[CF List] The 'dis'economy of crossfire

[Todd Mitchell]

Personally I don't think it worth while to build an in game editor for this
purpose (although it would be cool for map making/world building - it is not
worth the effort since it is pretty easy now - if you want to design a
castle get the javaeditor and do it - then send it in).  I would rather see
people desiging maps for others to adventure on than designing castles for
their own jollies.  Most people don't design their own houses, they just
pick them out and then decorate them. I can see selling off a variety of
castle styles and having different enhancements available as is done with
guilds.  There are a already a lot of items that could be purchased or found
that could be used to decorate - new ones can always be made too or
example - trophy type body parts could be added to some creatures for
display purposes (say dragon heads).
It would be nice to be able to invite people in.  The problem with not using
unique maps however is that you have to take up a lot of realestate to put
all these castles and generate different keys for them.  This means making
huge lots and populating them with estates then having people buy them up
(hopefully not too rapidly.)  While this is managable, what happens when
people drop out of the game - leaving their castle behind?  Could they be
recycled?
Rethinking the tax thing, perhaps taxes should be saved for castles (and
guilds).  If the tax is not paid the map locks up and eventually is flushed
from unique-items (for all the unique floors reset and dump their contents)
and the castle is available for resale (the key would have to change however
in case the old owner returned and tried to get in).  For guilds again,
taxes would encourage membership growth by offering a shared cause (get more
people paying the dues).  Guilds would possibly have a greater time (more
earning power, more chances from the banks) before the map is reset to
evacuate their stuff.
Other than that however - I suppose personal taxes would be a pain as
mentioned.
-tm

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      Hi,
     
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      > Let players build their own castles of arbitrary design, paying
     
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      > per-square as they build.
     
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      <snip>
     
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      At first sight I like the idea, yet there are things to keep in mind:
     
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      1. Equipping the guildhouses is fun because it does not need just money,
     
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      but usually needs somewhat potent artifacts. This should be considered in
     
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      the prices for different items.
     
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      2. Maybe custom design isn't that cool for the game. I imagine people
     
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      might become too much involved in building their castles that most other
     
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      things stop mattering and we probably don't want people to run around in
     
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      their castles, wondering if the curtains match the other furniture :). I
     
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      think the game should mainly be about adventuring and killing monsters and
     
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      not about building a house. I fear it might turn a bit into the direction
     
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      of players taking care of their hero's social security. I think
     
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      pregenerated castles are quite fine and can keep players busy for an
     
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      arbitraryly long time.
     
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      3. As I wrote before people might want to show off with their castles (and
     
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      I think that is good) and your idea somehow really requires that, so this
     
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      should somehow be organised.