Salutations merchants of Calradia
We have been working on some changes regarding the economy of Calradia for some time. With the new patch we can finally share those changes with you.
So we wanted to take this opportunity to share the changes as well as the reasons, rationale and limitations behind them.
To properly explain where the changes came from we need to start with the existing problems.
First of all `economy` in this sense is about trade goods, caravans and workshops so mostly trade. Equipment wages and loot values are a separate topic. Surely it is still related but they are sequestered enough to be handled separately to a decent degree.
So what are the primary issues we thought we should prioritize?
So what are the changes?
In summary:
So what these changes mean when they are all put together?
What we want to do next?
Well of course we are going to tweak pretty much everything through your feedback. Beyond that there are still some points we want to adress. One of them is supply and demand is not increasing in comparable degree as time passes in the game. Village productions increase to a degree according to their hearth value but with workshop productions being static it is manufactured goods are shooting up in prices. We had previous plans with workshops, and in time we are looking for ways to improve overall experience and give players some degree of managing them.
Another point that we still want to handle is dynamism. Both from month to month in a single game and between new game starts. There have been improvements in both with these changes but we want to push it further.
Both me and other developers in the team will be in the thread for any questions or suggestions and feedback in general. I hope you enjoy the changes.
Have fun.
Detailed change log is below
We have been working on some changes regarding the economy of Calradia for some time. With the new patch we can finally share those changes with you.
So we wanted to take this opportunity to share the changes as well as the reasons, rationale and limitations behind them.
To properly explain where the changes came from we need to start with the existing problems.
First of all `economy` in this sense is about trade goods, caravans and workshops so mostly trade. Equipment wages and loot values are a separate topic. Surely it is still related but they are sequestered enough to be handled separately to a decent degree.
So what are the primary issues we thought we should prioritize?
- Over stocking of trade goods in towns. This is the mother of all problems. Its causes are many but its effects are more.
- With abundance of trade goods in town markets, price index drops to very low.
- Its not only about a single trade good being in stock in huge quantities, but also every trade good being available in pretty much every town in about 5 years.
- Low profit margins. Low price index means profit margins are low as well.
- Caravans and workshops have limited potential profits.
- Workshop variety has limited effect.
- Variety between town markets is not high, making the game world less interesting.
- Market homogeneity limiting trade opportunities, limiting how much profit player can make as the games goes on.
- With limited profits Trade skill xp gain is also curbed severely, making it harder than intended to increase trade skill.
- Trade gameplay in general is less rewarding even for making money compared to more mainstream methods.
So what are the changes?
In summary:
- Demand for trade goods increased…
- Simply put, demand is based on the prosperity of the town multiplied by demand value for a certain good.
- In some cases they are up 3-4 times more, so towns simply consume more trade goods.
- Luxury demands are reintroduced
- We have a luxury demand system in the game, but values were adjusted through the early access to make it moot. We brought the values back.
- Difference with luxury and base demand values is, luxury demand only kicks in after town reaches a certain prosperity value.
- Production of villages are adjusted
- Workshop production volume and efficiency are adjusted
- Value for various trade goods are adjusted
- Expenses for workshop are drastically increased
- Some trade goods are not produced by artisans anymore and will only be produced in their respective workshops.
- The amount of production simulated at the game start is reduced to 5 days from 20
- Workshop production only cycles in case of possible profit instead of always.
So what these changes mean when they are all put together?
- With supply and demand more in line with each other, over stocking in markets is much more rare.
- This means the price indices are as low as possible 5 years into the game.
- This is the primary change and we built the rest of the changes on top of this.
- With traveling around the world, buying and selling is still viable even into very late game. Trader gameplay is more viable.
- Trade skill exp is gained from making profits from trading. So you will be able to gain trade skill even later into the game.
- When traveling around the map and visiting towns, you will now see different markets with different inventories and prices, actually making it more fun to trade.
- With the amount of trade goods in the market being much more limited, we also made it so that various events like raids and sieges have a much bigger impact on the prices and availability in a market.
- You can visit a town right after a long siege and see it in want of anything you might provide.
- Or raiding all the villages of same produce you can affect the prices to a much more recognizable degree
- This change also emphasizes the trading style of traveling the land visiting many towns on the way and making various trades along the way and trying to recognize and catch opportunities, instead of doing big trade runs from 1 destination to another.
- Luxury demands
- With the reintroduction of luxury demands you can also rely on your knowledge of the prosperity of towns to figure out where you should sell those goods.
- You can sell grain or hardwood pretty much anywhere, but if you landed some cheap jewelry or silk you should go to a big and rich town to find some market for it.
- Another advantage is, overall prosperity values increase in the game as time passes. So certain trade goods and workshops that have limited trade and profit potential can start to be more valuable later into the game.
- With the reintroduction of luxury demands you can also rely on your knowledge of the prosperity of towns to figure out where you should sell those goods.
