"skill level requirement for building isen't programmed yet"
Yes it is
"only 4 tech levels that can be used"
255
"i personnally haven't seen an island pull off the 'build you way up' style yet... "
then maybe its time
"Reine .. its team, so you get everyone to chip in. "
can't see any reason why that should affect things
"since once somebody makes something, its usually possible for others to buy the item, or buy the building instead of working upto it."
Doesnt have to be like that.. if you've got a sufficient scaling in the prices of things, then there can easily be no way a new player can get the things a rich player has. (Unless the rich player decides to sell the expensive building ridiculous cheap - but ya cant really counter for charity :] - Similarly.. a new player shouldnt be able to buy the best vehicles until they've earned money. )
Again - basically i think this primarily comes down to gettin a good gameplay balance. It aint an easy thing to do for sure - thats why they normally pay games designers for months to do it - but its certainly possible.
Not succumbing to the temptation to make things easier because you get complaints if players cant get stuff easily is difficult, and obviously you cant go too far else you'll put too many ppl off, but ultimately its required at times. (Btw, any worlds that do make it easy for ppl to own things will eventually get shoved off to more remote parts of the galaxy, so that new players will get used to not having everything immediately.)
Zions too hard for most ppl, of course, with not enough things to build or do, particularly early on, but get a balance somewhere between Zion and Zoric and ur sorted i reckon.
"besides vehicles, materials, houses, and weapons thiers no stuff that can really be a work your way up thing. "
um whats left? :] ahh yeh.. food.
" ideally you'd start with a small hotdog stand, then after a while you'd upgrade to a burger joint, then to a full on restaurant... but the thing is, its hard to have all 3, because if someone gets the restaurant and sells food cheaper and has more stock, the hot dog stand guy wont make a deneri... so its hard to create a chain, without helping the rich get richer and the poor get poorer..."
Again, thats mostly a matter of setting up a good economic balance. Food is a slightly difficult issue coz theres little to be gained between foods. (However, to enhance that, i've changed some foods around in the next patch so that the worst ones (the junk food) damages your health (particularly long-term). )
With that extra.. if theres enough scale in the prices (so that hotdog stands might sell crap food at 1d and restaurants sell good food at 20s) ya'll have a system where the poor eat hotdogs coz they cant afford to go to restaurants, and the rich eat at restaurants coz they dont wanna die :].
So the root of the problem you highlight there, Tom - "if someone gets the restaurant and sells food cheaper" - comes down to just a problem with the economy settings - If someone gets a restaurant and is able to sell things cheaper then you've got the wrong product settings.
Its more obvious if you ignore the food aspect for the moment - say its vehicles, and a poor guy sells tractors for 10s, then a rich guy comes along and starts selling ferraris for 5s - Itd seem pretty obvious to me that theres something wrong with your production prices.