Suggestions:Implemented

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Revision as of 08:00, 20 July 2006 by Elembis (talk | contribs) (Moved two suggestions here from Suggestions:Game Mechanics.)
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Suggestions
Items | Skills | Classes | Game mechanics | Miscellaneous

This is a page of implemented suggestions for Shartak. Please refrain from editing or deleting any of the information recorded here.

If you would like to make new suggestions, see the Suggestions page.

Implemented

Writing on the tree (or sand)

Should be able to write stuff in the sand on the beaches and carve short messages into trees in the jungle. To avoid "carve-wars" the only way to get rid of messages on trees could be to chop the jungle down and wait for it to grow again before you can write a new message. -- Snarf 22:32, 27 January 2006 (GMT)

Comments

  • FYI, currently working on this. --Simon 23:16, 20 February 2006 (GMT)
    • Done. Watch out for quirks depending on where you're writing. --Simon 15:24, 27 February 2006 (GMT)

Areas explored stat

Just add a stat in our character page that shows how any areas we have explored, use the same system that is used to determine who is in the top ten, but for everybody so we can all see how many areas we have explored(and how close to the top ten we are :). -- Daylan 00:04, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

  • Implemented, together with kill stats within profiles. --Simon 17:35, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
    • whoa! and pker's beware, everyone will now know if you killed your own at any point in your wretched past. --Frisco 17:48, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
    • Not necessarily.. what if you were killing outsiders/natives from a different camp? --Simon 18:05, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
    • Thanks simon, I thought it would be a useful thing to have. --Daylan 21:50, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
  • The area explored number refers to the number of 6*6 pixel squares you have uncovered on your map. As the map is 140*63 of these squares there are a possible 8,820 locations to uncover. A good proportion of these are inaccessible as they are mountain or ocean and the deep water locations are risky to explore because of sharks. My bet is that there are at most 4,000 locations available to be explored in this way --Dr. J 10:59, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

Pirate

Every tropical island needs pirates! Could either be Outsider or a separate grouping altogether (current pirates being more native than foreign, from the news i read). Don't know what special skills they have, maybe better at finding gold in towns, or general stuff on the beach, and any parrots they encounter follow them around (perhaps monkeys too). If agriculture is implemented, they get to grow weed and poppy. Maybe they'd be better as the Outsider NPC counterpart to NPC shamans, and raid towns every so often. --Frisco 04:14, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

I have no idea how we could implement them into Shartak, but I do like pirates... --Grigoriy 05:29, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
I have some ideas how to implement them. Just so you know, Pirates have been on my todo list for a couple of months now but I'm holding off sorting them out until I have skills and items worked out for them and have finished some of the higher priority things. --Simon 15:00, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
I really like the idea of pirates in Shartak, but I would prefer them to be NPCs. PC Pirates would have to have ships or boats, which would mean they have no reason to stick around other than bumping into the edge of the playable area. Furthermore, if PC Pirates could hop on their boats, they would have a distinct advantage in land-bound players, being able to "sleep" out on the water and mostly out of danger. I envision periodic raids of villages and towns, where the Natives and Outsiders face a common foe. They would always appear in decent sized groups, forcing players to band together or run for the jungle. --Jackel 19:27, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
Well technically you could say that for the outsiders too.. why don't the researchers and settlers just get on their boat and sail off into the sunset? --Simon 21:53, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
Well, the scientists don't WANT to leave because they are doing research. The settlers don't want to leave because they are on the island TO SETTLE. The soldiers and scouts are bound by orders. As far as their lack of boats, I was sort of going with the idea that whatever ships and boats the Outsiders arrive on dump them off at the shore of the encampments and leave. This same idea could be used for pirates, I suppose; they were kicked off their pirate ships for some reason, but they wouldn't really be pirates without pirate ships, I think.--Jackel 01:03, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
I'm a little reluctant to see a new dynamic class enter the game when we haven't quite seen how the current classes interact. However, if this is just a small part in your plans, then I will just wait and see. --Lint 23:51, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

Tracking

Anyone with the Tracking skill should be able to track where people have gone, either generic "A native passed by here recently" or more specific "Average Joe left heading north 2 days ago".

Comments

  • Should probably be a timelimit so you don't see "Average Joe left heading north 90 days ago". - Snarf
  • Could work for animals, too. How many times have you logged off near an animal, planning to pounce on it when you have more AP, only to find that, in that time, it's moved? The worst part is that it's never actually moved far; no, it definitely just moved a few squares in some direction, and you have no idea which. I like this skill idea.--Wifey 01:50, 30 March 2006 (BST)
  • Implemented. --Simon 21:58, 30 March 2006 (BST)

Ditch the AP cost of dropping something.

