Why does everything seem so off balanced in this world?

[Lendi]

Hi all.. Is it just me or is both mats and lux goods out of kilter on Theo? It seems I can never get any oil and jewelry/sandals and sculpts always seem so hard to get.. Yet perfume and cosmetics are in abundance.. I happen to produce both since one town is henna and one is kohl..

Well, I decided to do a little test of my own.. I have 2 other email addresses and I signed up just to see what I would land on and would you believe both times I landed smack dab on henna again.. If I would have kept those towns (which I did not) I would have had 3 henna farms..

So, what are the odds of that happening? Isn't it all suppose to be random? If so, why is it so difficult to get some goods and not others?

So, just for fun I've set up this poll to see the percentages of what is being produced.. And, of course, since not everyone comes into the forum, it isn't likely to be accurate, but then again, it might be illuminating in it's own way..
Also, since you can only have 10 options on the poll, I'm leaving out bronze and gold and emeralds for now.. Remember this is just for fun to see what the average is..

Thanks, Lendi :)

[Amun Nefer]

I accidentally only voted Jewelry. :o

[Azeem]

I produce Henna and have a modest trading deal with an Oil producer. :)

[Aspergersboy]

Voted Leather. Unfortunately, there is no way to choose two options :(. Reed could fix this if you ask him ;)

[joshofet]

Can't vote since I have two cities and between them I am producing kohl, gold, jewelry, cosmetics and perfume. I can quite easily trade for the rest and a quick look at the market (by trying to found a third city) shows most prices are 5 for raw mats and such, and 12 for lux goods. These are the central nomes.

The odds of having three henna cities in a row if things are random are quite easy. Given that your first city was henna, the chance that the second one was also henna is 1/8, and the third again, so in total 1/64, or about 1.6%. If you registered the accounts very quickly after each other thre may be correlations, and probabilities are different. It is surprising, but no convincing evidence against randomness.

In the beginning the game is a bit unbalanced, since all players are heading for the same lux good to upgrade their palace, but after a few days and when players are starting their 2nd and 3rd city, much of that unbalance is gone, so unless you are in the outskirts of Theoris, I'm afraid I have to agree with Mark, given the choice as you put it yourself. Alternatively it might just be coincidence of course.

[Kraken]

When I first started in Theoris I landed on cedar. After a few minutes' contemplation I deleted that account, re-enrolled, and landed on kohl. Now I wish I'd stuck with the cedar. Neither kohl nor cosmetics have very much demand. :(

[Tinkerbell]

When I first started in Theoris I landed on cedar. After a few minutes' contemplation I deleted that account, re-enrolled, and landed on kohl. Now I wish I'd stuck with the cedar. Neither kohl nor cosmetics have very much demand. :(

I love my cedar! Yup yup yup

Every luxmat & lux is equal, taken together. Each just requires a different gameplay strategy. It was like this in Sabah & Theoris is no different.

Be ONE with the game!

[Lendi]

When I first started in Theoris I landed on cedar. After a few minutes' contemplation I deleted that account, re-enrolled, and landed on kohl. Now I wish I'd stuck with the cedar. Neither kohl nor cosmetics have very much demand. :(

I know what you mean there, Hon.. You would have been much better off sticking with cedar.. Sorry.. :(

[Kraken]

I know what you mean there, Hon.. You would have been much better off sticking with cedar.. Sorry.. :(

It's motivated me to try a different strategy. I produce only enough kohl and cosmetics to meet my own needs, plus a small surplus for limited trading/market sales. My workers concentrate instead on bread, bricks, baskets, and pots. I can ramp up the kohl/cosmetics industry quickly enough if needed.

The main drawback seems to be excessive reliance on the market, but that's mostly because I don't spend time hanging out on the scribe wall.

My second city is bronze. Bronze and sculpture have a little better demand than kohl and cosmetics, but my military city will respond aggressively to bandit incursions (and, I hope, quests). I might go after a monument soon. How many scarabs does a monument cost?

If I found a third city, that will be my trade city...probably on jewelry. I'm low enough on scarabs now that my long-range strategic options are narrowing.

[Jaguar]

I landed on kohl and find it much easier to trade the raw mat than to make it into Cosmetics and trade those. The demand for kohl is huge. Same with my second city. I chose emeralds, but really trade mostly in the raw good, rather than the finished material.

[Reed]

If everything is off balanced, then it must be balanced? That's generally a good sign in MMOs. ;)

Seriously though, there is quite a bit of market variation in Theoris yet. For a while I wasn't able to sell my Perfume, but the past few days I haven't been able to keep up.

Also, my 2nd city is about 8hrs from my first and I'm able to sell stuff quite a bit higher there.

[abana]

That is the main thing that I am doing, my first city on gold is in 6S, jewelry is 14per, my secind city, on emeralds is in 35 N, jewlry is selling for 20 per.

[Lendi]

I landed on kohl and find it much easier to trade the raw mat than to make it into Cosmetics and trade those. The demand for kohl is huge. Same with my second city. I chose emeralds, but really trade mostly in the raw good, rather than the finished material.

I think you might have the right of it here, at least for awhile.. I'm going to slow down production on lux goods and concentrate more on trying to sell just my raw mats, henna and kohl.. From being on the wall every day and trying to get oil to make perfume, it's harder then hell.. I still think there aren't enough people on oil spots and that's why it's so hard to get.. Hopefully, it will even out in the end.. ;)