[MUD-Dev] Crafting/Creation systems

[Ron Gabbard]

From: "Dave Rickey" <daver at mythicentertainment.com>
> From: "Ron Gabbard" <rgabbard at swbell.net>

>> Thus, to have an inflation-proof, balanced economy you need:
>> 1a. A closed market with a fixed money supply, or 1b. An open
>> economy with no hard-coded prices or wages and a system by which
>> prices can adjust to inflation.  2. A system by which the supply
>> of goods is able to equal the demand for those goods.

>> If a game designer can create a system where the available supply
>> of raw materials equals the player-driven demand for raw
>> materials without the players providing the supply and where the
>> price for those raw materials can adjust to inflation and are
>> market-driven, more power to them.

> In DAoC, there's an interesting dynamic that has set in now that
> players have realized that even without special magical bonuses, a
> good player-crafted weapon is significantly superior to a loot
> drop weapon.  In DAoC, quality of output is random in a range from
> 94-100 (the best non "Dragon-grade" loot is 93%), with equal
> chances of 94-99 and one chance in 71 of a 100% quality item (aka
> "masterpiece").  Players being the way they are, and the system
> working the way it does, a 97% weapon is considered barely
> acceptable, a 98% workable, a 99% preferrable, and you really want
> a 100% masterpiece.

<snip description>

bah!  I harassed Iain to get these numbers from Spyke for a long
time!  I loved the concepts behind the DAoC crafting scheme (and
even got my Armsman up to 800+ in armorcrafting).  I personally felt
that crafting was just another money and time sink both in the
short-term and the long-term... so I stopped rather than push to
1000+.  Yes, it's really time consuming and expensive to ramp up a
trade skill to 'Master+' level... but, that's not the problem.

Let's say the total population on the server is 2,500.  Now, assume
that I play in a larger realm on that server that has a population
of 1,000.  (Some realms have significantly fewer players.) Within my
realm, people are equally distributed amongst casters, rogues, and
melees so that there are 333 of each.  Thus, the total market for
metal weapons is 333 as the other 667 use bows or staves.

Now, lets assume for reference purposes a level distribution of 15%
levels 1-10/15% levels 11 - 20/30% levels 21 - 30/20% levels
31-40/20% levels 41 - 50.  That means that there are 66 players in
my realm that would use the high-end gear made by Grandmaster
weaponsmithers (1000+).

Next, take decay rate into consideration.  I only had one weapon
decay on me to the point where it needed replacing during my 44
levels so I don't have a good sample size to determine the actual
decay rate.  But, for illustration purposes, let's say a weapon
lasts 10 days.  Thus, on any given night there are an average of 7
people needing a new high-end weapon in my realm.

Now, divide 7 by the total number of Grandmaster crafters.  Let's
just say there are 2. (I hate prime numbers.)  So, there is a
potential market of 3 to 4 weapons for each weaponsmith on any given
night.  But, will these people buy crafted weapons?

The price of the weapon cannot exceed the value of the difference in
effectiveness between the readily-available mob-dropped weapon
(which is free) and the crafted weapon.  (Unless, as you later point
out, it's either spend the money on the crafted item or it's
worthless.)  In addition, the cost in time of finding a crafter,
ordering the weapon, and traveling to pick it up (transaction costs)
has to be added to the price.  Example: If I have multiple 14
effective-dps weapons sitting in the bank from various mobs and a
spare in my pack, the price for the crafted 16.2 weapon cannot
exceed the perceived value of an additional 2.2 dps + transaction
costs.

The problem is that by fixing the ore costs, the weaponcrafter has a
minimum that they can charge to the customer and still be
profitable.  Compound that by the fact that the ores for the high
end weapons are only obtainable in the Relic Keeps (where there
weren't forges when last I played) and the travel time required by
the crafter boosts that cost up as well.  (Whether the crafter gets
paid for that time is a different issue.)  In DAoC, if the players
mined the raw materials for crafted goods, the player-driven market
price for ores, leathers, and woods would drop
dramatically... particularly at the higher-end where there is little
demand.  This would allow crafters to price their goods in such a
way that they are competitive with mob-dropped loot and increase
their business.

The bottom line is that there just isn't enough business to support
a crafter role given the current decay rate and cost structure that
would allow them to recoup their investment and on-going costs in
their craft.  The option is always open to increase the decay rate
and reduce the drop rate of mob loot.  However, crafter-made weapons
are so expensive that players would eventually have to increase
their PvE mob-killing to earn loot and cut back on their RvR... even
the level 50's who no longer get any XP from killing mobs.

> The main thing is that players will spend themselves broke chasing
> tiny marginal gains in performance, regardless of whether the
> economy is open or closed, or if raw material prices are fixed or
> floating.

This is only true in a situation where players have nothing better
on which to spend their money... which is inflationary in itself in
a different manner.  If the only thing in the world to buy is
armor/weapons, the only value that the currency has is the
incremental performance bonus from improving their equipment.  It's
either buy better equipment or the money is worthless.  Money is
intrinsically worthless... it's just a number representing coins in
vault.  The only value it has are the values of goods and services
that can be bought with it.

> From a purist viewpoint, DAoC's economy is inflationary, in the
> sense that players can get arbitrarily large amounts of money, and
> equipment can get arbitrarily stronger (spellcrafting and alchemy
> will have "soft failure" regions where attempts to improve an item
> can fail to take, consuming their raw material but exceeding
> normal caps when successful).  But in practice the things that
> normally create inflationary pressures have been converted into
> safety valves to *prevent* inflation from becoming significant.

...

> I ain't done yet.  The economy I designed included Spellcrafting,
> and has had a big hole where that belonged.  Even so, the
> underlying economy in DAoC has proven fundamentally sound, and I'm
> proud of how *little* I've had to worry about it since launch.

Yeah, Spellcrafting is actually the most important component of the
DAoC trade system as it's the primary differentiator between crafted
and mob-dropped loot.

The difference between DAoC and the other MMORPGs I've played is
that 'end-game' players don't spend their time in 'income-producing'
activities... they play RvR.  Since there is no monetary reward for
killing PC opponents from other realms, you don't have to worry
about those thousands and thousands of hours played on each server
every night generating more and more cash.  In addition, because of
the cost of repairing keep doors, making siege weapons, and buying
ammunition, RvR is actually a money-sink with a negative currency
flow.  It's a very simple, straight-forward economic model and has
supported the game model very well which is the purpose of economic
systems in MMPs.

Everything with DAoC is basically, fundamentally sound.  It caters
to a specific player type and has a narrow scope of activities and
rewards that supports that group well.  From a high level, it's a
series of power-ups that culminate in a massive team-based PvP
arena.  Personally, I like a broader experience, but that's
OK... 200,000+ subscribers enjoy your model and that's what
counts. <grin> Some people like Italian food, some people like Thai
food, some people like burgers... that's what choice is all about.

Cheers,

Ron



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