Kangaroos with sinew

[SekoETC]

I don't think sinew would crush any economies because making string out of it is very slow. If people have hemp then they won't even bother with sinew, it'll just be trash like bones. So all big animals might as well have sinew, it's only natural.

[T-shirt]

If you have the option between cotton and sinew it doesn't matter much which you use. String from cotton yarn is produced at 500 grams a day, but producing it requires more then 10 days of preparation time. The net result of producing string from cotton is less then 50 grams a day (almost 44 grams actually).

[T-shirt]

I meant to add: 'If you have only the option between ...'.

Most of my characters have never seen hemp in their lives.

[Voltenion]

Sinew is needed for more things than making string and I'm happy with this being implemented. I was kinda sick of seeing every guy on that place pantless --"

[Jos Elkink]

In reaction to Doug: I agree that all areas should have the bare necessities, but I just think that we should certainly not stretch that concept too far. It would be nice if some areas have really strong motivations to trade with regions abroad, not just for the decoration of their house, or really fancy stuff, but for things that are actual of real practical use. And although we might not want to simulate famines too much, I think it is good to have both developed and underdeveloped areas, partly also due to lack of resources in some areas, or too high dependence of the economy on one particular resource.

[Doug R.]

Jos,

I agree with you in principle. There is no inalienable right to iron, and I think some areas should be disadvantaged to create gradients of challenge for the players. I think the problem is now is a lack of extra characters to actually go trading. I think that we either have reached, or are are quickly reaching, a dilution point where the social mechanics of Cantr will simply fail due to a lack of characters. One of two things will happen in response to this, I think:

1) The existing characters will adapt to form tight-knit closed societies in an attempt to hold onto their newspawns (my character's strategy), further depressing trade and inter-town contact. If the game ever grows again, this attitude could persist, changing the fundamental nature of Cantr completely. I'm picturing a handful of city-states where laws restrict travel in order to keep a high population conducive to attracting newspawns, or just low population towns where the characters are too afraid to travel, because they can't trust that anyone will still be alive when they get back.

2) Characters will retain their free spirits and individualism, and towns will simply die out from migration away of interesting characters, and the boredom-induced sleep of the residents (this is what I'm currently seeing). Its seems nowadays that being the town leader is a curse and not a position to aspire to. I haven't come across a happy one yet in my travels. Eventually, there will be nothing interesting to hold onto any characters, and the game will just die a slow, quiet death.

There are many reasons for this, not all of which are due to server and database problems (although they undoubtedly contribute to some degree).

The greatest contributor, I think, is a simple lack of what I'll call "peasants." In the real world, you have billions of worker bees and very few "great men." Cantr, being a virtual world, is a place where people come to be "great men" themselves. However, "great men" can't function without their peasants. Could Magellan have circumnavigated the globe without his crew? Could the pyramids have been built without slaves? Could Alexander have conquered most of the known world without his soldiers?

In cantr, very few characters want to be sailors; they want to be captains. Why be a soldier when you could aspire to be a general? Why be a slave when you could be a slave owner? Cantr's social caste is extremely top-heavy, and I think, more than anything, that's what's caused the game's decline. Everyone wants to be great, and there simply aren't enough peasants to go around, so people get frustrated and let their characters fall asleep. While I've never been guilty of sleepiness, I am guilty of having a "great character" complex, so yes, I'm part of the problem. I could make 14 peasants, but that's a lot to maintain and it's not much fun at all.

I'm not sure this is a problem that can be solved, short of having tens of thousands of players that flood the system so that being great becomes very difficult (all you need to do now is be awake to be great), or automating aspects of the game, which would change the game entirely.

This has gone way off topic now, so if you want to split it, be my guest.