[Discuss] Trade Caravans to replace traders?

[Tim Alexander]

I suggested this a few days ago on a much older thread, but I thought
it was applicable here too. This, combined with the changes above,
could both preserve the trader class for those that still want to
trade (I think it's a very valuable class that actually takes some
skill to play, instead of just "Move here. Wait. Move here. Refit.
Move back.") as well as add all of the advantages of the system that
is in testing right now.

Here's what I posted earlier:


<i>You know, with just a few modifications, I could see that a trader
would be a class that many people would join.

For one, I would make it so that you can sell directly to the
peasants. For example: if the region is starving, the peasants might
buy food for X per bushel, however the banker knows that food is
coming soon, and so is only set to buying for X/4 per bushel. The
peasants would gladly buy from you, and this would drop the amount
that they contribute to the enemy realm for taxes, however they would
get food enough. This goes in line with what would actually happen
many times. And, you could institute an hours appropriation to it. If
you spent 12 hours, you might find peasants enough to buy 200 bushels,
but if you only spent 3 hours, you might only find enough to buy 30
bushels. Then, you can decide if the price is high enough that you
want to sell. If so, then you can sell, but if not, you try again to
find peasants to sell to. The amount of peasants and gold they offer
would depend on how much food they need. This way, a starving region
would offer a very good opportunity to a trader. I'll admit that this
is sort of like the black market (OK, very much like the black
market) however the black market is a few things: to easy to get
caught, and be imprisoned, and doesn't incorporate some of the
features that this would. For example a starving region would be easy
to find buyers, while a non starving region would be hard.

The second thing that I would add would be a message function. I would
let the traders message any other traders, like the ruler's channel,
or the judges channel. That way, they aren't totally disconnected, and
it keeps them involved and having fun. Also, this would lend itself to
a few things. One, it would give them the ability to shout out prices
or good places to buy or sell for thier realm, instead of bankers,
which is a single point of failure as far as activity is concerned.
Second, this would lend itself to rebellion. This is a good thing
believe it or not. The Trader would be the best class to pass secrets
in and out of the realm, as they could message the other traders
directly. This lends itself to real life. If you see two soldiers from
opposing countries talking in hushed tones, you think "that guy is a
traitor". But if you see two traders talking in hushed tones, you
assume they are brokering some new deal that makes you a lot of money.
However, it's the best class to pass secrets, as well simply because
of the ease of communication. Look at how many secrets were passed
inside bushels of grain, or carts of fruit throughout the ages. That
was one of the main ways it was done!

Also, if you modified (and here I'm just spitballing. This would be
quite difficult I think) the way that items are used it would help.
Wood, for example is used almost none. So require that to outfit
troops you need to have wood in the region for every troop, otherwise
the region doesn't produce them. Also, make it so that repairing
equipment takes wood (it already has a "not enough raw materials
message". Link it to this.) and you get a great demand. Food is needed
so that the region doesn't starve, and you can sell that directly to
the peasants with the first suggestion, so you've improved that as
well. </i>

On 9/27/07, Timothy Collett <danaris at mac.com> wrote:
> On Sep 27, 2007, at 3:55 PM, Tom Vogt wrote:
> > Timothy Collett schrieb:
> >> I don't *often* go to my Command menu when in my region, so it's
> >> entirely possible I'm just overlooking it...but I'd like to test it
> >> out, see what it's like.
> >
> > Try now.
>
> Aha!  It's there!
>
> ...but it's bugged.
>
> First, there's a missing </i> tag after the "this is a testing
> feature" line.  Second, there's a SQL error on both pages: tables
> BMWorld7.CaravanOffers and BMWorld7.Caravans don't exist.  I doubt
> I'll get much useful feedback given that.
>
> Timothy Collett
> Anaris Family
>
> --
>
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