[Felkesste]

"Let's take all the adventurers who double as master craftsmen- and put them in a box."

In all seriousness, with the implementation of Destiny, you could totally make a new Destiny, called 'Artisan', or 'Working Class', or something- have their character level cap set to 30, their crafting skill points come every 3 levels, and raise/add-onto existing crafting recipes, so that adventurers who plow through dungeons aren't the master craftsmen of the world. If you make more recipes- or even just raise the requirements of existing recipes- you put the power in the Artisan's hands, giving them a chance to start up an economy of exchanging materials for services, or services for murai- rather than adventurers supplying everything they need for themselves.

If you offer other means of obtaining materials, too- say like, part-time jobs at various NPC shops, that have mini-games to them to keep it from being meaningless, or trivial- say like,
working in Pink's Pub as an 'unofficial Waiter/Waitress' could involve a pseudo-battlefield. The time of day could determine difficulty- in the morning, all anyone orders is Coffee, and Orange Juice, in the afternoon, it could be Coffee, Orange Juice, Milk, and Water, in the evening, all of that- plus Wine, Ale, etc. etc. With varying degrees of pay-off depending on how difficult the job was. You get into the little 'battlefield', and NPCs spawn on it, around the tables. You have to move over to them, and give them the right item/use the right skill, or whatever. They'll declare their order no matter how far away you might be from them, and you just have to run on over to them, making the job all about 'figuring out what their order was based on what they said'- (some times straight-forward "I want milk", some times "Give me something cold, with a heady flavor&quot, and speeding over to them to give them their order.
At the end of the job, you get some Experience, some Cooking materials, and some small amount of murai.

Blacksmithing part-time jobs could give the same rewards, but with Smithing materials, and their mini-game could revolve around having to hit a sword on an anvil- with every hit causing a counter-attack, so you have to choose the right hit- and fast- because the faster you finish the blade, the more blades you can make, for better rewards- and maybe some means of restoring your HP every now and again, at the cost of time, for less sturdy characters who need to do the job.

Pawnshop part-time jobs could have randomized rewards, and have a mini-game all about pricing things. Fast math. Everyone's favoriiiite.

Mage's Guild part-time jobs could have alchemy rewards, and have a mini-game all about solving recipe-riddles, because old alchemists all love writing their recipes in riddle form.

Inn part-time jobs could have experience-heavy rewards, and a mixed bag of mini-games, like inn-versions of all the existing mini-games. Giving drinks to patrons (pub), cleaning rooms (smith), determining how much of something to put into a meal (pawnshop), and chatting with customers (mage-guild).

With all these changes- and maybe a few more- the economy could be balanced some, so that adventuring isn't the only possible 'life' players can aspire to. The guards can keep the normies safe, the normies can sell the goods the adventurers need- and buy/trade-for materials from them that can't be obtained from the part-time jobs reliably, like Geodes, or Mind Stars, etc. etc.

[Felkesste]

Felkesste » Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:13 am[/url]"]I meant it more as a means of telling people right off the bat- from their first few minutes of experiencing the game- that there's more to be doing than 'being an adventurer'. You don't HAVE to be a hero, or a badass, or even a competent combatant. You can aspire to be a farmer, or a smith. Part of what discourages people from really taking that sort of thing seriously is that adventurers can not only do all that themselves- they have an easier time doing it, because their adventurer gets them the materials they need, and they can just turn around and use them rather than supply them to 'honest craftsmen', for murai, or exchanges. If we cut that down some, and let people know from the get-go that their character isn't limited to being an adventurer, there'll be less PVP drama, and bitterness.

As things stand, the 'serious adventurer' characters are left sore because the casually dressed kids are better armed than them, and are thus far better adventurers, even while making ridiculous jokes, the 'serious craftsmen' characters are left sore because their economy is completely dominated by people who can make the things they need for themselves just as easily- if not easier, which leaves people feeling watered down, and unwanted. All it takes is one bad day, where their stoic, hard-working adventurer gets blind-sided by a meme-master, to turn someone from the game or to push them towards being one of those sorts of people, so if that's your complaint, offering alternative paths in life could still help. If the world doesn't have anything to say to you, and the majority of players are goobers, the chances of you finding something to suck you into the game, and keep you playing aren't all that high.

Part-time jobs with extended interactions with NPCs, who'll, at the very least, recognize you, and greet you with your -name-, that'd make a pretty big difference in feeling welcome, wanted, and involved in the world. I mean, shucks. Do you know how much murai you can make, selling imaginary products to people? Fortune-telling made me bank, selling imaginary soap and plushies made a fair bit, heck, just selling 'my time' as the courtesan, that made quite a bit, too. There's clearly a market for more markets in general, if people are willing to drop so much of their coin on vague, professional business transactions.

I realized I hadn't included a 'why', so I'ma just drop this here, too. Sorry 'bout that.