James scrolled to the top of the village menu until the options for the general store were visible again. Before I spend points on adding new shops, I should make sure there isn't anything vital this shop could be selling that it isn't already. Manage items. James watched as the text was replaced by rows of squares. Each one held an image of the item they alluded to, and James found focusing on a particular image would pull up another box containing its description. James focused on the first image, that of a familiar red vial.
{Item: 1 Low Quality Health Potion.
Price: 5 Gold
Alternative Prices: None (Unavailable)
Status: For Sale (Change Availability (-10))
Description: A single Low Quality Health Potion can speed the recovery of wounds and restore a small amount of blood lost.}
It doesn't say how much health it recovers. Come to think of it, I don't even know what kind of stats climbers have as part of the game. I should try and get a look at someone's character sheet later.
Regardless, there's nothing I want to change here. I can't do anything about an alternative price and I certainly don't want to take away access to health potions.
James moved on, looking at the next square of a sword, shield, and dagger.
{Item: Low Quality 1 Handed Iron Weapon.
Price: 50 Gold.
Alternative Prices: None (Unavailable)
Status: For Sale (Change Availability (-10))
Description: A single low quality weapon meant to be wielded with one hand, and made mostly of iron. The weapon can be any kind that is compatible with the buyer's class. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.}
Oh wow, a self repair function? That’s great! As long as they have enough down time within the village, they won’t have to worry about their weapons breaking or getting dulled over time. James made a note to see what else shared this feature before moving on, realizing there was nothing he wanted to change.
The next square is a picture of an axe, bow, and staff... Two handed weapons are 25 gold more but their description is the same otherwise, and they're already available as well. After that is… A picture of a bunch of arrows. Ammunition for ranged weapons cost a single gold for two projectiles, and there’s a bonus projectile added for every ten purchased. Next is a picture of an axe, sickle, and pickaxe. The description calls them harvesting tools, 25 gold less than the one handed weapons, but with the same repair function... Next is a picture of a tent next to a campfire.
{Item: Basic Travel Kit.
Price: 200 Gold.
Alternative Prices: None (Unavailable)
Status: One-Per-Customer (Change Availability (-10))
Description: A bundle of items necessary for an extended trip through the wilds. Comes with a tent, a pair of fire starters, a waterskin, a bedroll, and a compass.}
Alright! I was hoping for something like this when I chose to put the village on the first floor. A way to transport water and a way to start a fire are essential to survival. Though I don't know how climbers will be able to afford this, or anything from the shop for that matter. The tutorial quest only gave experience and a low quality health potion. Do I need to create a quest for climbers to get any gold? Surely there's another way. Wait, I forgot about the tower, I can just ask!
"Hey tower, do you know how climbers can get gold?"
[Climbers can acquire gold by completing quests which list gold as a reward, or by selling resources and items dropped by monsters to a general store.]
So they can get gold without me issuing quests, good to know.
"Thanks for telling me, tower." James spoke as he looked at the next images on the list. Looks like all the pieces in the basic travel kit can be bought individually, the tent and bedroll for 25 gold each, the fire starters and waterskin for 50, and the compass for 150. They also all have the same repair feature in their description. I guess that’s just something all things created by the system have. Except for potions, but those are meant to be one use consumables, so it makes sense. Buying the kit saves a hundred gold compared to buying all of the parts individually, which is why it's only available once per customer. James briefly thought of seeing if he could change that, but remembered what happened when he tried to choose a custom set up for the first battle. While I can back out of any option after selecting it, I won't always get all my points back when I do. I'll ask the tower, but if they don't know the answer then I'll save experimenting until I find an availability I know I'll want to change.
"Tower, can I make it so the basic travel kit can be bought more than once per person?"
[The availability options for any item sold from the general store are: for sale, one-per-customer, limited stock, and out of stock. Changing an item to one of the first three options will create a quest depending on the availability chosen and the availability the item had before. Making an item out of stock will simply change the availability status of the item.]
"So I can change the basic travel kit's availability from 'one-per-customer', to 'for sale'?"
[Yes. Doing so will generate a shop expansion quest that will change the item's availability status upon completion.]
"Huh, that's nice to know. Thanks again, tower." James originally felt the tower was a hostile entity when it had threatened to destroy his only means of remaining in this world if he did not set up the tutorial. Some part of James felt he should still see it as such, but the solitude was making it hard to hold any anger towards the only source of conversation that he had. This is how stockholm syndrome starts, isn't it?
James chose not to follow that train of thought any further, and quickly selected to change the basic travel kit's availability.
{Change Availability option selected. -10 Tower Points. 301 Tower Points remaining.}
{Please choose new availability status:
-For Sale (Generates Shop Expansion Quest)
-One-Per-Customer (Currently Selected)
-Limited Stock (Generates Everything Must Go Quest)
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
-Out Of Stock}
James made his choice, and watched as another prompt appeared regarding the quest.
{General Store Quest: Shop Expansion (Basic Travel Kit)
Quest Type: Multi-Participant
Recipient(s): Any (Quest accessible from within (Unnamed) Village)
Description: Donate funds to help the store expand its selection!
Gold Donated: 0/600
Reward(s): Basic Travel Kit switches to 'For Sale' availability.
Confirm Quest?}
James immediately had another question for the tower upon seeing the quest details, though he suspected he knew the answer already. "Tower, what does 'multi-participant quest type' mean?"
