Goblin Squad Member
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A different thread go me thinking about this...what if all the contracts that GW has in mind were items actually crafted by characters? What if there was something like a scribe skill that allowed players to craft the various forms of contracts? There are certainly enough of them to keep a training scribe busy, especially if we really use them as much as GW seems to think we will. You might need an NPC style notary where you turn in the contract to access the game controlled escrow system, but the actual document that both parties interface with could be player made.
I think it would provide yet another player crafted item and would provide less adventurous types with a consistent business (though the mats to make the contracts would still need to be harvested and refined by somebody).
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Goblin Squad Member
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I have a separate thread where I list both papermaker and scribe in the skills need ingame. In addition to bookbinder (spellbooks have to come from somewhere.....these things don't just drop out of the sky).
(Pasted from "Novelty Skills" thread...)
Minerology (identifying minerals), Science, Engineering, Botanist, Miner, Lumberjack, Blacksmith/goldsmith/silversmith, Wainwright (making wagons), Glassblower, Farmer, Herbalist, Animal Tamer, Animal Husbander (breeder), Potter, Hunter/Trapper, Skinner/Tanner, Leatherworker, Butcher, Cook, Jeweler, Spellcrafter, Artificer, Weaver, Tailor, Scribe, Surveyor, Cartographer, Sawyer, Bowyer, Fletcher, Woodworker, Carpenter, Salvager, Tinker, Fisherman, Boatwright, Musician, Artist, Author, Historian, Bookbinder, Painter, Papermaker.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Well, besides the very few items needed to get players started in the noob zones, I hope ALL items are crafted by players. I am hoping for a very deep crafting skill requirement with some high end specializations so everyone that wants to craft can be a needed specialist if that is what they want to do. Creating the paper, scrolls, wooden spindles, ink, quills to write with, the whole deal!
If they do crafting right, it will be a total blast!
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Goblin Squad Member
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I like this idea, but I believe contracts will be to numerous for this to be feasible. This could work for Company Charters, Declarations of War, long term Letters of Marque (Bounty Hunting License), Establishment of a Settlement, etc.
Basically any long term agreement could require this type of crafted contract.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Bluddwolf,
I had thought of that concern before posting, but if the mats for the contracts were in the starter zones, and knowing that people would be hot to make contracts with one another, I could see CC's making sure that at least one member is devoting some skill time to at least the first level of "Scribe" to supply that CC's contracts.
If they're that often used, player crafted contracts could become a staple for beginning player and CC income. Again, if contracts were that popular, they would also be one of the first items sold on auction houses. At the very beginning, I think most people will be too busy training the skills that then require contracts to need one yet - there's nothing to having a delivery contract for until you've built the skills to harvest, refine, and craft what you want delivered.
If crafting such daily-use contracts were on the first tier of the Scribe skill, like in EVE, that skill could be trained in the first minutes or hours of a Scribe's life in PFO.
As much as I think it would be a neat, player made item, I say all this with a sneaking suspicion that the contracts I suggest will be NPC provided items. I can see people making an argument that an item so readily needed by the public shouldn't be controlled by players, lest a handful of players end up with a strangle hold on a vital part of the economy and player interaction. On the flip side of that argument, if making the basic contracts only takes minutes or hours to train, everyone might see the wisdom in training that skill at some point. More likely than a skill issue, getting the raw materials (paper/vellum, ink, quills, etc.) might be the choke point for supply in this case.
If a scribe is a skill. Contracts could be arranged by level (in some manner), with higher level needing more or better raw materials as a way to encourage someone to take their scribe skill past 1st or 2ed level?
I could see the scribe skill allowing players to create notice scrolls, as well as record, or copy things into books. This would be another way to utilize the scribe skill, one which I Really hope is included.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Craft: calligraphy and perhaps books
Profession: scribe, and perhaps barrister & clerk
Linguistics deals with written as well as spoken language, including the deciphering of codes and the creation of forgeries.
As to the great amounts of them needed, I think they would likely be produced with blanks. One player uses the item to fill in the terms and their own name, and the other party uses it to add their own name. The crafter wouldn't have to sit around hoping someone visits any more than they do with other crafts.
