Olympia, an outline for an economy From: nicholso@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Melvin H. Nicholson YBH) Date: Sat, 16 May 1992 01:59:38 +0000 Here is a suggestion which will provide a legitimate basis for the economy of Olympia and prevent the vapor-cash from appearing. The basis of this system is very simple. Track the amount of $$$ that the population of the area has, and the amount that it is willing to spend for various services/need servicing. Without going into actual formulas, here is the general idea: Players who wanted things done would request labour (if they didn't have sufficient men to dedicate to the job) -- to facilitate this, there would need to be a mechanism by which players were able to specify how much help they wanted and what ranges of payment were acceptable. Also, menial labour would have to be figured in to most of the production time costs (someone has to bring the master carpenter another big hunk of wood, etc.) The value of work would depend on the demand/supply ratio, which would be solved by a minimax style algorithm (from the merchant eye view, of course) A fraction of the indigenous population would want to work, especially when the price of labour is high, and some would also want to hire labour for whatever reasons (this provides a damping factor to preserve balance) The $$$ in the indigenous town would be replenished not only from labour payoffs, but as a repository for where part of the maintenance of units goes (so while the peasants tavern is well stocked with your drunken soldiers, he'll have more $$$ to spend on getting his roof fixed or seeing an entertainer). This is the same $$$ to be affected by taxation and pillaging. (and woe be to the baron who taxes people but doesn't keep them safe) Clearly this isn't a completed system, but it is a good outline for one. Comments? Mel Up