[CF-Devel] Money issues

[Mark Wedel]

Tim Rightnour wrote:

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      Also.. if the price of weapons and armor in the shops drop, then a player might
     
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      actually be able to afford a decent set of starting equipment with what we give
     
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      him to start.  (which, I feel should be more)
     
     
  Well, right now starting characters get random equipment.  For some 
characters, this is good stuff.  For others, it isn't all that good.

  It probably makes more sense to give them some amount of money and let them 
buy what they want.  Specific class/races may get certain items (eg, I know one 
starts with a powercrystal).  This opens a potential bug of a new person could 
start a bunch of characters and accumulate the gold, but compared to most of the 
abuses, that is real small time.  Considering that it seems some number of 
veteran players will drop off loads of golds (or good equipment) for new 
players, this really isn't an issue.


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      I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a warrior, to be able to get himself
     
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      a decent set of armor, and a nice stick to wave around, to start out with. 
     
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      When he finishes the newbie training ground.. he should be able to afford a
     
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      full set of armor, and quite possibly a +1 sword.
     
     
  One thing that could be done (which I think I said) is reduce the buy/sell 
gap.  New players/characters will typically get reamed pretty good on this - can 
cost many times more to buy something back than you just sold it for.  Ideally, 
doing something like having information in the object itself which contains 
'resale' perantage is the most flexible.

  Eg, gems could have a value of 2%, meaning you get 98% of value when you sell, 
costs 102% of value when you buy.

  Other items maybe have a value of 10 -> 25%.  Perhaps bargaining skill reduces 
that rate by some portion (eg, if the item has a 25% fee, but your level 20 in 
bargaining, maybe that fee is 20%).

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      Perhaps the price to identify should be dropped as well.  I mean really.. who
     
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      uses those beyond like level 5?
     
     
  Perhaps - I think the bigger issue perhaps for newbies is the right process - 
do the detect magic/curse first, and then identify the magic stuff that is left 
over.



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      1) Low level players may want a particular item, say a special ring, or a
     
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      certain cloak, or crown.  They can save up for it, and actually have a shot at
     
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      buying it.
     
     
  Only problem is that you never no if it will be in the shop when you have the 
money.  Personally, I think some of the shops should be less random.  Eg, the 
armor shop in scorn should stock normal and +1 versions of all the item types, 
and maybe leave the rest for random stuff that may be less obscure - this that 
shops market - low level.