I have noticed that when I drop something I lose 1 AP. Could that be changed so that I don't lose any AP when I drop somthing. --MeatPie 07:32, 23 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

  • It does not take AP to drop stuff. --Grigoriy 17:47, 2 April 2006 (BST)
  • Sort of implemented. It was actually a bug that was created and then fixed, originally it didn't cost anything to drop an item, and then it did, and now it doesn't again. --Simon 01:45, 9 April 2006 (BST)

Changes to the Statistics Page

The "Statistics on Kills" page is a nice feature, and I think that it could be improved by the addition of two new lists: 1) A list of the "top Native-killers" among Outsiders, and 2) A list of the "top Outsider-killers" among Natives. The lists would rank the top 25 (or however many) of each group by how many of the other group they've killed. These are the most significant statistics in the game after all... as it is now we mainly see which players have killed the most animals, which is almost meaningless. Another idea could be lists of the "Top 25 turncoats" or "top 25 traitors" for each group, which would list the top 25 players that kill their own (e.g. if a Native has killed 15 Natives he would likely be #1 on the Native turncoat list right now). Since the latter list would show everyone who the "PKers" are, it would have the added benefit of discouraging PKing. -Arminius 21:11, 24 March 2006 (GMT)

  • Instead of showing 'natives killed' or 'outsiders killed' perhaps it could show which village the victms have come from. Blood fudes between native villages or fierce rivallry between outsider groups are quite common through history.
  • Quick job... http://www.shartak.com/statpkills.html - not quite what was requested I think. This is a one-off and will not be updated regularly. Send me feedback! --Simon 02:07, 9 April 2006 (BST)
  • I like 't, I got some serious killin' t' do! Arrr! --El Pirata Cofresi 15:46, 9 April 2006 (BST)
  • Very nice! It's even better than I thought it would be. -Arminius 01:07, 12 April 2006 (BST)

Accessibility For Visually Impaired Players

There are a few issues for players using screen reading software that are linked to the information on the map on the main page. The colour of each square is not identified by any text so all the screen reader will say is 'Jungle' etc. Also, the icons indicating things like Huts are not readable so limiting you to knowing what is in each square solely by entering the square and reading the description. Could it be possible to indicate what is seen in each square using text that would help VI players, some games use hidden text that doesn't interfere with what sighted players see but is echoed by screen readers - comments like 'Jungle 5' for example would be great, whilst the icons could just say what they are. ----Gubbins 16:46, 2 April 2006 (BST)

  • Is this what you're suggesting? --Grigoriy 17:43, 2 April 2006 (BST)
  • Sounds like something that could be done, except I'm not entirely sure how. The icons are done using CSS, is there a specific media type for screen readers? For hidden text, would something in a class that sets the font-size to 1pt and background/foreground colours the same, do the job? --Simon 18:21, 2 April 2006 (BST)
  • I'm afraid that I don't have much experience with this. Perhaps we could add 'title' attributes inside each table cell that specified the status of the block. So we can add to each table cell something like 'title=jungle density 5 hut' and 'title=water density 2'. w3 specs --Lint 21:52, 2 April 2006 (BST)
  • My HTML knowledge is very basic but I have had a look at some VI web sites for some pointers. It seems that screen readers don't always pick up on the Title attributes on certain elements, the one I use (JAWS) can pick up Title text on Links with a settings change. As for small font size hidden text, I don't know if there is a minimal size required, I'll have a look to try and find out. ----Gubbins 01:15, 6 April 2006 (BST)
  • The h4 tags around map block names have been replaced with span tags, and extra headings have been added on the right instead of just using bold tags. Unfortunately this has broken the greasemonkey scripts that handle mapping etc. Sorry! --Simon 01:49, 9 April 2006 (BST)
  • Icon replacement and jungle density now available as options from the Edit Profile page. --Simon 11:07, 14 April 2006 (BST)

Pirates displayed as pirates

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Arminius 14:23, 29 April 2006 (BST) Change pirate display name on map from "Outsider" to "Pirate" Pirates

