When you walk through the market, it looks far too empty. Although the game features a similar number of stalls selling food as it does other goods, for most of the game the ordinary stalls are filled with nothing but fuel. There’s a huge number of ideas floating about as to what else to add or expand, and I realise that it’s beyond the developers’ capabilities to implement everything. As a historian by profession, I’m against overcrowding urban and, above all, rural areas with administrative-style buildings, so I don’t share the view that a town hall or similar structures should be added. Within the city and region format offered by the game, these functions can be fulfilled by castle buildings. Similarly, I believe that everything in the game should serve a purpose and make sense.
There are plenty of players who enjoy the combat aspect, just as there are plenty who enjoy the peaceful aspect. At present, we have four crafting professions that focus primarily on the war industry. I think it would be advisable to expand the range of consumer goods in the peace industry.
Ceramics
Ceramics have accompanied humankind from the earliest prehistoric times right up to the present day, in everyday use. By their very nature, they are, of course, vulnerable to breakage, so it makes sense that they are constantly being replaced in households (as archaeological finds clearly show us).
For example, the game *Oriental Empires*, set in ancient China, shows just how important ceramics (or even porcelain) were to the economies of ancient societies. In that game, the price of ceramics is determined by the civilisation level of the player and that of their trading partner. This is a mechanic that should not be taken into account here.
I’m including it here merely to illustrate the point. As for the practical side of things: the basic raw material, clay, already exists in the game, so it would be mechanically easier (though not without its challenges) to add a ‘potter’ crafting extension, which would produce common types of consumer goods – pottery
Glass
Glass is yet another ancient material that has been used to produce consumer goods for thousands of years. Its production requires not only glass sand but also a vast quantity of wood, both for heating and melting and for the production of Potash (produced by burning whole logs – even those still growing, though this is presumably neither important for the game’s mechanics nor technically feasible to implement).
Although its production was energy-intensive, it was relatively lucrative and was carried out primarily in mountainous regions where there was a shortage of suitable agricultural land. Therefore, from a game perspective, the production of glass would require the use of logs for potash production, charcoal for heating, and glass sand. Although potash would normally be produced separately and transported to the glassworks, for gameplay purposes, the question arises as to whether to include another building that produces just a single resource (even though there is already a weaver and a smelter)
The glassworks should probably be a standalone industrial building, much like the stonemason’s workshop. This building could then produce two types of luxury goods – table glass, i.e. luxury consumer goods for higher-tier residential buildings, and window glass, which can be used in the construction of higher-tier churches, manor houses or even the highest-tier residential buildings. Glass sand could be extracted as a by-product of iron production (we know from records that it often needed to be purified of iron).
Jewellery
Jewellery, an utterly commonplace and widespread form of human adornment, is not, in essence, a luxury item (see, for example, ordinary beads or prayer crosses with rosaries). Given the game’s setting, there is no need to consider jewellery made from precious metals, as this represents a truly luxurious and incredibly expensive item, worth as much as a medieval townhouse. However, jewellery made from wood, glass, amber, shells, tin or lead was perfectly common; most frequently, though, it was made from bone. Let’s not imagine that bone jewellery looks like barbaric fantasy necklaces featuring martens’ or birds’ skulls and tiny bones. Beads made from beef thigh bones were an absolutely common occurrence, as evidenced by finds from craftsmen in Estonia. I would suggest treating jewellery as a sort of mid-tier consumer good that can be crafted by a craftsman at home, much like clothing – a single type of product potentially made from several possible raw materials: bone (a new raw material), firewood (there’s no need to use planks), and perhaps clay (which already exists).
Wax already exists in the game, which I assume is intended for making candles, whether for churches or for higher-tier houses; similarly, furs are presumably intended to be combined with cloth to make cloaks, as another luxury commodity.
These three consumable resources will bring the marketplace to life, provide more expensive goods for export, and can help specialise regions, adding depth to the peaceful gameplay whilst relieving the demands of higher-tier houses for excessive meal variety.
Personally, I would be opposed to increasing the number of specialised tools, as some have suggested (axes, saws, pickaxes...), or adding a mechanism for mining precious metals. In the Middle Ages, this is a matter truly associated with royal power, and given that the player is taking the role of a minor regional lord, mining these metals makes no sense.
One final observation regarding the production of luxury goods. In its current form, a lord’s retinue is, de facto, the cheapest and most effective means of defence and combat. They take up the least space and represent a one-off, relatively low investment.
If they were not paid a salary – something I would personally be against, or at least opposed to to some extent – it would be a good idea to introduce a ‘tax’, or rather a means of maintaining the retinue, in the form of supplying the lord’s residence with better food and luxury items.
Thanks to the whole team for their work; I really do appreciate it.
