Fantasy Friday - Elven Economy

[Alex Walz]

Fantasy Friday
A Field Guide to the Elven Economy

"It seems you have lived without watching, and survived without understanding. You must change. You must learn to understand the small actions through which our lives are lived.

Harmony guides our thoughts and balance steers our hands. When we take resources, we do so with great care. Wardens harvest resources through use of gentle magic. With this same magic, this gallo, they transport resources to your stockpile.

Clear your mind of violence. We do not harm the forest. We do not chop and torture trikio, the trees. We do not murder animals. These beings do not belong to nhoblio. Our alchemy and symbiosis magic provides both gold and wood." - Nothras

For the Elves, economic development starts before players even enter their homeland. Pick your homeland region wisely, weighing its economic pros and cons.

Introduction:

While most fans seem to have a good grasp of combat by now, the just as important aspect of economic management has rarely been discussed. Especially for the Elves with their semi-automated economy, Dawn of Fantasy encourages unique economic strategies for each race which may require some introduction and recommendations to aid the new player.

The Elven economy is the most simplified of any of the races, in order to create a self-sustainable economy allowing Elven players to focus on military and homeland construction. Their economy is stable year-round and can continue to thrive even when their homeland comes under attack, making it ideal for the defensive player.

With this said, there are still several parts to their economy:

City Selection:

Building an economy starts before players even enter their homeland for the first time. When prompted to choose a region to settle in at the beginning of the game, players will get a choice of three regions, each with different economic advantages and disadvantages. Isolated from the lower lands, the Elves of the mountainous Taltos have become adept in magic, allowing their alchemy labs to offer cheaper upgrades and a faster generation rate. The greater connection to nature of the Wood Elves of the swamps of Erthee L'Bala means that wood aids wood generation rates, while the rich forest environment of the Elves of Bolfores'l benefits food generation.

These economic attributes, however, may be outweighed by the other advantages of each region, so players should not solely choose their region based on these stats and any region can establish a thriving economy.

Economic Units:

Male Warden - The generic Elven worker unit built from Dwellings or Settlements, capable of gathering resources, corpse looting, fighting fires with magic.

Female Warden - A worker with the same capabilities as a Male Warden, with added skills in ranged combat to create a more flexible unit. Like the Male Warden, Female Wardens can be built from either Dwellings or Settlements.

The Elves have a semi-automated economy based on resource trickles provided by their primary economic buildings as well as resources generated by magic through tribute to the forest.

Economic Buildings:

Residence - Increases the population cap and provides an automatic trickle of a resource of your choice. Residences can be built from your Settlement building, and do not take up Great Trees for construction.

Alchemy Lab - Allows players to transmute resources into another type of resource over time. This allows players with excesses of a single resource type to exchange that resource for a resource they're lacking in without having to resort to trade. The Alchemy Lab also features purchasable upgrades to increase stone and gold production rates and to improve its resource output.

Tree Symbiosis - Creates resource nodes and offers economic upgrades. Economic building which provides gatherable resources. Can summon forest spirits, which provide wood.

• Forest Spirits - Harness the power of the boleta by summoning a forest spirit for a small tribute. Forest spirits drift between the trees, granting the player a small, but constant, trickle of Wood.
• Enchanted Resources - Each Symbiosis building provides the player with three enchanted resource nodes, similar to the slots used for construction in the human realm. Elven players can use these nodes to summon an enchanted resource for gathering - a berry bush, a stone mine, or a gold mine. These resources means that the Elves will have a stable economy all year-long, and will have a more sustainable economy than the semi-nomadic men and orcs.

Sylvan Shrine - Economic building which provides a Food trickle. Trains Unicorns and populates the forest with Deer. Upgrades from the Sylvan Shrine can improve the efficiency of food gathering and Sylvan Shrine generation.

• Deer - The Elves live in harmony with the creatures of the forest. By giving gifts to the forest, the forest will, in turn, provide players with resources. Wild deer can be trained to provide a slow trickle of food, and will roam around your homeland freely.