If a pirate is standing on a square, the square should read "1 Pirate" instead of "1 Outsider". Even though they are outsiders, they are a also a very seperate group, and are not affiliated with any of the three Outsider colonies. They should probably be enemies of the Durham/York/Derby colonial authorities/colonists, in fact. Changing their display name on-map to "Pirate" would facilitate conflict between the two (which there should be anyway) by letting each side know who is who. Even now pirates are viewed as seperate on the statistics page, and have an entire section of their own on the stat-kills page. Speaking of the stats page: as of this posting 65% of active players are Outsiders, but if we distinguish pirates from other outsiders it pretty dramatically improves the balance to 43% Outsider, 22% Pirate, 35% Native. Currently there is no way on-map to distinguish between the two, though. Note that all I am proposing is to change how they are displayed on the game map, this is not a proposal to make pirates an entire new "faction". There should still only be two categories of player to choose from when you sign up (Outsider & Native), and pirates should still be able to speak and understand Outsider language.

Comments

  • I am a pirate, and I approve of this message. Arrr.--Wifey 18:30, 29 April 2006 (BST)
  • Would this mean that the description panel on the right shows "Here is Mr Outsider. There is a pirate here. Also here is a native" or would it still show "Here is Mr Outsider and Mr Pirate. Also here is a native." of course complete with the dropdowns for attacking "a pirate" rather than specific pirates? --Simon 21:20, 29 April 2006 (BST)
    • I would say that soldiers, settlers etc should still be able to see pirates names, because if it appears as "a pirate", then an entire new "faction" has been created, which is not what we want I dont think. But the whole point is that we should be able to distinguish between pirate and non-pirate outsider on the game-map, so maybe what could be done is this: Say an outsider soldier named Peter, a pirate named Paul, and a native named Mary are standing on a square. It would display the following to an outsider scientist who wanders on to the square: "Here is Peter and the pirate Paul. Also here is a native." (the links being their profile links) Also, I think natives should not see any difference, they should still see them all as outsiders . Arminius 17:39, 30 April 2006 (BST)
      • Huh. It looks like it's been implemented. Neat stuff. Thanks, Simon. :)--Wifey 03:36, 5 May 2006 (BST)
        • Yup, check the tooltips on the "2 outsiders" bits on the map as well. If there are outsiders and pirates in the same area, the local description (on the right) should list the outsiders first, pirates last. --Simon 19:00, 5 May 2006 (BST)

Trading Fix, allowing you to trade down

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Tycho44 09:22, 29 April 2006 (BST) Improve trading mechanics Traders

The player currently is prevented from trading when the Trader doesn't have enough items in stock to meet his 'fair' price. Instead, I suggest that the Trader should offer you a reduced deal when he isn't carrying enough of the desired item: "Your Gem is worth 3 GPS Units, but I only have 1 GPS Unit in stock. Would you be willing to accept 1 GPS Unit in exchange for your 1 Gem? (accept/reject)" That would be a win/win, since the trade value of the goods in the Trading Hut would increase if the player agreed to this trade. The player knows what they're getting into, so they won't feel ripped off. In my opinion, increasing the number of successfully executed trades is a good thing. Edit: It would also be cool if the trader could offer you a reduced deal when you can't fit them in inventory. "Your Gem is worth 199 Poison Snakes, but you can't carry that many. Would you be willing to accept 47 Poison Snakes in exchange for your 1 Gem?"

Comments
In such a situation the button to take the trade should not read "Accept this trade", but should be (something like): "Accept this rip-off" to make it clear in no uncertain terms that they are taking a hit by accepting the trade. Arminius 14:10, 29 April 2006 (BST)

I agree 100%. But it is frustrating that my desired trades are blocked by artificial constraints. For example, the single Poison Dart sitting in the hut is impossible to acquire: Trader Harry isn't willing to trade his Poison Dart for anything (other than a Bullet or Poison Snakes), because he'll make too much profit. That stretches credulity -- if this were a real life trader, we could reach favorable terms in a heartbeat. He'd get my extra sharpening stone, and I could happily reload my blowpipe. --Tycho44 20:19, 2 May 2006 (BST)
Also, for better or for worse, this would allow players to track the stock levels in the trading huts much more simply (i.e. offering a Gem). Currently, to track how many pieces of driftwood Harry has in stock, the player has to offer a gem, reject, offer a rifle, reject, offer a GPS, reject, offer a FAK, reject, and so on, putting IP load on the server. --Tycho44 20:19, 2 May 2006 (BST)

Looks like this has been implemented :) --Wifey 02:50, 26 May 2006 (BST)

Only the first part - the bit where you don't have enough space to carry that many items isn't done. --Simon 08:31, 26 May 2006 (BST)

Supplies in settlements

Could there perhaps be some kind of a more reliable way to get things in villages, apart from randomly finding them? Coming across abandoned items in jungles, evaquated police departments and such makes sense, but going on an epic quest for a machete under someone's carpet in an active village just seems a bit out of place.

