Social and market issues with the cauldron items

[Muratus del Mur]

The cauldron type items are designed for group use, their results are also something hard to accept and/or use in the current way trades and ownership of items is understood in the realm.

What to do when 10 people join forces to put resources into an item that is then received by the cauldron holder?
Its a real question. As much as i want things to go this way, and have more and more people work together to achieve things, this is a real issue that needs to be discussed before releasing these items on a larger scale. For these items to work as i want them to work, resources need to "flow" a lot more and be less valuable. You can't expect everyone to have a few gold to spend for some resources just to make a tea with them. I also don't want a single person to provide all resources, hold the recipe, and work alone with the one holding the cauldron (or equivalent item) or worse, use alts to create recipes.


The ideal way is to use these items for free or for services in the realm not for coins or such. At least for some of their future uses, they shouldnt be expensive to use. However, because items where so valuable till now (still are!) I can't suddenly do anything to drop resource values too much. I mean..i can..but i shouldn't and won't.



EVERYTHING BELOW ARE PURE SPECULATIONS, NOTHING SHOULD BE CONSIDERED 100% SURE TO HAPPEN, THESE ARE JUST SIMPLE OBSERVATIONS AND HOW I SEE THINGS MIGHT HAPPEN.

Value is determined by rarity. If something is limited, its value is great, if that thing becomes unlimited its value drops, even vanishes. ( i could write an essay about this subject, thats not the point here and now). What i can do is to try to predict how market will evolve and disclose some of my intentions regarding item rarity, in the hope that those of you that care more about this subject will adjust to the situation in time, before its too late or before new market prices will set in based on upcomming announcements.


Items that will be common and i will try to bring to zero cost, or shift towards item2item exchange values and not money/coins value:
- resoruces such as water, wood, herbs and any other that will fit in similar category
- heat

why/how:
increased number of heat containers to move heat around as a resource.
lower collecting times on tools, maybe increased resource amounts..maybe more independent tools to increase price competition a lot.
tools obtainable through wp or achievements. There are many options here, DONT jump with ideas , i have plenty. One is to grant a tool when skill level reaches 100%, that solves many things.


Items that will maintain a moderate trade value, including a value defined in coins
- resources such as rain water, mineral water, memory stones
- second level resources that result from the use of a processing item and one or more of the common goods described above (will be several)
- heat stones will push this to the limit. heat stones will be needed for all cauldron items, so the demand will be great but producing them will also be easier than it is now. I can't really place my bet on heat stones evolution yet.
- spell stones of common spells. I believe these will lower in price while keeping a certain limit in value. People obtain them but won't use them so fast. Those that have spells to load stones with will continue to do so , eventually stone prices will lower as amount increases on the market.



The "normal" flow of resources , as i see them, is in this way:

resource gathering ---> cauldron items using heat and basic resoruces ---> consumable items

resource gathering ---> cauldron items to produce second level resources (like heat stones) ---> cauldron items to use second level resources and heat to produce permanent things

second level resources and permanent things acquired by trade or direct production ---> advanced cauldron devices to create powerful and valuable items



*by permanent things i understand normal unique items, tools, non consumable benefits.
*by powerful items i mean either rare resources, unique items, creature mutations or rare tools.


monopoly will be a big issue if this flow doesn't return the results to players that have no items or activity in such area yet. If people will group into exclusive groups and start mass producing items hoping to find a rich new nabab to buy them , or some lost ancient vet that wants to keep up with things, ...things won't look good. And i am aware people will do that at first.


its kind of a rhetoric post because i am "processing" thousands of ways to solve this, but i get things clearer if i share them with you and maybe get valuable feedback on this

7am, sry if i dont make as much sense as i hoped

[Laphers]

As one who has had the ability to gather resources for almost a year I would like to say that I fully support this change. I always felt that I gained more from gathering resources (walking the land, gaining the woodcutting stat, chatting with people while the tool cooldown was in effect) than I ever gained from selling a resource. During the birthday celebration a couple of guild members even tried giving away small amounts of resources anonymously to generate some interest/activity in the resources. Since the introduction of the Cauldron people have been clamoring for resources, some large amounts, some small. Some people are now regularly depleting certain resources which of course slows down the collecting and distribution.