Recognizing the value of trade is fundamental to a thriving economy - shop around with NPC and players to use your economic surpluses for your advantage.

Trade:

Any economy can be boosted with some well-planned trade. Players can travel to any NPC town to trade resources for other resources - ideal for players concentrating on a single resource without having to dump their other excess resources to stay within their production limit. Each town specializes in a different resource - so be sure to shop wisely, and ask advisors what they specialize in before making a transaction.

Looting:

Looting is the final aspect to the Elven economy. The Elves loot by means of magic, giving the corpses back to the forest for a small gift of resources. Looting is ideal for warmongers and traveling armies, with no other form of resource gathering. Players should be sure to always have Wardens in their army, and to task them to loot after each battle.

[GPS51]

The elves eco has always been a bit mysterious like the elves themselves. I can't wait for all to get their paws on the eco and play/manipulate it all. Will MMORTS land feature dynamic markets? IE flooding a market with food will lower the price of food across the world?

[TriggerHappyNDB]

Very interesting stuff, especially since I plan to play as the Elves right off the bat. What can I say? I like me some strong defense!

One question does come to mind though. Your post mentions the Great Trees that Elves appear to build the majority of their buildings on. Are those trees essentially the same as Human building plots, and there are a set number and arrangement of them inside of any Elven settlement?

Just curious, as I'm trying to flesh out the Elven building strategy.

[Henry Martin]

Originally Posted by TriggerHappyNDB

Very interesting stuff, especially since I plan to play as the Elves right off the bat. What can I say? I like me some strong defense!

One question does come to mind though. Your post mentions the Great Trees that Elves appear to build the majority of their buildings on. Are those trees essentially the same as Human building plots, and there are a set number and arrangement of them inside of any Elven settlement?

Just curious, as I'm trying to flesh out the Elven building strategy.

Yes they are like the human building plots and Yes I believe there is so many inside the elf settlement.

[Falgorn]

Originally Posted by Alex Walz

Male Warden (...) corpse looting

Hahaha guys are always for the dirty work.

Interesting solution to separate different jobs for Male and Female worker. I wonder if Ors will have Female unit too, and how they will look

[Rhino]

Sounds very original in the way you can play the game. Although I believe it would take many hours to fully master how to manage your kingdom and your subjects well. That being said it would definately be well worth it as you constantly learn new things and always have something to do. I give this two great big thumbs up !

[vonsteyr]

There seems to be a lot of green when viewing anything Elvish. I mean, green is a very Elvish colour, given their tree-dwelling tree-loving tree-treeing attitude, but it all combines to be a bit monochromatic.

All the individual elements look great, but (this is especially true in the trade window) if you put roots on top of grass in front of trees with green murals as a background in the windows, you're going to lose a lot the contrast that you need in menus.

[Arda]

Interesting take on the economy. Sounds nice on paper, will be curious to see how it plays out in the game.

[roughneck19086]

I am very interested in seeing how this is economy ends up working in game. I like the idea of the defensive nature the elves have, but i am wondering there will end up being just one way of setting up our economies and therefore preventing diversity. Also why the separation of male and female wardens? Oh and can we purposefully attack the home tree to take out a base quickly?

[Alex Walz]

Hahaha guys are always for the dirty work.

As the FF says, both Male and Female Wardens have the same capabilities. The difference comes down to melee vs. ranged.

Also why the separation of male and female wardens?

A lot of it comes down to resources. The two wardens cost different resources, so we give the player a choice of what worker unit to get based on their available resources. If the player is in need of strictly a worker, they will likely choose a Male Worker as it will often work out to be slightly cheaper than a female. Otherwise, the player will likely choose a Female Worker for added combat strength.

can we purposefully attack the home tree to take out a base quickly?

Nope, that's not how our combat works. But you can try and take out the king unit as soon as possible in an NPC siege to end the battle. Otherwise, you're just trying to occupy the whole town.