exchange rates

[Bastian]

with the current system, the exchange rates will never rise or fall, they will stay at their lowest value. we have >1000 user in this game now, and if everyone only wanted one oil well, cotton field and diamond mine they would everytime be overcrowded.

(forget this:
suggestion: log the oil/cotton/carat production per 5 minutes for let's say one week and take the lowest value for the highest exchange rate and the highest for the lowest rate. or write a script that calculates the rates new every week or so.
with this system the rates would change really much and you really have to look if you save your ressources and wait for an higher rate or rather sell now.)

OR (had this idea while writing the post)
base the rates not on the PRODUCED but on the SOLD ressources in the last 5 minutes. so if less people sell diamonds the rates will rise -> more people sell -> lower rates ...

and another thing: comparing the average total production(in geos) of the ressources, diamonds are the lowest. you should change this

------------ average time----av. prod./day--------total
oil----------24 days----------105 barrels----------24*105*0,06 = 148,05
cotton------55 days----------55 pounds----------55*55*0,07 = 211,75
diamonds---12 days----------55 carats------------12*55*0,2 = 126,5

[Bastian]

sorry the days in the table must be 23.5, 55 and 11.5. excel rounded them ;)
the total numbers are right

[Cato]

The second suggestion is much more realistic, because thats how the actual markets act. The buying and selling of resources causes the price to rise or sell, respectively.

But if we are going to implement a true market scenario, players should definitely be able to buy resources so that exchange rates (which I understand are currently on a sliding scale) don't just fall, but can rise as well. Otherwise, resource gathering becomes less valuable as time progresses and there is no reason to hold/stockpile resources for any period of time.

This potential buying of resources raises the question if there is going to be a practical need for resources (other than selling in exchange for geos). Perhaps cities should require a certain amount of resources per unit of time. Or maybe it will cost oil to maintain and transport armies. If a player couldn't harvest the necessary resources on his own, he would be forced to buy resources or cut down the size of his empire/army.

I don't see a practical use for diamonds, but I figure that Mickey will eventually want to add more resources. If Mickey is indeed going to expand on the variety and abundance of resources, this free market situation might be something he would want to consider, in order to best simulate reality in a simple way. And he might also want to give practical value to currently meaningless resources which as of now only differ in with regard to the numbers.

[mikldt]

Getting a little ahead of the game I know, but I think this could be really cool: What if, as suggested, certain amounts of each resources were needed to keep cities running and to keep troops alive, but you could also buy/sell resources instead of just trading. We wouldn't have to worry about exchange rates, and the cost would automaticaly meet the demand, just like in a real market, how badly people need it would determine how much they're willing to pay. Then you could also invest...
I don't see this as a realistic addition to the game any time soon, but I think it would be a really cool thing to consider!
I was also thinking it would be cool if you could sell the land you have your oil well on... ;)

[rasqual]

Yes, gentlemen -- an economy. Mickey! Please, by morning. Thank you.

[araT]

Can we get a stockmarket running too? I'm a bit of a shareshark and would rather sit on my butt trading shares all day than getting dusty mining for jewels - I'm also against black slave labour, so cotton is out of the question! :p

T.

[Lukepuuk]

It took the world thousands of years to develop an economy...can't wait that long here though ;)