I was reading through the future dev plans and wanted to throw out some ideas I had about settlements, see what people thought of them. Just going to list them in no particular order, hopefully start some good discussions.
1) Dynamic village supplies.
Right now as far as I know the only thing that really changes in the village stocks is crops and the occasional new fur. I think it would be pretty great to see a more dynamic system in place, differing between culture. Kaumo do a lot more active hunting, so they would have a steady flow of new meats and furs into the villages. Islanders mostly focus on fishing and carpentry, so various fish and wood based products would be available. The villages would need to also have a system in place for resource consumption of course, and there would be a demand for supplies they sometimes can't get ahold of, which brings me to the second part of this rambling post of mine.
2) Village to village trade.
Villages would assess their supplies and decide what is needed, as well as what in in excess. They trade away what they have a surplus of, and purchase the things that are in short supply. These little trading parties would have differences between cultures, such as party size, amount of goods being transported, travelling distance, etc. For the most part, a village will trade with other villages in the immediate vicinity, but on occasion a bigger, more dedicated caravan may be sent to another tribe's lands. (Driik of course would do this most often.)
I imagine this stuff down the road of course, when features like horses and carts are present. Animal husbandry would probably have to be present also for the kind of system I am trying to depict.
3) Poverty and prosperity.
With such a fluid system for supply and demand between villages I think there would definitely be villages that are better off than others. A small settlement far from any others will send and receive less caravans, and therefore be lacking certain resources more often than not. Places that are cut off from trading routes would have slower growth, and may even have to deal with starvation or other hardships. Perhaps the villagers will be in such hardship that they abandon the place completely, taking everything they can carry and move elsewhere? Maybe join a more prosperous village? It would be really cool to come across abandoned villages, or possibly even one whose inhabitants have all succumbed to starvation.
On the flip side, villages that are extremely successful with their daily living as well as trade would grow in population faster, expanding their settlements accordingly. New storage sheds may be built, new houses, new animal pens, stuff like that.
4) Greater depth for player/NPC relationships.
I know, I know. This is already planned for future development. I just wanted to throw in my thoughts on the matter and how it would relate to the village systems I have suggested to you guys.
Villages will be quicker to trust a player if they are of the same tribe. Sartola villages will be quicker to warm up to sartola characters, islander to islander, and so on. After some time, perhaps the player may be offered a place among the village? A quest may be given as an initiation ritual perhaps, or just a task to prove that you really want to be one of them. Complete the task, and you can have a greater role in the village than just a visitor or trader. Permission to court/marry that fair maiden you have had your eye on, commission a project from a craftsman, and other benefits. You would of course have to be a productive member of society. Contributing goods to the village will earn you a kind of allowance, and the village will track the amount of squirrel hides worth of goods you have contributed. Bring in enough furs, and they will let you have that spare kaumo spear they have in the storage shed. Whoever is in charge of the village can be asked if there are any jobs that need done, and they can give you a few chores to pick from. Head out to the trapping grounds and check the trap lines. Bring in logs for that new cabin that is being constructed. Deliver some goods to a neighboring village, and bring back the reward they promised if your village could provide what you delivered. Go search for a fellow villager who hasn't returned from his fishing trip. Each task would earn allowance in accordance to how difficult or important that task is.
I hope this sparks some good discussion and possibly some possible future featured for the development roadmap. Even if none of this stuff happens, it was fun to write up.
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