rosedragon
Posts: 38
3/9/2015
|
At the moment what I observe from Sunless Sea's economy is that certain places allow you to make more profit than others, but after sometime it depletes. I think, I can consider this a punishment mechanic even though it have good intention of promoting exploration.
I think, instead doing this and get complains from people which somehow concludes you need to grind to get progress, Sunless Sea can have benefit from doing what trading games doing (tradewinds series, spacerangers) which is dynamic economy. It doesn't have to be that complex though...
Here is what I am thinking:
- Inn and taverns, including resting in London have chance to give you 'words of opportunity'
- You can only have like 3? different 'words of opportunity'
- Each words of opportunity basically increase profit of certain item or allowing players to do limited run once more.
Example:
- "I heard capering relicker is visiting London and looking for some sphinxstones" for one chance of selling sphinxstone after the quest deplete
- "I heard Mt Palmerson have limited stock of certain item, they are useful to reduce sun menace" go to Mt Palmerson to buy certain item that reduces sun menace, only can buy once.
- "I heard Venderbright is running out of wine!" for bonus 1 echo per wine in venderbright shop, until you depart from it.
Another idea:
Instead having the limited runs to be completely dry after awhile, maybe makes them faster to deplete but allow them to regenerate overtime? I think it is less disappointing if players know its gonna restock later.
|
|
|
+2
link
|
Alexis Kennedy
Posts: 1374
3/17/2015
|
I should have learnt not to make forum posts hastily in the morning. There is in fact a good point about player expectation in here which I skimmed over.
A lot of games where you direct a vessel between ports - space, sea or desert - do have a much more central trading element than Sunless Sea. The other elements we took from those games - exploration, survival - are much more central to SS, and the market-based trading element of SS we put in quite reluctantly. Partly this was in response to player interest early in the Kickstarter. I sort of wish we hadn't blinked, there - but it does serve a useful role in underpinning storytelling and providing micro-motives for taking particular routes.
But since it is in there, however minor, and since players are used to seeing it in other games, we have a bit of a hill to climb with player expectations. With hindsight, there could have been better approaches to tuning those expectations than putting in a traditional market interface with a warning at the top saying 'don't expect to make much money this way'. We will be looking at that over time.
But making the expectations clearer, and dropping in more content, will always be a much higher priority than adding trading elements to the game. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a Merchant Prince expansion in years to come - but it's not on our radar. :-)
edited by Alexis on 3/17/2015
|
|
|
+3
link
|
Sigred
Posts: 23
3/15/2015
|
rosedragon wrote:
Sunless Sea can have benefit from doing what trading games doing
Sunless Sea isn't a trading game. Admittedly, it is very easy think that it is, but it really is not; the game even blatantly says you will be unlikely to make much profit from trading. Sunless Sea is about exploration & stories first and foremost. Improvements on trading is unlikely to even be a tertiary concern for the development team.
--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Sigred
|
|
|
+2
link
|
Sigred
Posts: 23
3/17/2015
|
MisterGone wrote:
(Wall of text)
By your logic, any game that contains objects which can be exchanged for some form of currency would be a trading game. I won't say that you have no valid points. However, attempting to make appeals that run counter to the developer's clear intent for the overall design is simply childish--"I want to play your game, but I don't want to play the way you designed it."
I apologize in advance if you take offense to that, but I will not apologize for saying it.
--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Sigred
|
|
|
+1
link
|
Alexis Kennedy
Posts: 1374
3/17/2015
|
Sunless Sea is not a trading game. [Source: made the game.]
OK, that's cheap of me :-) and it's entirely possible for players to find different things in a game than the things the designer puts in it. But I am raising a eyebrow at the fact that that list of my inspirations is mysteriously missing the two primary ones - FTL and Don't Starve - which have no trading elements at all. I'd have liked to strip out the markets and replace trading entirely with story-based elements - not unlilke what Rosedragon suggests - but the content budget for that would have been much higher, and the UI would have been a bit painful.
MisterGone - I wrote a longish (and slightly supercilious, now I reread it, sorry!) here http://community.failbettergames.com/topic19495-suggestion-give-hearts-an-effect-outside-events.aspx#post97836 about why adding elements can often be more problematic than it seems.
|
|
|
+1
link
|
WormApotheote
Posts: 725
3/14/2015
|
lexiconical wrote:
A new shipment of dice (from hell?) halves the price of dice in Palmerston. And so on.
edited by lexiconical on 3/14/2015
The Brimstone Convention is an enemy of Hell--being the ousted former rulers of it--so that's unlikely. :P
--
No, I don't pull the Eater of Names.
|
|
|
+1
link
|