Trade, Crafting and the Economy

Having wandered around Saransk for a bit - not really knowing what to do next I decide to head back to Q1 - but on foot.  I have a healing kit, courtesy or a nice lady from a society called Shadow Corpse, and a gun that I bought at the auction.  Confident in Qweeg's survival instincts I head back towards Q1.

It quickly becomes apparent that whilst my gun might look like a Bad MF - it really doesn't work very well without any ammunition!  This makes the journey back a little scarier than originally planned, but Qweeg does eventually make it back in one piece.

It is at this point that I start to realise that AfterWorld has some quite far reaching differences to Entropia.  Whilst it seems to play the same - combat is very similar, mining from what I have read is similar albeit a little more complex in AW etc. - it is different in 2 very important ways. 

Firstly crafting, is a) much more complex in AW, and b) plays a vital role in the game.  In Entropia whilst crafters had their place in the game they were very much a poor relation to hunters and miners.  That was in part because so many items could be bought or found without the need for crafting.  In AW almost everything needs to be crafted.  And more interesting nothing lasts forever.  In Entropia items are either Limited or Unlimited - limited means when they are worn out you have to throw them away, unlimited means they can be repaired whenever they wear out.  This again negates the need for a crafter, since once you have a good item you never need to replace it.  In AW all items can only be repaired a certain number of times before they are useless - and so crafting is a much more vital profession.

The second key difference is how the economy itself works.  In Entropia everything has a TT (Trade Terminal) value and can be sold via the said terminal back to the game for that value.  Some items have a value far higher than TT if sold to another player as they may be rare or in high demand.  Other items may not be worth selling to another player so just get traded in at the terminal.  This is not possible in AW - all trading is player to player, and so the economy is one completely dictated by supply and demand of the players in the game.

These two differences alone give a completely different complexion to the game - and something it will take some time before I start to understand the full impact, and the best strategy for the game.  This is just the challenge I was looking for - the good bits of Entropia with the bad bits replaced with more good bits.  So far things are looking good!