Round Table: Ship Recipes and Ships

[Tsushima]

To comment on various issues brought up here:

The general idea of producing one ship per click and have the guns and other components better correspond to the ship being produced is great. But only IF the cost of the various components (guns etc) gets reduced/rebalanced to keep the original cost per deed about the same as before. Also important to rebalance is the weight, so that hauling isn't increased in the process.

A regular non-blind auction house is also a good idea. Though I wouldn't use that as a way to lower prices on ships. Supply and demand will still rule and the low level players will still pay what they can. If they have to spend 20% or 10% of their total accumulated wealth on their new ship isn't a factor in how much they will enjoy the game. The biggest factor is if they have to sail for >1 hour across the Caribbean and back against the wind to get it. Top priority should always be to keep supply up and that means keeping the ship makers happy with decent profit margins.
The average new player will, even when regularly buying new ships while leveling, end up with 500k-700k db when they reach 50. That is more than enough to start you off.

Regarding the rebalance of ship handling and cargo space in relation to the ship recipes. Try to keep as much of the rebalancing on the recipe and cargo side. Unless of course the ship really needs a stat rebalance for performance reasons.

I'm not sure what this loss of reputation when trading with other nations really means. Is it only for face-to-face trading or also for the auction house? I'm not sure why this is needed.
If this is meant to affect the AH then I don't think the economy can survive that kind of segregation.
If it is only for face-to-face trading, then still: Why?
I use a second account in my economy setup using a different nation from my main account to spread my resources/risk. This is to ensure that if my nation gets crushed, I don't have to stop playing until the map resets. I am confident that FLS wants people to play the game and not the opposite.

The same goes for level restrictions on productions. They are already there for some things like shipyards and advanced recipes. That is enough incentive for dedicated players to level up their econ alts. But at the end of the day, the question to ask is again: Why?
What does FLS gain from having econ alts go through the leveling process? As long as the character is being played it should be all good, right? What forced leveling of econ alts will do is add more annoyance and time sink to a part to the game that already has plenty. It will also mean that new players will have to wait longer for the economy part of the game. If that potential player's main interest is econ he might not even get there before giving up the grind.