I agree, maybe they could set up generic contracts that players could buy and simply fill out the details. It would allow the scribe to put these items on the market like all other crafters. It seems like this would prevent a group from cornering the market and driving up prices, causing a shortage, whatever.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I know this is not real life, but during the Medieval period, very few people could read, much less write. The equipment and supplies were fairly hard to come by, expensive (especially colored inks) and the skill to create books, maps, scrolls (and in PFO, magic of many types), and signage was a skilled trade. Most histories were written by priests and monks, and the libraries were places of historical wonder (and sadly, targeted many times in history by conquering armies).
A Library should be one of the highest level structures a Settlement could build...they are quite prestigious and would be full of mages and clerics creating magical items and studying histories. This skill set would also make written geographies and journals of travel throughout the land viable professions.
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Goblin Squad Member
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To give the Scribe more work, I would rather see each contract be its own item, but that might slow down the availability of the contracts people need. As for sitting around waiting for customers, I don't think that was ever mentioned.
If each contract has to be created individually, you'll get scribes sitting around waiting on customers, customers sitting around waiting for scribes to log on, or both at different times of the day. There's no reason to cause that problem when you can make different types of contracts available which characters can buy and sign as needed.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Whatever the sales mechanicsm is determined to be it is easily foreseeable that "Blank Contracts" will soon be readily available in quantity.
I think it will be far more challenging to have fine quality paper, inks, quills and scrolls in order to make higher level spells, spellbooks, and other paper based magic items. The material components required may take some time, skill, and expense to acquire. Magic doesn't just grow on trees!
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Goblin Squad Member
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I can picture this now, and I almost cringe,.....
River Kingdoms Herold: Breaking News
"The UnNamed Company of bandits have sacked a major trade caravan heading to Fort Inevitable...... A Scribe was killed and 4000 blank contracts, 100 quill pens and 1500 rolls of toilet paper were looted!"
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Goblin Squad Member
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Contracts need, I think, to be game objects, and as such should be craftable. My concern is how the game determines if a contract has been fulfilled or broken. The parties could lie. Will GW personnel be approving contracts for chartered companies, and for settlement and kingdoms charters, or will there be a in-game mechanic for approving said contracts? If contract approval is an in-game object adjudicated by game mechanics for fulfillment, then each contract would have to be made from a "recipe" just like other craftable objects. This would be necessary for the game to recognize when the contract functions correctly. This may or may not also apply to contracts between individuals or groups.
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Goblin Squad Member
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A scribe crafts and sells the contract. Someone buys it and registers it and a reward deposit with some kind of notary available in non-good settlements. The notary passes a copy of the contract on to the assassin's guild chosen by the buyer. The assassin to whom the contract is assigned gets that copy, and if they make the kill, they take an item of proof (the head, most likely) from the body. Both are turned in at the notary office, who exchanges the reward for the head, and signs the contract as completed. A stack of completed contract items could be a status symbol among an assassin's guild, or even a seniority ranking for who gets first option at taking new contracts when they don't already have one assigned to them.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Just about everything will be done by contract as well (from what I understand) including bounties, crafting materials, or any transport type job. The blog stated contracts will (as of its writing which has been several months ago now) be an integral part of the economy and many features of the contract system will be automated within the mechanics of PFO. Less cheating...but I am sure some devious "entrepreneur" will find a way.
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Goblin Squad Member
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For assassination contracts at least. For lower lvl contracts you could have things where both source of contract and assassin click on button to agree contract was fulfilled. As proof the assassin loots special item from tgt like a head for example. For higher level contract magic is placed on contract and shows when contract is fulfilled. That way for lower level contracts you can still cheat someone out of contract and take a rep hit or something like that. Maybe to cheat higher contract a spell can be cast on contract to deceive it or maybe something like that. Just brainstorming.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I assumed that the primary reason for having contracts be an item is that they would be non-threadable. That's also why I figured they would be made out of coin- so that when the target won against the assassin, he could take the contract and tear it up, adding a significant cost to being defeated during an assassination attempt.