G33X Nexus Entertainment > Precursors

Money

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fehknt:
Credits? dollars? gold coins? iridium ounces?

OK, so what we call it isn't too terribly important.

I'd like to talk about what it can buy, and how important it will be to a character.  Also of importance is banks, credit, lotteries, and real estate.

Oh yeah, and anything else to do with CASH.

As for what it can buy... I kinda imagine a universe where anything is for sale: planets, solar systems, moons, spaceships, technology, weapons, beer...  For the right price.  I'd like to see real estate being a real status symbol among players, (possibly real estate and bank accounts are common across characters?) and I'd also like to see to it that any character with enough money can buy real estate.  

Now, this entails some problems, mainly the characters that join early, and make a land rush, combined with characters that join late and don't get a chance to buy land.  Well, let others TAKE land, if they have the military might, and the takee doesn't have anything to back up his property claim.  Require some sort of development on the land within 30 days or the property reverts to an unowned status.  Continue to "find" new star systems, possibly offering naming to discovers, and a discount on purchasing wholesale land...

Banks should generate minor interest, and serve a real safegaurding function.  Unless all money is electronic, in which case, all money is in a bank anyway.  Credit lines should be available, and I personally think it'd be great to see a head contract going out on really bad debtors that went to disreputable banks just to get a huge loan they couldn't pay back in time...

Lotteries could work in a very real way: perhaps the cops fund thier operation through galaxy-wide lotteries in addition to charging for thier services, and skim off 50% of all ticket sales for themselves, the rest goes into a pot and every month a lucky winner is chosen at random?

I think that's all my ideas right now...  Let's hear yours!  (yes, you.)

Morgul:
I don't like 'credits'. It's too generic. Here's my thoughts: There are two major factions: The League, and the Terrans. The League was formerly the USA, so they still use dollars. The Terrans could use either 'Euros' 'yuan' or 'yen'... Hrm. How about the Terrans use 'New Euros'?

Aside from the namming, I think that all the ideas fehknt suggested work well. I want banks to be useful, and I think that characters might even be allowed to transfer money from one character to another... at a nice 25% interest rate. (Cut it to 15% if it's from one player to another). Oh, and safety deposit boxes should be a part of it... as well as wills. (When a character dies, and you choose to create a new one with half the stats of the old one, the game should automatically name the new character as 'next of kin' and give you all the stuff... after taxes, fees, and burial costs, of course.

Lotteries are a nice idea, since the Gov't and law enforcement needs soem $$. Also, Taxes (and the need to file them) should be part of it as well. (Military personnel are exempt I'd say)...

... or do we all hate taxes enough that we choose to leave them out? ;)

fehknt:
HAH!  I like the idea of including an income tax.  Of course, that's only for the work that's on the books.  For the self-employed merc, you could probably keep a fair portion of it off the books if you tried.  A freighter captian could probably not keep his stuff off the books due to the volume that gets unloaded... except for the small cache of hidden contraband, or illegeal passengers... <:o)

Can you spend one money type as the other?  I'd suggest not unless you accept a bad exchange.  I'd also vote for certian precious substances that have value to either group (like gold or platinum or plutonium or iridium or buckministerfullerene or...) and be able to have a stash of that as "emergency cash" for when you have to deal with people that don't exactly operate within the law and so probably can't accept a direct bank deposit.

Oh, and the "next of kin" thing, I think you should enforce choosing a first and last name, and have the last name be forced to the same thing.  Ok, that's not always the way it happens, but it'd add a little more flavor, I think.  Run a group of characters that are all in the same "family"... heh.

Military personell could be exempt from taxes on their military earnings, but if they make money on the side, I think it should still be taxed as per normal.

Duffy:
A very important thing in MMORPGs is a stable economy. Most of the time the economies end up getting horribly inflated. Easiest solution to this is create enough money sinks just from day to day playing, all the ideas mentioned sounded good. Probably could include docking fees for ships,  upkeep costs on your ship and real estate, maybe protection fees in certain places ran by the more villainous types of people, etc...

Just don't make the system to figure out what you owe too complicated, or so ridiculous that even the cautious money saving player has to scramble to make enough for there "monthly"(or whatever it ends up being) payments.

fehknt:
What about having a little (very little) box in a corner that shows current monthly fee total.  Have taxes deducted instantly from any transaction where the player gets paid, so (s)he doesn't have to make sure there's money in the account to pay percentage of earnings stuff, and make it prompt the player anything if anything they are about to do would put them below thier total monthly payment in cash reserve.

All fees should be one of two types: monthly or instant, with the exception of income tax.  Some public facilities should be available, but perhaps limited availability means you have to wait in line for the free stuff.

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