We know the profession system is currently being worked on. It might be months before it's fully ready and operational, considering its potential complexity. The purpose of this thread is to propose something that is much simpler to introduce, and aims to relieve the currently pressing issues of combat-dominated income on the server - an alternative to dungeoning that will provide an excuse to roleplay, work together with other players and earn money without the necessity of combat (and thus available to civilians as well).
As an example, let us take a civilian merchant who is sitting on a sum of 1000 tarans. He gathers his friends and mercenaries and sets out from the city to a vineyard located a considerable distance away. There, he spends the entire sum on freshly bottled wine (let us assume 100 coins apiece) with the aim of bringing it back to the city to sell for profit. Having returned, he sells the commodities in the designated place for 150 tarans apiece. That leaves him with 500 coins of pure profit. Still, he remembers he has to pay his guards for their services and their time, which might range between 30 minutes to an hour (somewhat comparable to the time it takes to complete a dungeon). In the end, for the sake of this example, every person walks away having earned 125 coins. That is, if everything goes perfectly. An encumbered party will have a harder time fighting. The threats are already present in the world, but the DM's are always watching, and if the bandits come asking for a toll, it might be worth considering if paying is not an easier option rather than taking the risk of losing everything.
Now, how to prevent people from running back and forth and using this system to farm money? That would be the prohibitive weight of the merchandise - let's say the wine is sold in crates, not singular bottles. Manageable enough for a group to carry a good number back at walk-speed, but too much a risk for a solitary person to go back and forth while being unable to run away from potential dangers on the way. How about cutting out the middleman, ie. the civilian? Both the buying and the selling price might be influenced by the barter skill, so that the merchant is needed on both stages of the journey in order to make the most of the expedition. Not everyone might be willing to risk so much money at once for such an expedition - not many will even have that much at all. The more one is willing to spend, the greater the potential for profit. A high-risk job might call for more escort, but most of them will expect payment.
The game world currently has several locations that could serve as potential destinations. Trademeet is an obvious choice. The neighboring farms could sell grain or fruit that can be sold, giving considerably smaller profit but providing an excuse to band together, go somewhere, explore the world and be rewarded by both the exploration EXP as well as a token sum of money. It might become repetitive and boring - but the same can be said about dungeoning if it's done repeatedly and only with profit in mind.
Ideally, this could tie into the profession system, as some of these items could also serve as materials for a player crafter to process and then sell. Nonetheless, it could work as is, using the NPC's and locations that already are in place.
As an example, let us take a civilian merchant who is sitting on a sum of 1000 tarans. He gathers his friends and mercenaries and sets out from the city to a vineyard located a considerable distance away. There, he spends the entire sum on freshly bottled wine (let us assume 100 coins apiece) with the aim of bringing it back to the city to sell for profit. Having returned, he sells the commodities in the designated place for 150 tarans apiece. That leaves him with 500 coins of pure profit. Still, he remembers he has to pay his guards for their services and their time, which might range between 30 minutes to an hour (somewhat comparable to the time it takes to complete a dungeon). In the end, for the sake of this example, every person walks away having earned 125 coins. That is, if everything goes perfectly. An encumbered party will have a harder time fighting. The threats are already present in the world, but the DM's are always watching, and if the bandits come asking for a toll, it might be worth considering if paying is not an easier option rather than taking the risk of losing everything.
Now, how to prevent people from running back and forth and using this system to farm money? That would be the prohibitive weight of the merchandise - let's say the wine is sold in crates, not singular bottles. Manageable enough for a group to carry a good number back at walk-speed, but too much a risk for a solitary person to go back and forth while being unable to run away from potential dangers on the way. How about cutting out the middleman, ie. the civilian? Both the buying and the selling price might be influenced by the barter skill, so that the merchant is needed on both stages of the journey in order to make the most of the expedition. Not everyone might be willing to risk so much money at once for such an expedition - not many will even have that much at all. The more one is willing to spend, the greater the potential for profit. A high-risk job might call for more escort, but most of them will expect payment.
The game world currently has several locations that could serve as potential destinations. Trademeet is an obvious choice. The neighboring farms could sell grain or fruit that can be sold, giving considerably smaller profit but providing an excuse to band together, go somewhere, explore the world and be rewarded by both the exploration EXP as well as a token sum of money. It might become repetitive and boring - but the same can be said about dungeoning if it's done repeatedly and only with profit in mind.
Ideally, this could tie into the profession system, as some of these items could also serve as materials for a player crafter to process and then sell. Nonetheless, it could work as is, using the NPC's and locations that already are in place.