Oy traders!
Today, we're introducing an important topic in Great Houses of Calderia: Trade. Trading will be a central element in the game, discover everything about it in the following points.
Reinventing Trade
Trade trade trade... exchange of goods. Changing one resource to another with other factions in a game. Trade often is the necessary evil in games. Something that needs to be there but isn’t at the core of the experience and therefore is done with very little inspiration. For the sake of the game’s economical balance or to block players from being stuck; to allow players to get access to something their choices otherwise wouldn’t allow, it needs to be there. But rarely trade is anything more than a brief click to get back to the main thing. A mathematical problem where you basically just teleport your resources to the other player or to an arbitrary “market” with a price loss so that it is more beneficial to produce stuff yourself, at least in the long run. If there is interaction with the AI players, there is a clear-cut line where you get the maximum deal from that specific AI, the search for that optimal point does not entail anything more than that. Just a decision is it a yes or a no? So in the worst-case scenario, it is tedious to search for that optimal point by changing the price tag one click at a time.
For Great Houses of Calderia, trade, like other elements need to entangle, to tie into other game mechanics to create an interesting mix. Therefore it was clear from the beginning that trade must be more than just the exchange of goods. It needs to tie in with how players play. Why they choose certain buildings to be built, why they want to improve relations with specific families, and how they could ruin their rivals' businesses. But to understand how trade will become a major part of the politics of Calderia, let’s start looking at how we deal with the most obvious situation – the initialization of trade talks.
Other families decisions
One thing players will be quick to realize is that in Great Houses of Calderia there are multiple things at play when it comes to trade. Valuation of the items is based on supply and demand like they should and there isn’t anything special about that. However, what is more revealing is the other main element on top of valuating the price of the goods – the Willingness meter. Willingness meter shows how happy the other family is about the deal on the table. It combines all the elements what makes the opponent happier or unhappier with the deal and valuation of items is just one part of it. Families that like each other are more willing to trade with one another and if there is a crucial need for resources then the willingness is higher.
Willingness meter is also a reflection of potential outcomes of the trade proposal. If the willingness is at the center, probably the resource exchange is all there is. But if you propose a trade deal with high willingness – you know you’re probably going to get other benefits in the process. If the opponent is about to build an upgrade and therefore needs the associated resource and you’re willing to give that – the willingness is going to go higher and probably an extra outcome is improved relations. If you’re proposing a trade with low willingness, you might not get a deal and if you do that might come with extra strain on the relations also. So we wish this to transform the trade into something more than just exchange of goods – into exchange of partnership as well.
In Great Houses of Calderia, nothing teleports in the game. Transferring large amounts of resources from one part of the map to another doesn’t just happen – it takes time. So most trades that families initiate are actually trade routes that run their course, going back and forth. And when there are caravans going around the map – that opens space for good old Intrigue. Attacking other families caravans is one way to gain resources that wouldn’t belong to you otherwise. But if one is particularly successful in those attempts, they might cause a strain in the relations of the associated trading partners when goods did not get delivered. After EA launch we hope to push this even further and help these types of attacks also impact the relations of the fiefdom owner, where the attack took place.
Not so mercantile society
Part of the design goals of our game is that we don’t want the game to be a “multiplayer solitaire” like many grand strategies often are. This means that player would be mainly just dealing with his own realm and would only deal with other factions via warfare. We want dealing with other families to be a meaningful and constant part of the gameplay and trade also has a role to play there. For that we are trying to balance the in-game economy – as well as AI behavior – to favor situations where it is better to provide a surplus of some resources and trade in the resources one lacks. When this is the optimal way to play, grow and gain influence, it means your growth is dependent on other families as well. And if that is the case – then diplomacy has a bigger space to operate as well. Angering others would reduce their willingness to trade and therefore you would be forced to produce your own resources. But when that is clearly an inferior strategy – then you would have to swallow your pride and try to make relationships better with at least selected families. But we don’t want a trade to just impact your own diplomacy, it should influence your scheming as well.
Bigger than the sum of its parts
With grand strategies that operate as “system soup”, or different mechanics bumping into each other, being impacted by each other and influencing the overall balance, these are all not easy tasks. How impactful trade, or some other part, plays is a result of balancing work of the other elements as well. While trade is nowhere near the most important part where we use our Conflict resolution model – it is easy to showcase how we want players to play-through the most important moments in the game. Same is with trade – that those tricky moments when haggling might go one way or the other – we want to let the player and his family have the final say. This final say is in the social conflicts which we of course use for many other elements as well. There, the player uses their family members and companions to debate the trade deal to a favorable outcome.
Trade... trade is a perfect example, for us, how we want to integrate different systems to operate with each other. How you deal with your own fiefdom, what you build, and what you produce should be impacted by trade opportunities. How you deal with other families should be part of who you want to befriend and who is fine left with less attention. And trade, like other systems, should be part of the conflict resolution model we use.
Join our Discord to get involved in the development of Great Houses of Calderia: https://discord.gg/vsxD6n8P8J
- Great Houses of Calderia Team -