- Caravans and Workshops
- Caravans
- We made some changes to caravan trade behavior. Caravans were in general acting too safe when deciding on what to buy. With price indexes more varied instead of rock bottom, we had the chance to get them to take more risk.
- Caravans now make better use of animals of burden, increasing their carry capacity thus their profits
- Lastly, simply trading being more profitable means caravans are more profitable.
- Workshops
- Again, more profits mean making more money for workshops.
- With heterogeneity of trade goods, it is more important to make correct decisions on where and what kind of workshop to buy.
- With trade goods being abundant, the amount of raw materials consumed by workshops were not making a dent in the supply and did not affect the prices. Now even if we didn't increase their consumption, a town with a smithy will have higher prices for iron ore.
- Workshops have always had daily expenses, and we were relying on this expense mechanic for AI controlled workshops to go out of business, and opening different kinds of workshops in their stead. Both balancing out the economy and also making it more lively.
- With their profit being limited, the expenses were lowered quite a bit as well. Which meant that it would take a workshop to not make a single denar of profit for around 14 years straight to go out of business.
- Now that workshops have much better profits, meaning we have more room to bite into and increase the daily expenses.
- This allowed us to get AI controlled workshops to cycle as we intended.
- This will also make players have to think a bit more, since workshops can actually run a deficit now.
- Pretty sure you will figure out the ideal workshop in no time, but still it's an improvement.
- With demand increasing, and since it ‘s multiplied with prosperity, we thought it would be better to increase the price of workshops according to town prosperity even more. In fact it is the bigger part of the price now, and it pays off.
- Another advantage is that some workshops, specifically ones producing luxury goods are much more profitable at late game.
- Caravans
What we want to do next?
Well of course we are going to tweak pretty much everything through your feedback. Beyond that there are still some points we want to adress. One of them is supply and demand is not increasing in comparable degree as time passes in the game. Village productions increase to a degree according to their hearth value but with workshop productions being static it is manufactured goods are shooting up in prices. We had previous plans with workshops, and in time we are looking for ways to improve overall experience and give players some degree of managing them.
Another point that we still want to handle is dynamism. Both from month to month in a single game and between new game starts. There have been improvements in both with these changes but we want to push it further.
Both me and other developers in the team will be in the thread for any questions or suggestions and feedback in general. I hope you enjoy the changes.
Have fun.
Detailed change log is below
Demand Value Changes (base demand,luxury demand)
Grain 100,0 -> 140,0
Fish 32,0 -> 15,15
Meat 36,12 -> 19,50
Cheese 21,7->10,20
Butter 12,4 -> 10,25
Grape 9,3 -> 5,20
Olives 12,4 -> 5,20
DateFruit 12,4 -> 7,32
Oil 15,5 -> 17,30
Flax 10,0 -> 10,20
Linen 30,10 -> 20,25
Wool 12,0 -> 12,0
Cloth 12,6 -> 12,6
Cotton 8,2 -> 10,3
Velvet 14,7 -> 15,32
Wood 4,0 -> 10,10
Iron 3,0 -> 10,20
Salt 15,5 -> 25,25
Silver 8,4 ->10,20
Hides 33,11 -> 30,15
Clay 16,0 ->8,5
Beer 39, 13 -> 23,20
Wine 9,3 -> 15,30
Tools 30,10 -> 30,30
Pottery 15,5 -> 22,20
Leather 20,10->25,10
Fur 20,10 -> 10,38
Jewelry 24,12 -> 15,32
Base Value Changes
Jewelry 300 ->600
Cotton 70 ->80
Clay 20 ->18
Pottery 100 ->200
Linen 90 ->200
Leather 200 ->250
Velvet 250 ->500
Beer 50 ->100
Wine 100 ->75
Oil 120 ->210
Fur 120 ->400 (fur weight 15 ->10)
Tools 100 -> 200
Hides 60 ->50
Workshop Expenses
-The daily expense value should be the same for the player and AI.
-Workshop daily expense have been increased from 20 to 100 denars.
Workshop Conversion Speed And Output Values (conversion speed is how many production runs a workshop makes in a day, output count is the amount of good a workshop produces in a production run)
-Brewery
Conversion speed 8->3.5
Output count 1->2
-Velvet weavery
Conversion speed 2->0.75
Output count 1->2
-Linen weavery
Conversion speed 4->2
Output count 1->2
-Wine press
Conversion speed 5->2.5
Output count 1->2
-Pottery shop
Conversion speed 4->2
Output count 1->2
-Olive press
Conversion speed 5->2.5
Output count 1->2
-Wool weavery
Conversion speed 2->1
Output count 1->2
-Tannery
Conversion speed 2->1
Output count 1->2
-Wood Workshop
Conversion speed 5->2.5
Output count 1->2
-Smithy
Conversion speed 3->1.5
Output count 2->4
-Silversmith
Conversion speed 1->0.75
Output count 2->2
Overall workshop produce roughly the same amount of goods but consume less raw materials.
