| Author | Economy 101, or does it work at all? |
|---|
Hi all,
I'm fairly new to the game but the way economy works in HOWM somehow puzzles me.
Your character provide manpower in a factory/whatever and you get 175-200 gold per hour. So far, fine with that.
Similarly, there's a chain of supply from ore/sulfur/wood to machined resouces like magic powder and nickel, to finished products like various armors and amulets. You can act at every exchange point by purchasing resources or selling them. Fine with that too.
But there are some strange things, so I'm not sure it works well.
Factories are supposed to earn money from artifact sales. But as far as I can check few people ever buy any artifact. Either they are too pricey, unavailable due to level requirement, or the durability loss just turn off potential buyers. As a result, most stores have hundreds or thousands of items in stock. Production factories should have gone bankrupt long ago if their stock wasn't valued at an artificial price value...
The resource market is too calm because most players barely need any resouces at all. Until level 4-5, you don't need anything beyond wood and ore and they are provided as a level bonus.
Another mystery is the large amount of resources sold on the market. How can so many be available when no one generates any? Every sulfur, gem, mercury, etc. sold is offered by a game character. Where did they got them in the first place? I've checked the transfer log of some high-ranking characters and it seems they sold resources out of nowhere. They never bought anything (even to build castle structures) and they sell resources on the marketplace! It's not some low-level thing because you can check by yourself since their character page.
Something escapes me. Is there a secret way of gaining resouces not listed?
Share your views, or better yet, your explanations here... |
1.
You can buy resources at facilities.
The fact of buying them isn't shown in Transfer log.
Concerning the fact that there are too few people who buy artefacts - that's their own fault. Artefacts give you an advantage over other players. |
| You can only see market transactions. Most people buy resorses in mines/labs/etc. and they aren't shown in the log. And the economy here works much better than on .ru, where it's impossible to buy anything out of market. |
I see. I bought my resources to the market and not to facilities. That's the reason why they appear in my log.
BTW, why one would ever buy Meteorite shards, Toadstool or other machined resources? |
4.
From level 6 onwards you can buils Blacksmith in your castle.
These elements are used to enchant artefacts, giving additional damage or resistance. |
| Meteorite shards etc are for enchant the weapons. The factories wouldnt have money to pay labor if no one buys the artifact. However, there are still people buying them, just that some are more popular than others. eg. Amulet of luck... |
Okay, seems I have to level up a bit... :)
One last point that hasn't been adressed so far: where people do find all the resources they place on the market? I understood some rare resources could be the reward of a mercenary quest, but what about wood and ore? |
| They buy them) |
7.
They buy them at facilities where they work. |
| Err, I fail to see the point of selling on the market some resources you can buy at a lower price directly at the factory??? |
10
Imagine:
someone is living in Great Capital. There are no gems or crystals production, but he needs to buy some gems or crystals.
He hsa 2 choices:
1) He can travel to another location and buy resources there
2) He can buy resources on market paying 2-3 gp extra.
If he is lazy he would go second way. |
No more questions. Thanks for all your input!
It seems living of trade isn't a worthwhile endeavor for the time being! |
| i know exactly what you mean,about the market.. i just can't understand that ppl will ask for more for resources,but they do,and they must sell..i laughed first time i saw that..to sell on the market you would have thought it'd be cheaper.. i have no problem travelling to get resources as it is just common sence and takes less than 3 mins |
| Not only that, but there's even a transaction fee!!! |
