As I see more and more cross-tier trades I keep wondering what happened to a big factor in growing cities has always been adjusting what number of which factories players need in their cities to support their needs including trading in the same tier. It seems to me that there has been a trend
to just be lazy about balancing cities. I find that sad since it is such an intrigal part of the challenge in Elvenar
FYI, I do not post or take cross-tier trades. If I could get all the way through available chapters not posting cross-tier trades I really don't see any reason to
encourage said laziness.
(Emphasis added)
How is it know that the players who are doing cross-tier trades are only doing them because they are lazy? Did anybody that you know take a survey? Did a bunch of them come to the forum and post "I'm just being lazy, that's why I'm doing cross tier trades?" I think not for either method. This does not mean you are wrong, but it does mean you may have kept back or not have any evidence to support your claim of their motivation.
In the end guessing motives for actions is tricky business. Some of them could be producing T3 exclusively for their fs. Some of them for, as mentioned above, more ranking points, some because the like the looks of the T3 buildings or those buildings fit into the color scheme of their city. In any case, assigning a motive, especially a negative ones like "laziness," is a moral judgement of the player. And while I appreciate your forum participation, expressing unfounded claims about the motives of another player is probably not helpful to the discussion.
The issue for me, even while accepting Inno's 2-star rating of fairness in all cross-tier trades, is the balance of goods within each Tier. More and more, to a frightening extent now, ALL I see in my traders (4 cities) is "gimme gimme gimme T1 & T2, but I will only offer T3".
What is this doing for the whole balance of the game, even more so if it continues unabated?
(Emphasis added)
Again, "gimme gimme gimme" is a moral judgement of the person. There are, as explained above, many reasons a person may post this or that trade, and "gimme, gimme, gimme" may be one of them, but who cares what the motive might be if you don't have to take the trade?
In addition, I agree that balancing the amount of goods is important. There are two ways to accomplish this. First, Inno can attempt to do so by regulating the production and costs for good and respond by constantly tweaking the system, shifting the amount produced by each building, giving out more in events, or less in events, adding more players producing one good or another, and so on. But, no matter what they do, it takes weeks and weeks for the effects of the tweak to have an effect once they notice the fluctuation. Even the scrolls problem took several weeks to become a problem and the solution several more weeks and even months. So, while it can be done, it's not a "rapid response" option and imbalances will still occur. In fact, it may develop into a case of chasing a solution for the last shortage even as the system has already adjusted to it, and in the process causing more fluctuations then would have occured if nothing had been done.
The second way to deal with shortages would be to let the value of each good to be set by the individual players. This is the route they've built into the game (though the top and the bottom of the range are set at 8:1 and the wholesale price, so it's not entirely a "free market"). Now when there's a shortage some players produce the goods in shortage. I'm one. I produce only T1 and T2 since, in my world, there's an overabundance of T3. I could then sell my T1 and T2 at 0 or 1 stars and make a good profit, but I don't, not because, on paper they are worth more than T3, but because their value, for me, includes the satisfaction I get from helping other players by selling them below what I could get for them.
. On the other hand, I do take the 3 star trades people put up for my T1 and T2. So I do profit, but only because somebody has deemed the value of the T1 or T2 they need in comparison to the T3 they produce at higher than the 2 stars. Again, it's their valuation, not mine or Inno's. I then, because the act of giving, to me, also has value, post all my trades at 3 stars and other's profit. Overall, with taking 3 star trades and posting 3 star I appear to lose a small amount -- but since I get that satisfaction, it's all "fair" to me.
So In the end you can wait for Inno to balance things or adjust your production to match the production of your neighborhood/fellowship. If you pay attention the shortages are seldom that bad. Yes, there might be players who take advantage of you, as you may feel, but if you take a trade, and it's not a miss-click, you choose to take it and by doing so said, "I don't like that this is costing me so much, but it's worth it for the purposes for which I am now buying it." In other words, all things being equal, you made the trade because it was worth what you paid for it, voluntarily.
Now, I've explained all this before, of course. And as I have watched, the player base seems to be moving in the direction of relatively free markets, mostly because the fluctuations they experience force them to do so. Now if could just get people to refrain from making moral judgements of the ones making trades they don't like and wouldn't make, I'd be a happy camper.
AJ
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