Global Currency or Item for Item Barter?

[Jadzia]

sounds realistic to me, but I can see the headache- however if you sold something for 1000 dollars, then you got somthing in return for it- so it doesn't really matter if that tribe goes away or not.

Well, if that 1000 dollar is dollarA, a local currency defined by tribeA, and then that tribe disappears that means the money loses its value and won't be more than a piece of paper.

Imagine it in real life, you have 1000 dollars, you change it into a small country's currency, then that country goes bankrupt, money loses its value and you lose your 1000 dollars.

[Tybalt]

I am not sure of the member count required to place a totem at launch so I will use the Number 10 because that was the old requirement.

Building a Tribal Market

After placement of a totem a tribe will have the ability to Build a Tribe Market.(Architect Required) If the member count of the tribe is reduced below 10 the option will not be available until the member count is =/> 10. At 20 members(double the totem placement count) the tribe will have the option to place a second market if they desire. If a Market is in place and working, and the member count is dropped below 10, the market goes inactive.(it will save all items, values, and taxes until it is reactivated or reclaimed) The market will remain inactive until the member requirement is achieved or exceeded. If the member count is reduced below 20 and there is a second market active, it will go inactive while the first remains active.

Market Function

The Global Currency will be called Credits for this example.
All items and resources will start with a Global Starting Value. The Market will start empty but with an unlimited source of Credits. Item Value shifts will not take effect until the current transaction is complete.
Buying and Selling will be separate actions. ([Buy][Sell][View][Tax] Tabs)
View tab will be for viewing the current stock and value on items in the market
Tax tab will be for the collection of taxes and will not be visible to anyone without access to the account.
Selling
Items Sold to the market will be paid out in Credits. Each time an item is sold to the market, the value of that item will reduce by a percentage (we'll use 1% for this example) until the value reaches 0.01
Buying
Items bought from the Market will cost a percentage of the current value set to the item at that time. (We will use 150% for this example) Each time an item is bought, the value of that item will increase at the same rate selling reduces the value. This value gain will continue until the stock is depleted.
Taxes
Tribes will have an option to place a tax on all items bought from their market. This will be an incentive to build the Market in the first place. The Tax rate will only be allowed within the range of 0%-20%. This will be the only modification allowed to be directly altered by the tribe. Upon changing the tax rate of the market, the current tax rate applied to the market (0% at start) will remain in effect for 24 hours real time. After 24 hours the new tax rate will come into effect. All taxes acquired through trade will have to be claimed by the Tribe leader or member(s) appointed, at the market.
Market Re-balance
After an item has not been bought or sold within 24 hours real time, the Value of that item moves towards it's starting value at a percentage per 24 hours real time. (For this example we'll use 0.5%)
Tribal Disband
Upon disbanding a tribe the market will go inactive for a period of 30 days real time before it is destroyed along with all items it contains. During this 30 day period, a market can be reclaimed if it is contained within a tribes territory and said tribe's member count meets the requirements.(10 if the tribe has no market. 20 if there is currently an active market. 30 if there are 2 active markets and so on.) Any Taxes that still remain unclaimed in this market will become available to the new tribe.
Diplomacy
Allied and Neutral tribes will have access to the market. Tribes at War with the owner of the market will not. There could possibly be a separate tax set for Allied and Neutral tribes. All solo (not in a tribe) players would be set to the neutral tax.

Example:

I will use Screws for this example.

I have obtained 10 screws and want to sell them. I access the market in my tribe, and find that the screws are being bought for 0.50 credits.
I choose to sell my screws and receive 5.00 credits.
I have obtained another 10 screws and want to sell them but now the buying price is 0.45 Credits(0.45219103...) so I sell them and receive 4.50 credits
I now have 9.50 credits.
I have learned a new item to craft and it requires screws... dang it.
I access the market and notice that the cost to buy screws is now 0.61 Credits (0.40895346x150%)
I buy 10 screws back from the market for 6.10 Credits leaving me with 3.40 credits and 10 screws.
The Tax on my purchase (8%) comes from the total amount paid for the screws (6.10) this amount of 0.49 credits(0.488) is added to the Tax account of the Market and is available to the tribe leader or who he allows to access the account.

With this model, inflation will be kept to a minimum because the money is not stored it is destroyed. With the exception of the taxes.
Supply and Demand is automated.
Gold farming would be very ineffective do to the value decrease of items and the slow Re-balance of the market value without direct stimulus.
There is no way to exploit this system because of the lack of control over value.

(If I left anything out, it is not due to lack of consideration. Only lack of mental stamina.)

[Darenkel]

I'm not going to quote that wall... so... +1, anyways. Sounds good to me. It would still allow for other forms of trade, without a chance for much inflation.

[mrcalhou]

I'm not going to quote that wall... so... +1, anyways. Sounds good to me. It would still allow for other forms of trade, without a chance for much inflation.

