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Idea: Market System Meta Game
Plastic-Metal
Member Posts: 405
(( EDIT: After some thought and feedback from the community, this idea needs to return to the drawing board. The intentions are good, but not quite "there" yet. ))
Mark Jacobs has very clearly defined that Camelot Unchained will contain two distinct playstyles: RvR and Crafting. I would argue that crafting would be interchangeable with "economic micromanagement". Due to the lack of currency being generated from farming PvE monster, players need alternative methods of acquiring gold.
I purpose some type of Market System that stimulates the economic micromangement meta game. Essentially, allows players to gain wealth and nobility without the need of conquest or bloodshed. The system would be governed by set regulations and requires crafters (or players) to meet certain guidelines before becoming eligible to participate within the Market System.
There would be two different investment categories: Important and Exports, and Local Trade.
Imports are goods and services brought into an realm while Exports are goods and services shipped into an opposing empire. All goods and services sold as an imported item are taxable with tariffs via a neutral faction. While some regulations apply, such as banning the sale of armors and weapons to an opposing empire, players would be able to sale generally anything inside the Market System with a high inflation rate. (Player A sales XYZ item for 10g, but with the tariff it appears on the market as 15g, a 50% inflation rate; the extra 5g would not go to Player A - this serves as a method of removing excess gold from the server economy, while still providing a means of commerce.)
Local Trade consists of any good or service sold inside a realm. All goods and services sold in this manner are not regulated or taxed in any fashion; all sales occur on the player's quartermaster located at their shop or house.
In the Market System, players are allowed make investments by purchasing contracts, or stock options, based on the volatility of all goods and services rendered inside their realm. This includes, but not limited to, the following: NPC Merchants and Shop Quartermasters transactions:
NPC Merchants sales include: consumables, equipment dyes, player housing, automated travel, and gear repair
Shop Quartermasters sales include: player crafted goods for each profession type (blacksmithing, tailoring, leatherworking, etc)
The fluctuation of stock option prices are determined by the following four key principals: Supply and
Demand, Territorial Control, chaos factor, and sabotaging supply lines.
1. The first fluctuation variable is Supply and Demand. Supply and Demand is an economic term regarding the price determination of an item on the open market. The function of Supply and Demand is based on the quantity demanded by consumers verse the supply of producers. Thus, resulting in appropriate price equilibrium.
2. The second fluctuation variable is based on Territorial Control in the War Front. This variable could range on scales between 50% and 300% and represents the actual value of a stock option. If a realm controls all of their own territory, then all investments exist as 100% of their actual value. If an empire loses all of their own territory, then all investments exist as 50% of their actual value. Likewise, if a realm controls all of their own territory, plus territory of an opposing realm(s), then the actual value of a stock option may increase up to 300% total value.
3. The third fluctuation variable is based on an unknown possibility of chaos. This variable randomly occurs and decreases the value of stock options due to panic, rumors, and game-altering events. If an realm is close to invading an opposing realm, panic may ensue among NPCs and cause stock options to plummet. The third variable constantly fluctuates upward and downward with or without the interference of players.
4. The fourth fluctuation variable is based on sabotage, which is directly connected to RvR interactions. Players will be able to disrupt supply lines, create confusion, and temporarily prevent purchasing and selling of stock options. If any disruption occurs, the value of any stock option decreases.
As you can see, it needs some refinement, but overall it incorporates a realistic capitalistic environment for players with a minimal learning curve. It rewards the power of choice and risk and directly places the possibility of generating wealth in the hands of players. The system would reinforce the cooperation of strictly RvR players and Crafting players.
The biggest counter argument is that this system could be exploited and abused by certain individuals, just like the real stock market system is done in real life; this post is just food for thought.
Suggestions, thoughts, opinons?
Comments
DAOC Live (inactive): R11 Cleric R11 Druid R11 Minstrel R9 Eldritch R6 Sorc R6 Scout R6 Healer
Indeed. I couldn't imagine the system without the quality mechanic, that was what made true legendary grandmasters stand out from just the regular legendary grandmasters :P The above system may be too much to implement/control/over kill, but thought of it and wanted to post it up in the event it spurred some additional ideas for CSE or the community since a lot of people in the CU community keep referencing to a 'micro economy' system that would be present within the game.
a stock market type system just like IRL would lead to some players getting lots of wealth and abusing the system. The stock market in real life is a horrible system, I don't want that crap in my MMO.
Now as for making money, there could be RvR quests and crafting quests which reward you for doing different tasks. In DaoC they had some RvR quests like go to a certian spot and get an item and bring it back to the quest guy. I loved those quests because you'd have noob soloers trying to do it and a small man or solo'er would be able to pick them off. As for crafting quests if banks are localized in structures than there will be a need for crafters to constantly be moving supplies around the realm. In EvE I used to haul soil around the galaxy. I'd see where it was cheap and then go into contested territory and drop it off for a huge profit. CU could do the same thing. Let players put buy orders in their keeps for wood, ore or whatever so that they can repair or upgrade the keep if neccessary. Maybe even put buy orders for siege weopons to further enhance your keeps defense.
Or maybe a player wants to buy a sword but no crafter is online, just put a buy order for a sword at your keep and a hauler would come drop it off for you.
I healed Mistwraith and all I got was this stupid tee-shirt!
The problem with gold dropping off of slain enemies (assuming the gold they drop appears out of nowhere and not from their pockets) is that it creates enormous inflation (like when the Fed creates money out of thin air IRL). Having money sinks in the game can counter this problem, but why build a system where you have to include money sinks in the first place? Money should come from having done something that adds value (for instance crafting a raw material into a finished product, which is why we pay more for the finished product than the materials required to make it). Now you can argue that killing an Arthurian does add value to the world (at least from the Viking POV), but to avoid inflation (which is really only a problem to new or casual players) there needs to be a compensating loss somewhere. The most obvious of which is the Arthurian being the direct source of said gold. Another way is to calculate the value of the durability lost to being killed (I'm calling whatever the game term ends up being for the quality lost to use/death/time on items, durability, which after some amount of loss requires repair and eventual replacement of your items) and making that value the amount of loot provided to the killers. Now, unless items are incredibly expensive or decay at an extremely fast pace this will be a trivial amount of loot, but given the rate of death in some PvP games, perhaps this is not a problem. After all, the real reward for killing Arthurians is seeing them dead!
I'm a firm believer in a sound currency with a stable value. That's not to say price fluctuations can not, or should not occur, demand and supply will dictate that. But price changes should tell you more than how much of something you can buy (due to your personal wealth). A price should tell you if a certain commodity is in short supply (by being high) or is over abundant (by being low). If some players are running around awash in gold (presumably because they have killed hundreds of enemies), then they will be willing to pay prices that are outrageous for other players based on the supply of gold they have, inflating the prices of those things they buy. This is perfectly acceptable if the players with the huge bank accounts got it by TAKING it from others, and thus reduced the overall supply held by those others, so that the global supply remains equal. This is because over time as no one else buys the things the rich players buy at the price they are willing to pay, the price will fall to where other players will buy and the amount of gold the (now formerly) rich players have will also fall since they will not receive as much from killing broke players (remember I'm now talking about a world where the entire server's supply of gold is finite). And just imagine being among the joyful souls who get the loot from a kill on one of these players!
Now, I can hear you screaming, "But Lawtoween, the realm with the higher population will both hold all the good resource supply points and all the gold since they will have the advantage in combat! Your sound currency model will shut down the game in days!" I will make a post later to address this issue, but right now I don't have the time to provide an adequate response.