Nothing will stimulate trade in the game. This has been proven already with some other implementations.
That's because a lot of stuff has been implemented half-heartedly, and I take full blame for that. Stimulating trade is about creating scarcity. We have tried that, but every time we implemented something creating scarcity (deterioration, slots, etc) there was a player riot because noone wanted their chars that lived in luxury to have a hard time... so the change was partially reverted (deter rates decreased, the in-repair bug not fixed, slots increased). Now, it is very seldom that one of my chars comes to a loc where all slots are occupied. There still is no scarcity in Cantr except in some wild lands on the edges of civilization, full of animals. Furthermore, any implementation that will create scarcity will lead to another player revolt.
Luckily, the RD has taken over some of this task by removing focus from iron to some other metals for advanced tools, so there's more than about five resources that are worth anything. Hence, some more trade is taking place.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Change for the sake of change should be highly discouraged. Change should only happen when it is to solve a clearly defined problem, or else it will create new problems.
I would say that Cantr has a lot of current problems. Towns are stagnating everywhere because of the rich/poor gap (als known as the key/no-key gap), and the failure to create anything different than a feudal society (yes, even the "democracy" and "council" style governments are feudal; there are maybe 10 non-feudal towns in all of Cantr, mainly because there is a powerfull char there with a zeal for experiment). Considering that the rich have little to strive for after they have motorized transport, and thus tend to become sleepy, while the young are frustrated because they don't get responses from the old... oh wait I'm ranting. Just don't say that Cantr doesn't have any problems.
Oh - and what is Cantr, a MMORPG or a simulator?
To me it's primarily a game. The goal is to give players a good time, or they will leave. There's little to simulate if there's no players. After that, it can be seen as a simulator too. That don't mean it's "just another MMORPG", the game has unique attributes that many MMORPG's don't have. But it certainly ain't perfect.
And in Cantr, there is no magic nor fantasy of any kind, so the only thing we have to deal with is the reality. So we need a diverse and full of options reality.
That's about names, really. I'm not just talking about two people going to a mountain to dig some stone with their bare hands, take it down to the valley, and build a house with it (how real is that?), and other things like Doug said. If these were called "mana" and "spells" it wouldn't make the slightest difference. I'm mainly talking about something that we'll never solve, which is the value of life. There's no intrinsic drive to survive in the chars, like there is in every "real" living organism. If the player finds a char to lead a dull life (or the player focus moves on to RL, another game, whatever), he'll often starve him; this is by far the prime death cause in the game. This leads to all kinds of in-game problems (noone can expect a trusted servant to actually survive, etc). Cantr has nothing to do with realism.
The only thing you need to develop rich societies are people. The game infrastructure as it is is already totally sufficient, or else the game would have gone under years ago.
I disagree. These "people" need "goals", preferrably goals that are inherently conflicting, yet require cooperation. There are a lot of places/chars that do nothing but gather potatoes and chat; how is that any different from any free-form phpbb game? Cantr should be more than that.
