Tried being a Paper Merchant

voy178 · 2019-08-01 23:47:37

I had two notes. One stating my business "Paper Merchant" and one asking for something in return. The rest were goods.

The Slinkers were hostile, so I had to retreat.

The Abrams family was kinder, we ended up trading for a so-so deal for one basket of paper for a basket and a wolf hat. I had trouble carting the goods for the road, and whilst rearranging my goods one of their brats stole the rest of the paper and I ended up murdered by one of their clansmen. Oof. Thanks Angela Abrams who killed that wild nut Conan, but sad that you couldn't save me in time.

Thanks for the experience, Abrams

In the future, I recommend people travel with a crew of at least two and maybe a spare cart for items you end up trading. Also, don't trade so close to their settlement since you'll likely lose your stuff completely.

The road is dangerous for us merchants.

Shout out to my uncle Tyra (?) who made the whole thing and brought me on the first failed expedition. I took the trade very seriously.

http://lineage.onehouronelife.com/serve … id=5086297

Also, I left two sons (I believe) in an abandoned eve village with plenty of food. I hope they made it. It's too early to see if they got back to civilisation. If you read this, sorry I left and told you I would come back...

Last edited by voy178 (2019-08-01 23:56:02)

schmloo · 2019-08-02 00:51:24

I was Tyra Goda, sorry for butchering the job of passing down the trade and dying a quick death in the wilderness. It’s a shame the Slinkers were hostile the second time around - managed to get a deal of paper-basket for a backpack and knife when I went there. Unfortunately that’s the risk that puts off traders, that it’s often easier to just hijack the goods for yourself. You’re literally relying on the kindness of the host, and with swords the way they are that’s very easy to fake, almost impossible even for the most perceptive merchant to for-see.

Villas · 2019-08-02 01:36:57

Haha it’s very cool.
I really would like a better way to trade goods, like a merchant clothing that avoids pvp or something like that, the problems is that it can be exploited, used to steal things and etc.

Everytime I try to hangout alone, I end up shot or with a knife/sword in my belly.

Today I was an Eve, found a cart full of clay and a dead body, might be devoured by a boar. I took the cart, got rid of clay and started to collect wild food. After some time I found a fenced town, foregeins can’t get in fenced towns because of magic fences, but a part of the fence was made of stone, it was a kitchen in the corner and there was a hole on it, so I could get into the town (probably some villager broke it to escape), it was Cola town, a guy with love emote gave me a BP for free, I gave him a basket of onions but he rejected it, some seconds later black skin people raided the town, they came through the kitchen’s hole, they were in two, an Eve and her son, with two swords each and managed to get rid of everyone, about eight people (myself included), the black Eve died as well, before I died another Eve (Eve deathrage if I am not mistaken) stabbed the guy with a knife (he was in cooldown because he also stabbed me with a knife when I stole one of his swords) sadly I couldn’t see he dying.

With much less effort than me, that Eve got a ton of items, such as bps, swords, a horse, iron, even a town if she has fixed the hole and made new gates.

We need guards or something to sell goods, but it doesn’t worth it, since it’s easier to loot the item in a dead town, steal from an alive town or even to kill full wore wanderes from another family. Producing paper or gathering wild food to trade is too much effort to receive a wolf hat or even a golden crown. It needs more rare/hard to make stuff even if it’s only comestic, might be some rare rabbits, deers, jaguars. Another wonderful thing would be machines extremely hard to make, harder than bell towers, that produces specific items such as better back packs, canned food, jeans, reinforces steel, different kids of clothing, watering cans, etc.
Rivers, oceans, islands would help it a lot as well, so one part of the map only have bronze for example and they have to make bronze tools, while somewhere else there are steel tools.
Skills like in real life too, if I smith for 30 years, of course I will make much better tools than someone who started today. So people who know nothing about a profession would make a common tool (like the tools we use nowadays in OHOL), on the other hand experienced people would make wonderful tools, much better than the common ones. It would helps trade a lot.

I know those changes are very far, may never happen, might happen in 2 years, who knows?

voy178 · 2019-08-02 02:02:51

Only when the map is drained on resources is it worth it. Try finding milkweed in the wild a few hours in... better to trade for a bowl of seeds.

RodneyC86 · 2019-08-02 02:39:33

Commerce isn't viable since everything is relatively easy to get by yourself rather than negotiating. Also, production or harvesting has more net benefit to the ecosystem as a whole rather than trading. Our short lifespans dont help either. When trading takes longer than item production....

