[Discussion] Ingame currency system, what we want to get?
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@suruq It's only a supposition ^^ I suppose there was merchants in all the races, so maybe they had the same ^^
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Don't forget the currency will be also needed to pay taxes in towns
I think having three different currencies on three planets will not be a good solution. Especially if those currencies will not be 1:1 interchangeable. The changing value of a single currency could cause ruin to one of the races - similar to Euro or Dollars and other, weaker currencies. For example for One Dollar in US you can buy an icecream, but for One Dollar in 3rd world country you could buy an icecream truck
It could go like this also between the planets. If the currency of one of the planets will be more valuable then the others, then there will be huge unbalance in players valuables.Going further - if those three currencies will be in 1:1 ratio, then there is no point of having three of them. The only thing that would be different is only a name.
Therefore I think the best solution would be a single currency for all three planets. I get it, that having three different currencies (or even more) would give a better role-playing taste to the game, but it would be dysfunctional in any other aspect.
As to the currency name, we could use: Ducat or Doubloon, the medieval names of currency from our world. Or for example: Amber which was widely used by merchants long long time ago.
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@dybuk Actually, using three different currencies without a fixed exchange rate can create a nice profession of merchants (mostly human) who travel between planets just to exploit these arbitrage differences. That's also real-world basic economics.
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@nightcoder
Yes, it worked like this with merchants, but it is still abuse of the geo-politics. Merchants should be able to profit on buying cheap and selling high based on the production and availability of product in different places. For example you can buy iron in the mines cheaper than on the coastal beach and vice versa on coast line you probably can buy salt cheaper then in iron mine. In such cases they have to prove themselves with knowledge of markets and needs and supplies.In case of different currency rating it is a completly different case - whatever you buy at one place, you will be able to sell it higher in other place. It is not based on availability of product, but on the currency value itself. For example you could buy wood in Beastmen forest village and sell it with profit in a Human forest village. It doesn't matter that the both places have got wood, you just exploit the system being able to deliver the wood cheaper then the people who produce it locally.
This way business would look like this: buy everything as much as you can on one planet and sell everything on other planet with lower price than local market, but more expensive from what you paid when buying stuff.
This kind of "business" would be able to do anybody without any insight into markets or without any knowledge. This does not make a true merchantOff-topic: I just love this forum engine. I had a power outage just a moment ago and my computer went off without any warning, before posting this message. When the power came back and computer restared, everything I wrote was still there, ready to be posted
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@dybuk said in [Discussion] Ingame currency system, what we want to get?:
@nightcoder
[...] it is still abuse of the geo-politics. Merchants should be able to profit on buying cheap and selling high based on the production and availability of product in different places.Oh, you mean like money?
The value of each nation's currency is a factor both of how much of it is in circulation and how much influence its accepting nation(s) have in global affairs.
i.e. the value of money depends on supply and demand, just like everything else.
It doesn't matter that the both places have got wood, you just exploit the system being able to deliver the wood cheaper then the people who produce it locally.
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This kind of "business" would be able to do anybody without any insight into markets or without any knowledge.What?? No it wouldn't.
First off, you're forgetting to account for the cost of transport. This is not merely one of money but of time. Any time spent transporting a good is time not spent on acquiring value, and therefore you make less money over a given time period. This is especially problematic with the difficulty of moving between planets. People maximizing profit will account for these shipping costs and will not travel a world and a half away for 10 silver.
Secondly, the value of the product would rapidly drop within the target market(s), while the value of the rapidly dwindling local currency would go up because there was less of it in turn. It would not be a sustainable venture, especially if "everyone" is doing it.
Third, if the demand is low enough because there is already so much wood, nobody will buy wood at any price and thus nobody will choose wood to try to game the system with, they will choose something that's already profitable and vulnerable to exchange rate shenanigans.
Fourth, you wouldn't actually be consistently profiting unless you were gaming the exchange rate like playing the stock market. This is not possible for someone with allegedy zero business sense / no economic savvy.
