Alku Leon's page

I'll start this off by saying I truly believe that most video-game players make terrible video-game designers. But, here's goes nothin'.

A while back I posted the idea of player-owned shops as the basis for the in-game economy. It was a short post, and it got lost in the sea of posts that followed. I'd like to take the time to expand on this idea here.

What I'd like to see:
When I walk into a settlement, I'd love to see the streets packed full of NPC ran, but player owned shops. The mechanics behind this would be simple. If a player has the appropriate skills, he can set up (or rent) a building in a settlement and turn it into his shop. A NPC would man the shop 24/7 offering the players wares. The player could drop items into the shop, set a price, and presto, his shop is open for business. If the player so desired, he could run about the town advertising his great deals, or he could stand by the shop and offer discounts, or even haggle prices. The NPC is important because you wouldn't want a player to be screwed out of profits just because he can’t be logged in all the time. Plus, it seems most other crafting mechanics in the game are based around the idea of NPCs doing the grunt work and you are a manager of sorts.

Another very cool idea, though probably pretty far off, would be allowing players to set up shops outside the walls of settlements. Many fantasy worlds I've read about have sprawling towns that extend well past the city walls. Advantages to doing so: you wouldn't have to be officially a part of the settlement to do this. Disadvantages: you wouldn't benefit from the protection the walls offer. Perhaps your store could get looted, or simply burned down. Who knows? Just spit-balling on this one.

Foreseeable impacts to the game:
This would/could create regional economies based off resource availability. This has multiple consequences in and of itself.

First of all, it means that certain items will be cheaper in certain areas. If one area is known for having a certain resource, then it’s obvious that items made from that resource would be widely available there and probably for a cheaper price. This creates a need for traders to purchase items for cheap in one town, and cart them to a distant town to sell them for a profit.

Secondly, this also creates tension between kingdoms/landowners. History teaches us the number one reason to kill someone is over something they have, that you want. This applies doubly to governments and natural resources. Does this mean certain tracts of land will be more valuable than others? Most certainly. Is that a good thing? Hells yes! Last thing we want is for PFO to turn into universal love and peace for everyone, no fun in that.

Third. Not having a massive auction house would eliminate massive player congestion in NPC towns and give players one more reason to not hang out in NPC controlled areas. It encourages players to explore other settlements and travel to see what’s out there.

Lastly, it gives players who are interested in crafting/economy/trading a lot to work with. Prices will fluctuate, and if you can find a nice little niche market in some part of the world, you could make a pretty penny. Your shop could have a combination of self-made items, items you buy off of pass traders and items you buy from other local crafters. It also would allow for trading guilds to have a massive impact in the game. Setting player-enforced regulation on the trade of certain items. All sorts of player-content potential there. It also provides a never-ending need for caravan guards and merc CCs who want to protect these traveling traders. Last, and most importantly, it provides ample targets for the ne'er do-well looking to make a quick penny nicking some poor guys wares on the road.

Foreseeable in-game issues:
Space. I know PFO is gunna be big. I know it’s going to grow. I'm not really worried about map-size here. What I'm worried about is settlement size. How much space would 20-30 player owned shops take up? That’s not really an unreasonable number for a large settlement. This isn’t something GW has said much about, and I'm not too worried about it. It's all theory-crafting on my end.

Newbies. Players starting the game off wanting to be a salesmen of sorts would have a hard time doing it if they couldn’t quickly find a CC that would help them out. The idea of possibly allowing shops to be set up outside the city walls

That's all I got, I welcome any other ideas or issues I can’t think of. Also please don’t let this degenerate into a discussion about griefing... I'm so sick of that.

TL;DR - Regional based economies > massive auction houses.

Name: The Bloody Hand (Formally: The Fraternal Order of the Bloody Hand)
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Preferred Alignments: NN/CN/LE/NE/CE
Ruling Body: Grand Master and Council
Role: Provide a destabilizing force in the River Kingdoms
Player Roles Accepted: We are a strictly militant order. We do not accept those who are primarily harvesters or craftsmen.
Website: coming soon

Ideology: We stand as an Order of warriors, thieves and assassins for hire. Members will be expected to kill, and kill frequently. We claim no land, we live in the shadows. We take from those we can and complete our assigned contracts without mercy. We are for hire to any who can afford us. We will never break a contract.

Who Should Join: Those who don’t want the easy life of living in the Lawful and Good parts of society. Those that want to live on the fringe. Those who want an organization that will keep them in good coin and provide them ample targets of opportunity. We are an organization with room for advancement, if you show the guile and cunning. How hard you work will directly reflect how far you go… and how much you get paid.

Our Rules:

• Never break a contract.
  
• Never show mercy.

Joining the Bloody Hand:
PM Alku Leon or Phyllain for more details and how you can become a part of the Order or if you would like to open diplomatic channels.

OOC: This is not an organization for Griefers. We are not here to harass anyone outside the constructs of what the game allows. We are here to explore what being a bandit and assassin is like in PFO but we will not tolerate excessive harassment of anyone. We want to make the game dangerous and real but we don’t want to drive people away through constant, never ending grief.