[crossfire] Tweaking alchemy

[Mark Wedel]

Anton Oussik wrote:

> Yes, in the short run this is a much better idea. However, a long term
> goal of a self-supporting economy based on inter-player interaction
> (where government-owned shops do not exist except to maybe provide
> some very basic food and weapons at time of war/famine/natural
> disaster) is IMO desirable. Then a community of about 200 players
> would be completely self-sufficient

  but should it be assumed that the players are the only people living in the 
crossfire world?

  At some level, this obviously isn't true - hundreds of monsters live in the world.

  so I'd say at some level, there would also be hundreds (thousands, whatever) 
of humans living the world that are AI.  These are the people harvesting the 
wheat, making bread, etc.  So when you go to the store to buy it, it is there.

  If you want to make a world that none of those invisible ai humans exist, you 
could, but that opens up a whole new can of worms.

  For example, right now, there is no indication where all sorts of raw 
materials come from.  Where is that iron, gold, silver, etc being mined?  Who is 
making all of those objects?  And so on.  I suppose you could come up with a 
case where all of that is done by actual players, but then what about all those 
monsters?  Are they new equipment less?  If not, then all you're really doing is 
moving who is making those items (case could be made that those orcs are mining 
the iron for their weapons, so the human players just go kill the orcs for their 
iron, etc).

  I'd just say that making a truly closed economy may be as complex as most all 
the code currently in crossfire.