merchant House decides to single out and crush an independent - historically, though I understand this is less the case now, this was usually because they were a PC, even though in terms of influence and threat the picked on PCs were normally way behind those NPCs who've got so far as to secure a spot in the bazaar.

A large proportion of the playerbase being on what counts as approximately the same side, and no real threat existing to that side in game, is a recipe for dullness. It's a configuration with nothing much for a story to hang off. It lacks room for ambition, it lacks antagonists, it lacks any form of danger or risk. You put two Houses side by side and tell them they're bitter rivals and give them something they can properly tussle over, roleplay will start sparking all by itself and they'll devote themselves to plotting one another's downfall. Put them side by side and tell them they're friends and... well, you've still got nothing. You need more story elements to make that alliance interesting, but in the actual case we're dealing with, there are no permanent story elements in play that challenge the position of the economic powerhouses.

More than this, stable friendships between the powerful make telling stories involving them consume vastly more effort. To illustrate, if we imagine a large intervention, such as a gang of arsonists burning a whole House compound to the ground, in a placid setting in which all the powerful are more or less allies the tendency is toward a rebound after the shock: their friends will rally round, help the damaged House rebuild, and all will be much as it was before much time has passed. If such an intervention were carried out in a tense, charged situation with Houses at each others' throats, the drama would intensify and spin off in all directions: rival Houses will fall under suspicion of causing the incident; some of these rivals will exploit the damaged House's temporary weakness; other groups who are unfriendly to the rivals may work to cast more suspicion against them and deepen the enmity; the weakened House may find itself stretching to make new allies and making promises that are likely to cost it dear later. In the first case, whichever imm is trying to keep the players in the House interested will need to come up with something else new after just a little while. In the second case, the intervention keeps on giving, and occupies a great many of the surrounding clans as well.
... just because a GMH turns to raid another GMH's stocks before they raid the indie's stocks, that doesn't make them friends, nor does it make them real allies. The concept is more about making the GMHs' hunters' work more important and busy, and forcing indies to generally rely on other indies to make that cheese, while the GMHs still crush substantial indie competition  under their heel.

It's not that I can't see your point, but I'm not sure you see mine. Seems to me that it makes the indie's life a tad harder.
Wynning since October 25, 2008.

Quote from: Ami on November 23, 2010, 03:40:39 PM
>craft newbie into good player

You accidentally snap newbie into useless pieces.


Discord:The7DeadlyVenomz#3870

Quote from: tortall on January 28, 2014, 08:55:06 PM
My only issue with making everything craftable is then if the GMH didn't have the crafters with a high enough skill/that specific skill then the customers are SOL.

Also, it's VERY had to get materials. I know most of you think the GMH has this great supply of materials, and it may look like it, but it's mostly junk that is never used but also never tossed. When you need 8 hides of a specific animal for that set of armor and THREE people want that set.... Yah, could take you RL months to get enough hides, assuming you don't rip any. Which you still do at the Master level. More than you'd think.

As much as I'd LIKE more things to be craftable.... I think in the long run it will just make things a lot harder and have a lot of players grumpy with the GHM.
Well, I'd expect staff to work with such a lack of skill. As far as materials, it's hard to get them for two reasons. One, it's dangerous to do so and the House doesn't have the amount of skill required to bring those things in, or two, the hunters know perfectly well that the storeroom is filling up with X and X and as they run out of room for stuff, they slow down hunting to nearly a crawl.

And that stuff that never gets used? If you were expected to fill your local store with goods, not only would it get used, but additional crafts would start creating uses for that stuff that currently doesn't get used much.

That said, I do see your point, and compounding that with Quirk's point above, I suppose it's a fool's task.

Alright.
Wynning since October 25, 2008.

Quote from: Ami on November 23, 2010, 03:40:39 PM
>craft newbie into good player

You accidentally snap newbie into useless pieces.


Discord:The7DeadlyVenomz#3870

For what it's worth, I agree with 7DV that it would be amazing if everything were craftable and people actually had to go through quests and effort to achieve that special item instead of having it loaded by staff after an artificial half-month delay. Hunters would actually be needed, crafters would actually be needed.

Right now they just sort of exist.

