A radical solution to the food problem...

[Buffalkill]

Yeah, I think you could do away with min/max pricing. As long there's a good balance between gold and food, let the free market set the price.

[Sacha]

That's not going to solve the issue. Basically, you'd have to take all the current gold values of food producing regions, and then go up to the Dukes and say "Here, now you have to come up with this cash, every week." Nobody's going to pay 100+ gold for 100 bushels all of a sudden.

[Buffalkill]

That's not going to solve the issue. Basically, you'd have to take all the current gold values of food producing regions, and then go up to the Dukes and say "Here, now you have to come up with this cash, every week." Nobody's going to pay 100+ gold for 100 bushels all of a sudden.

Such negativity. Of course they'll pay, or see their regions will starve. The actual price is not that important as long as there's an appropriate balance between food and gold.

[Penchant]

Such negativity. Of course they'll pay, or see their regions will starve. The actual price is not that important as long as there's an appropriate balance between food and gold.

A smart margrave who had no way of getting food except through the rural lords demanding 100+ gold per 100 bushels would starve his region. I am rather sure that for most regions atm anything beyond like 70 gold per 100 bushels isn't worth it as it costs more to maintain then it does produce for the lord.

[Buffalkill]

A smart margrave who had no way of getting food except through the rural lords demanding 100+ gold per 100 bushels would starve his region. I am rather sure that for most regions atm anything beyond like 70 gold per 100 bushels isn't worth it as it costs more to maintain then it does produce for the lord.

That won't happen if there's an appropriate balance because the buyers want to buy and the sellers want to sell, so they will naturally converge on a mutually agreeable price.

[Ketchum]

A smart margrave who had no way of getting food except through the rural lords demanding 100+ gold per 100 bushels would starve his region. I am rather sure that for most regions atm anything beyond like 70 gold per 100 bushels isn't worth it as it costs more to maintain then it does produce for the lord.

Yes, the food price kinda low at the moment. 10 gold, 15 gold, 20 gold. It is hard to sell food for even profit. Your realm margrave will demand realm Judge to punish you should you let the city starve. Unless you happen to hold Judge and rural region lordship at same time ;D

[Jaden]

It depends on where you are though, D'haran dukes usually offer around 50 gold. But i think high food prices is just unique to Dwilight thought

[Kai]

All you'll get is people playing chicken with city starvation.

[Anaris]

All you'll get is people playing chicken with city starvation.

Awful as it is, this is demonstrably the truth.

How do I know this? Because people have already been doing this, even with 50 gold per hundred bushels as the maximum price for food.

Increase the amount they can potentially make, remove the ability of rural Lords to make gold by any other means, and all you'll end up with is hundreds of !@#$%^&s doing their level best to make as much profit as possible off the cities, regardless of what's good for the cities or the realm as a whole.

[Wolfang]

Couldn't we allow the realms themselves to pass laws such as min/max prices or other restrictions and stuff on the economy? You would have some realms with very strict government regulated economies and some realms where the economy is completely free.

Would be interesting to see.

[Anaris]

Couldn't we allow the realms themselves to pass laws such as min/max prices or other restrictions and stuff on the economy? You would have some realms with very strict government regulated economies and some realms where the economy is completely free.

Would be interesting to see.

Nothing stopping people from doing that. In fact, Luria Nova already does. (I suspect other realms do, too, that's just the only one I have direct knowledge of.)

Enforcement is, of course, up to the players.

[vonGenf]

Increase the amount they can potentially make, remove the ability of rural Lords to make gold by any other means, and all you'll end up with is hundreds of !@#$%^&s doing their level best to make as much profit as possible off the cities, regardless of what's good for the cities or the realm as a whole.

I understand how it can be a deliberate design decision to avoid this. However, given that it is, then what is the point of having a region-based food trading system at all?

If the point of the food system is to check the growth of realms and force heavy-rich realms to trade for food, then it would be easier to make food a pure realm-wide statistics. The only reason to make it a region-based system is to create a dynamic between rural and city Lords. If those who try to use this dynamic in a power struggle are preemptively called '!@#$%^&s' on the forum, then I don't see the point of having food at all.

[Anaris]

I understand how it can be a deliberate design decision to avoid this. However, given that it is, then what is the point of having a region-based food trading system at all?

If the point of the food system is to check the growth of realms and force heavy-rich realms to trade for food, then it would be easier to make food a pure realm-wide statistics. The only reason to make it a region-based system is to create a dynamic between rural and city Lords. If those who try to use this dynamic in a power struggle are preemptively called '!@#$%^&s' on the forum, then I don't see the point of having food at all.

I'm not using it of the ones who try to use the dynamic. I'm using it of the ones who try to abuse it. Which, as I have seen firsthand with the existing system, can be a quite high percentage.

I should note, the dev team is considering raising the maximum limit, and has been for some time. But not removing gold from rurals.

[vonGenf]

But not removing gold from rurals.

I'm not actually advocating that, it would be a little too extreme and unbalancing. I'm only saying that seeing a city starve due to deliberate withholding of food once in a while, if done for good IC reasons, would be perfectly legitimate.

I'm also trying to reduce the number of people who get the impression that they're being name-called when reading the forum.... even if that wasn't your intention it can appear that way.

the dev team is considering raising the maximum limit, and has been for some time.

Thanks, I think that would be a good thing. It won't change anything to those places where the price is lower, and will allow those places who have reached the limit to use the system correctly.

[Buffalkill]

Awful as it is, this is demonstrably the truth.

How do I know this? Because people have already been doing this, even with 50 gold per hundred bushels as the maximum price for food.

Increase the amount they can potentially make, remove the ability of rural Lords to make gold by any other means, and all you'll end up with is hundreds of !@#$%^&s doing their level best to make as much profit as possible off the cities, regardless of what's good for the cities or the realm as a whole.

This would not be the case if the rural region's survival was equally dependant on trade as the cities are. The reason there's an imbalance is that rural regions don't need trade for their survival but cities do. If rural regions could starve for lack of gold then rural lords would have to sell to cities. And if one rural lord is demanding exorbitant prices, another rural lord can easily undercut him. If they get into a stale mate, as you predict, then they both starve, their realm becomes unstable and another realm comes in and takes over. It couldn't be more poetic than a realm destroyed by its own greed. Of course, if a region is starving and the lord isn't doing anything to stabilize it, they should be relieved of their duties and replaced with someone more competent.