"Things to Do" but for money-making?

[astronamika]

We want to strike a balance with starter XP and silver. Being able to purchase everything you desire in the first OOC month is not ideal for a non-MUSH game. We need there to be something to work for, and we want RP and PC engagement to be required to get it. On the other hand, we don't want the financial challenges to feel so oppressive they keep you from telling your story. Do we want a character to have a fancy, fully-furnished multi-room phome early and easily? No. Do we want a character to be unable to buy a pint or try cooking a new recipe in Queen's kitchens? Also no. Bumping the starter XP for new characters by about 12k was our recent attempt to adjust. We welcome further recommendations to tweak the balance!

Thanks!

For me (personally!), if there aren't other ways for me to actively grab money as a noble, I'd take significantly less XP and have delayed skill/stat improvement in exchange for easier silver. I like lots of character development/change and long arcs, and my favourite roleplay is generally prop-heavy and focused on activities with other people, but for now, it feels months away, and a bit like watching all the other kids play on a cool castle gym from the other side of a fence I can't climb. I did purchase wealth a few times in chargen, but it burned up pretty quick, and I still don't feel I have much to show for it.

I (also personally) don't play MUSHes (no shade if you enjoy them), because that's true - I do need something to work for. It's more that I can't see any way to work for it right now, and need some tips.

I'm excited to be doing a book, though!

I'm not looking to set up a PC mansion for my PC or have everything at once. If anyone has seen my PC's place, it's pretty run down. I purposefully have only planted a couple of basic crops that suit it being winter and her being poor. The decor matches her being poor. And even trying to customise things like the plants, and animals to reflect her being broke and create an enjoyable and detailed environment that supports and enhances RP... and have also have the items stack nicely too (this is important to me) is .. and well, it's expensive at 25s a pop.

This, too - Julea has more weight than I do because I play a noble, so I have a more difficult time affirming that I don't want a huge phome full of beefy male butlers in diamond codpieces (like, one, maybe), but it is genuinely just the desire to add a bit of personality to my little niche, and feeling restless because I'm unable to burn off enough creative energy.

Asking on visnet questions often had mixed results and not always with the correct answer. At one point I was told I could buy extra things in the tutorial for free/cheap and to make sure to set up a summer/winter wardrobe before hitting the grid. I searched through chargen a few times but never did find that store.

It's a room with keywords that you 'say', not a shop, but I think Ghed's clarifying policy about this - I thought you could come in with a couple context-specific outfits too, but you can only have one starting outfit. But would 100% commission PCs to make my context-specific clothes like a court gown or wilderness riding/hunting garb and keep the economy active; just unable to participate in that economy atm.

[Julea]

Another quick suggestion:

Reducing the amount of negative impact a metric can have on an asset. Having an asset that is already going to take at minimum 3 months to pay off and be worth while reduced to 50% of its earnings so that it's going to be 6 months is pretty harsh. Definitely have an impact, but maybe not quite so much?

[monolu]

Just chiming in to say that I agree with pretty much all of the stuff here. Assets are a massive investment and it takes ages for them to generate actual profit.

I feel like this means that pretty much all new characters will be broke, since the most sensible thing seems to be to dump all of your starting money into assets. Granted, you'll make that money back eventually, but you'll spend actual months with very little to work with.

[River]

I'll also agree with a lot of this, especially assets. They seem very necessary to be "comfortable" and recoup the everyday costs of playing the game, but are an enormous struggle to save for and buy. I haven't managed to get a tier 2 or 3 one yet... and I'm playing a character that should have an easier time making money. And most of the ones that you can buy at a discount in the market are for a metric that's always tanked. Feels bad all around.

[Crayon]

The having to spend money to make money and having a 3-6 month turnaround before you even break even thing with assets is a bit problematic (and can be stifling to the game's economy) since it ensures that the people who are making enough money to spend regularly are the ones who have probably already sorted most of their immediate needs out. I think reverting assets to an XP cost would be a huge improvement, but I'm kind of inclined to wonder how/why they were changed away from that in the first place?

[Geras]

Yah... can someone explain why assets were taken out as an xp sink? Or maybe we could have the option of either?

[astronamika]

I noted at OOC chat - but the new 'help making money' guide has helped a lot, in my case. I feel like there wasn't enough emphasis on the importance of resources and hustling those - but knowing I can generate items and sell them to merchants/crafters, it feels like i have something active to do instead of passive watch-staring, waiting for Saturday rollover.

I dumped a couple wealth purchases and about 120qp into it though, so I'd still pay close attention to how the newer newbies without that are finding the system. Those are the players you can't let get bored, because they have no attachment to the game - gotta hook em.

[River]

That does sound like it would be helpful if you can afford to get a tier 2 or tier 3 asset to do it with. But the only tier 3 assets you can make currently are for awful metrics aside from piety. You can't even make tier 2 economic assets. Sure seems like everyone piled onto economics (perhaps even purchasing their assets with xp) and everyone who came after has to settle for assets with bad income. I can't say that I'm a big fan of the system.

[Julea]

I found this too. When I finally had enough to purchase a level 2 asset, the only ones available were for pretty bad metrics. I bought one that was not as bad as the others. But the next pay cycle the metric tanked. And now it earns way less than my level one asset ;_;

I did look at buying some of the ones that had resources, but it just wasn't even an option, $ wise. So, now I'm stuck with an asset that is going to take a good half year to pay off, and is actually way worse than my level one asset.

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One of the earlier suggestions for those of the bard ilk, was to just go out there and perform / busk. The unfortunate thing I've noticed is, very, very few people will donate money to performers (I would say less than 10% of performances result in any kind of payment from the audience) and there seems to be an IC culture of that it's crass to perform for silver. And that if you really loved music, you'd just do it for the love of it.

[Philly]

It's been a bit since I had to make one, but pretty sure you can create an asset with whatever metric you want. Just tested it and I was able to make an economics asset. Are you guys talking about the asset marketplace instead? Those are assets people decided to sell or went inactive with sold at a discount, so the desirable ones go quickly.