Downsides? Boo hoo, Agent Mucky-muck is having a hard time getting his ankheg-shell diamond-studded tiara?

GOOD.

Agreed. People would probably be fighting over rare materials before they'd even been crafted! Which would be awesome.

Also, @Quirk: Just because GMH's aren't in overt war burning each other's estates down doesn't mean they don't come in to plenty of conflict. Play an Agent some time if you don't believe me.
subdue thread
release thread pit

Quote from: Delirium on January 28, 2014, 11:06:52 PM
Downsides? Boo hoo, Agent Mucky-muck is having a hard time getting his ankheg-shell diamond-studded tiara?

GOOD.

My last experience is that often for "rare" things staff would make you at least acquire that rare part of the item and junk it before they would load it. I've junked many a bahamet shell in my day. :-p

Now, they don't do that ALL the time, but when it was happening I found it was done in a pretty good and fair way.



I do HIGHLY agree that uber tiny rooms(without room for lots of junk, maybe a tiny 1 person bed and a chest, nothing more) for Lifesworn employees would be awesome, though for at least one GMH there is something SLIGHTLY like that already in place. But higher pay for Lifesworn I think would be good as well. I -rarely- see Lifesworn employees, and I'd say that you can't be Lifesworn until you served at least 3-5 years. Gotta prove two things: 1) You're willing to work for this and 2) You're not an idiot who's going to just run out and get killed.
The man asks you:
     "'Bout damn time, lol.  She didn't bang you up too bad, did she?"
The man says, ooc:
     "OG did i jsut do that?"

Quote from: Shalooonsh
I love the players of this game.
That's not a random thought either.

Quote from: The7DeadlyVenomz on January 28, 2014, 10:11:39 PM
... just because a GMH turns to raid another GMH's stocks before they raid the indie's stocks, that doesn't make them friends, nor does it make them real allies. The concept is more about making the GMHs' hunters' work more important and busy, and forcing indies to generally rely on other indies to make that cheese, while the GMHs still crush substantial indie competition  under their heel.

It's not that I can't see your point, but I'm not sure you see mine. Seems to me that it makes the indie's life a tad harder.

I don't think it changes the game very much for indies at all. After all, at present, the Houses don't necessarily make use of their own hunters' produce, and I don't think many indies are surviving largely on what they can sell to a House. If Houses did actually need all the materials for the items they had to make, then yes, prospectively indies could benefit substantially from that, and this would limit those benefits.

However, for GMHs, such a move throws further disincentives to conflict with other GMHs into the mix. If you're going to piss off your opposite number Agent at Kurac, you could lose access to their stocks. And if you and the Kuraci are both annoyed at each other, but also need things you're both certain the other has got, the temptation to reconcile grows. At a lower level than Agents, the Merchant House hunters can all group together into a happy band who're all supplying the same group of people anyway.

I think it would stifle what little conflict exists between GMHs.

Quote from: Jherlen on January 28, 2014, 11:14:46 PM
Also, @Quirk: Just because GMH's aren't in overt war burning each other's estates down doesn't mean they don't come in to plenty of conflict. Play an Agent some time if you don't believe me.

Well, firstly, I was responding to Venomz' plea for more collaboration between the GMHs and arguing against making them a tighter cartel yet. However, I think I can still take exception to "plenty of conflict".

There's plenty of conflict in the GMH's in the same way there's plenty of poverty in Sweden: it's true from a certain perspective, in a very limited way. However, if you were asked to name a country with plenty of poverty, you wouldn't say Sweden, and if you were asked to name a role with plenty of conflict, you wouldn't say a GMH.

I've hammered this out a few times in this thread now, but I feel I get to refine the thoughts each pass round, so here goes again.

Let's start with some of the most basic questions pertaining to conflict:

"Who becomes my enemy when I have this affiliation? What places are dangerous to go?"

Walk out of chargen with blue and purple ink round your neck, and most of the powers of Allanak become your enemy, and Allanak is a dangerous place to go. This doubles if you join the Legion.
Start in a desert elf tribe, and trespassers on your land are the enemy, besides those arising from any underlying historical tensions or border disputes. Off your land, you are not well liked.
Join the Guild, and sooner or later you're going to be at cross purposes with the Arm, and enough other powers of Nak that you probably don't want to declare your affiliation too widely. Anywhere the rich and powerful gather is potentially a bad place for you to be.

