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Does high magic = high tech?
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<blockquote data-quote="Jürgen Hubert" data-source="post: 427759" data-attributes="member: 7177"><p>That's OK if you have big chunks of stone or something like that. But if you have to move small stones, dirt, or other small things, you have to package them in some way for the golem to carry them effectively. That usually means you need a couple of human laborers as well...</p><p></p><p>(My image is: Humans carry all the dirt to a rail wagon, and the golem-drawn wagon pulls the dirt elsewhere...)</p><p></p><p>Having 28 times the strength of a normal human doesn't mean you can take 28 times the same work...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Actually, I'd be very interested in these arguments. Have you a link to these threads?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I assume you mean "1 sp per year"... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>OK, here are my best-case calculations (which I don't believe in - see above): A stone golem will work three times as long every day (3), 28 times as effectively as a normal human (*28), and 365 days a year. This replaces human labor of:</p><p></p><p>3*28*365*1 sp = 3066 gp</p><p></p><p>This has to pay back the initial investment of 80,000 gp. This will take 26 years.</p><p></p><p>But that's the ideal case. And this ideal case presumes that golems will be able to work effectively at their full strength for the entire time. Frankly, there are <em>extremely</em> few types of menial labour where this is neccessary. So for most cases, I'd assume that a reimbursement time of a century or so is more appropriate.</p><p></p><p>And while you are waiting for your winnings, the other guys who use mostly human labor get immediate returns, which they can immediately invest elsewhere and make even more money...</p><p></p><p>(Does anyone here know enough about medieval economics to tell us what a typical "return" of an investment is per year?)</p><p></p><p>I still stand with my case: Golems will predominantly used for stuff like drilling through rock or pulling drains - tasks where having golem-like strength actually makes a big difference. Anyone can shovel dirt...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You say it's a logistics problem - I say it's an opportunity to get some of the wages back. Just make sure that the workers can only get food and shelter at "company stores" and company houses, and you can drive them permanently into debt. In effect, your wages will be even <em>less</em> than 1 sp...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Just kill the golem handler. Besides, golems are so frigging slow that any half-way mobile raiders can easily evade them.</p><p></p><p>Not <em>all</em> barbarian raiders charge into melee... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>For <a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=38&ttitle=Urbis" target="_blank">Urbis</a>, I am assuming that there are more people than available jobs anyway - and all those craftsmen, engineers, etc. hang onto their guild monopolies for dear life.</p><p></p><p>In fact, paying lots of people for menial labor might make sense from a social POV as well - it keeps the unwashed masses busy. An idle hand is the devils' workshop, don't 'cha know... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jürgen Hubert, post: 427759, member: 7177"] That's OK if you have big chunks of stone or something like that. But if you have to move small stones, dirt, or other small things, you have to package them in some way for the golem to carry them effectively. That usually means you need a couple of human laborers as well... (My image is: Humans carry all the dirt to a rail wagon, and the golem-drawn wagon pulls the dirt elsewhere...) Having 28 times the strength of a normal human doesn't mean you can take 28 times the same work... Actually, I'd be very interested in these arguments. Have you a link to these threads? I assume you mean "1 sp per year"... ;) OK, here are my best-case calculations (which I don't believe in - see above): A stone golem will work three times as long every day (3), 28 times as effectively as a normal human (*28), and 365 days a year. This replaces human labor of: 3*28*365*1 sp = 3066 gp This has to pay back the initial investment of 80,000 gp. This will take 26 years. But that's the ideal case. And this ideal case presumes that golems will be able to work effectively at their full strength for the entire time. Frankly, there are [i]extremely[/i] few types of menial labour where this is neccessary. So for most cases, I'd assume that a reimbursement time of a century or so is more appropriate. And while you are waiting for your winnings, the other guys who use mostly human labor get immediate returns, which they can immediately invest elsewhere and make even more money... (Does anyone here know enough about medieval economics to tell us what a typical "return" of an investment is per year?) I still stand with my case: Golems will predominantly used for stuff like drilling through rock or pulling drains - tasks where having golem-like strength actually makes a big difference. Anyone can shovel dirt... You say it's a logistics problem - I say it's an opportunity to get some of the wages back. Just make sure that the workers can only get food and shelter at "company stores" and company houses, and you can drive them permanently into debt. In effect, your wages will be even [i]less[/i] than 1 sp... Just kill the golem handler. Besides, golems are so frigging slow that any half-way mobile raiders can easily evade them. Not [i]all[/i] barbarian raiders charge into melee... ;) For [URL=http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=38&ttitle=Urbis]Urbis[/URL], I am assuming that there are more people than available jobs anyway - and all those craftsmen, engineers, etc. hang onto their guild monopolies for dear life. In fact, paying lots of people for menial labor might make sense from a social POV as well - it keeps the unwashed masses busy. An idle hand is the devils' workshop, don't 'cha know... :D [/QUOTE]
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