I make the following predictions:
1) Every link will be a road. Road building is cheap. If you have
enough men, it's quicker to build a road and move along it than to
just walk.
2) Ships will cover the ocean. Ships are very inexpensive to build if
you cut your own lumber.
3) Guilds will still be meaningless. The most powerful players are the
ones who engage in many kinds of activities, hence have interests in
many guilds.
4) There will be billions and billions of high-level characters in
every profession, since it is pretty inexpensive to train 1 man to a
high level.
I don't think any of these will be a good thing for play in Olympia,
although #3 is pretty trivial.
To cure #1 and #2, I would suggest that more inputs should be
required. Building a road takes no stone or gold. Building a ship
takes no gold, if you cut your own wood. The labor inputs to both
activities is fairly inexpensive. Simply drastically raising the price
would be a good start. Is 15,000 gold a fair price for a galley? I
think so.
A solution to #4 is more problematic. Right now it only takes a long
time to reach a high level. We've all got plenty of time and the small
amount of money involved. But I'm sure Rich has many suggestions about
this one already.
-- Oleg
"Rather than the glamorous ideal of shining wizards casting powerful
fireballs at wicked foes, the reality of magic instead tends to be
base, tedious work which earns few friends."
-- Rich, in a special message for BtA