Now: join Kadius. Who becomes your enemy based on your affiliation? No-one. And, if you're inked, the animosity toward you in Allanak is much lessened.

"Who are my clan's goals going to bring me into conflict with? How hot is this conflict? Who's involved?"

The Arm and the Legion are pretty much bound to work at cross purposes always. The conflict is always a killing conflict. Every soldier is involved.
Desert elven goals can result in anything from provoking territorial disputes to heists carried out on distant powerful organisations which were foolish enough to transport goods within their reach. The conflict can easily be a killing conflict. Every elf of the tribe is involved.
The Guild can enter into conflict with pretty much anyone, based on who they sell services to or who looks like a fat purse. The conflict can escalate to be a killing conflict. Everyone in the Guild is involved.

How about Kadius? Maybe there's some light competition for resources with another Merchant House. Maybe there's a little bit of a tussle over something pertaining to Freil's Rest with a relevant noble. Hurt feelings may result, individual status may be lessened very slightly within your social class, and maybe there's some financial damage. The rank and file may not even know it's going on.
...though, of course, there's also the unequal contest of Kadius vs indies, which basically boils down to how realistic it is for the House with unlimited resources to bully the local tailor PC. It's a conflict where Kadius have no stake to lose.

Maybe you feel like protesting at this point that the Arm and Legion, and the tribes, and the Guild are unusually well positioned for conflict. Maybe so. But even the Byn, these days, gets its share of hatred and distrust in the North; House Borsail is not well loved in Storm. The Tuluki Noble Houses allow nobles to further the interests of their clan via competition for qynars, though I'm not certain how well this works when noble numbers are low. Indie groups can easily get reputations which bring them the dislike or enmity of powerful people and groups, through their own actions or through choosing to deal with undesirables such as half-breeds, escaped slaves, magickers, elven tribes, etc. Almost every other environment in the game offers more potential.

Am I claiming there's no conflict in the GMHs? Of course not. There will always be personal feuds and petty squabbles no matter where you are. There is some small room for clan manoeuvring. They get staff attention, and the staff will put effort into making their clan interesting and presenting the sponsored leader with some challenges. However, their place in the world is that of a comfortable monopoly with no enemies, and that's a lousy place to start a story. The leaders and imms who do manage to make being in such a clan fun deserve high praise, because they're producing delicious meals out of a nearly bare cupboard.
I am God's advocate with the Devil; he, however, is the Spirit of Gravity. How could I be enemy to divine dancing?

Making PCs craft something makes no IC sense, because you're dealing with an entire virtual House made up of dozens of virtual crafters, including many virtual master crafters. Your PC employee is not the only crafter available; even the room description in the crafting hall spells that out very clearly. If -your- personally-hired employee can't make it, one of those virtual ones surely can.

That was always my pet peeve from the customer's side and from the merchant's side (not when I played my Kadian sponsored role, but in subsquent roles where I was just an unclanned ranger/merchant/whateverelse who got hired and promoted). It used to be, one particular thing was loaded up on an NPC. Then, it got taken off, presumably for IC reasons. But the so-called rare-material- to make that item, was readily available at an NPC vendor as a standard loadup material. The merchant clan turned it into a miniquest, to get grebbers to go to a dangerous place, to hunt dangerous creatures that didn't show up by the dozens, to bring back this item, so that the PC crafters could make it.

If there weren't any PC crafters, the customer might have to wait several months. Real-life months.

For a common item, made out of a common material found commonly in a common NPC vendor shop in the common shopping area in a city.

This was the type of item that should be loaded up on a vendor, if not in the public, at least in the most common area of the clan's crafter warehouse.

I think the last thing we need is to have to force people to wait IC months for someone to be able to get a gurth-shell buckler from Salarr, simply because their last batch of hunters died and their current batch can't skin worth a damn yet.
Talia said: Notice to all: Do not mess with Lizzie's GDB. She will cut you.
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January 29, 2014, 10:14:19 AM #97 Last Edit: January 29, 2014, 10:21:15 AM by Desertman
I am pro "Make all merchant House orders come from PC merchant House crafters."

