In another thread I mentioned an idea I had that was inspired by the old school War Craft Real Time Strategy games and I thought I would give this idea it's own thread for discussion.
The idea is that actual buildings would play an important role within the game in regards to what crafts would be able to be made be they wondrous items, enchanted arms and armor, potions, scrolls, skill books, weapons and armor, exotic material items or the like.
For example:
To produce spears you need basic wood and steel units, a basic blacksmith building and a crafter with minimal ranks in craft weapons.
To produce Masterwork Spears you will need iron wood, refined steel, an upgraded blacksmith building, and a crafter with some additional ranks in craft weapons.
To actually make Magical Spears though you would need everything you needed for Master Work weapons, and you would need a Wizard's Tower or Temple of Torag with skilled enough Wizards or Clerics with access to the needed materials to enchant such items.
I think that by making the buildings that exist within the community as important as the raw materials and the crafters themselves would create a unique dynamic, especially if their exist a city planner skill set or engineering skill set that determines what sort of buildings and upgrades are available to any given community.
For Example:
To build a basic small community you would need some basic raw materials, a city planner character with some basic skills, and enough gold and community members to act as labor to construct the various thatched roof cottages and basic crafting faculties for the Hamlet.
If you wanted to upgrade some of the houses from thatched roof cottages to wooden cabins lets say, then you would need someone with additional ranks in engineering, more wood, and more gold for the upgrade.
If you wanted to upgrade the basic blacksmith crafting station to be capable of producing Masterwork Quality Crafts, then the hamelet would need to invest in building an ore refinery or a metal works which would require a larger investment of gold and materials as well as a more skilled engineer.
In my noobish mind I think this could create a great dynamic in that starting communities would not need much more then members to get off the ground and start farming dirt and building horse shoes, but should they ever wish to upgrade themselves to a town with masterwork quality works and wonders then they will need to pool resources to invest in such upgrades. Over time as hamlets gain community members and as a community continue to invest in improving their community resources they could grow into a town, and then eventually someday even become a city with stone walls, castles and keeps.
The more members there are that make up a community the more they could do for themselves, and the more that a community could provide for it's members the more people will likely look to join said community. Still though no two cities will be alike because there will always be choices that need to be made and limited resources made available.
Town A may push to upgrade it's Weapon Productions first.
Town B may push to upgrade it's shrine to a Temple
Now both Town A and B will be far from becoming Cities and both communities will be eager for the item upgrades and benefits that can be made available to them if they were to upgrade. Will the two towns start fighting over local resources? Will the two create some sort of alliance in which they share resources which will significantly slow down their ability to throw resources into their community upgrades? Will crafters who's skill has surpassed their communities crafting facilities leave in search of a community with the advanced faculties needed so they may make their masterworks?
What sort of taxes will Leader A place upon his community? or City B for that matter? Will the difference in taxes be enough to make smuggling Masterwork Weapons made in town A into the market's of Town B to avoid steep taxes, even with the possibility of losing a shipment of stock to road way gankers and bandits?
