There are many people that depend on Bob, they know Bob has the solutions to their needs. They know they can count on good ol' Bob to provide cheap sources for comms and elixirs. And this fills with envy the rest of the world, as they see our dear Bob keep getting richer and richer by the second. Ironically, rather than other merchants being able to become independant just like Bob, people end up depending on... Bob for their wares. So, within this thread, I want to propose some solutions that will severly affect the iron grip Bob the Con Man has on the current market:

-All wares drastically less in quality than those other players can offer.
-A higher price to pay for wares that Bob can acquire everyday.
-An "inflation" that the wares that are bought by Bob the most, get a gradual price increase, until they reach a maximum point. (i.e. Longsword selling for 2k, then next year for 2.1k so on until reaching a maximum of 2.5k.

Basically, Bob is a con man. I mean... how does he ever manage to get so many wares and at such good qualities? I wish I had his business connections... So, it is time to put a stop to Bob, and make him finally show his dubious nature! Make people finally realize how his wares are low quality, and how... hey, you can't really tell where does things have been before.

Bob was an excellent solution to help people get started, he still is. But now more and more people see themselves affected by Bob being too a powerful competitor. He would always be a reliant source for wares, just not too a good solution for daily life consumers. What are your views about this?

just remove bob.

Eh, I hope the forestals (and herbalists) work out this refill business before he does leave...

Meh, "forestals" have nothing to do with it. Magnagorans and Celestes can harvest just as well...

Sorry! Sorry, lingering Achaean euphemism. Alchemists and herbalists is what I meant... though the Serens (Serenwilders?) are the only ones who can work as alchemists to make elixirs. And they live in the forest. And really, all the other words sound so awkward - not citizens 'cause they're in a commune, but you obviously can't say communist. Serens, or Serenwilders, or what?

Why can't you say communist? Serenwilders are filled with misplaced idealism about the generousity of fellow beings... But hopefully Glomdoring will eventually end up forming a commune and having alchemists and things, so it won't be as much of a problem anyway.

If they took out Bob we'd all die horrible deaths. Why not just keep healing and mana vials there its not like they are hurting anyone...I mean its cheaper to buy vials there than to create them. Hell you even get a refill with your nice free vial what a deal!

if you remove what people are living off of, that should bring the price of everything else down when people need it.

Bob sells health for 400 per.
I've seen Nikua seen trying to sell health for 600 per over market. with the current horehound situation this is not surprising, but it's still much. Bob sort of makes sure that prices don't get too high, but if he's removed nothing will stop anyone from charging way more. and that's not nice if you consider that you need loads of health vials for astral bashing.

When Bob leaves and I hope he will then the horehound problem will increase a lot more. Right now many people buy healing potions at Bob's, now imagine all these people wanting refills instead.
What stroke me odd recently when I was looking at the alchemy things was the fact that horehound is needed really a lot but for no potion/salve/purgative you need colewort. And the ab-file mentions that it is needed by alchemists. Maybe some horehound requirements could be replaced with colewort. That would solve a lot of problems I think.

Edit: I don't mean that I hope that the horehound problem will increase. I just think that Bob doesn't fit into the roleplay environment of Lusternia.

I sell health refills for about 320 now. At those prices, I'm getting lots and lots of refill requests. As for my horehound supply: it's like watching water drain out of a tub.

Well it sounds like for most people it was like watching water drain out of a shot glass... be glad you had enough to use a tub!

I'll be here all week folks

If they are true communists, they won't be able to use the nature guarding ability since that effectively "privatizes" the land so only the caster can harvest it and reap its profits.

I have an idea for "fixing" the Nature Guard ability. I get frustrated by the fact that entire regions are guarded and I cannot harvest there. It seems to me that any one person ought not be able to protect such vast tracts of land. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on how the ability works. This is simply based on my understanding and is an outsider's perspective.)

For Nature Guard to be useful and not annoying, perhaps the person guarding could not do it in adjacent rooms or be limited to only a few rooms at a time. Once the "timer" on the guarded room expires (or is lifted by the guarder somehow), they are able to guard another room, keeping their total guarded room count down around three to five.

To augment this and help with part of the "herb jealousy" that I and others have, could we include a warning to a Nature user that they are harvesting in a guarded location or even just prevent them from harvesting in someone else's guarded locations?

Thanks for listening.

Nature Guard is already limited enough...and it is exactly invented for this...to keep those who don't have the nature skill from harvesting there. But it doesn't last long, costs power and a herb and that makes guarding larger areas more than painful.

What if nature gaurd was to make it so a plant cannot be harvested below 5, by anyone

that way a location could be gaurded against the complete death of herbs in that location, everyone would still be able to harvest if it were above 5, so there is none of thise exclusive serenwilde harvesting club. And no one would be able to kill a plant off, even the serenwilders that couldn't care less about the future income potential of others. Of course that would only apply to guarded locations.

And I stress this be a measure to protect a 'resource' that people can potential make money from, I so hate the whole coddling nature idea

anyway that is kind of off track for the original topic of the thread but relevant to the follow up posts

oh and down with bob! even though his potions do suck now.

I really like that idea. Maybe if when done, instead of just preventing harvesting below five it means that no herbs can be killed below five. Hence not only stopping harvesting but also allowing a room somewhat low on herbs to survive through the hibernation month(s).

I don't think the Divine would go for that idea. Hasn't a certain Somebody said on numerous occasions that nature does not need our protection? I have a feeling He would be outright offended if we limited the life and death of the natural world to such a degree.

Check the thread in replanting. I somwhat responded to this concern there.