Realism in a fantasy world

[Tanarex]

In most RPGs, you can go to a shop and it will sell weapons, cloth, leather and mail all in one place. The superstores of the fantasy world. But I'm trying to make my game more realistic. At the cost of convenience. If you want cloth armor you have to go to a tailor. Same for leather armor/leatherworker, mail armor/armoursmith, weapons/weaponsmith, jewelry/jeweler. Do you think people will get tired of running place to place getting stuff? Should I just make it all one store or combine a few of them? Maybe have them in stalls next to each other?

 

 

[bgillisp]

I'd suggest stalls. Quite a few of my towns have a marketplace in a central hub for people to buy things at. This has the advantage of keeping the shops all close together and reduce the running around.

 

[LueLusten]

Depends on your game really, stalls is one way, supermaket is another but if you want it more real then yes make the player work a little for there items, also I would say offer discount if the user can find there own items to create the item they want.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I think a really important question to ask is "how much focus does my game put into shopping and/or crafting?" 

"does breaking up the shops into so many pieces add value to my game?"

There are reasons why things like "game logic" have developed.

Some aspects of real life really aren't that fun to emulate, if it's not the focus (i.e., a life simulator).

I think as long as these vendors live in a close knit market square and it does add or deepen something about the functionality of your game, you won't sacrifice too much convenience. It's a potential annoyance so I think you need to weigh whether it adds something other than just more menus to click through. Just my two cents.

 

[Wavelength]

In general I wouldn't even want the stalls, since I won't have a quick, easy way to compare different types of equipment (and additionally, until I'm used to the mechanic, I might spend most of my money at one stall before realizing half the things I want are at the next).

If items, collecting, crafting, supply-and-demand, and the like are a major element in your game, however, then browsing the different markets could become a very fun and rewarding activity and I'd say go for it and have all different specialty stores to make things more realistic and involving.

 

[bgillisp]

@wavelength: You still have the issue with spending all the money at one merchant then realize things are at the next even with standard shops (I do it all the time, even when shops are marked). The only fix is to check all the shops first then buy though, which no developer can fix.

 

[Clord]

For me it seems that in a lot of RPG games, shopkeepers tend to run cartels in the highly contested areas. Some even share the room. You can basically reason it through your storytelling.

 

[deilin]

You also don't have to offer everything in one area. Maybe one town isn't supportive enough to sell Mail or plate armor, but might have better Cloth and Leather that other places wont have. If you need a "fast Travel", set up stables that will get you somewhere, at a cost.

 

[LueLusten]

There is many thing you can do, I guess more background on the game idea would help us help you little more, like games like skyrim you can't buy everything in one town some times you have to go somewhere else to get that item, and if you give each shop its own twist maybe have some logic in there and random maths here and there to genaeate some great deals you might have a winner.

 

[Tanarex]

Thanks for all the input. There is only one town in my game but its pretty big.Currently, the shops are in different buildings but next to each other. I think a marketplace is the right way to go.

 

[LueLusten]

Thanks for all the input. There is only one town in my game but its pretty big.Currently, the shops are in different buildings but next to each other. I think a marketplace is the right way to go.

Well you will have to give us some screenies when your done hehe

 

[MetalHunter13]

There was an old game called Darklands on the PC set in the 15th century Holy Roman Empire that had a fairly realistic system.  You had the market, where you'd find your everyday supplies and "foreign traders" who sold random weapons and alchemical materials, and then each type of craftsman had their own areas - one for armourers, another for weaponsmiths, gunsmiths, alchemists, and so on. Also, certain towns would sell better quality weapons or armour.

From what I understand, many medieval artisans had a two or three story building - the first floor was their shop, with awnings they would open in the day to conduct business and close at night.  They lived on the upper floors.  I'd look for a book called "Life in a Medieval City" by Joseph and Frances Gies.

 

[captainproton]

I personally have market stalls or specialty shops. There's an old lady in one village who sells nothing but yarn and simple clothing-type armor. A guy in another village only sells leather goods. A greengrocer in a market town sells produce items like Apples and Snortabello Mushrooms. Metal weapons and armors are bought or made at smithies. Fancier robes come from boutique shops. Pubs will sell you things like Tea or Cider.

 

[Tanarex]

A three-story building is a bit much for me. But I did make it so you only have to go back and forth between two shops for all weapons and armor instead of four. I skipped the stalls because I can't get the sprites the right size. I wish I knew how to take screenies. I barely have the basics down. So far, the dl face pics and characters are all the wrong size. My characters fail to fall over when they die and the enemies are all facing the wrong way. But besides that...

 

[LueLusten]

A three-story building is a bit much for me. But I did make it so you only have to go back and forth between two shops for all weapons and armor instead of four. I skipped the stalls because I can't get the sprites the right size. I wish I knew how to take screenies. I barely have the basics down. So far, the dl face pics and characters are all the wrong size. My characters fail to fall over when they die and the enemies are all facing the wrong way. But besides that...

Windows XP + I think the older version of windows also did it but press Print Screen or PrtSc on your keyboard will take screen shots, then you open your image editor and simple paste it as it saves the screen shot in your clipboard, and your clipboard is where it saves all your copy and paste actions. windows 8 + you can take a screen shot and have it auto save with Windows Key + PrtSc(Print Screen)