So, if it's not too much of a hassle, which it most likely is, I suggest there to perhaps be put some kind of trader characters in settlements, who could exchange all kindsa things for random junk you've found lying around in other places, or maybe you could get these fellas to make items for you free of charge, which you could go and pick up after a period of time?

..probably too complicated for something that's rather useless. Oh well. --Ismo Kuikka

Comments

There's a trading post in one of the huts in Dalpok, can't get anything there though. Perhaps a sign of things to come? --Snarf 10:33, 17 February 2006 (GMT)
there is,in one of the outsider villages, an ammo cache where you can find ammo reliably in the native villages in the trading posts you can find barely anything(or nothing like my reward for 30AP of searching) -- Daylan 00:01, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
Suggestion = adopted: Trading huts appear fully implemented. --Tycho44 22:29, 20 May 2006 (BST)

Informational messages

You should be able to see what other people have done since your past turn. Much like the skill above, except for most actions that take place. Such as '[09:34]Joe used a medkit on Roger' or '[05:23]Dan Attacked a Boar and missed'. If this is implemented, there should be a menu that you can use to toggle certain bits of information, to reduce or stop spam. Durja 18:14, 6 February 2006 (GMT)

Comments

I don't want to see when people miss attacks, that's just too much information (unless it's me that they're attacking!) - Snarf
Would be useful to see when kills are made in the same location eg. Dan killed a boar or Joe killed Roger - Snarf
How about making a list of "informational messages" that might be required? - Snarf
  • PlayerX killed PlayerY.
  • PlayerX killed animal.
  • PlayerY died from eating some poisonous berries. (self-inflicted death)
  • Implemented to a certain degree, the first two anyway... if you kill yourself eating berries or from wounds then you just fade away quietly. --Simon 14:12, 27 March 2006 (BST)

Wiki Button

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Wifey 23:01, 2 June 2006 (BST) New Button Wikiphiles, players in general

So, uh... I don't know why but there's no button leading directly from the game ot the wiki. I just kind of noticed that difference between Shartak and UD. Kinda silly, no? I mean, as far as I can tell, the only place that a URL is given is on the FAQ (which I'm sure many don't read).

... Ok, yeah. I'm not really bothered that players need to read the FAQ to find the wiki. It'd be neat if there was a button on the game interface, though, like there is for News and Statistics.

Comments

  • There should be a button labelled "Help" on at least the main pages. This points to the wiki. It used to say Wiki but I figured people might not know what it was.. perhaps I should change it back so that people think "what's a wiki?" and click it.. --Simon 23:52, 2 June 2006 (BST)
    • Oh. Well that's silly of me. Ok then. Your call, entirely. I'll leave this here so that people can give an opinion on whether it should be "Help" or "Wiki," I suppose.--Wifey 00:23, 3 June 2006 (BST)
      • "Wiki", for Simon's reason. --Tycho44 06:46, 8 June 2006 (BST)
      • "Help", since new users (who need help the most) will be even less likely to know what a wiki is. — Elembis (talk) 10:07, 9 June 2006 (BST)
      • "Help/Wiki", as a compromise :) --Simon 12:14, 9 June 2006 (BST)

Rename tamdal Tack "Tak"

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 12:58, 9 June 2006 (BST) Cosmetic One NPC trader, Tack

All native NPC and camp names but this one use a "k" for the k sound instead of "ck" (e.g., "Dalpok", "Raktam", "Wiksik", "Jakota", "Movak", "Tik", etc.). Thus, for consistency, "Tack" should become "Tak". (Also, I think "Toe" looks more native and less anglicized as "Toh", but that's a minor point in comparison.)

Comments

  • Good point. Tamdal Tak is it. Not sure about Toe/Toh. --Simon 01:08, 11 June 2006 (BST)
  • Yeah, I don't like "Toh" either now, so scrap that. Thanks for renaming Tak. — Elembis (talk) 05:31, 11 June 2006 (BST)

Make "healing herbs" singular

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 23:49, 10 June 2006 (BST) Cosmetic One item's name

"Some healing herbs" is vague, and "one bundle of healing herbs" is too long. I recommend that the name be "healing herb", as in "one healing herb", "two healing herbs", and so on, just like "one first aid kit", etc.

