[CF List] The 'dis'economy of crossfire

[Todd Mitchell]

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      No, I didn't propose this as part of the solution (except for some reasons
     
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      described below), but because I find it annoying to run around a dungeon,
     
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      get tons of money (especially silver), then have to run to a bank and very
     
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      soon have to run home again and drop the money there.
     
     
This is actually a feature  - the weight of money keeps you from just
hauling everything out of a dungeon - I like it this way.  Money should be
bulky this should not be 'fixed'.
Maybe the banks should charge more for converting money - my bank charges me
for looking at them funny.

It would be fun to implement a new action and skill - gambling.  Anyone
could gamble but higher gambling skills would add to your success.  Luck
comes in too.  You could move a lot of money around this way and a whole new
profession would be born.  Thieves could fleece others of their cash?  NPCs
could gamble too, that would be easier to implement on certain maps, but
that wouldn't be quite as much fun.
You create a gambling group just like joining a party, you pony up your bets
in order (cash only), you throw the knuckle bones or whatever and someone
comes out on top.  Would be fun to make some unique rules and flavour to it
as well.
Could even make some magic items like gloves of Lythander.

This would work better if the class faces were done away with and the race
ones used instead.  I've always thought it would be more fun socially if
your profession wasn't so obvious - especially for a thief.

Things should cost more in general.  Food should cost more, skills should
cost more and some skills like magic should cost way way more (like 10000
diamonds or something).

Item repair is a great idea - it works well for another game I know of.

Tithes should be part of any religious order.  Paladins in particular should
have to pay through the nose.  I don't know how you would calculate the rate
for this however, cash on hand calculations would just encourage stashing
the cash somewhere.  Maybe an amount based on level.

Training is an old standard - you pay to level up once you got the xp.
Would be tricky to implement perhaps.

How about taxes instead of rent?  The more apts or the bigger apts you have
the more taxes.  You could get by staying at inns (for a small price) or at
a free crummy hostel and not have to pay taxes.  You could get a saftey
deposit box at the bank for some items you didn't want to lug around (for a
fee).  Otherwise you pay tax on your apt.
I like the idea of citizenship too, or at least town papers and entry fees
for some towns.
Making some towns into higher level towns with higher level stores and more
expensive apartments and taxes would move players around a bit too.  Places
like Scorn could be free ports but maybe remove the permanent apartments and
tone down the shops a bit.  Send the richies to Navar to pay through the
nose.  Adds some colour to the game as well.

All this is cool, but the basic problem is that it is too easy to get money
in the first place - especially the random treasures in certain maps.  This
could be said of experience as well however - having a player get to level
99 in three months is aceptable for a singleplayer campain type game but it
pretty bad if you are shooting for a multiplayer persistant type world game.
I think that this identity crisis is the heart of the problem.   The whole
game could be said to be monty haul - this will be a long fix to correct it.

Anyway jst some thoughts...
-tm