Re: Olympia: Production Values

Steve Chapin (sjc@cs.purdue.edu)
Wed, 22 Jul 92 00:01:33 EST

John Morrow/Varian argues that we are going to make it impossible for
newbies to start out if we balance the economy so that WORK doesn't
produce large sums of money.

That is true, if we keep the newbie startup the way it is. A simple
change would be to give the newbiews 10,000 gold, or 14,000 if that
will balance the system. I think it is important to close the
economic holes and fine tune the economy, then to balance the newbie
startup. I think that starting newbies is an orthogonal issue. (By
the way, you kids got it easy. Back in my day we only got 5,000 gold
to start...in the snow...5 miles...uphill...)

A suggestion someone made, and I've been thinking about, is to give
newbies "faction construction points" (FCPs) to start. FCPs can be
converted into units, men, cash, skills, and inventory. An important
step would be to determine proper conversion rates. What do you
think? Think back to when you were starting. Would you like to have
been able to have your PC spring whole from the ground, along with an
elite bodyguard unit? Or perhaps you wanted to have your troupe of
entertainers ready from day one, or you wanted to convert it all to
cash.

A useful feature would be the ability to keep part of the intial FCP
allotment back for later, if you decide that you're not sure if you
want your 10 man unit to be expert swordsmen or to be horse trainers.

I welcome comments on this subject. I haven't cleared it with Rich,
so I don't know what he thinks of it.

sc

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