[MUD-Dev] Crafting/Creation systems

[Vincent Archer]

According to Dave Rickey:
> From: "Ron Gabbard" <rgabbard at swbell.net>

>> 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.

> Just FYI, your numbers are low by about a factor of 5.  In general
> only 20% of all players are logged on at peak time.  Also, you
> need a jigger factor for alts, there are a non-trivial number of
> players with multiple 50's in the same realm.

However, there's a compensating factor for crafters too. Just like
there's an average of 4 unconnected players for each on-line, there
should be also 4 off-line crafters for each available master
crafter.

I had my own calculations done earlier in DAoC's life (back in
november, when discussion about crafting was all the rage, and the
single most asked feature for crafting was... the display of the
exact stats rather than the "reference blueprint" ones), and had
concluded that a server could host about 5-8 self-sufficient
craftsmen (i.e. people who do crafts for a "living", without
additional income) in each craft.

> At the high end, tiny differences in utility value can have huge
> effects on perceived value.  If you have a weapon with an
> effective DPS of 16.1, and the crafter can make you one with a
> eDPS of 16.2, most players will consider the 16.2 almost
> infinitely more desirable.

Witness today. There's a raid scheduled, and the requirements are
posted as being a 35%-bonus, player crafted weapon (the bonus
translating into a specific minimum achievable DPS, due to material
use). Nothing else.  You don't have such a weapon, don't bother
showing up.

> And the mark of a truly failed game economy is when cash stops
> being an acceptable form of exchange.  There are many things in
> other games that literally cannot be purchased for any amount of
> cash, because cash is available in almost infinite supply to
> anyone who wants it.  With the partial exception of dragon loot
> (which has an

As an aside, in EQ, which is often touted (and by me too) as an
economic failure, everything that can be traded IS available for the
right amount of pp. Even things that aren't tradeable in practice
(want a nodrop Skyshrine Armor? No problem, for the right amount).

The things that cannot be purchased for money are the things that
aren't tradeable at all to begin with.

> other game systems.  We can let players create arbitrarily
> effective magical items (something crafting systems for OLRPG's
> have never

When's that patch dammit? We've been left salivating over the
Spellcraft design document, but there's still no spellcraft on the
test server :)

The ability to create custom magical items is monstruously powerful,
and potentially very imbalancing, btw. I've been toying for example
with the NWN item creator, and it's easy to have characters that are
insanely powerful at relatively low levels with "legal"
items. Granted, you don't have to worry about an economy in there,
but the potential for abuse is huge. And almost identical in DAoC.

--
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

All men are mortal.  Socrates was mortal.  Therefore, all men are Socrates.
							(Woody Allen)

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