That, and because trading is kinda meh, no one bothers with marketplaces with security personnel to enforce trade etiquette is observed

Exotic items or higher quality items like Villas mentioned would certainly encourage trade.

schmloo · 2019-08-02 03:26:42

RodneyC86 wrote:

Commerce isn't viable since everything is relatively easy to get by yourself rather than negotiating. Also, production or harvesting has more net benefit to the ecosystem as a whole rather than trading. Our short lifespans dont help either. When trading takes longer than item production....
That, and because trading is kinda meh, no one bothers with marketplaces with security personnel to enforce trade etiquette is observed
Exotic items or higher quality items like Villas mentioned would certainly encourage trade.

Simple trading can be viable if done correctly in bulk (like you said, production time must be more than trading time). If one town can spare the resources and time that another can’t, and there is a profit in terms of work put in against what your time could have otherwise been spent on, then it can potentially be a net gain for both towns. If one town has an abundance of water, and makes water-based products that another can’t, and the other town has an abundance of non-water related produce such as rabbits or other skins, then both towns can benefit. That’s why I did paper — firstly, it’s something that’s not often made, as it’s not a necessity but a luxury. You rarely see it except for the equivalent of shitposting notes. Secondly, you can transport it in bulk (9 baskets of papers, 12 if you have room in a backpack for translation notes).

Another trading idea is dyes. Since there’s definitely a finite number of alum in the world (with the deserts now being quite small), having a monopoly on all of the necessary requirements for dyes could be quite profitable if another town can spare the resources, wants to actually trade, and you can protect your caravan.

Also it’s fun to try something different, as a change to clearing up after or fuelling other peoples projects and work without any reward. It might not be completely viable, but it doesn’t hurt to experiment like that since the rift will eventually get reset.

Last edited by schmloo (2019-08-02 03:35:15)

schmloo · 2019-08-02 03:27:47

voy178 wrote:

Only when the map is drained on resources is it worth it. Try finding milkweed in the wild a few hours in... better to trade for a bowl of seeds.

I saw a wild milkweed behind the side of a maple tree earlier. Quite a sight.

ArcticFox · 2019-08-02 06:52:07

I think that trading should be much easier. And because the towns are now fenced and it's far too dangerous to go there as a trader, I think we need neutral grounds to trade. How about a marketplace, already placed in the center of the map. I could be ruins of some kind or what not, maybe like a stonehenge type of thing, i don't know. In the marketplace everyone would be able to understand each other and maybe killing could not be done there. There is already magic in this game, magic fences, swords, nosaj etc... People could come from all over the map to trade and talk, maybe make allies or even enemies. I know this maybe has a lot of griefing opportunities, but what doesn't. Jason wants us to trade and co-operate between towns, I just don't know if it is possible without some kind of neutral grounds. Making paper is slow and many can't be bothered. Even if one person in town is okay with a trader to come near the town, others might not be and the trader gets killed. How many times a player is prepared to go through the hassle of making paper just to get killed or get his/hers stuff stolen in a town. A marketplace would fix this issue, it's already there and you can just gather or make goods and go sell them. Not enough iron in the town? Send someone to the marketplace to see if there's any to trade.

Jk Howling · 2019-08-02 07:07:40

Your first problem is that you tried trading, period..

Currently there is 0 incentive to trade. If a random unrelated guy waltzed alone into my village with a cart full of goodies, which would be easier and gain more value for my family: giving the guy some of our own items for some of his, or killing him and not only getting the items he was trading, but also his clothes, food, and cart?

The answer will always be killing him. You get more gain out of it, with little to no consequence since 90% of the time your family won't care or will even encourage it [since you are obviously an outsider].

Maybe someday Jason will give us incentive and reason to trade instead of kill/loot.. but I wouldn't hold your breath over it. In the meantime, you can keep trying, but don't expect good results when killing outsiders isn't only easy, but also encouraged.

voy178 · 2019-08-02 10:07:25

Jk Howling wrote:

Your first problem is that you tried trading, period..
Currently there is 0 incentive to trade. If a random unrelated guy waltzed alone into my village with a cart full of goodies, which would be easier and gain more value for my family: giving the guy some of our own items for some of his, or killing him and not only getting the items he was trading, but also his clothes, food, and cart?
The answer will always be killing him. You get more gain out of it, with little to no consequence since 90% of the time your family won't care or will even encourage it [since you are obviously an outsider].

