[MUD-Dev] MUD Economy

[Koster]

On Friday, January 09, 1998 10:43 AM, JC 
Lawrence[SMTP:claw at under.Eng.Sun.COM] wrote:

> NPC's are simple -- [snip]
> Players are more difficult.

I gotta tell you all, NOTHING is simple about this. :)

In UO we actually had to take OUT realistic economy sim aspects 
because they weren't fun. :P Shops being overstocked and not paying 
for player goods, shops going bankrupt from failure to compete with 
players, players going bankrupt from failure to compete with shops... 
and on and on and on. Every tiny change sent massive tremors though 
the entire game. We're at the point now where it's a lot less 
realistic, but kinda works, and sort of moves along.

If you expect a player to be able to make money occasionally from 
selling items they make, you will find that players will expect to be 
able to sell those items reliably for a reliable price. And telling 
them that there's a glut of bagpipes in the area doesn't mollify them 
much.

Some of the things we tracked and did:

- track local availability of raw materials for goods fabrication
- track amount of materials on hand for the shop
- track sales rate for individual good types both in the shop and in 
the local area
- shops able to recycle goods into materials, with wastage
- determine target stock levels for goods based on turnaround, 
materials, demand locally and in this shop, etc
- variable pricing dependent upon all the rest
- "overstock" purchases on the part of the shop,  based on shopkeeper 
expectation of selling either the goods, or the materials implicit in 
the goods

There was more, but it boils down to this:

In the real world, you can spend $5 for a block of wood and turn it 
into a great wooden foozle. And the market in foozles can be so bad 
you lose your shirt. But in a game, players will say, "labor implies 
profit! I MUST make money at this!" and they will report that as a 
bug.

So now we have a less accurate economy, but one that satisfies 
players. And we learned (again) the lesson to never lose sight of the 
enjoyment of those who aren't as cutting edge as you are. ;)

-Raph