[MUD-Dev] DESIGN: Active and Inactive currency

[Matt Chatterley]

From: cruise
> sziisoft wrote:

>>> Any way to provide incentives to not hoard cash?

>> The more cash you hoard the more "visible" you are to external
>> forces (extra-planar creatures, bandit gangs, pirates, the IRS?)

> It occurs to me that this is one of the reasons for the Robber's
> existence in Settlers of Catan...when he moves, /all/ players with
> more than seven cards lose half. That's one hell of a discentive
> to hoarding.

> Probably such a scheme should be a little gentler, and logarithmic
> rather than a n abrupt threshold, but a little bit of "pushing"
> from thieves, etc., coupled with the "pull" of various luxury
> items mentioned elsewhere ought to keep money moving...

Yeah. There are all sorts of variations on a theme you can play off
here - I remember Insomnia Mud (many moons ago) used to have
occasional 'pirate raids' on the town, for fun - theres no reason
something similar couldn't be factored in, in a way which is
controlled by a bit of random chance - and the game itself.

If the average wealth per capita in Little Richville is far higher
than in Little NotsoRichVille, the odds are that the roaming band of
brigands who mill around that part of the world are going to attack
the richer town -- and steal what they can get their hands on.

This provides a number of things - players can join in the fray to
try and defend the town for instance - and from the economic point
of view, if the bank gets robbed, it might be a while before players
are able to take their hoard out again (or depending on the bank,
maybe it's lost for ever). If the shops get burnt down and robbed
blind, it'll mean trekking somewhere else to buy supplies (or, if
you're an enterprising merchant, legging it to a nearby village,
stocking up on sundries and returning to sell them at inflated
prices).

Doesn't directly address any economic imbalance, but it's an example
of an interesting thing to tie into the equation - perhaps it would
encourage some players to spread there money around a bit (or spend
money to protect their assets - hired guards and the like).

You could entangle such events around different aspects of wealth,
and at different levels - NPC (or indeed PC) thieves will be more
inclined to target lavishly adorned mansions than ramshackle mudhuts
- if you travel on a dull, unadorned caravanserai, bandits are less
likely to bother you than they are Lord Bags-o-Cash in his six horse
pure gold wagonette.. and so forth.

Lots of interesting opportunities here to pull together different
aspects of the game and make play that little bit more immersive!


Cheers,

Matt
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