First off, I think this mod has potential to be better than the base game, so thanks for putting good work into it and making multiplayer possible!
In my limited playtime, I've noticed the economy system seems like it could use some adjustment. Some of the things I consider issues:
- There are barely any products available outside of Zeonica. I haven't found food for sale outside of Zeonica yet. You shouldn't have to travel back to one city on the entire map for most trade.
- Things on the player market are crazy expensive because...
- It is much more convenient and time-effective to just sell to the Artisan. Why place items on the player market when you have to wait forever for someone to buy, and have to come back to the city for a payout? And if everyone sells to the artisan, player market prices will never be competitive and will always be high.
I think the player-driven market is a great concept, but I think the problem is that a few hundred players on a server can't fully run a multi-kingdom market. Some potential solutions that I can think of are:
- Realistically, a traveler wouldn't place goods in a market then leave. So Player could be paid immediately when selling to local traders. Price could be driven by how players impact the supply and demand. For example:
> Each item has a defined base value
> Supply: Each duplicate of the same item on the market slighly decreases the price. This could factor in local city market, and regional market. Historical prices throughout the region could have an effect too.
> Demand: Like the stock market, the value increases with every purchase, and decreases with each sale.
- Remove option of selling to the artisan, or products sold to the artisan enter the player market (at the above defined rate).
- Items could still be manually priced if you want to charge more than the calculated value, or want to undercut the going rate to decrease the going rate. This manual pricing could work as it does now with the licenses, OR player could pay the local Trader a 10% broker fee, 2% down payment then 8% after sale.
- There needs to be a way for products to be generated. So far it seems the only way to get items (at least early game) is from bandit loot or at a city. Even though I can farm, I can't gain food from doing so. Basically the economy is hollow. It's filled with players who are all pretty like-minded, there are no full-time artisans. The only way I can think to fix that is to incorporate NPC villagers who stock the city markets, like the base game. Players could also be utilized to transport village production to cities.
Here's an example of how I envision the economy should work:
I'm in Marunath. I go to sell my loot to the Trader.
- Let's say one set of my sword's base value is 100.
- Supply: There are 4 similar swords on the market in Marunath, and 15 more throughout Battania, dropping the value by ~5.
- Trend: Price for similar swords in Battania range from 80-120. In the past 30 game days, 90 of those swords were sold: 40 swords were sold at $80, only 5 at $120, and 45 in-between. Averaging all comes to ~90.
- Demand: since 90 were sold in 30 days, about 3 are sold per day (fairly high demand). Let's say that increases the value by 3 (# sold / day).
- Putting it all together, something like: Price = (Base + Trend)/2 ÷ SupplyModifier × DemandModifier.
- For this example, that comes to $93 for the given sword. Player can chose to sell at that price to the trader (who will place on player market for maybe a 10% markup), or sell for lower for some reason, or barter for higher (but would have to wait for a player to purchase, instead of immediate payout from Trader).
Continuing this example, now I want to buy food. There is only 1 bread Marunath, so I go to a nearby village and farm some bread, or hunt some boar. I keep the food that I collect (rather than paid by the headman), and maybe have some extra so I go sell it in Marunath (now there is bread for someone else to buy!). This concept could apply to many things, not just bread. Also it could be augmented by NPCs - if a player never stocks a city with food / supplies, then AI farmers / miners / smiths etc will occasionally stock the market. To prevent over-supply, AI might have to eventually purchase things back from the market (essentially deleting items a local market limit is exceeded), but AI purchase would not count as a sale for the value equation. This would make the SUPPLY more realistic while the PRICE is driven by player activity.
In my limited playtime, I've noticed the economy system seems like it could use some adjustment. Some of the things I consider issues:
- There are barely any products available outside of Zeonica. I haven't found food for sale outside of Zeonica yet. You shouldn't have to travel back to one city on the entire map for most trade.
- Things on the player market are crazy expensive because...
- It is much more convenient and time-effective to just sell to the Artisan. Why place items on the player market when you have to wait forever for someone to buy, and have to come back to the city for a payout? And if everyone sells to the artisan, player market prices will never be competitive and will always be high.
I think the player-driven market is a great concept, but I think the problem is that a few hundred players on a server can't fully run a multi-kingdom market. Some potential solutions that I can think of are:
- Realistically, a traveler wouldn't place goods in a market then leave. So Player could be paid immediately when selling to local traders. Price could be driven by how players impact the supply and demand. For example:
> Each item has a defined base value
> Supply: Each duplicate of the same item on the market slighly decreases the price. This could factor in local city market, and regional market. Historical prices throughout the region could have an effect too.
> Demand: Like the stock market, the value increases with every purchase, and decreases with each sale.
- Remove option of selling to the artisan, or products sold to the artisan enter the player market (at the above defined rate).
- Items could still be manually priced if you want to charge more than the calculated value, or want to undercut the going rate to decrease the going rate. This manual pricing could work as it does now with the licenses, OR player could pay the local Trader a 10% broker fee, 2% down payment then 8% after sale.
- There needs to be a way for products to be generated. So far it seems the only way to get items (at least early game) is from bandit loot or at a city. Even though I can farm, I can't gain food from doing so. Basically the economy is hollow. It's filled with players who are all pretty like-minded, there are no full-time artisans. The only way I can think to fix that is to incorporate NPC villagers who stock the city markets, like the base game. Players could also be utilized to transport village production to cities.
Here's an example of how I envision the economy should work:
I'm in Marunath. I go to sell my loot to the Trader.
- Let's say one set of my sword's base value is 100.
- Supply: There are 4 similar swords on the market in Marunath, and 15 more throughout Battania, dropping the value by ~5.
- Trend: Price for similar swords in Battania range from 80-120. In the past 30 game days, 90 of those swords were sold: 40 swords were sold at $80, only 5 at $120, and 45 in-between. Averaging all comes to ~90.
- Demand: since 90 were sold in 30 days, about 3 are sold per day (fairly high demand). Let's say that increases the value by 3 (# sold / day).
- Putting it all together, something like: Price = (Base + Trend)/2 ÷ SupplyModifier × DemandModifier.
- For this example, that comes to $93 for the given sword. Player can chose to sell at that price to the trader (who will place on player market for maybe a 10% markup), or sell for lower for some reason, or barter for higher (but would have to wait for a player to purchase, instead of immediate payout from Trader).
Continuing this example, now I want to buy food. There is only 1 bread Marunath, so I go to a nearby village and farm some bread, or hunt some boar. I keep the food that I collect (rather than paid by the headman), and maybe have some extra so I go sell it in Marunath (now there is bread for someone else to buy!). This concept could apply to many things, not just bread. Also it could be augmented by NPCs - if a player never stocks a city with food / supplies, then AI farmers / miners / smiths etc will occasionally stock the market. To prevent over-supply, AI might have to eventually purchase things back from the market (essentially deleting items a local market limit is exceeded), but AI purchase would not count as a sale for the value equation. This would make the SUPPLY more realistic while the PRICE is driven by player activity.