For those who were at the recent heat letting ceremony, did any of you see the similarities to a recipe? People shared a resource that is freely available to gain something... something that they couldn't hold but was actually more valuable (in my opinion).

Monopolies could be a problem only if those who have the ability to gather resources (or those with cauldron type items) don't want to share with all the people. I will do my part to try to ensure that doesn't happen.

Laphers

[Yrthilian]

I agree with Laphers on what he is saying.

The guild are doing well for the moment. they may not be moving a quickly as you would like but sometimes that is not a bad thing.
I mentioned in your other topic the you could use the crafter guild and myself to increase some of the items out in the wild.

This can work like a tap if you wish. tell us to distribute a set item type or something to the land tell us a limit to work with.
The recipe for the cauldron i want to submit some but RL stopped me from doing so. I will send one some things to you to look at
when you want to.

I know you have many ideas regards the set-up of the system i am sure many i have may well match or not be what you want.
but if you want to talk about it you know how to get me.

The recent changes that have been coming have been great some not so great but one does have to adjust
I do wish to go over an item type with you soon as i think it would fit in well but that is for another time

[xrieg]

With new shared tools concept herbs got depleted - and in current framework will probably remain depleted in most locations. To allow for [u]real [/u]access to resources some concrpts could be considered:
1. shared tool returning to pool with specified probability after use (i.e. basket with 1%)
2. harvesting tools available for mp4+ (ITC and grab lock)
3. each land have specified law about number of resources left (i.e. not below 50%); each time character violates the law warning is issued; specified number od warnings over period of time results in tools locked (see above) for the character for specified time
Point 3. was not nessesary so far with limited number of ppl controlling tools - they were interested in keeping resources getting replenished. With multiple tools available to all such a strategic thinking of all involved I would not expect - 'grab all I can now or somebody else will'

[Pipstickz]

The number of people trying to get tools to gather resources will die down over time, you just have to wait for it. It is too early to judge whether or not action needs to be taken to ensure resources remain available, and even if they are depleted, it's not like they're gone forever. MD requires patience.

Not to mention, land laws can't cover everybody who can get tools, and kings don't have the ability to limit somebody's access to the tools, AND most importantly, I doubt they'd watch close enough to see who takes what resources from where.

Besides, what's the point in having x/10 resources if nobody can harvest more than 5 at a time? It might as well be x/5 and regen full, right? I firmly believe this is why Mur will not limit the tools, or give anybody the ability to do so. It's just like telling Eon to stop attacking you so that you can heal your creatures, he's not going to stop, and he's only one person that we have to live with, because he has as much right as anybody.

[Muratus del Mur]

the way shared tools will work cant be predicted accurately unless enough time passes. At this point my opinion is this.. if resources will keep to remain depleted over large periods of time, it means people can cooperate and they should "suffer" by not having the resources they try to get (because they are depleted). There is the possibility that certain people will try to keep resources depleted to increase their market price, also fine, afterall its their right to use the tools as they wish to. However even if tools wont be limited by "words/law" in any way , as i said already on different occasions, they will be indirectly limited by the ..situation. Think of it, there are large amounts of resources for the resources i intend to be more common. Gathering them ALL would mean, except depleting them , also a large movement and activity on the map. Regenerable things such as resources and the periodically available shared tools mean in a way "consumable activity" . REGARDLESS how they will be used, they will either cause no problems or cause a great deal of activity that would balance the caused problems.

seen from a player perspective , there could be problems. Seen from a more global (cubical in md case) perspective, things will be well integrated, or so i will make them be.

Also you are forgetting one detail. MD's capacity to bring new tools and activities is greater than its number of players. The chance that any given group of players could takeover a certain area of activity, like create a "tea monopoly" for example, would only turn into a role, not into a problem, as many many more activities and resources will become available.