The problem as I see it:

Hunting for a merchant House, if you are actually a good hunter, is full retard. The only reason to do it is an OOC desire to be part of the House for House roleplay purposes. IC, you are doing the exact same job you would do on your own, you are just doing it for a lot less.

Free food? You are a good hunter. Laughable perk.
Free water? You are a good hunter. Laughable perk.
Coins? You are a good hunter. One hunt will net you more than your month's salary. Laughable perk.
People to help you hunt? You are a good hunter. Unless you are taking down something crazy stupid, you don't need help.
A place to live? You are a good hunter. You can afford rent on your own, and still bankroll more than your House salary.

The only arguable gain from joining a House from an IC perspective, if you are actually a good hunter, is the political backing they give you. Which only comes in handy if you do something to get in trouble or make enemies.

Everything else they offer a hunter is laughable, not needed, and silly from an IC point of view. The only "hunters" who would benefit from any of those things are hunters who suck, and thus, aren't really hunters. They are "trainees", at best.

The solution as I see it:

Make all merchant House specific items craftable by the PC crafters in the House.
Break out the high end items as, "Craftable only by certain ranked crafters."
Low and middle value craft items can be crafted by low and middle rank crafters in the House with adequate skill levels.
High value craft items can be crafted by higher ranked crafters in the House with adequate craft skill levels.
(Please note, rank is like Crafter, Junior Merchant, Merchant, Agent, etc...Craft skill refers to the players actuall skills.)
Provide a list of all items that can be crafted by the different ranks of crafters in the clan docs.
Make sure only crafters of a certain rank can see certain items in the docs.
Provide the recipes to those items in the clan docs. (Since you would know them from NPC's and VNPC's easily.)

Breaking out the items into, "Can only be crafted by certain ranked crafters", will give the crafters an IC sense of accomplishment on achieving House rank promotions. I am a higher rank, I am allowed and trusted to present higher quality House items for higher pay.

It also makes being a higher ranked House crafter an actual desirable thing that will get you clout. Being a merchant House crafter trainee isn't going to get you many glances. But being a full merchant House Merchant ranked PC is going to MEAN something. It means you can get people the good stuff. The stuff the high end wealthy PC's want. You will make more coins, but you will also be a much more highly sought after merchant from an IC perspective.


Now you have a system where crafters know what they can make, and what they need to make it.

Now you have a system where hunters are actually needed, and crafters are capable of telling hunters exactly what they need to make certain items.

Now you have a system where PC crafters are capable of pushing out orders in game in an IC manner that does not involve staff intervention.


Suddenly, crafters are more than "virtually loaded item" vendors for the PC's, and good hunters are ACTUALLY NEEDED.

Everything else regarding hunter pay, merchant pay, realistic perks, and blah blah blah, should just fall into place.

The problem is everyone knows hunters aren't actually needed. It is a broken economy. There isn't much IC pressure to compensate them realistically, because from an IC realism standpoint, they aren't really valuable enough to compensate.



Please note, I am fully willing to take a big list of items that have no crafting recipes and create sensible and realistic crafting recipes for them. Just give me a list and point me in the right direction. You will get your crafting recipes.
Quote from: James de Monet on April 09, 2015, 01:54:57 AM
My phone now autocorrects "damn" to Dman.
Quote from: deathkamon on November 14, 2015, 12:29:56 AM
The young daughter has been filled.

Quote from: Desertman on January 29, 2014, 10:14:19 AMPlease note, I am fully willing to take a big list of items that have no crafting recipes and create sensible and realistic crafting recipes for them. Just give me a list and point me in the right direction. You will get your crafting recipes.

Ditto.

Um.  Yeah. Except what if what the house needs are not things fun to hunt? Unless of course we give beasts diamond teeth and make them guard trees.
Varak:You tell the mangy, pointy-eared gortok, in sirihish: "What, girl? You say the sorceror-king has fallen down the well?"
Ghardoan:A pitiful voice rises from the well below, "I've fallen and I can't get up..."