Throw in a tribal auction house function so players can sell to each other as well, and I think it's a winner. Of course, that's because it's really damned similiar my idea

Anyway I think an aunction house type function is a must for more complex crafted goods. Raw resources for the market, crafted goods for the auction house.

[Tybalt]

Throw in a tribal auction house function so players can sell to each other as well, and I think it's a winner. Of course, that's because it's really damned similiar my idea

Anyway I think an aunction house type function is a must for more complex crafted goods. Raw resources for the market, crafted goods for the auction house.

I don't believe in the need for an auction house of any kind. Just like I see no need for individual player owned shops really or any kind of bank or global storage. All personal trades can be handled through the Tribal Questing System. And Global Banking is fail for sandbox games. If players feel the need for an auction house, that would not be hard at all. You would only have to set it for Local access only. Global access anything will kill the sandbox game.

[mrcalhou]

I don't believe in the need for an auction house of any kind. Just like I see no need for individual player owned shops really or any kind of bank or global storage. All personal trades can be handled through the Tribal Questing System. And Global Banking is fail for sandbox games. If players feel the need for an auction house, that would not be hard at all. You would only have to set it for Local access only. Global access anything will kill the sandbox game.

I never once mentioned global storage or a system that allowed all selling to be handled globally. Not once. In fact, as I've already mentioned in other posts that I have wrote on this topic, I'm COMPLETELY AGAINST global storage and global shops, stores or auction houses. All trade should be done locally to encourage a need to transport goods. You are at least the second person to infer me suggesting a global storage; what is it that I said that make people think that?

In any case if the tribal questing system is opened to neutral and friendlies then it would function in the same way just with a different name. The tribeless should always have a means to conduct business besides shouting in chat.

[Xx1327]

i've already posted this in another thread but,


There should be an option to mint coins, and allow tribes to choose anything as currency or a money system, bartering...&c. Pacts or treaties could be made between tribes, allowing others to join, leave, or get kicked, which would decide on a rate for the currency agreed on by tribes. For example i set a copper coin at a value of one for my tribe and other tribes can either make the same coin or mint square silver blocks for the same value(exchange rates) while another tribe uses leather craps instead. when a tribe starts over doing it with production of their currency and inflate the market terms of the treaty will make them get kicked out and declared war on or whatever.

this would create a dynamic and realistic currency system which could also create some interesting effects, wars and what not.

Now mints would be buildings that tribes could build and destroy. They would require the minting skill, resources to mint coins of whatever design and material, and the plates to make a specific coin. tribes can only have one mint and 2 plates for every type of coin, one plate would always need to be in the mint to be able to make that coin and one could be stored somewhere in case the mint is ever destroyed or even raided, copies of plates could be made and traded to other tribes. evil tribes could attack good tribes raid their mints and steal their plates causing all sorts of havoc.

hope i explained this well enough.

[mrcalhou]

i've already posted this in another thread but,


There should be an option to mint coins, and allow tribes to choose anything as currency or a money system, bartering...&c. Pacts or treaties could be made between tribes, allowing others to join, leave, or get kicked, which would decide on a rate for the currency agreed on by tribes. For example i set a copper coin at a value of one for my tribe and other tribes can either make the same coin or mint square silver blocks for the same value(exchange rates) while another tribe uses leather craps instead. when a tribe starts over doing it with production of their currency and inflate the market terms of the treaty will make them get kicked out and declared war on or whatever.

this would create a dynamic and realistic currency system which could also create some interesting effects, wars and what not.

Now mints would be buildings that tribes could build and destroy. They would require the minting skill, resources to mint coins of whatever design and material, and the plates to make a specific coin. tribes can only have one mint and 2 plates for every type of coin, one plate would always need to be in the mint to be able to make that coin and one could be stored somewhere in case the mint is ever destroyed or even raided, copies of plates could be made and traded to other tribes. evil tribes could attack good tribes raid their mints and steal their plates causing all sorts of havoc.

hope i explained this well enough.

The reasoning behind having a global currency is to make it easier to conduct trades (that is making it so that trades can be done when both parties aren't present at the same time). It would be a pain in the ass to have to keep changing the values of a million different items and qualities of that item to match the values of the other million items. The same thing goes for using a ton of different things as currency. It's a pain in the ass to keep track of all of that.

[Xx1327]

it wouldnt be any harder to set up trades and set a value for something. you wouldnt be changing values for lots of things constantly unless you constantly had tons of new tribes joining every second. keeping track of things on the computer is simple usually because there isn't much to keep track of but also because of charts and graphs. anyways most ppl resort back to bartering when it comes down to it, we could always just use minerals like gold and gems as a default currency for all tribes.

[mrcalhou]

You can use anything for currency. Nothing has value unless some entity says it has value.