A Dynamic Economy - Drought, etc.

General out-of-character discussion among players of Cantr II.

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Jos Elkink
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Re: A Dynamic Economy - Drought, etc.

Postby Jos Elkink » Fri Feb 09, 2018 8:50 am

Chris wrote:Trade isn't going to flourish because of some little tweak, or twenty little tweaks. It won't flourish, period. The people are gone. The few who remain are spread out over way too much space.


Although I can see where you're coming from and I kind of share a similar feeling, I am not yet convinced it is unsalvagable :-) ... The biggest issues in my mind are a) people are too spread out (although personally I don't enjoy playing in big towns as there is too much chatter); b) too many things are already built (so weird to be in a village with three people but thirty vehicles and buildings); c) resources are too easily acquired.

But those things can, in my view, all be fixed, through implementing a form of deterioration of unused products (houses, vehicles) that does not increase "repair" requirements (which is boring to play); to using animal aggressiveness to make regions in the game that are currently uninhabited kind of uninhabitable (with very careful planning and protection of small language group areas); to make resources deplete slowly over time to increase inter-regional trade; etc. These are not small tweaks.

One thing to remember is that Cantr in some ways is very out-of-date and really more like a 1990s game. But it was created in 2001 and part of the appeal to many players is exactly that nostalgic feel of a text-only game. I don't see how that would not work in the 2020s, if we can address the above concerns.
MonkeyPants4736
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Re: A Dynamic Economy - Drought, etc.

Postby MonkeyPants4736 » Fri Feb 09, 2018 12:22 pm

The coding is already in place to dismantle bicycles and a few other small vehicles. Why not add it also to other land vehicles? That could be a step on in the direction you want to go. And some players really do enjoy scavenging/dismantling. There would definitely be chars in game who gain interest to do that.

Then, when someone can devote time to the coding, what about doing an experiment with being able to dismantle mud huts and grass huts? The richer societies turn their nose up at these. (Some chars have refused free housing because the free place was made of mud/grass). Towns who do consider them unsightly could "clean up". Many now empty areas on some islands have only mud huts for buildings. There might be chars who will get rid of them as a part of making a new settlement.

If that shows success, then dismantling could be applied to other building types, with lighthouses and coaster harbors always being exempt.

Some boats already can be dismantled. Why not apply that coding to all ships?
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cutecuddlydirewolf
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Re: A Dynamic Economy - Drought, etc.

Postby cutecuddlydirewolf » Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:34 am

Jos Elkink wrote:
Chris wrote:Trade isn't going to flourish because of some little tweak, or twenty little tweaks. It won't flourish, period. The people are gone. The few who remain are spread out over way too much space.


Although I can see where you're coming from and I kind of share a similar feeling, I am not yet convinced it is unsalvagable :-) ... The biggest issues in my mind are a) people are too spread out (although personally I don't enjoy playing in big towns as there is too much chatter); b) too many things are already built (so weird to be in a village with three people but thirty vehicles and buildings); c) resources are too easily acquired.

But those things can, in my view, all be fixed, through implementing a form of deterioration of unused products (houses, vehicles) that does not increase "repair" requirements (which is boring to play); to using animal aggressiveness to make regions in the game that are currently uninhabited kind of uninhabitable (with very careful planning and protection of small language group areas); to make resources deplete slowly over time to increase inter-regional trade; etc. These are not small tweaks.

One thing to remember is that Cantr in some ways is very out-of-date and really more like a 1990s game. But it was created in 2001 and part of the appeal to many players is exactly that nostalgic feel of a text-only game. I don't see how that would not work in the 2020s, if we can address the above concerns.


This is going to be a highly unpopular opinion, but personally, I've wondered if it might be better to somehow consolidate some of the land. Look at how many islands there are in-game, and then compare that to the number of characters. Places like Fu especially are 90% empty- that leaves waaaay too much unused land. A character could run off into the wilderness and never encounter another character for the rest of their lifespan.

Moving all the English-speaking characters onto one or two islands instead of four or five would undoubtedly help the issue. The only problem is figuring out how to go about doing that.
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Jos Elkink
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Re: A Dynamic Economy - Drought, etc.

Postby Jos Elkink » Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:55 am

cutecuddlydirewolf wrote:Moving all the English-speaking characters onto one or two islands instead of four or five would undoubtedly help the issue. The only problem is figuring out how to go about doing that.


Yes, we're very aware of that and discussing various options :-) ... But nothing too forceful, though. Plus, some players like to play lonely explorers, and there is no reason why that should not be ok.

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