[A multi-participant quest type is one in which the contributions of everyone who has accepted the quest are added together. The opposite of this would be a single-participant quest type, wherein the reward must be reached individually. Most village and shop quests are multi-participant types.]
"I see. Thank you." So everyone can donate to the store and everyone reaps the benefits regardless of participation once the goal is met. Still, 600 gold to unlock an option that only saves 100 gold? Is this even worth doing? How often will everyone need to buy a whole travel kit anyway? With the cost of the change being only 10 tower points, I didn't consider the usefulness of it beyond being able to buy two travel kits being better than only being able to buy one. Still, maybe I can salvage this situation. Edit quest!
{You've activated Edit Quest. -5 Tower Points. 296 Tower Points Remaining.}
{Quest Edit Options:
-Change Description (free)
-Change Reward(s) (Unavailable)
-Add Requirement (Unavailable)
-Remove Requirement (Unavailable)}
James sighed. I had hoped I could change the requirement so it'd cost less gold, but all I can do here is change the description... Spending ten points to create a quest asking for 600 gold felt like a waste, but now I've wasted five more points trying to make the initial cost feel worth it. I could cancel everything, but I'd only get back a fraction of 15 points. Still, that would bump me back to 300... Alright, I'll cut my losses here. Giving this quest out now would just waste resources.
{Edit Quest deactivated.}
{General Store Quest: Shop Expansion (Basic Travel Kit) Canceled.}
{Change Availability option canceled. 9 Tower Points refunded. 305 Tower Points remaining}
Wait, I don't get a refund for deactivating my skill? James sighed again. Well, at least I got to learn that by losing only five tower points instead of ten or more. I'll look to make sure there isn't anything super useful I could make available, but then I'm moving on to try and enable one of the other shops. James moved on to the next image, this one grayed out and depicting a suit of armor.
{Item: Low Quality Armor
Price: 300 Gold
Alternative Price: (Unavailable)
Status: Out Of Stock (Change Availability (-10))
Description: A full set of armor tailored to the buyer, including a set of leather armor or enchanted cloth, with gloves, boots, and a helmet, hood, or hat. Options available are dependent on the buyer's class. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.}
Okay, I definitely need to change the availability of this. The starting gear modifier may have already given everyone a weapon and some armor, but I don't think a single person in the tutorial had a helmet or full leather armor. Unlike the low quality weapons that are available, this is something people don't already have. James selected change availability without delay, and received the accompanying notification.
{Change Availability option selected. -10 Tower Points. 295 Tower Points remaining.}
{Please choose new availability status:
-For Sale (Generates Shop Expansion Quest)
-One-Per-Customer (Generates One Time Offer Quest)
-Limited Stock (Generates Limited Time Offer Quest)
-Out Of Stock (Currently Selected)}
{General Store Quest: Shop Expansion (Low Quality Armor)
Quest Type: Multi-Participant
Recipient(s): Any (Quest accessible from within (Unnamed) Village)
Description: Donate funds to help the shop expand its selection!
Gold Donated: 0/1500
Reward(s): Low Quality Armor switches to 'For Sale' availability.
Confirm Quest?}
Okay, that's a lot more than 600. Making the basic travel kit go from one-per-customer to for sale was three times its base price, making this go from out of stock to for sale is five times... Canceling the quest itself didn't cost me any points last time, and it just took me back to the availability selection page.... James canceled the quest and selected One-Per-Customer, taking note of the donation amount the quest requested before canceling that one as well, and selecting Limited Stock.
One-per-customer only requires twice the base price before becoming available for purchase. Limited stock doesn't have a base price to be unlocked, but asks me how many times the product can be purchased, and sets the price for each set of armor as the base price plus ten percent of the base price for each number to be sold. I could sell the armor right away for 330 gold but only to one person, and it'd cost me another 10 tower points if I wanted to do that a second time. That's useful to know if I ever only want to sell an item to a small group, and need to do so right away, but otherwise one-per-customer is the way to go. It's the cheapest way to make the armor available to everyone, and in this instance cheapest means fastest. Once everybody has had the chance to buy a set of armor, I can change the availability again and they can grind to be able to buy replacement sets.
{General Store Quest: One Time Offer (Low Quality Armor)
Quest Type: Multi-Participant
Recipient(s): Any (Quest accessible from within (Unnamed) Village)
Description: Donate funds to help the shop expand its selection!
Gold Donated: 0/600
Reward(s): Low Quality Armor switches to 'One-Per-Customer' availability.
Confirm Quest?}
Confirm quest.
[Administrator James Wise, the general store quest: “One Time Offer (Low Quality Armor)”, has been implemented and is available for climbers in (Unnamed) village on floor 1.]
Alright, now, is there anything else for the general store? The other icons all have a white X over them in addition to being grayed out. James focused on one of the icons in question.
{Item: 1 Lesser Quality Health Potion.
(The current Floor is too low to access this item.)
Price: 25 Gold
Alternative Prices: None (Unavailable)
Status: Out Of Stock (Change Availability (Unavailable))
Description: A single Lesser Quality Health Potion can heal minor wounds and restore a small amount of blood lost.}
Oh, so none of the other items are available for a shop on the first floor. That's... Not ideal, but I still think it was better to place the village on the first floor than wait for a higher floor. Next, let's see about getting another store added to the village.