Merchant Archive

*Skip to the bottom of this post for a summary and solutions if you don't want to read it all*

Star Wars is not functioning under a true player-run economy. Due to the economic system implementation it can never actually be 100% player-run. With some fairly minor changes it could become more closely towhat was invisioned.

The Economy

Much like the real world, SWG's economy is based on resources. They are the lowest form of item in the game and require players to make them into somethingof usefor the rest of the economy to work.

Unlike the real world, however, all resources are roughly worth exactly the same because of one thing: HarvesterCredit Upkeep. If you are mining the best steel ever to be seen on your server at 70% or the worst ore with all stats below 3 at 70% it doesn't matter. Both resources areharvested at the exact same cost.

So what does this mean?

All objects are built on material that is gained at a fixed rate that is in no way controlled by the players. Since the entire economy is based on the harvesting of these resources and subsequent combinations into sellable products, it could easily be said that the economy is not and will never be truly controlled by the players.

The same goes for other structure upkeep and vendor fees. Where does this money go that you put into them? What does it become? It goes nowhere and becomes nothing. Its loss is never reflected in the rest of the money in the universe. What happens to stable real world money when 1 billion dollars suddenly disappears from circulation? I'm not an economist so I couldn't tell you for sure what sort of effects that would have, but it would be far from "nothing".

This is a fundamental built-in flaw of the SWG economy that I don't see ever changing. We make money appear from nothing (missions) and disappear into nothing (Money sinks) with no reflection on how much money is actually in the world at that point in time. This is *NOT* a player-based economy. The players are just collecting money from a mysterious source and then putting it into another mysterious source.

So, you might ask, how can this be fixed? Well, it cannot be fixed without a major overhaul of the entire mission/money sink system which will never happen.

But I DO have a few ideas on how to make it better:

****** Summary & Solutions ******

Problem:

Structures just take money for no reason. Where does it go? What does it become?It is a set and flat rate that will never let the players actually control their economy.

Solution:

There isn't a 100% solution but there is a decent one -

The economy system implementation forces mysterious money sinks as upkeep but there could also be a system that lets Architects build and use Structure Repair Devices. These would be devices with a rating and a limited use that would repair structural damage percentages dependant on their ratings. Make all structures take structural damage over time dependant on their durability experimentation.

This would be a semi-permenant damage that could only be repaired with a Structure Repair Kit and would destroy the structure once it hit 0% (As well as stay with it after a redeeding).

The required money upkeep on structures should fluctuate depending on 3 factors - Effeciency Rating of structure, Percentage Rating of the resource being harvested and Structural Damage percentage (The more damaged it is, the more it costs to run).

Problem:

Money sinks need to be rethought and redone. Most are strange and lacking in logic.

Solution:

NPC Vendors should charge a commission on what they sell, not a credit-for-sale money clock. Why would a vendor take more money if they are selling higher priced products? A guy working at a Toyota car lot isn't getting paid because there are currently 40 Camrys sitting on the lot. He gets paid for selling those Camrys.

Why should it be any different to SWG vendors? Just make them take a percentage out of the items sold. There! A simple and logical money sink that doesn't punish anyone. Housing and factory upkeep costs are silly. The structure money sink should derive 100% from harvester upkeeps because harvesters control the economy, houses don't. Apply my Structure Repair Kit solution to houses and factories. Make them degrade over time depending on their Durability rating and let players keep them repaired with a tookit built by other players -- Now that is a player-run economy!

Problem:

Money just appears out of thin air with missions. The only factor limiting total economic collapse is that players haven't spent enough time running missions.

Solution:

Mission payouts need to be calculated based on:

(Total Money Count In World) / (Total Active Player Count) = Average Player Money

Where Average Player Money is the average amount of money owned by the average player at that point in time.

If Average Player Money is higher than what is reasonable (Reasonable Amount of Money) in comparison to money sinks -- Mission payouts should be reduced by the following:

(Reasonable Amount of Money) / (Average Player Money) = Percentage of Standard Mission Payout

I know this reads like a geeky accounting income statement, but stick with me on this

Example:

Jeht checks the mission terminals for a mission. Normally there is a Gnort Lair destroy mission that pays 1,000 credits. The following calculations are made assuming there are 3000 players currently playing and a grand total of 300,000,000 credits floating around the world at that moment. The developers only want players to have about 70,000 credits on them on average. This is enough to pay money sink fees but still walk away with some profit.

(Total Money Count In World (300,000,000)) / (Total Active Players(3000)) = 100,000 Average Money Per Player

This is above what they think is reasonable, so mission payouts are cut by the percentage of difference.

(Reasonable Money(70,000)) / (Average Player Money(100,000)) = 0.7 (70% Mission Payouts)

So Jeht's 1000 credit Gnort Lair Destroy mission shows up as paying 700 credits instead. Since mission payouts are cut, the money sinks eventually drag the total money in the world back down to what is "reasonable" and normal mission payouts return. The world is saved! Harvester costs remain in balance with how much money people have, thus there is no wild cost fluctuation and the economy works as a normal world economy. Everyone gets to function in the economy, not just the big weapon smiths sitting on 40,000,000 credits. Eventually their money supply will dwindle down to a few million because of the money sinks and bring the world back into check, making them price their weapons at affordable rates along with every other crafter.

