Increased Availability of Coal

[Subutai]

After reading this half-approval of a suggestion of mine to decrease coal costs, I wanted to start a discussion on what making coal "more available" means. I've only played two characters, only one of whom is a smith, and he has easy access to the Cordor coal mines, being a city resident.

I'd really very much love to see more coal in the mines, personally. My smith uses a huge amount of coal himself, as well as providing ingots and coal to several others to help stocking his shop. It seems like every couple of days, I'm making 3, 4, or more runs through the mines trying to stock up on coal. I'd absolutely love it if a single trip through the mines could net 100 coal, which would mean one trip per stack instead of the current 2/3 of a stack (the time adds up massively for all the coal he goes through, especially when stocking up on ingots).

I also have concerns, slightly less grounded in extensive personal experience, about the availability of coal elsewhere. If a trips to the coal mines is tedious for me, with a character only 2-3 transitions away, the frustration must be much, much greater for smiths and other high coal users without access to a mine. Given how coal is such an extremely heavily-required recourse, I'd love to see it more equitably distributed, if players in other settlements and areas struggle to have enough.

For those who aren't in and around Cordor, how do you find your coal supplies? Is coal close and plentiful enough that you know just where to go to get all your need, or do you find you have to hunt around for it?

[Seven Sons of Sin]

I think all base ingredients (coal, sand, etc.) need to all receive a significant boost in their presence/ease of access on the server.

[Subutai]

I think all base ingredients (coal, sand, etc.) need to all receive a significant boost in their presence/ease of access on the server.

My dream is that every surface settlement has easy access to a value-equitable selection of resources like specific ores, produce, etc. (Brog has access to silver, Cordor has access to copper, tin, and zinc, for example, in quantities that are about 1:1 in terms of gold value and usability), while other settlements have much less access, while all settlements have very, very easy access to base ingredients like coal, sand, softwood, etc.

This would make resource trade between settlements extremely important (some overlap would be nice, so every surface settlement didn't need to trade with every other settlement), but getting base ingredients would be extremely simple for anyone.

[Dreams]

Better yet, completely unequal access to certain things.

e.g. Cordor has lots of Iron, Guldorand has lots of Wood, Brogendenstein has lots of Salt.

This would promote more trade between settlements.

[Nitro]

Unless you put some access restrictions on it you'll just see people from other settlements going to other settlements to pick their resources clean to fill their own coffers.

[Aniel]

Brogendenstein has lots of Salt.

Some things are very funny with context removed.

[malcolm_mountainslayer]

Most people arnt providing coal to several other people and thus other settlements don't have major problems because its fairly simple to get coal when you arnt trying to provide for a massive tradenetwork (I can only imagine your bank account)


The fact you can't provide for the needs of everyone in one trip is not a terrible thing. Means other people with login times seperate from yours can get more oppurtunities to provide coal for said merchant machines. (Great way for low levels to make some gold).


That being said, the way you need. A coal lump every step of the process is a bit silly. A bunch of Coal should fuel the forges for a considerable time.

[Subutai]

Better yet, completely unequal access to certain things.

e.g. Cordor has lots of Iron, Guldorand has lots of Wood, Brogendenstein has lots of Salt.

This would promote more trade between settlements.

This is what I meant, in general. Equitable value-wise, I meant, as in Brog doesn't have all the really good ore so they can earn way more from trading resources than Cordor does with their two copper deposits. Rather, if a trip through Brog's silver mines would get you 1000 GP worth of silver, a trip through Cordor's copper mines would get you 1000 GP worth of copper. Probably balanced for usefulness, etc., too.