Time for wall of text - some ideas that probably won't be implemented, but maybe inspire someone to do something:
1. More P2P than P2E castle economy (closed money market)
Right now when you (as serf or peasant) sell resource/weapon to
castle stockpile, you get money from nowhere. IMO castle owner should pay you, not game engine. Same if you buy resource/weapon from castle - money shouldn't vanish, but should go (100%) to castle treasury.
Only way to "create" money, should be by exporting ("destroying" or "removing from game") resources.
Only way to "destroy" money, should be by importing goods (those that can't be crafted) or by training.
All other money transfers should be between players - pay for goods, ect.
One problem is - how to prevent serfs from flooding castles with useless resources that castle doesn't need? I see two possible solutions, but I don't know if they can be implemented:
a. automatic - resource's prices are based on formula like [(100-amount in stockpile)*basic price]
b. manual - castle owner (lord or marshal of faction) can manually set resource price
All those changes would IMO:
-create more natural money flow (player to player, rather than player to environment)
-encourage long range trade organized by factions (because only way to increase amount of money on market would be to travel with resources to very distant places)
-encourage factions to fill their armoury with weapons (right now they are usually empty), because it's the only way to retrieve money from serfs (other than robbing=taxing)
-allow robbing castle completely (with weapons and resources) - just buy resources/weapons, than take your money from chest
-allow managing goods inside castle without "vanishing" money in the process: stockpile, withdraw, than ask lord to pay difference in price
-chests are more important, as they in fact allow access to all castle resources
2. Dynamic export/import prices
No matter how hard we try while making maps, there are always shorter/easier and longer/harder road from mine to export, and players will always take easier one. Simple idea (that I don't know if is possible to implement) would help here:
Simpy set export price some 'basic price'
Now every time someone sell in this prop, increase price in every export props of the same type on the map by 1% and decrease price in this prop by [1%*total number of export prop of the same type]
This way less most used location will pay you less and less with every item you sell there, while locations that nobody uses will pay more and more (and after some time, they'll be only places that can be used).
3. My vision of troop classes and faction
I disagree with you Vornne, that making training cheaper but only for single life would make people swap it left and right - it still costs money, and changing from archer to medic and than back to archer would cost you 1500, which isn't that small (and that money is just wasted). People would still cooperate, and in opposite to current system, they'd try to stay alive, because dieing would cost more with more advanced classes. Also, grinding would be shorter, but would require more thinking (how not to die). It would also encourage people to protect valuable but defenseless troops - right now if engineer/medic/lord die, he'll simply spawn again as medic at no cost. Server population would be more dynamic. Vertical migration (between classes) would be easier, but both sided.
Right now it feels like cRPG: grind, be owned, grind, be owned, grind, be owned, own, own, own... ; while IMO it should be: grind, own(as long as you can), be owned, grind...
Now about training and joining factions: Many players join faction only to train. They disobey orders and generally piss at faction leader or cooperation. They join "system factions", but no "real factions". I think I know solution for that:
-when someone train, half of training cost goes to castle treasury.
a. If he really joined faction, lord will probably pay them for service (doing missions for him, guarding, healing, crafting, ect.)
b. If he joined just to train, then travel away to rape, burn and pillage, than lord won't pay him anything, which in the end means that they paid 2x more.
Now it creates a question: why force them to join "system faction" if they don't join "real faction"? Only way to encourage (people naturally resist any kind of "forcing") them to "real faction", is to allow faction leader to pay them manually. For this he need some funds, that can be acquired i.e. by allowing others to train in his castle.
Now about starting equipment - because you never actually spawn as troop other than peasant/serf, changing class shouldn't change equipment at all.
I'll create spreed-sheath to show how I see classes - main difference will be adding cheapest versions of combat classes, for those who aren't patient or smart to earn for something better, yet they want to be military.
Phoenix234 said:
and will you ever have boat construction points for different sizes? like you need a large dock to make the
galleon but a more common small dock for the little ships?
Its
cog for ****s sake... it's like calling catapult "that wooden cannon"...