Retainer Wages and Guard Upkeep

[Kinaed]

Greetings,

We're expanding on what retainers can do, and we already have people purchasing guards to guard their phomes. I'm concerned that the purchase and upkeep of retainers is mostly a static prices, but I'm having trouble deciding what should be fare wages-wise for these kind of mobs. Any thoughts?

How much should it cost to have a human servant or guard hanging around on an OOC weekly basis?

Warm regards,
Kinky

[Inertia]

I'm generally approving of maintenance fees, and I can appreciate that it's difficult to balance regular costs with the ability to bring in a regular wage in-game.

Without knowing how retainer perks will work, I would suggest creating a menu of sorts that will list out what jobs retainers can do, and base the weekly rent off the complexity/importance of the job they're performing. For example, pet mobs might cost you 3 silver per OOC week to represent the cost of care and grooming, horses might cost a bit more, other 'flavor' NPCs might earn 10, bodyguards/phome guards 25.

If these seem low, I'm basing it off what a freeman earns as their weekly wage if they're active on the game. Things like pets and other RP enhancers, I think anyone should be able to afford without additional income. Extra protection for your home or body, sure, I can get behind assuming the employer needs to work harder to afford some benefits.

TL;DR: Maintenance fees for perks are a good thing since basic human needs (and therefore basic recurring costs) are not essential in game. I think it would be easier to suggest reasonable costs if there was a list of job options available, but using the social wage as a guideline might be a good place to start.

[Kinaed]

I can see a low maintenance for pets, but I don't think freemen should be able to afford, by default, to pay human mob maintenance/wages.

I also agree that the type of mob should have an impact as to costs, but I'm not sure to what level of granularity we can get. Pretty sure we can distinguish between human and non-human, not sure if we have a distinguishing feature between guard and, for example, maid.

[Temi]

I think we can add a charge based on 'acts' for mobs. These should be different based on guards or not. That should be enough granularity to have a mob cost different for guards and non combatants at least.

[Leech]

I think fifteen percent of their base cost might be good on an ooc weekly basis. The veteran bodyguard would be 450 silver a week, at that rate - a large number that adds value to and encourages building utility onto the mob. In general, small economic stuff like this adds heaps of value to gold in a system where any crafter can make the same dress as another if they have the skill to make a dress in the first place - which completely takes out the idea of competition and crafters being more expensive than another.

Also, it would give me a reason to actually go out and GET money. >.> Right now Casimir just subsists off of the measly 250 silver he gets for being a noble, because I never need to buy clothes (my clothes are just as good as new ones after all, and nobody has commented that I wear the same boots virtually every single scene), or weapons (my sword, even though it's iron, is already the best quality. Why would I need a new one?)

Sorry! This quickly became a rant about the economy, rather than the subject at hand. But I'm all for making them expensive as hell, really, per their actual use - and I think basing it off their down payment would be a decent system.