Merchant Contracts -- (Dev) Replied

Was wondering if there were any thoughts about having merchant contracts between players. Nothing too fancy. After all, this is supposed to be fun, not SimBusinessLaw. But it might be convenient to allow merchant players to strike a contract recognized by the game to formalize discounts on stuff they buy and sell from each other.

For instance, a miner might have a contract with a blacksmith to give 10% off his ingots if the blacksmith gives the miner 10% off finished goods. This could be achieved on a piecemeal basis through haggling if haggling is supported (is it supported?). But a game-recognized contract makes it easier for both merchants to keep track of their preferred business partners and gives incentive for merchant-to-merchant loyalty.

And of course, there should be ways to break contracts. There's potential for having consequences if there are honorable (i.e. both parties agree to terminate the contract) and dishonorable (i.e. one party refuses to honor the contract) ways to break the deal.

Or is that getting too business-y? Thoughts?

 

I think it would be too hard to code or enforce on a player. Transactions like that are usually just handled by the players themselves. It does however remind me of UO's BOD system for crafting which NPCs gave orders to fill and was great.

 

I like the basic concept. We could explore it at a later point but do not think it fits as core mechanic for the economy. I do see crafting orders either from PCs or NPCS as a method to give an outlet for crafts.