A Suggestion for a New Economy System

[Crashlander04]

Now, I'm just a regular RPer, but I enjoy old school RP and old school interactions. I see RP not as an RPG (as most see it) where you garner items for the hell of it and grind for XP. I see RP as the interaction between players and characters in an enviroment and the results that happen forming stories and feelings between those characters.

And making the trade system autonomous removes a critical aspect of that.

Traders and a Trading Guild are huge opportunities for RP and character development. Messages and news of distant lands are traded ICly, rumors and hintings at darker things are mentioned as a character trades for items, and resources you lack can be traded from another kingdom.

If Kiwikeships were so much less laggy, even more opportunities arise. Perhaps the infamous Joe the Sod Merchant floats around on his dodgy float, or an agent of the great Trade Baron floats in on his elegant ship, trading for mass amounts of diamonds. While the agent is focused on making dosh and leaving, Joe will stay for as long as wants, sharing news and drink for hours. Either one gives rise to such great RP plots.

As the tech goes further on in Kiwike, instead of just being traders, maybe the become liaisons between nations. Nation A has Reeds and Nation B has leather. So they hire a merchant ship to transport a mass amount of goods between the two, or one to the other. Money still passes hands and RP still occurs.

Maybe Nation A doesn't even know about Nation C until faithful Joe shares the news as he imbibes in drink. Suddenly Nation A can ask the Merchants to open negotiations with Nation C, and a new alliance is formed. How else would someone learn about a nation unless visiting the Inn, which nations would put on low priority.
And when it comes to PvP, maybe you have your arms dealer faction too? Bring in armor and swords, making money on the higher prices in the warring nations. Potions of destruction transported from out of location means that the enemy can't capture your resources the conventional way. But if they pay the higher price, guess who is out of potions?

Now, because of the fact that trading is run by players instead of NPCs, there wouldn't be a standardization. The server would have to give that up for the sake of RP, but in my opinion, I see that as a worthwhile sacrifice, especially given the fact that as an RP server, aspects and elements should lead to RP, and not to resource mongering.

This.

That.