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Fixed Resource Economy, Auctions and a Currency Conundrum.

William Olson · 2018-10-04T19:42:47

Well, here goes. I'm currently developing a game whose core economy is based on an approximation/simulation of the actual periodic table of elements(the first 92 or so). Essentially the player is using a future technology(future setting) to mine pure elemental resources from the planet without harming the ecosystem/terrain. Think Star Trek type tech. The game is multi-player online(not online yet, still in lab), design goals are aiming for MMO. I'm currently at the problem of Currency. My design parameters are such: At Server Start, the game will have a fixed amount of each of the 1-92 elemental resources distributed in global resource deposits that are recoverable using the tech available to the players. Resources amounts will be balanced so they meet the requirements of the games crafting system/etc. as well as attempting to match a rough approximation of a feasibly naturally occurring system. These fixed resources and the things they get turned into are to be the entirety of the "Matter" that is required for input(trade goods, crafting ingredients,etc.) in game play activities. All Crafted Items can be converted back into useful elemental matter through Recovery processes. Lost matter(Recovery is not always 100%) will develop new resource deposits, or add to old ones that have not been discovered yet. Discovered Resource deposits must be exhaustible. The problem arises when I begin conceptualizing a market system, and most specifically an Auction system. I come to the conundrum.. How do I setup a starting bid amount or even a bidding system without a specific currency? Do I choose a specific element, say grams of Gold, as THE currency? Do I generate some code that tells the players that they have items in their inventory that are worth more than the current bid of 20kg of Iron, according to the current market conditions on the trading platform? Do I do both of these things? Do I need a more abstract form of currency to make it more (but less) tangible to the players? (not my favorite, but) Dollars, Coins, Gems? Something totally abstract that cannot be mined or crafted? I'm trying to attack this conundrum from a "how would a player like it to work?" perspective.. But I'm stalled a bit. Any insights/experiences/thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Game Design and Theory Game Design Theory Advice Design

Started by Septopus September 28, 2018 04:42 AM

13 comments, last by Septopus 5 years, 8 months ago

wintertime

4,154

October 04, 2018 02:26 PM

Are you accounting for people who quit the game? Will the unused stuff spoil to let it flow back into the economic cycle?

Septopus

480

Author

October 04, 2018 03:59 PM

1 hour ago, wintertime said:

Are you accounting for people who quit the game? Will the unused stuff spoil to let it flow back into the economic cycle?

That's the goal, the exact mechanisms I haven't quite figured out yet. Though there will be a some item degradation through use/time anyhow so I guess I can just accelerate that for excessive time between logins with a rapid fall off to zero after a few weeks. Things rust if you don't take care of them.. With all items being self-repairable through crafting, it shouldn't be too inconvenient.

That way should a player return from a vacation or something, while their stuff may be fully degraded, there will be a pretty simple path to recovery through crafting. A couple of game sessions grinding at the mines and crafting and they can be back up to full glory once again.

Or they can build/rent a maintenance bot that can operate autonomously(for short periods, a few weeks tops) taking care of their pretty things for them. But those also break down eventually and need fixing themselves.

Current WIP: https://www.gamedev.net/projects/1006-sling-bot-boarding/

Play it here(Chrome or FF): https://www.kongregate.com/games/WilliamOlyOlson/slingbot-boarding

Awoken

1,554

October 04, 2018 07:27 PM

On 9/27/2018 at 10:42 PM, Septopus said:

I come to the conundrum.. How do I setup a starting bid amount or even a bidding system without a specific currency?

You hit a very common wall when trying to conceptualise a functioning economy. I can give you my own personal insights into economic theory. It just so happens that this very question ( one of its many forms ) is the motivating force behind my project unirule.

In essence you're attempting to understand how to create value. However, you have no idea what value you're in game periodic elements will have because right now you don't have 3 basic things:

1. Energy required to extract the resource ( including time taken to extract the resource ).
2. Total pool supply and total pool demand. ( how many people are supplying this resource? how many are consuming it? )
3. Replenishment life-cycle and consumption life-cycle; both over a measure of time. ( How long does it take to replenish the resource, how long does it take to consume the resource ).

Another wall you've hit is that the fluctuations of demand and supply and ultimately the value of something will be more chaotic when you have few participants. If you've got two people playing your game I'd bet everything would be traded at a 1 to 1 value. But with more and more participants the value of a item becomes more pronounced.

I personally plan on addressing all these issues by simulating the vast majority of the economy with simulated people.

I suggest...

Make some resources harder to get
Make some resources consuming cycle shorter.
Make some resources necessary to daily going-abouts of the game ( food, clothing so on...)

Cheers

Septopus

480

Author

October 04, 2018 07:42 PM

2 minutes ago, Awoken said:

I personally plan on addressing all these issues by simulating the vast majority of the economy with simulated people.

I suggest...

Make some resources harder to get
Make some resources consuming cycle shorter.
Make some resources necessary to daily going-abouts of the game ( food, clothing so on...)

haha, well it sounds like our games may be very similar. I'm going with automated bots and other mechanisms that are part of the settlement infrastructure as well as a few NPCs as the simulated economic participants. I'm trying to keep all AI code isolated in my NPC systems as much as possible. Plus, for game continuity, I would like it for every economic participant to have some presence in the game world, even if it's an NPC, at least it adds to the content that way.

The resource distribution will be an analogue of a natural system, so things like hydrogen, oxygen, and iron will be pretty easy to find, and things like titanium and gold, a little harder, uranium.. good luck.

Current WIP: https://www.gamedev.net/projects/1006-sling-bot-boarding/

Play it here(Chrome or FF): https://www.kongregate.com/games/WilliamOlyOlson/slingbot-boarding