Economic system

[Vinn Esper]

I am writing this to ask preliminary permission to try and create a write up for an economic system on the site. The reason I am asking permission first is because I'd rather go through effort of pleading my case and being told no then going through the massive effort of writing it and being told no. Without further adieu here is my case:

First I want to give a very brief very rough draft type of idea of how it would work as I envision it. So, the most noticeable change would be the inclusion of a new section of the site that would be the market place. There would be a free market that contains gear that anyone can purchase. In addition, there would be main faction specific markets which those factions would be able to determine who has access to buy what. In addition to that it would allow independent factions a greater role in the game because they would have to ability to post their own markets and offer their own goods or services.

In addition to that, players would be responsible to keep track of and explain their finances. Faction leaders would be expected to do the same for their factions.

So now you're probably thinking that sounds like a lot of work and you're wondering what the benefits would be. I think the foremost benefit is that adding this type of system would open new and unexplored avenues of role-playing. Quite a few characters have written in ownership of businesses as part of their characters yet they are unable to expand on those story lines because the systems that would give them a basis to do so simply don't exist.

In addition, as it sits right now the only way to impact the overall story line is to participate in pvp. That's all fine and well, but in pvp there are always going to be winners and losers and a lot of the time the loser ends up dying. Again there's nothing wrong with that. However, it takes time to "git gud" at pvp and during that time it's really easy to feel like a failure and to feel frustrated.

I feel like adding this type of system and opening the door to the subsequent role play possibilities it would enable, would give players an alternative method of impacting the story that while still able to result in failure, that failure would not negate all the effort that was put into characters. I feel like this could majorly reduce the ph levels of the site. I've also noticed that the site tends to be rather cliquey. I feel like adding such a system could create a means to promote interaction between players whom generally don't have much interaction.

I think adding this type of system would greatly improve the depth and realism of the writing experience. As it stands now credits have no use whatsoever the site and any character regardless of station or rank can have the top level gear. I don't feel like that's realistic and it results in a lot of the same gear being used over and over. By adding an economic system and a market place, you can control the quantities and availability of gear as well as ammunition for that gear. This has an added benefit of allowing admins to be able to work toward prevention of abuse rather then solely responding to it.

Finally, the only real mode of advancement for characters is to complete missions for their factions and ascend the ranks of those factions. There's not a whole lot of personal benefit that is achieved via these means. I feel like adding this system could change that and allow factions to offer very real and more immediate benefits for completing missions on their behalf.

Anyways, that's my pitch and I would really like to hear other ideas on the matter.

 

[Eccles]

Implementing a working economic system has been tried and discussed on the forum multiple times and there just doesn't seem to be much pull for it. It's more bothersome for an entire galaxy spanning gigantic factions where the only real focus is on magic-wielding monks..

 

[Elijah Brockway]

There was a requirement last timeline and before that that characters could only start with 1,000 credits, regarding tracking wealth and all that stuff; I'm fairly certain that, at one point, there was an expectation that everybody would track their characters' personal wealth, going through RPs to increase it, buying items, stuff like that - it just proved somewhat meaningless because most people generally didn't care to track it all or do anything like that, and there were probably too many people to enforce it or something like that (also this is speculation from me, since I know I was told about it all and why it ultimately didn't matter and they removed it for this timeline, I just forgot); credits are basically fluff, as is the personal wealth of a character. It really doesn't mean much so long as there's a story/backstory justification for why your character has all the stuff they have and seems as wealthy or not wealthy as they might be, without actually having to track the economics involved.

It'd be an interesting thing to get set-up on the site, sure, but it'd probably just prove so difficult to track and enforce that there wouldn't be much point to it.

 

[Vinn Esper]

Well, you can't really force people to use a system. However, I think the hard to track idea can be dressed by appointing admins and mods specifically to manage this system. Also from the point in which it was applied, it could only be applicable to characters that begin after that point. Eventually older characters will be stuck with what they currently have or can make changes with approval by faction leaders and or admin/mods of the system. Eventually though, they die off. This will reduce the amount of work it would take to implement the system.

 

[Logan]

I agree with whatever Eli disagrees with.

I've decided to live my life this way.

 

[Wit]

The lenghts you need to go to ensure it works is the strongest argument against it. Not everyone would want to use such a system, I know I won't, and to set up mods and admins for something used by only a group of users just doesn't have the right roi.

 

[Vinn Esper]

The lenghts you need to go to ensure it works is the strongest argument against it. Not everyone would want to use such a system, I know I won't, and to set up mods and admins for something used by only a group of users just doesn't have the right roi.

Your signature is broken.

Looks like the answer is gonna be no. I appreciate everyone taking the time to read and give their opinions.

 

[Wit]

Your signature is broken.

Looks like the answer is gonna be no. I appreciate everyone taking the time to read and give their opinions.

Oh, lol. But ya, unfortunately we've had similar suggestions before but it didn't really work out. Not saying it's a bad idea, just one that doesn't seem to work here for whatever reason.

 

[Vinn Esper]

I understand. I'll just come up with a new idea.

 

[Baobhan]

I think the idea is, that it's good story telling that you put enough effort into large revelations and power gains for a character. I do believe in working for what you get, but, putting strict values on it makes it a grind-fest.

 

[Dmitri]

Members are free to do this on a personal level but it will not be implemented or mandated site wide

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Yeah, personally I'm not opposed to the concept of this, but I think it would take too much time and support to really moderate. More than we can offer at this point. So unfortunately I don't think it's feasible.

 

[Nor'baal]

Members are free to do this on a personal level but it will not be implemented or mandated site wide

Yeah, personally I'm not opposed to the concept of this, but I think it would take too much time and support to really moderate. More than we can offer at this point. So unfortunately I don't think it's feasible.

I agree.

It's a nice idea for fellow Mathhammers to do, but always bear in mind that credits have no impact on the wider RP unless agreed with my like-minded players.

However Vinn, I'd be down to do something like this for RPs we do, I'm always down for some bizniz, and would love to have some 'House Rules' for some friendly RP between us if you like.

 

[Baobhan]

Yeah, I think like an 'opt in' credit system for people who want to use it could be really cool. Like, more of a guide to using money in such a way that with X amount of work, a player could attain said ships of X value or X money etc. Like, it would just be considered an apt amount of RPing to get what you want, but you guys could just choose to make a system to RP with to boost that system. It could help characters who intend to become wealthy and work with those more businessy characters who i see played on site quite well.

I think that could be great. :)

The trick would be to, while it has its complexities, keep it as simple and streamlined as possible.

 

[Vinn Esper]

Wow I hadn't looked at this since Wit posted. I appreciate your suggestion that players can choose to implement it on a personal level, Dimitri. Rereading it now I also understand your logic behind it being extremely difficult to implement on a site wide basis., Brandon.

Boabhan was correct about my intentions. I think it would be cool if people put some time and effort to explaining how they got what they got. At the same time, I see how a character controlling mass assets, I.e a faction leader, would have to divert time from developing faction story or attending to faction duty just to account. I also see how that could be a problem.

Nor'baal, I would love to incorporate this idea into our threads somehow, using the character I am working on.