I feel that trade generates too much money, compared to other sources of
income. Trade may be out of balance with the rest of the game, so some
changes may be necessary.
1) Trade makes too much money
I would like to lessen the amount of money made by trade. For those
traders who use ocean routes, I feel some of the profit should be removed.
Since port cities should be naturally larger and have more commerce, I
feel that they should buy lower and sell higher than inland cities.
I think that each port city should set their prices to reduce the profit
from the trade route by 25%. If your trade route uses one port city, you
should make 1500 profit, while if it uses two port cities, you should only
make around 1000 profit.
For over land routes, I would like to increase the amount of time it takes
to get from place to place. I would like to see a movement penalty for
non-fighting animals as well. I don't think that the penalty should be as
much as for fighting figures, but there should be a penalty. I just can't
see one man driving 50 horses going as fast a man on one horse.
Aside: I also feel that the movement penalty should be reduced by 50% if
there is one mount for each noble. I would think a riding noble could
keep 15 men moving as fast as a walking noble and 10 men.
2) Competition.
This is certainly a harder thing to do. It would be nice to remove the
unique trade good for the general trade good, but this might do more harm
than good, and requires more thought than I have time.
I like the suggestion of removing the limit of purchases a city can buy.
I feel that if this is done, then the purchasing city should only buy a
percentage of the number of goods offered by the selling city. Since a
city will be providing more goods than one faction can use, they might be
willing to let others use the difference. We may need to have a city
purchase fewer than 50% of trade goods.
3) New skills.
I always like to see new skills.
REMOVE TRADE GOOD FROM MARKET (knowledge of trade and/or persuasion
needed)
time: 30 days
cost: 100 gold
Convince the local population that they should not sell/buy a particular
item. There is a 50% chance that the owner of the local tavern will hear
of your efforts.
Advantages:
Could be used to enhance your trade routes.
Could also be used to ruin an enemy's trade route.
ONE TIME SALE OF GOODS
time: 21 days
Sell a load of goods in a one time bulk lot. You are not guaranteed to
make a profit on this sale. The trade good will show up in the city's
market for one month only, at which time the trader can sell what he has.
Advantages:
Allows a trader to not take a complete loss if the goods don't get to
the market before the trade route ends.
Gives pirates a method for selling their stolen merchandise.
This would also provide a method for selling a horde of goods found
during a quest.
Not all of these thoughts are complimentary to each other, and some
certainly would take a lot of additional thought to put in to the game.
I would like to see some show up in g2, preferably before I get killed. I
realize that it is not easy to set up a working global economy.
Bill