Comments

  • Yes, this sounds ok to me. Done. --Simon 01:09, 11 June 2006 (BST)

Capitalize skill names consistently

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 20:54, 11 June 2006 (BST) Cosmetic Skill names

Most skills, like Basic Tracking, are capitalized fully in-game, but some, like Body building, are not. If the first word in a skill is always capitalized ("You have Body building..."), why shouldn't subsequent words be capitalized, too? Skill capitalization should at least be consistent, and I recommend that consistency be attained by capitalizing the few not-fully-capitalized skills (which also include Native knowledge, Ghostly whisper, and a couple others).

Comments
Agreed. Cosmetic, but consistency is useful (especially when working with greasemonkey scripts or the wiki). --Tycho44 21:30, 16 June 2006 (BST)

  • Sorted, except after some discussion, I went the opposite way to the above - Body building was already right, Advanced tracking is now right. --Simon 21:51, 16 June 2006 (BST)

Use UTC for server times

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 16:43, 19 June 2006 (BST) Time zone standardization Timestamps

UTC (a.k.a. "Greenwich Mean Time"), the worldwide standard, is the time zone people are most accustomed to converting times to and from. In comparison, British Standard Time (BST), which is currently used, moves the clock ahead of UTC by one hour in March and keeps it that way until October. UTC is better for wiki timestamps (since a later time will always correspond to a later edit) and gives anyone converting a timestamp only one DST ("Daylight Saving Time") setting to take into account: their own.

Comments
If this is for the wiki itself, you can change your timezone in the preferences. --Simon 21:20, 19 June 2006 (BST)

Wiki default timezone updated to UTC. In-game events are actually in GMT. --Simon 20:56, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Simon and I found that BST was the default time zone for wiki users as well as the time zone used for death times. Both of those are fixed now, and according to Simon the only part of the game that still uses BST is the "Been on the island since" field, which doesn't really need to be accurate to the hour. — Elembis (talk) 02:28, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Timestamp the Shartak Interface

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Tycho44 22:52, 19 June 2006 (UTC) Interface improvement all

Put a small timestamp on the main Shartak interface screen, in addition to the current timestamping of messages, game events, last death, and so on. This would be a huge improvement for screenshots -- for example, tagging up checkpoints in marathon races or swims, capture-the-flag and other in-game games, verifying PKs, RP meeting attendance, etc. In addition, the timestamp would help those of us who don't use GMT to figure out the delta on game event messages. You could put the timestamp in the stats bar, or above or below the map, or above or below location description, or 

Possible Actions: (22:52, 19 June 2006 (UTC))

... almost anywhere on the interface screen really. Trivial to implement and a major benefit for some of the roleplaying.

Comments
Done. Simon put this just below the HP/XP/AP/Gold text in a <div> tag that the game's CSS hides by default. You can see the server's time by editing your profile and checking "Include the server time on the main page?". — Elembis (talk) 02:28, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Moving through fully chopped down or overgrown jungle

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Xintlaer 22:15, 1 June 2006 (BST) Movement change Every character in the game

I sugget a change in the movement mechanics. It may not be approved by you, but I think it's logical. I wouls like to see a change that allows to reduce movement on fully chopped (d0) squares of jungle (I think that a reduction to 0,5 AP/move (0,25 AP/move with Trekking skill), and an increase on (I think) squares ranging from d7 to d9 to 2 AP/move (1 AP/move with Trekking). D10 squares stay impossible to pass, until chopped. The logic says that when you have nothing under your feet except for ground you move faster, and in dense growth areas you walk slower. Such a change as I proposed may also need an adjustment in the jungle growth speed.

Comments

  • I like this, except the part about the trekking skill giving the ability to move 4 d(0) squares in one AP, that should definitely not be done. Maybe this: trekking should only apply to d(1) and up (the skill description says "faster movement through the jungle" anyway), and on d(0), all characters, whether trekking or not, should expend 0.5 AP to move onto another d(0) square. (note that if both of those changes are made it would not harm trekking-people, their AP-usage would be same as it is now.) One benefit of lowering movement cost on d(0) squares as far as game dynamics is concerned, is that it would make roads, the upkeep of roads, and the upkeep of towns (keeping towns free of jungle overgrowth), actually meaningful in a practical sense, by allowing for quicker travel. Arminius 22:41, 1 June 2006 (BST)
    • Exactly what I was going to say, Arminius. Trekking on a road would be absolutely incredible... so we just don't give trekkers any added bonus there.--Wifey 23:52, 1 June 2006 (BST)
      • Understood, agreed, changing--Xintlaer 09:13, 2 June 2006 (BST)
  • 0.5 AP per square on roads (still 0.5 AP with Trekking). 2 AP per square on heavy jungle (1 AP with Trekking). Creates tangible effect for the Highway Society - Preservation Front conflicts. An absolutely brilliant suggestion. --Tycho44 10:06, 2 June 2006 (BST)
  • Nice idea. Tap tap tap.. try that.. I think it should be pretty much what you've said. --Simon 19:40, 2 June 2006 (BST)
Anyone agree that this has now been implemented and as such can be moved to Suggestions:Implemented ? --Simon 12:15, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Moved from Suggestions:Game Mechanics at 08:00, 20 July 2006 (UTC) by Elembis.

