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During the OOC Chat, a few players said it was immersion breaking to see which City Metric affects the restock of an object in the store.

What do you think?

So, I made brief mention of this in the OOC meeting, but I'll drop it again here:

I think what metric is tied to the restock of the object (at least the ones I've seen so far) is kinda obvious. Of course the economy would need to be good to be getting in rare goods. Of course race relations would need to be solid to be getting in those rare imports. So I don't feel it's immersion breaking to just have what should be common sense written out in cyan and black.

Please note that my saying it should be common sense isn't me taking a jab at any one. It's not me being snarky. I'm just sayin'.

As a note, here's what we're talking about: That little tag at the end is the part in question. It's cyan in game to indicate OOC details.

Actually, the main argument pushed in OOC seemed to be that the labels "trivialize" the city metric system. I disagree with that, and I actually think the labels do the opposite, by giving players a clear recourse for affecting IC change and using the system in a way that is personal.

I also think that influencing a metric to try and make conditions more favorable for trade, for example, is a perfectly fine way to engage with the system.

That being said, I don't have strong feelings regarding the OOC labels. I don't think they are all that immersion breaking, TBH.

I believe it's friendlier to newbies, and not too bad. Even the display is offered an IC reason for existence.

For example. Someone may go a sizeable chunk of their playertime without knowing the piety metric is:
+An important measure of the city's educational state (The viability of books being sold.) -Something I wasn't made aware of, until I saw the sign.
+How much the Order is trusted with upkeeping belief in the Faith.

I believe it creates more plothooks than it destroys. By allowing the player to see what's under the hood, it makes sense. Just the other day, I had noticed pubs were given moods of being cheerful and bright, despite the metric being extremely low on morale. By offering players reminders of current events, it allows them to RP it as such. It's extremely common sense for the character, but ultimately, not the player.

Knowledge needs to be given somehow. It's cyclic.

Agree with Kipper.

Also it seems that the people arguing for the OOC message's removal are those with the most experience with the system. I believe it's important for all players to know this information, not just a select few, to help understand city metrics.

I voted no as I'm the one who brought it up, and at the meeting I was the only person in favor of it. Frankly I view it as petty and trivial to believe a person's sole motivation for getting involved in city metrics should be to get an item they want. It's such a childish reason. I'd much rather see a person take the time to notice "Hey, this item only restocks when this metric is high... Hmm." than having such information handed to them on a silver platter. I'm very much in favor of people having to work for information versus it being handed to them. As I said in the meeting, restocks should be a byproduct of metric swings, not the focus. Oh no, our streets are falling apart due to low infrastructure, and I am having to spend more silver on food items to restore mv, I should do my part and support improving infrastructure is a far better and valid reason than "I want that item, better support that metric just to get that item."

Would joeschmoo the farnhand be a master at economics to know this item only is available when racial tensions are High? No, he likely wouldn't. Hell this makes more sense for something to be a part of the mercantilism skill, as those are the type of people who would notice trends in trade.

I think you're overthinking it. The metric is visible to give people more interactions with metrics as opposed to actively changing it to receive pineapples.

Though you'll notice that fuel prices change a lot based on race relations IRL, and there are government agencies that dedicate a lot of time to manipulate diplomacy for that reason.

EDIT: though I agree it would be better noticed as part of a mercantilism thing.

I don't mind the tags at the end of the restock goods. I also think that its a good stimulus for getting involved with the city metrics system and learning how it affects things. Even if the motivation behind voting a certain way is so that you can access certain items is this any different from voting to increasing the categories important to your specific guild, organization or new asset? However, another option would be to create an in-character book on economics that explains each category in detail and how certain items might appear or disappear depending on high and low states. This way the player might have to dig or be pointed toward the information instead.

May I suggest that this information not be readily displayed, but obtainable through the use of city lore and rumours? For the rumours option, I'm thinking that occaisonal rumours could be automatically generated describing how metrics are affecting certain prices, and you should be more likely to just passively overhear them if you're in a shop affected by that metric?

Probably would want to segregate those rumours from others in the list to avoid clutter though.