Maybe someday Jason will give us incentive and reason to trade instead of kill/loot.. but I wouldn't hold your breath over it. In the meantime, you can keep trying, but don't expect good results when killing outsiders isn't only easy, but also encouraged.

Sorry for trying to have fun.

RodneyC86 · 2019-08-02 10:28:43

Jk Howling wrote:

Your first problem is that you tried trading, period..
Currently there is 0 incentive to trade. If a random unrelated guy waltzed alone into my village with a cart full of goodies, which would be easier and gain more value for my family: giving the guy some of our own items for some of his, or killing him and not only getting the items he was trading, but also his clothes, food, and cart?
The answer will always be killing him. You get more gain out of it, with little to no consequence since 90% of the time your family won't care or will even encourage it [since you are obviously an outsider].

Maybe someday Jason will give us incentive and reason to trade instead of kill/loot.. but I wouldn't hold your breath over it. In the meantime, you can keep trying, but don't expect good results when killing outsiders isn't only easy, but also encouraged.

Ouch, harsh.
You are not wrong though. There's no consequence in killing and looting a merchant.

PXshadow · 2019-08-02 11:05:42

Yes there is, just like in real life, besides a social negative cost. Killing a merchant diminishes potential production of values to the people trading, it directly ties into the division of labor.

> You don't get a doctor's recommendation on drugs and proceed to steal them even if stealing them had no chance of becoming a criminal offense, because it's not in your best interest.
> You don't rob the place that you go out to food every night for, because it destroys the future value there.

On another note, this is also why contracts don't need to be a game mechanic in order to force people to abide.
players that already have a pre-existing mutual relationship will use that partnership to act as a risk settlement, where if anyone breaks the contract the loss will be (on both sides) more than an initial gain by breaking it.

Last edited by PXshadow (2019-08-02 11:06:55)

lilo · 2019-08-02 11:18:41

People is uninterested or hostile with traders because currently trading isnt really something necessary in the game and just pure roleplaying. Everyone has access to all the same materials and technologies. Why bother trading for paper when you can make paper yourself and is actually more entertaining and rewarding.
If for example there was a town that could only produce paper and another town that could only produce ink they would be forced to trade to be able to write, there trading would be something necessary and both parts would have a real interest in making it work.

schmloo · 2019-08-02 11:34:01

Jk Howling wrote:

Your first problem is that you tried trading, period..
Currently there is 0 incentive to trade. If a random unrelated guy waltzed alone into my village with a cart full of goodies, which would be easier and gain more value for my family: giving the guy some of our own items for some of his, or killing him and not only getting the items he was trading, but also his clothes, food, and cart?
The answer will always be killing him. You get more gain out of it, with little to no consequence since 90% of the time your family won't care or will even encourage it [since you are obviously an outsider].

Maybe someday Jason will give us incentive and reason to trade instead of kill/loot.. but I wouldn't hold your breath over it. In the meantime, you can keep trying, but don't expect good results when killing outsiders isn't only easy, but also encouraged.

Yeah that’s very true, it’s far too easy to kill/loot than it is to trade. But there hasn’t been content in a long time, and rather than get bored and get lost I’d rather test out other ways of playing, even if knowing that they’d probably fail.

While the game is set in the future, I think it’s safe to use historical context for a civilisation-building game. Back during and before the bronze age, the successfulness of a “nation’s” (or people’s, empire’s) trade relied on the strength of it’s military. Trade is supposed to encourage mutual benefit — if there’s a chance you can just take their stuff you will, because you don’t care what that group of people thinks about you because they pose no threat.

Imagine being able to date notes from the date that the family’s Eve was buried. Then you could potentially start the age of recorded history, and start recording trade deals by date. Or, official declarations of peace or war by date.

Last edited by schmloo (2019-08-02 11:34:41)

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-08-01 23:47:37

Tried being a Paper Merchant

#2 2019-08-02 00:51:24

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#3 2019-08-02 01:36:57

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#4 2019-08-02 02:02:51

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#5 2019-08-02 02:39:33

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#6 2019-08-02 03:26:42

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#7 2019-08-02 03:27:47

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#8 2019-08-02 06:52:07

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#9 2019-08-02 07:07:40

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#10 2019-08-02 10:07:25

Re: Tried being a Paper Merchant

#11 2019-08-02 10:28:43

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#12 2019-08-02 11:05:42

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#13 2019-08-02 11:18:41

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#14 2019-08-02 11:34:01

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