Trading Hut Prices That Reward Foreign Travel

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Tycho44 01:19, 11 July 2006 (UTC) trading hut item pricing change trading hut item prices

Problem: the Trading Huts reward characters who sit at home, and penalize characters who travel to foreign encampments. It is well-established that a character can earn 36+ gold coins per day by sitting at home and dumping at the local trader. Since camps are several days journey apart, foreign camps have to promise +72 gold coins of extra profit -- not just trade value, but trade value over and above the trade value in the local trading hut.

Not viable: Changing the First-Aid Kit find rate in the Medical Hut is not a solution. Local dumping can be performed from the Medical Hut, the Ammo Hut, the Treasure Hold, a Mango Tree, or even by recycling the Trader's inventory. Reducing particular find rates will harm the game in various ways, but will never improve the desirability of foreign travel. (Unless certain desired items are not locally available at all, such as GPS Units, Gems, Charms, the Heavy Sword, and so on.)

Not viable: Tweaking short-stock and long-stock pricing is not a solution. Stock-based pricing makes foreign travel vastly more risky and undesirable -- characters are encouraged to stay at their home camp and take advantage of known shortages, rather than risk carting stock overland for days to a foreign camp, only to have a single character dump enough to destroy the demand-inventory. And in order to obtain profit levels that would justify a two-day journey, demand prices would have to be absolutely ridiculous -- surely 10 or 20 times the normal pricing.

Solution: Prices in the Trading Hut should reward you based upon the distance you've traveled. By directly addressing the issue, the solution is guaranteed to work. Here's how it happens:

(1) Characters who are new to a foreign Trading Hut receive a very beneficial exchange rate, perhaps for a full day or so. "How exciting! It's not often that I see a new face around here. Do you have any items that you'd like to trade?"

(2) After a character has spent several days in the same Trading Hut, even in a foreign camp, the local trader becomes bored, and the trade rate returns to normal. This encourages the trading character to move on. "You're becoming a familiar sight around here. Haven't I already seen what you have to offer?"

(3) Characters who farm the Medical Hut in their home encampment and repeatedly dump items to their own trader receive the poorest exchange rate. "You do realize that there's an entire island out there to explore, don't you?"

This entire process could be implemented using a single hidden character flag, that contains a time-stamp and a camp name. Whenever the character interacts with a different Trader (in a new camp), the flag updates. If the player is newly interacting with a foreign trader (timestamp <24 hours old), the trade rate is Favorable. If the player is interacting long-term with the same foreign trader (timestamp >24 hours) or is newly interacting with their home camp (timestamp <24 hours), the trade rate is Normal. If the player is interacting repeatedly with their home trader (timestamp >24 hours), the rate is Unfavorable.

Although these favorable/unfavorable trade values might not be sufficient to make travelers wealthy, at least implementing this suggestion will encourage travel and reward greater interaction in Shartak.

Note that this suggestion could be stacked on top of the current long/short and language-based pricing systems. Or this suggestion could fully replace the long/short pricing rules.

Comments
I quite like this idea. Farming behavior is not much fun for anyone, and games that encourage it can suffer in popularity simply because the best course of action for the character is the most boring one for the player. Also, since player interaction is the whole point of multiplayer games, all antisocial behavior should perhaps be discouraged and should certainly not be profitable. We can always use more active (and interacting) players. — Elembis (talk) 05:14, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree. It gives you a reason to, you know... Move? It would really liven the game up a bit. MorkaisChosen 18:51, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Happily, this suggestion seems to have been implemented. Shouldn't it be moved to the implemented suggestions page? Black Joe 7:35, 20 July 2006 (GMT)

Moved from Suggestions:Game Mechanics at 08:00, 20 July 2006 (UTC) by Elembis.Moved two

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