Frequency Changes:
-Tannery and brewery frequencies =1
-Increased other workshop frequencies to 2
-Frequency affects the workshop types chosen at the start of the game, this is a simple balancing change.
Artisan Production
Artisans won't produce the trade goods below
-Linen
-Beer
-Leather
-Jewelry
Before game start production
-Number of village production cycles before game start was decreased from 20 to 5
-Number of workshop production cycles before game start was decreased from 20 to 5
Village Daily Production Changes
Grain 45 -> 50
Lumberjack 20 -> 18
Claymine 20 -> 10
Saltmine 12 -> 15
Ironmine 12 -> 10
Fisherman 32 -> 28
Vineyard 20 -> 11
Flaxplant 24 ->18
DateFarm 10 -> 8
OliveTrees 16 -> 12
SilkPlant 6 -> 8
SilverMine 4 -> 3
Trapper 5 -> 1.4
Price Control Changes: We added price control to workshop behavior. With this change, a workshop will not make a production run if it's not going to be profitable or break even with local market prices.
These changes won't be applied to the artisans or equipment production of workshops and they will continue their productions regardless or profits.
Grain 100,0 -> 140,0
Fish 32,0 -> 15,15
Meat 36,12 -> 19,50
Cheese 21,7->10,20
Butter 12,4 -> 10,25
Grape 9,3 -> 5,20
Olives 12,4 -> 5,20
DateFruit 12,4 -> 7,32
Oil 15,5 -> 17,30
Flax 10,0 -> 10,20
Linen 30,10 -> 20,25
Wool 12,0 -> 12,0
Cloth 12,6 -> 12,6
Cotton 8,2 -> 10,3
Velvet 14,7 -> 15,32
Wood 4,0 -> 10,10
Iron 3,0 -> 10,20
Salt 15,5 -> 25,25
Silver 8,4 ->10,20
Hides 33,11 -> 30,15
Clay 16,0 ->8,5
Beer 39, 13 -> 23,20
Wine 9,3 -> 15,30
Tools 30,10 -> 30,30
Pottery 15,5 -> 22,20
Leather 20,10->25,10
Fur 20,10 -> 10,38
Jewelry 24,12 -> 15,32
Base Value Changes
Jewelry 300 ->600
Cotton 70 ->80
Clay 20 ->18
Pottery 100 ->200
Linen 90 ->200
Leather 200 ->250
Velvet 250 ->500
Beer 50 ->100
Wine 100 ->75
Oil 120 ->210
Fur 120 ->400 (fur weight 15 ->10)
Tools 100 -> 200
Hides 60 ->50
Workshop Expenses
-The daily expense value should be the same for the player and AI.
-Workshop daily expense have been increased from 20 to 100 denars.
Workshop Conversion Speed And Output Values (conversion speed is how many production runs a workshop makes in a day, output count is the amount of good a workshop produces in a production run)
-Brewery
Conversion speed 8->3.5
Output count 1->2
-Velvet weavery
Conversion speed 2->0.75
Output count 1->2
-Linen weavery
Conversion speed 4->2
Output count 1->2
-Wine press
Conversion speed 5->2.5
Output count 1->2
-Pottery shop
Conversion speed 4->2
Output count 1->2
-Olive press
Conversion speed 5->2.5
Output count 1->2
-Wool weavery
Conversion speed 2->1
Output count 1->2
-Tannery
Conversion speed 2->1
Output count 1->2
-Wood Workshop
Conversion speed 5->2.5
Output count 1->2
-Smithy
Conversion speed 3->1.5
Output count 2->4
-Silversmith
Conversion speed 1->0.75
Output count 2->2
Overall workshop produce roughly the same amount of goods but consume less raw materials.
Frequency Changes:
-Tannery and brewery frequencies =1
-Increased other workshop frequencies to 2
-Frequency affects the workshop types chosen at the start of the game, this is a simple balancing change.
Artisan Production
Artisans won't produce the trade goods below
-Linen
-Beer
-Leather
-Jewelry
Before game start production
-Number of village production cycles before game start was decreased from 20 to 5
-Number of workshop production cycles before game start was decreased from 20 to 5
Village Daily Production Changes
Grain 45 -> 50
Lumberjack 20 -> 18
Claymine 20 -> 10
Saltmine 12 -> 15
Ironmine 12 -> 10
Fisherman 32 -> 28
Vineyard 20 -> 11
Flaxplant 24 ->18
DateFarm 10 -> 8
OliveTrees 16 -> 12
SilkPlant 6 -> 8
SilverMine 4 -> 3
Trapper 5 -> 1.4
Price Control Changes: We added price control to workshop behavior. With this change, a workshop will not make a production run if it's not going to be profitable or break even with local market prices.
These changes won't be applied to the artisans or equipment production of workshops and they will continue their productions regardless or profits.