Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I don't think mining or agriculture is a very heroic thing to be doing. Guard duty, maybe.
But the mining should be done by hired NPCs, who receive a wage determined by the mine owner. The wage set would determine the number of people who work at the mine, and thus how much stuff got mined.
If population is also limited, then opposing factions nearby could engage in labor wars, hiring the limited labor force at higher wages.
Spending money on wages is one way that coinage can be removed from circulation; to keep the economy meaningful, all resources, including coinage needs to leave circulation as fast as it enters. That can be controlled either on the supply side (how fast is ore mined) or the sink side (how quickly does armor wear out).
I fully expect major changes in both the supply and sink side in the early beta. I don't think human behavior can be modeled well enough and cheaply enough to make those determinations.
Goblin Squad Member
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I don't think mining or agriculture is a very heroic thing to be doing. Guard duty, maybe.
But the mining should be done by hired NPCs, who receive a wage determined by the mine owner. The wage set would determine the number of people who work at the mine, and thus how much stuff got mined.
If population is also limited, then opposing factions nearby could engage in labor wars, hiring the limited labor force at higher wages.
Spending money on wages is one way that coinage can be removed from circulation; to keep the economy meaningful, all resources, including coinage needs to leave circulation as fast as it enters. That can be controlled either on the supply side (how fast is ore mined) or the sink side (how quickly does armor wear out).
I fully expect major changes in both the supply and sink side in the early beta. I don't think human behavior can be modeled well enough and cheaply enough to make those determinations.
This is true, but since they have stated one of the focuses of this game will be persistence...changes will be and stay changes for everyone, I do not see how we can all be heroes in the traditional sense.
In most MMOs, everyone gets to save the world...everyone gets to defeat the ultimate evil, etc...In this game, some will be seen as heroes because of the selfless behavior and defense of causes, but the majority of us will be the people living in the world. If working in a mine or agriculture is considered beneath "heroes" and hence no one is willing to do it...good, the wages will be higher for me. If my guild owns a land with a mine and we need metal for better gear, I will happily go work in the mine to insure this happens.
I think a better way of looking at this game is not that we are all heroes, instead we are those who live within a heroic world.
This actually makes me wonder about traditional resource harvesting...do any individuals really mine metal? It kinda takes machinery (even ancient Romans used machines for mining) and a group of people to dig it out of the ground. Maybe some harvesting such as mining should require groups and NPC laborers of the type described above (logged out PCs...or even logged in PCs who want to automated grind gold...they are then only semi-AFK, just in case there is trouble).
So, solo harvesters could be lumberjacks (unless you consider wood planking is really heavy and unwieldy), hunters and harvest leather, bone, meat, and sinew. Herbalists could harvest plants...and similar harvesting types. Other types of harvesting such as mining (stone and metal) would require large operations. Solo crafters then, would be able to purchase their needs from harvesters.
This also adds a huge sector of the economy that will essentially be "service" instead of commodities. This would be an addition I have never really seen in an MMO, but is a huge part of many RL economies.
The idea gets dangerously close to the dreaded "realism" realm, but what it adds would be awesome and I thin in line with the stated goals of the game.
I think it may come down to a question of degrees; solo players might find some materials, the same as individual prospectors could find some gold by themselves, but it would not be remotely at an industrial scale.
It might be cheap for single personal projects, but time-consuming, which is why it would be more time- and money-effective to be part of a mining ensemble or purchase as a commodity instead of self-gathering.
It would not be realism for sake of realism - it could have a distinctive impact in both how players spend time, and how towns, cities, even fledgling nations allocate their resources. Think of it as a sort of 'material per hour' market increase, when as a team, as opposed to individual units per attempt for solo gathering. A steady rate, as opposed to a highly variable one that is lower and slower. And having people geared for optimal mining means they won't be optimally equipped for self-defense, which means that said mines could be effectively combat/quest/action hubs where those working to supply their faction with materials would coordinate with the defending team to let them know where danger pops up and how best to address it, making for another level of interactivity.
Plus, now there's something to keep the people with heal skill on hand from being bored by fixing up injured miners.