Yeah, not being able to replace freaking vials due to suddenly skyrocketing gem demand is on my list of things to fret about.

I guess that's one reason to pay for sorcelled vials. A longer wait to have to replace them means you have more time to snag gems before Hallifax can suck them up.

Yeah! And the oil spill in the gulf is great, because it makes us really appreciate beaches that aren't covered in globs of tarry death!

A number of sorcelglass scrolls also take gems...

I can agree with that to an extent, Ragniliff. I do think that generating income is a good portion of the Trade Ministry's job; traditionally I use the Trade Ministry's income to pay for the functioning of every other Ministry in Glomdoring. I don't need to use other sources of income. Glomdoring's generally had periods of active and very productive Trade Ministers (Chandestri, Talan), though in between I had a bit of a slump where I had to live off of my reserves.

That said, sometimes you can't just sell things. For example, our gem supply having some rationing on it at the moment, because gems just don't generate quickly enough. Further, the stockpiles are (as I have said before) not intended to be seen as just raw-comms (hence the frustration when another organization comes in, buys it all out, and lists it for sale at a much higher price). It's more a mixture of the two, in my opinion. The intent is to generate gold and keep things running smoothly, while also ensuring that commodities are on hand for the organization and its members when needed.

Figuring out the line to walk on is rough, but if you focus only on one to the exclusion of the other (either one) leads to a Trade Ministry that eventually breaks down. If you have tons of comms but never sell them.. your citizens aren't going to say, "Oh boy, look how much wood we have!" Instead it will be, "Why are we charging 200 gold for a piece of wood when we have so much?!" (And yes, this does happen. Quite frequently, if people feel you're overcharging. I do speak from experience.)

On the other hand, if the only intent is to make a profit, you're not going to have any stock at all much of the time.

Hm, why not have comm shops sell to your org members at one price, and other org members at another? It would allow your org to get what they need, and would prevent other orgs from rushing in and buying out 10k of a good.

And you can find 50 rockeaters, + or - 10 at any given point if you take the mountain and the village rockeaters, the ocean, and the undervault. Prices go down to 108 easily that way.

And it would be awesome if at a certain stage in politics with a village, you can ask the village to keep a certain price for a good. So that that price cannot be dropped lower for a period of time, You could potentially create more gems in stock for that particular village, and get a larger tithe.


But I'm shocked when I enter some people's manses and find uncut gems sold there for around 175g, for example (not naming the person) maybe it's a way to stockpile their own gems, but a monopoly cannot be reached. And when you buy gems for 108 gold each, I will agree, why not sell the cut gems for 25g each? Especially if you are cutting with mastercut and a hammer +5 gems.

meh. I'm going to stop selling gems at 30 g each and lower the prices. But maybe an group could be formed within the realms, form a monopoly on all trading of goods, and try to control it (inner hallifaxian in me talking here). For example, if someone tries to rip off another person that genuinely needs a set of commodities for a basic item, such as vials, have the larger players together drop prices of vials to 110-125 g per.

But yeah, I imagine if we can ask villages not to set prices lower than a certain pricing, as well as be able to give two different prices to either our own citizens and others, it can fix many of the problems that the supply and demand are causing.

I say we restrict supply and raise gem prices back up to 50 gold.

Comm shops can't have multiple price schemes like normal shops can.

Mastercut just means you -can- get more than one/three. Doesn't ensure you get five every time. :/

A hammer does not raise the minimum cut gems to five - it raises the number to three.