Meteorites and volcanic eruptions may be events that seed more resources, but you might want to consider that this comes at the potential cost of destroying existing infrastructure in the areas they impact - canceling out the benefit of whatever resources they bring with them. If not, then that should be considered a fortunate bonus only - not a consistent resupply.

Meteorites also vary widely in size and may not even contain useful resources, while digging out a volcano is also potentially dangerous, especially when a lava bath is being considered for one of the few causes that lead to permadeath outside aging. In other words I wouldn't want to put my hopes too high on these events being the salvation.

However, finite resources is not necessarily going to be the kind of problem people seem to imagine it to be. This isn't the first game to have finite resources and if done right won't result in the world running dry anytime soon. Another sandbox mmo I know that have finite resources is still a rich and bountiful world despite years of players playing it. Across its world, that take more than 10 hours to get from one side to another it is millions of mine spots, and each mine takes many months, if not years, of effort for a single individual to exploit in entirety. That game doesn't even have recycling.

CoE has a much larger world than what that game have as well, and that's just the first continent too. So no, there should be no shortages of resources across the world, the issue will be with the individual veins. A town depending on a mine in their area might die out along with that mine if they aren't able to find a new vein elsewhere in their area, or adapt by finding a new source of revenue. Some veins, particularly for rarer resources, may also be more abundant in some parts of the world than other parts, causing conflict if trade doesn't flow. That's the kind of issues you're looking at, nothing more.

Welcome to the community though, I hope you'll stick around and enjoy your stay. :3

Hey Shadowtani, thanks for the response.

Yeah, the meteorites and volcanic eruptions, which I didn't know about, are something that should definitely come with a risk, but from all the videos and mentions of risk-vs-reward, the concept didn't seem so far-fetched at the time. Smaller meteors raining down may create no more than a very small resource patch, but this exact event might be something that serves two purposes. One is that It creates a resource patch that was not originally in the area which is an opportunity for a dynamic, although short lived, shift in trade. Two is that this, hitting somebody or being discovered by a PC, could be the trigger for an extremely rare talent.

On to the finite resources not being a problem. In all likely-hood you are undoubtedly correct, but I have been playing a game called Dwarf Fortress for quite some time and it has taught me a lesson about what I think will last and what probably wont in terms of finite resources.

In the game, you procedurally generate an entire fantasy world, much the way that the devs here are doing. One of the factors is how large of a mineral deposit will be scattered throughout the map. Finding the right balance for a game to last for a very long time is quite difficult. They may be calculating now for a middle-aged war with swords and armor, but what happens when we start implanting mining-carts that require iron bars to be laid out by the ton?

The point is that each server is going to have different needs and that the technology isn't set in stone yet.

If we have to much of a resource, the availability makes the finite resource system seem more like an infinite one and so I think this is something that might need a check-and-balance system in place.

Then again, this is just an opinion and the devs might have already talked about this very issue or never talked about it because they know it wont be one.

Regardless, I just wanted to throw an idea out and get some feedback, so I do thank you very much for your response and your warm welcome. From what I can tell, the community is fantastic and I can't wait 'til I can get into the game.