[MUD-Dev] DESIGN: Active and Inactive currency

[Matt Chatterley]

From: Freeman, Jeff

[ Snip very interesting post regarding the 'activity' of money in a system ]

Cool stuff, Jeff - random thoughts maybe, but well put and
pertinent, methinks.

This was not something which I had considered, although it has now
started off whole new thoughts in my mind. The game concept I'm
currently working on is very heavily focused on trading (and thus
the economy is going to be critical).

In terms of "money" coming into the system - I'll most likely be
doing that (primarily) through resources - raw materials will be the
main entry point for 'value' into the economy, and these will be
sold by planets - which will in turn buy other goods (and 'consume'
them, removing value from the system).

Once value/money is in the system (as goods can be traded for cash
or goods, the two are somewhat synonymous), it is passed around -
and in theory, the goal for any given player is to accumulate as
much as possible by clever deals (and perhaps the odd bit of
betrayal).

The quandary then - the goal seems to be to encourage what you
outline as a bad thing (and in principle I agree) - inactive
money. Value can't really be inactive, since the worth of goods can
fluctuate - only cold hard cash will count as 'points'.

In reality, numerous upgrades will be available for players to
purchase (and there will be ongoing running costs - another
'plughole' draining away money) - hopefully it will take a little
skill to balance things so that the rate at which money is earned
increases more than the costs of running the business do, so some of
the otherwise inactive cash will be spent, but by and large, when
earned, it will stay earned.

However, other elements of the game come in here to some degree -
players with money to spare can expend it on other ventures such as
exploration - there might be big rewards to be found out there, and
some mysteries to unravel, and the bold players will risk some or
all of their fortune on a chance to increase it further.

Still, I can't condemn these pools of inactive cash as bad - since
that's what I'm telling players to do - go forth and fill thy
pockets!

The balance is the key issue - and will be the really hard part. If
not enough value is introduced into the system, there will come a
point where noone wants (or is able) to buy anything - market demand
needs to gradually fall, not suddenly crash, and as it falls, so
will prices - if one type of resource is in abundant availability it
will become cheap, and production will be reduced - however, this
reduced production will in turn lower revenue for objects which
create their income by that production, and their demands for other
goods will also decline (or at least, their ability to pay the going
rate will).

I suppose I'm trying to say that I intended to create some sort of
system of market trends which will (to a degree) correct itself
implicitly. This theory seems logical if there is a surplus of value
in the system - everything will gradually slow down until the
situation balances out again - the surplus is consumed, and demand
will in turn rise.

However, what happens if there is a shortfall? Prices go
up. Production will increase to its limits (and there will be limits
- which will rarely be exceeded). In these cases of short fall, my
only plan so far is to increase the number of producers in the
system - however, that increase is currently only designed to be
triggered when the number of active players increases.  And further,
with the introduction of a new producer - a new consumer is also
created, as they are one and the same.

Will this alleviate the problem, or will it make it worse?

So much to think about!

Economy is one of my favourite topics to debate, and to implement -
because its just so hard to work out what you want it to do, and get
it right - without overcomplicating things horribly!

Cheers,

Matt
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