Economy

Delfer · 2013-05-18 20:56:06

Since we only start with a limited amount of gold, and RP'ing trade is going to play a big role, we should establish what some basic things are worth. If I want to buy 10 apples for example, how do I know what to pay? 10 gold? 5 gold? 1 gold? Obviously I could make a reasonable guess, haggle the price, etc, and I would, but that kind of system could result in a very large price range. If one person guess that a helmet is worth 30gold, while the other guesses 15gold, who is right? I think we should all establish some basic price ranges for common items, so people have a gauge of how much they should be spending on things. The intent is to create consistent trade, eliminate unnecessary guesswork and errors, etc..

This should take into account the value of raw resources, tools, and finished products, etc.. Considering as well the price of these items before the zombies showed up, and after the event. Taking scarcity and level of difficulty to obtain is important to make things reasonable. With all those variables in place I think it is best to have something established, instead of guessing. It will also help us to understand when someone is roleplaying cheap, or if they're overly generous, etc.

Onto prices themselves, I started with roughly 460 gold. The max I believe is 500, and the minimum is 5. To price things reasonably, I think we have to know how much wealth 500 gold should represent, and how much 5 should represent as this is the range most people have to work within. I would like to be able to answer that, but I can't so I will probably leave that question to Keres or Hoagie, who have a good idea how they want this world to work. The only reason I don't offer my own estimates right here is because I have no clue how much 500 or 5 gold should be worth. But I know that it must be established.

With that clarified by the creators, we as a community can probably decide ourselves how much each board and ingot should cost, and how much a finished piece of armor or furniture should be. Any parameters from Keres or Hoagie would work as well. Of course we could just decide ourselves in game, but I feel like the results would be mixed and wouldn't feel as right. In real life, you'd have a sense of what thing's are worth from experience. On this shard however, we have nothing to simulate that experience. Obviously normal UO has no bearing here, and the economy in BoC was nonexistant. An out of character understanding of our own created economy will add another layer to the RP here.

Getting rich, ripping people off, begging to survive, organized crime, banking with interest, debts, etc were never quite possible(or never lived up to their full potential) in BoC because none of us really needed money. We all had alts to get gold so we could buy our houses and bandies and such. We were payed at the end of hunts but it didn't matter much. Fortunately here, it might just be possible to ruin someone with debt, or to influence "good" characters to be corrupt by tempting them with gold. However, if we don't know how much gold it should take to buy a hammer or a suit of armor to avoid dying, we'll miss out on that other dimension.

tl;dr
-> Establish realistic prices for raw materials
-> Establish realistic prices for finished products(Raw materials + work)
-> We have a working economy
-> Better RP for everyone

EDIT: I think it will also be important to know how many coins one gold ingot is worth. Nothing says money more than a brick of gold.

Last edited by Delfer (2013-05-18 22:26:22)

Linaeus · 2013-05-19 07:27:21

The only person to roll a 100 so far is Jarvis, and we used this to represent him having struck a small vein of gold during his prospecting in the nearby hills. There was gold in them-thar hills. You should therefore consider 500 to be a very small fortune - not enough to own the town, but enough to live comfortably despite the situation, at least for a while. Personally, I'm rubbish with numbers, so this isn't really something I feel I could make a reliable guess at. It bears noting, however, that there should ideally be about 250 gold (the precise middle of the rollable range) per character circulating in the economy right now.

Also, three stacks of gold ore that Jarvis is reluctant to try smelting before his skill increases.

Anyway, it was my intent to leave this matter entirely up to the players. I still intend to do so.

Jarvis Miller · 2013-05-19 12:11:57

All your economy are belong to me.

I think the simple answer to this is you can't really put a price on gold - it's more of a barter economy at this stage. Raw materials are practically worth more than gold, and as it develops it'll be dictated by supply and demand. You don't tend to start life with a big sheet that tells you the value of your cash, you just divine it from the world around you. If someone offers you something for 20 gold, it's up to you to decide whether that's a good deal or not. The economy could change in real time, too. If a glut of carpenters suddenly join the project - the value of wooden goods would go down because of the increase in supply. I'd rather the economy developed organically in this fashion, myself.

The Banker · 2013-05-19 21:04:00

Currently what I find fun is finding people within the different crafts and trading with them. Whether I can offer them protection, goods, gold, whatever it is they need I can usually work a bit to get what I want in the end, which is enjoyable and creates the roleplay. Also it makes the actual blacksmith important, and the carpentar etc, even the miner and tinker as every skill is basically needed at some stage.

So in regards to what value "gold" has, its essentially what the person wants to price their goods at, its pure monopoly out there so if the blacksmith who can make that sword you need or want charges you 1000 gold, you better find the gold, or something he needs or intimidate him so much he bloody hands it over or his fingers get broken for being a greedy git !

So far from what I seen in the last 2 days it really works, people starting to interact and trade constantly, bows for ingots, tools for protection, basically taking a miner out to mine and you say I will get 20% of what you create and I will keep people (Damned criminals!) and zombies (Damned undead criminal!) off your back.

And then of course in the end backstab the miner, keep all the iron ingots and live happily ever after.

Each to their own.

Linaeus · 2013-05-20 02:24:39

The Banker wrote:

And then of course in the end backstab the miner, keep all the iron ingots and live happily ever after.

And then get your kneecaps broken by a mob of angry miners.

Egbert · 2013-05-20 09:58:59

I agree with Delfer in that we need some measuring stick of how much gold is worth. I agree with everyone else that such things should be decided naturally as trade occurs and people make decisions as to what is/isn't worth it.

I think it would help people determine the value of goods/gold if they post trade orders on the IC board when nobody is around to deal with the request IC. With a log of previous trades, we can establish an idea as to the value of goods without arbitrarily throwing numbers around.

The Banker · 2013-05-20 11:28:23

I am doing a lot of trade currently in the game between loads of different craftsmen, what I will do is write down over the next week or two the associated coins with each unit price and from there get a general estimate, dont have to follow it, but could be interesting to see whats valuable and what is not, this trend will change over time of course as people get armour but start to need new weapons, or suddenly a blacksmiths gets GM and can advertise their wares for even more due to durability/damage ecetera.

The Midnight Watch

Announcement

#1 2013-05-18 20:56:06

Economy

#2 2013-05-19 07:27:21

Re: Economy

#3 2013-05-19 12:11:57

Re: Economy

#4 2013-05-19 21:04:00

Re: Economy

#5 2013-05-20 02:24:39

Re: Economy

#6 2013-05-20 09:58:59

Re: Economy

#7 2013-05-20 11:28:23

Re: Economy

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