Re: What's wrong with Olympia today (long)

From: eh1s+@andrew.cmu.edu (Edwin Huang)

Date: Wed, 20 May 1992 14:27:40 +0000

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.pbm: 20-May-92 Re: What's wrong with
Olymp.. Louis Granboulan@clipper (2545)

> In article <1992May18.223618.13301@tellab5.tellabs.com>
> dennis@tellabs.com (Dennis Faherty) writes:
> >
> >fletcher@netcom.com (F. Sullivan Segal) writes:
> >The banking system could be started by an enterprising player
> >(sort of like the Starlight Courier). This would allow banks to be
> >robbed by attacking the stack which represents the bank branch
> >in the town. The bank should turn a profit, if banks accept deposits
> >for a fee (Knights Templar would guard people's money for a
> >percentage during the Middle Ages). Banks could lend money (how
> >would you foreclose? You could take possession of a ship or
> >castle, but if a madman spends it on an army, what are you going
> >to do with that?) Banks would allow the easy transfer of funds,
> >given the deposit of money in the 1st National Bank of Drassa,
> >and withdrawn from the Bank of Port Aurnos. Banks could even
> >issue their own notes (money), effectively increasing the money
> >supply (as long as there wasn't a run on the bank to exchange
> >paper money for gold). The possibilities are interesting....

Well originally I wanted Starlight Courier to be a bank until
I realised what  Mr. Segal did about how I can genuinely get hosed
without an enforcement arm.  So I lent out about 5-8000 coins to a
friend of mine who had many many units and wanted to learn more
about how the game worked.. thus paying 10 times more attention to
it than I realised.

My idea about how things would work would be that I would have a
very secure base of operations.  ( I chose Cnossa for its centrality)
have very awesome fighters stacked underneath me and have money
generators in various places where I would have "branch offices".
Baisically, anyone not helping to pay back their loan would be attacked
by my enforcement arm, hopefully killed and I can persuade the defaultees
men into my growing factions.

Instead I took the idea of starlight Courier to act as a Western Union
of the Olympia.  Ony one person has used me so far, but i figure with
the rising costs  of maintence and the growing number of  independent
unpaid factions, people will soon get the idea. If not, I've already started
persuading the more promising factions that I know about.

This came about as I woke up one turn as the third richest player in
Olympia mostly cause I missed during  5 turns with my idle set on money
making instead of skill learning. I'm still in the top 10, but I'm afraid
newbie killing *is* more profitable than more gentle sources of income.

> I've tried to organize such a bank, but the biggest problem is
> that no player has enough gold to have many stacks that lend
> money.

I'm afraid after careful consideration, the only way I would lend
someone money is if they have their player character stacked under
my faction of fighters as hostages for good behavior.

> Since I am guildmaster of Performers' union, I had the possibility
> to earn the necessary funds to begin such an enterprise. But the
> entertainment rules have changed, and I can't complete this work.
> So I am willingly to organise a Philharmonic Orchester in Cnossa,
> and I hope you will come to hear us, because 150 people are too
> much for Rich's algorithms.

Whoa. My group of 30 odd entertainers arrived not long ago so I guess Cnossa
is beginning to look very Drassa-like by the minute.

> If you want to organise this bank, I will probably take participation
> in this enterprise, but we should be about 5 or 10 old players if
> we want to be useful.

> I suggest that the magicians could participate to this work, since
> they are able to teleport, and they can move important funds very quickly.

There is a much easier way without magicians and I daresay cheaper too.
But  I'll  explain the secret if I am included in said enterprise  ;)
It sounds like you'll either be Starlight Courier's greatest asset or
greatest competitor.

> The problem is of course that the banks need to be protected. I think
> that the minimal force to dissuade an attack is about 30 guards lvl 3,
> with a leader lvl 5.
> You can send your suggestion by e-mail, rather than in the news, so
> our serial killers can't hear us.

Tony Wayland [572]
Starlight Courier : Way ahead of it's time...  farther than can be useful,
it seems.

References

What's wrong with Olympia today (long)
dennis@tellabs.com (Dennis Faherty)
Mon, 18 May 1992 22:36:18 +0000
Re: What's wrong with Olympia today (long)
granboul@clipper.ens.fr (Louis Granboulan)
Wed, 20 May 1992 07:20:51 +0000