If you think this post is decent give it some star ratings so maybe a dev will take a look. Thanks!

~ Jeht Black ~ Tarquinas

Just one clarification in your post. In the real world, money does come from nothing (loans) and is then spent back into nothing (repayment). In the real world, 100's of millions, if not billions of dollars are created and destroyed daily.

your idea doesn't work

the fact that a minority (top crafter for example) are able to accumulate wealth means that the mission payout will decrease in time - making the majority (fighters) poorer

money sinks are great and do the job very well- it's true, the game needs more money sinks directed to the rich players

i don't know what, titles, slaves, distinctive clothes, the ability to place statues of self in the city plaza...

The high-end crafters are money-sinks in and of themselves! They let their bank accounts accumulate millions and millions of dollars, and they don't spend it on a thing. When they quitthe game, the money is removed from the game permanently, but it's effectively removed every time a master crafter takes a payment, after he has already purchased his large house and his PA Hall.

There are plenty of money sinks in the game. Which prices are going up? Who is paying those higher prices? Where do THOSE people get their money?

From my perspective, prices are falling as more and more crafters learn to make the high-end items. More and more people are making more money than they can spend, and are becoming themselves, money-sinks.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but your entire argument, while thoughtful and coherent, is based on faulty logic.

This is the crux of your argument:

"All objects are built on material that is gained at a fixed rate that is in no way controlled by the players. Since the entire economy is based on the harvesting of these resources and subsequent combinations into sellable products, it could easily be said that the economy is not and will never be truly controlled by the players."

This simply isn't true.

SWG isn't, and has never claimed to have been, a player-controlled economy. The only "controlled" economies are communist, where all inputs and methods of production are centrally controlled -- and therefore all prices in the economy are fixed by the government. Most economies -- including SWG -- are controlled by supply and demand. The intersection of the two determines price.

So what is SWG's economy? It's a player-driven economy. What does this mean? It means that players are the ones determining both supply and demand in the overall economy. Contrast games like EQ, where essential items are available on NPC vendors, at prices fixed by the game developers; prices which do not reflect how much a player would be willing to pay for the item. Is SWG working this way? Yes.

In any event, your argument concerning resources is incorrect anyhow. You say, essentially, that resources all have the same value because they all have the same cost. That is completely untrue.

(1) Resources are not infinite. Yes, the harvesting rate is fixed based on the harvester itself, but that is often the case in the real world as well. (Have you ever taken a look at how an oil rig works?) And, like in the real world, the vein eventually runs out. When it does, that resource becomes valuable if its replacement is of lesser quality.

(2) Maintenance for harvesters is not the only cost of a resource. TIME is also an input to the harvesting process, as are assorted travel costs. Don't believe me? Try gathering wheat on Lok vs. wheat on Tatooine. After doing both, trust me -- you'll value the Lok wheat a lot more than the Tat wheat.

(3)Finally, there's one big negation of your assertion that can be found on any server: resources DON'T sell for the same prices. People value them differently, even though the harvesters all have the same maintenance fees attached.

You're confusing aspects of one input into the economy with the economy itself. In the real world, there is one element that's absolutely free that's a component of every single thing make in the universe: air. Without breathable air, everyone dies, and there's nobody left to build things. This isn't silly -- it's absolutely true from an economic standpoint. Unlike 'The Matrix', machines cannot create other machines without human intervention. So no air, no stuff, no economy.

Is it right to say "the world economy can never truly be influenced by humans, because humans cannot affect the price of air?" If so, there's a lot of politicians, economists, accountants, and businessmen wasting their time in the world. The point being -- the fact that air is necessary, and free, is irrelevant to any economic discussion. Because it applies across the economy; therefore it isn't a variable factor IN that economy. The same with harvestor maintenance. It doesn't effect the player economy at all, because anyone who wants to get 5000 steel, no matter what type, has to pay their harvester. It's just not a factor.

On a final note: money sinks are absolutely essential to an artifical-yet-open economy like SWG. As you note, there is a virtually infininte flow of money into the system via mission terminals. (However, this HAS to be the case -- because SWG isn't a real world, and you can't "play" your way into having a viable method of non-barter exchange, ever.) Left unchecked, an infinite supply of money will result in infinite inflation. Put in other terms -- if left unchecked, Stim Bs WILL eventually cost 100,000,000 credits each. See: Italy during WW2; Weimar Germany. Something HAS to take the money out of circulation. This isn't a problem in real life -- because money is never infinite. However, in this SWG situation, something HAS to take money out of circulation, or else inflation will run out of control. Hence, money sinks.

So they are necessary. The only question is how to implement them. The vendor maintenance change is a bad way, because it imposes a money sink in a way that has a substantial effect of barring entry to the merchant class -- and without merchants, economies falter.

Now having said all that -- your idea is actually a darn good one. It probably isn't as easy as just dividing money by number of players -- there could be distortions from using straight numbers like that -- but something similar could definitely be calculated. The reduction in mission payouts servers, roughly, like an advance income tax payable on your mission "profit". This IS something that could be a solution (assuming it could be coded into the game).

So keep up with the ideas; they're good. Just don't clutter it up with bad economics.