Homogenizing recipes by simlifying them in the manner of reducing the number of ingredients available, will reduce Trade incitaments gained by Production ability differentiation.

That is, if everyone Trades in Rare Ore, few want to trade in Snakeweed, Mounts, or anything else. Hence, the Rare Ore producers will gain greatly in power and hog the economy. Not only will those producing the best Ores have equipment infused by it, but they will also be able to trade Ore for over-inflated prices with other Resources that are under-priced due to low demand (despite being efficient in their narrower field of use), making the Rich become Richer and well equipped even with equipment not of their Rare Ore type.

Which also mean that if Resource gain is ruled by PvP OR Regional Distribution, this is BAD.

GUI update – rehash of old statements, but good as it reaffirms our hopes for a good GUI. (A GUI should help you control your character, not block actions or slow down your system.)

Point System can be interesting if done well, used as a “NPC Social currency” to gain “NPC Social Status rewards” which can be anything from access to House leases, Prestige Classes or Titles, or even (balanced) Alignment “purchases”. Shouldn’t be too “expensive” to get something though, as then this system will be a Block and not a Sandbox Tool. Achievements is also nice, as it gives “player prestige goals” to get, if they are essentially voluntary.

Village Control System as a Resource Territory Control system is a great upgrade, but would actually just prefer that you just made them into Holdings. After all, the definition of a Hamlet is a “Small Village”, so a “Large Hamlet” should be a Holding as well as the regular Hamlets are. The Resource boosts can remain as the benefit of having a lesser Holding though. Cities grant Crafting and Market Vendor benefits while providing good defences, Hamlets & Villages Resource benefits.

And, as for AV’s percieption of Our Concerns about the Rare Metal Infusion Crafting system, the concerns about it is NOT ONLY about Rare Ore supply. It is about:

- Sillyness of Infusing Cloth, Leather and Wood with METAL ORE! Sillyness = counter to Immersion. All Silly functions/exploits should be removed as a policy, for serious Sandbox projects.

- Threat to Balance, when putting “all eggs in one bowl” by having a unified Quality Rank Resource in a linear progression. Great risks to imbalance as a balance in one area won’t necessarily mean balance in another area, as well as that the linear progression of Rare Ores will create an imbalance of Ore Value where increased Rare Rank will be far over-valued in regards to quality differences.

- Reduction of Trade Benefits by Regionalization of Ore access (one of the most easily regionalized resources). If Regionalized, some areas will have worse gear available than other areas, similar to the Cityholder debate.

- Far better Sandbox system and lore immersion ideas are easily done (may be done just by changing recipe structure), where heterogenous differences and quality based on Quantity of Ore and not on Type of Ore for Metal items and by diversified Resources (alike the Ingredient Quality system of the Enchantment Crafting we have now) is not only far superior to the current system, but the current system is far better than the one you suggest in terms of balance and immersion.

Or, in essence: Having ability to colour your weapons is nice, but I can’t use it as I want better weapons than the colour I want (immersionbreaking), and those are so expensive that I need to find some Gold source to exploit to be able to afford it or just become Self-sufficient as a Crafter to handle them. Not much thought needed to do it, just some Grind ahead, and I’ll be able to PvP well afterwards.