[MUD-Dev] Managing MUD economy

[William Murdick]

> Tuesday, December 18, 2001, 1:44:27 PM, Vladimir Prelovac wrote:
>> On 16-Dec-01 at 16:31 Travis Casey wrote:

>>> Don't forget as well that the idea of fixed prices is a
>>> relatively recent development -- for most of history, haggling
>>> was an important part of buying things.  And it still is in many
>>> places.

>>> In an economy where haggling is the norm, sellers are going to
>>> start off with a higher "asking price" when dealing with someone
>>> they know is rich.

>> Yes and that would be nice to see on MUD but how can it be
>> achieved?  If I see that a trader is asking more money just
>> because I am richer (higher level) I would simply log on second
>> character/ask a friend to buy the item for me (or a dozen). Even
>> if you want to get away with only a few coins difference in
>> price, I can feel players would still do it as it gives them the
>> sense of tricking the "system".

Friend of mine and I are writing a mud from the ground up using 2nd
edition AD&D as the base. We have finished shopkeepers about a month
ago and we have haggling implemented and also pricing based on
character class/race. Each shopkeeper has a list of classes/races
that it dislikes and tolerates. It has a set price multiplier for
those it tolerates and those it likes (on neither list). This
affects both its purchase and selling prices. Then, a player can
"suggest" a price to the shopkeeper for an item and the shopkeeper
determines if that price is within a given value depending on that
player's status (tolerate, prefer). If it is then it has a good
chance of accepting the haggled price while if it isn't then the
shopkeeper refuses. Its not as flexible as the player being able to
haggle a shopkeeper down for thirty minutes, but its much more
flexible than most muds.

- William
www.thickmud.com



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