Money and Trade System

[Colbear]

Actually Colbear, if those could only be printed by say, the chieftain/lawspeaker. They could sell them to adventures for goods that the town needs, and then the person can cash them in later. Almost like bonds.

Actually, yeah, that works too. Chieftan lawspeaker mints coins "backed by TOWNNAME" with arbitrary names, so one person can make "1 cast iron NAME backed by TOWN", so for example, "1 cast iron tea voucher backed by goondar", so people who are travelling could stop by later with, say, a stack of 20 tea vouchers and 50 deer dog vouchers, and this would enable them to ask a town member to give them tea and deer dogs from the communal chests or something. And if the item's not available publically right now, someone with privs can go into the vault and pick up the necessary items from, say, the private chests.

The problem, of course, would be its usage by members vs by outsiders. So members would primarily deposit stuff -- putting in, say, 5 wrought for 5 wrought vouchers, but at what incentive, when there's altvaults and safe storage? On the other hand, outsiders could do things like trade 20 full teapots for 16 tea vouchers or something, which will basically mean they can get that tea at a more convenient location, or stuff for full beer bottles/beer bottle refills or something. Or members could trade their vouchers for goods with outsiders.

Something like bank notes at first, which will gradually increase to "more in circulation than in vaults" as surplus products get stored and people give to outsiders with communal stuff (like tea or beer or whatever) or pieces get lost by others quitting, etc.

I like this idea. Opinions?


EDIT: Additionally, if we get proper world chat and realistically sized villages (not Kobnach's "i am singlehandedly making this village"), we could see a sort of variation in the value of goods from different towns, based on things like reliability of getting the good, distance from stuff, etc. etc, with, say, 1 goondar tea voucher being worth 2 laketown coins or something.

[Erik_the_Blue]

Here - well, a cheat has some risk of being PK'd, or knocked out and robbed - but it's not all that large a risk, realistically.

It's not just the risk of being PK'd. If someone is a known cheat, others will be less willing to do business with that person. Throwaway alts are a risk, but we could counter by refusing to make significant trades with people we don't know and trust.

What if you make them vouchers and hand them out? Tag them by character name-town allegiance.

Use parchment as paper money, even. You'd need to have a government willing to back each voucher with an amount of goods, like a "steel standard", though. Granted, the lack of a signature mechanic makes the forging of money exceedingly simple, which is all the more reason for the devs to implement the signature mechanic. *mindforcing*

[Peter]

*Mindforcing*

[Junkfist2]

what's the exchange rate on a Goondar vs a Brobuck

One to one. They are both 1/100th of a steel bar. They just have different names.

then it's pointless

Then it would be, yeah.

Point being we within the city can agree otherwise as we can have someone regulating it. If persons were to laugh it off and think it's monopoly money to smelt down and make a sword out of...welllll ok fine but they'll be missing out on buying/selling with the city and losing the "money" value of it.

Also *Hivemindforcing*

[theTrav]

What if you make them vouchers and hand them out? Tag them by character name-town allegiance.

Use parchment as paper money, even. You'd need to have a government willing to back each voucher with an amount of goods, like a "steel standard", though. Granted, the lack of a signature mechanic makes the forging of money exceedingly simple, which is all the more reason for the devs to implement the signature mechanic. *mindforcing*

You mean like debasing the currency? Allowing governments to print money at will? Heheheh, you'll incur the wrath of Jorb with that sort of talk

[Erik_the_Blue]

It'd be nice if it were possible to debase currencies, print paper money, or even go on a fiat system eventually. Who cares what jorb thinks? Let the negative ramifications of poor economic systems be felt in game.

[Laremere]

Who cares what jorb thinks?

I think Jorb does, and the last I checked, his voice overrides whatever anyone in the community says....

[Erik_the_Blue]

I mean in-game. It's kind of sad to have a social sandbox like this only to have the devs trawling around, yardsticks in hand, slapping people who dream up social systems they don't agree with. I.e., *slap* "No fiat currency for you!", *slap* "No communism for you!", and so on and so forth.

Put another way, what would jorb enjoy more: Watching an in-game society based on principles he doesn't agree with collapse due to internal pressures, or playing the role of thought police, preventing such a society from ever forming?

[theTrav]

Babble Babble Babble

Sounds like socialist agitation to me!

Get away from me you pinko scum!

[Erik_the_Blue]

Yack Yack Yack

At least I don't intend to steal the efforts of the proletariat, you filthy capitalist pig.

Err, what was the topic again?