((NOTE: For RP purposes, presume all my subsequent answers are likewise delivered by written text rather than spoken word.))
Marleen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:40 pmI am still a level 1 player and will not be able to afford VR council for a long time.
The VR council is a whole different story, but feel free to join the town council. My position is a bit vacant as I am presently distracted from the affairs of this world that I usually give more regular and detailed attention to.
Marleen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:40 pmMy thoughts are that town hall and temple prices should be higher than the minimum for all items and higher than what a player might sell for so that players can try to earn a little profit. Think of town hall and temple prices as a "market max price" for items, especially when there are a lot of them, so they are there to effectively stop players from price gouging while making sure needed goods still float about on the market.
I have used the TH and Temple mechanics to set not only the ceiling prices of goods but also the floor prices. One problem this kind of economy faces aside from the possibility of price gouging is the possibility of undercutting to monopolize sales. In this world, the higher the level of your workshop and steward, the quicker you can produce an item for, thus older, higher level players can produce items cheaper then new professionals can. This allows some players to post a tier-1 food item for 3.5F that others must post for 7F. For this reason, we encourage all citizens to post it for 7F and the older ones simply make extra profit; those unconcerned with profit can sell via TH only for less and TH posts at 7F too so citizens can eat it. 7F already includes a worker profit of 24F over the material cost. This system arranges for everyone to make this 24F as a minimum production wage. You are correct in that we don't really have too much of a range between this figure and a maximum wage of say 40F. We can repost the cheaper goods that citizens sell to TH for more than the floor price, but we are also a tax free environment and TH also does need to resell the goods it buys in or it can't continue to do so, or to fund the other services we provide. Ideally, the town has a roving trader who can take some of these excess goods to foreign markets (Bravia/Kiene) rather than simply keeping them on ours. Our most active trader recently has been Gemma. I am interested in trading too, but am occupied by other responsibilities at the moment.
Marleen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:40 pm I don't have enough knowledge of crafting and how it affects the economy yet to talk about items like stone and gold so I left them alone.
Gold and Stone and Iron are VR set prices determined by the cost of production. TH buys them from a VR market and then sells them at the local market for a very slight markup, from .05-1F. Individuals can not usually acquite their own gold, stone, or iron; though sometime the odd piece can be found while scavenging. Similarly, salt can occasionally be found scavenging but is typically a product exclusively tied to mining. You get 1 salt for each mining job taken. This is why salt has so little value, even folks who use it such as butchers, can just spend a few days mining their own and get it plus 13F, plus a chance at a precious gemstone.
Marleen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:40 pm Pork Bellies @ 7f by Temple [Price Range 2-20f]
should be moved to at least 11f-15f, so that players can earn at least a little profit from the pig they purchased at 8f.
19 chaffs @ 7f by Town Hall [Price Range 2-20f]
I feel should be moved to 8f - 15f. Houses are supposed to be a luxury item, chaff is supposed to be uncommon or rareish, and I believe players have given up on selling them and are hoarding them because of the low prices.
17 golem pieces @ 3.95f [Price range 2-50f]
maybe moved to 5f - 8f so that this foraging item can at least earn a little money from players. AFIK they're not really used for anything except equipment
3 hangman noose @ 5.6f by temple [Price Range 5-120f]
Perhaps 8f - 12f
1 bovine bone @3.95 by temple [ Price Range 2- 50f]
Perhaps 5f
-A steward Pig costs 7F. Pork bellies should cost at least 8, it's true, but in a sec I'll go over why it isn't, and again why their a pull on salt prices down to 5F rather than higher.
-Chaffs are usually also a 2.20F product. A weed item. They are more costly at present because they are an ingredient in houses an scarecrows, new necessities that came with v3 so everyone needed some. As time goes on, they will settle back down.
-Golum pieces are another product for which I've recycled plenty at 2.20F. They serve no real function yet, though some people will stockpile the ones they find for when they do. In a recent halloween event, they were used to build and fuel defensive golems against a zombie attack, events like this happen throughout the year, one uses mints, another roses, etc. Most of the ones I've got listed were bought in at that price and reposted or were bought in as a sweep from several different people and posted at the average of what they were paid for. I can post them for higher, but it is usually best to do that during the event month in which they are used. Throughout the rest of the year they tend to go down in price and only serious competitors for the event titles even bother to buy any at all. Most people either settle for stockpiling what they get for free over the year or don't even bother and are the ones selling them for ~3F that I bought them from in the first place. Sometime when the market gets too many lines of the same product, I have the temple or TH buy it all up and repost just to fit it all back into 1 line.
-Hangmans noose was an event item too. I think it is producable now but it is a new item and I've done no math concerning it. They are also awaiting new mechanics and currently aren't functional items accept perhaps as an outfit piece? Again the one I have listed from the temple would have been bought in at that price and reposted at the same price rather than for a profit. I can post it for higher, but there is some debate over whether it is morally appropriate for the temple to make sales profits. Aside from donations, the way the temple makes money is by recycling / sacrificially burning items bought in at 2-2.20 for 2.22 that is divinely generated. If I recycle 100 2F feathers for example, I make the temple 22F in 'profit'. The temple can recycle donation items this way too and this how we fund the defenders and the WP jobs, and a 'peasant fund'. The temple runs in the black atm, and unless we go red, I'd rather not post things up for more than what I buy it in for. I buy things in when it looks like they have been up for a while and no one else has bought it. I like to keep cash flowing from the insititutions to the citizens.
-bovine bones are 'free' items that butchers get when turning cow carcasses into steak. Butchers use these internally to produce bone gear. Bone gear is of use to evil-aligned folk. I can talk for hours about the butchery industry, but believe me these do not deserve to cost more than 2F. I have many recorded conversations over the years pertaining to the butchery industry. One of which I will revisit in a moment to clarify the salt and pigbellies problem.