* Force smithies to draw from the general population
* Remove bounties, bank, private and public markets as they currently stand, clan markets
* All aid shipments sent between players, except cash, to be published
* Lift all aid restrictions, except requiring troops to be sent, and force aid shipments to cost money
* Soldiers' pay to be higher during a campaign or at low health than at full health and peacetime.
* Networth calculations include all deposits and loans (as negative) in banks, and price goods based on their current market value
** One way this could be done is to keep a 24-hour running average of the sales price of a good (if the server doesn't conk out from the strain
) and update the database worth table from there. Disadvantage: recomputing all networths for a single sale sounds excessive.** Another way is to perform this calculation once daily (at a random time to prevent manipulation) and use the values for the subsequent day. Disadvantage: no realtime fluctuations. Advantage: no realtime fluctuations...
* Clans automatically have an associated market and bank, which inherits friendship and enemy relationships from the clan relations (and this is always updated: removing ally status closes the markets to each other)
* Introduce markets (note that not all new pages need to be linked from menubar)
** Can offer any goods or services for sale
** Transfer occurs at time of purchase
** Game-imposed minimum commission for goods
** Services are text strings, for which the user can leave feedback, or close them if the service has been rendered
** Goods are delivered immediately, and there is no cheating on goods (this is realistic, as goods are easier to exchange than services)
** One currency, a gold standard, and no bartering
** A seller's feedback would show up on their profile pages
** Proceeds are given to player; troop and hawk cash sack are removed (food sack remains). Or maybe just remove troops sack, not hawk sack? Yes, perhaps that's the best.
** New page: Buy
*** Buy at cheapest rate from all markets available to player, a chart of goods much like in the current market; except showing the price range, and it would work differently from the current market in that transactions would not be atomic: if a player needs 100,000 soldiers but there are only 58,000 on the market, then 58,000 are purchased (at the respective prices) and the total purchase amount and price displayed; there is no going back. Nevertheless, a rough maximum figure is provided (the complications are infinite goods and the fact that there is no obligation to check whether the seller really has what they are offering), not sure yet how this is computed.
*** Below that, a listing aggregating all goods and services, sorted by freshness, from all markets, displaying date, market name, seller name and number, price, amount, a brief restriction listing (e.g. 60/6 or 60/6/pp, see below, legend somewhere else), seller feedback, and a little box for purchasing; this list may be multi-page, and sortable by any column
** New page: Sell
*** Again two parts: at top, option to sell goods or services
**** This allows one to set price, amount (may be negative, more than owned, infinite, etc.), restrictions such as only X per player or X per player per Y hours, or X per Y hours total, etc. -- see above for how this is displayed to buyers, anonymity (if allowed), sell goods or services on multiple markets (use checkboxes)
*** At bottom, shows listing of all items on sale by player, with edit link to each
**** Editing allows one to change price or amount, delete item, transfer to another market (paying commission and tariffs)
*** Service selling can be done by selecting from a game-wide set of text templates (which can then be edited) or by composing a new entry, optionally saving that as a template as well. Templates are sorted by how often they are used by sellers.
** New page: Manage markets
*** See list of owned markets at top, markets belonged to below that, other markets at bottom
*** Owned markets is like member markets listing (below), except with Manage link or button (takes to Market administration)
*** Member-of market listing has name and description of market, some statistics like number of members, date created and cash flow, plus a button to leave market
*** Other markets link is similar to these, but with application buttons
** New page: market creation
*** One inputs name, description, image and openness, and is taken to market administration
** New page: Market administration
*** Change openness, view and approve applications, invite players, set friendly and unfriendly markets, set tariffs per market, view profits, etc. -- this also depends on how we handle membership; allow anonymous selling; change types of goods allowed (goods or services, which goods, etc.); owners' forum if we allow multiple owners, set minimum and maximum prices on goods allowed, maximum usage of market per player (in cash), per period of time, or total per amount of time (similar to above), any other restrictions I've forgotten; request merge with another market (other market owners can then accept, and new market inherits that name). Admins can administer the global market, but they're advised not to mess with it.
** New page: Market page -- sort of like a profile or clan crier page, but for markets
*** Name and description of market, possibly image, sale listings, buttons to apply and links to manage if appropriate, purchase history, information about owners, statistics, status, friendly/unfriendly markets, commission, tariffs, members (clans and players), types of goods allowed, below that a forum for discussing the market or posting "wanted/needed" topics, plus anything else I've forgotten
*** Market memberships and links to this page would be on a player's status page, players' profile pages, clan crier pages, and anywhere applicable
** New page: Purchase history
** See own purchases, make or change feedback on service purchases, close service purchases when service rendered, see statistics at top perhaps
** New page: global purchase history on available markets (open, member-of, and friendly to member-of)
*** Option to view global purchase history, purchase history for a particular market
** Fun stuff: price history for particular goods on the open markets, to see trends, this could help speculators
** Fun stuff: track the sources of a user's income for their status page, such as:
*** Private tax (population)
*** Business tax (shops)
*** Goods sales
*** Services sales
* Banks
** New pages: bank creation, bank administration, bank list with balance, bank list would have the same features our current bank has
** Mostly similar to markets in administration, except obviously far simpler. Description:
* Global bank loans out little, has high interest rates for loans, and low interest rates for savings. This is to encourage private banking. On the other hand, no emergency loans at the beginning of the set anymore.Any player, clan, or market may open a bank. If a clan or market opens a bank, access to it is regulated based on whether it is "open" (general) or "closed" (internal). For an open bank, only those allied with the clan or market can access it. A bank is just a balance account into which its owner or owners can put money, and players can borrow or deposit money. The total available for loans is at most as much as its balance, but the owner(s) can set it as less; the game warns users if they set this too low. Loan and savings interest rates are published, and the players notified if they change. There would be a global bank, with the current loan and interest rates, but it would start with no funds: nobody can take out loans until players start putting deposits into their savings accounts. It is up to the owner(s) to enforce collection of loans: this is done by displaying to the owners, for each account, the balance, its date of creation, the interest accrued, and the date and amount of the last payment made. They can then decide when to send out form letters or even declarations of war for really defaulting payments.
By the way: banks can also decrease the reputation of people who default on payments. This brings up the reminder that all buyer/seller/banker/customer feedback ought to be public. Who rated who, etc.
...bankers ought to be able to cancel or write off loans: either because they've been taken by force, OR because it's a form of aid.
* Bank profile pages show feedback info as well
* Allow players or banks to set daily payments
* Allow bank managers to close accounts (with the option of paying the player at that time), and even set feedback on the player (and vice versa, of course)
* Banks have one owner, and profits are up to them to dispense (to themselves)
* A player should be able to aid directly from bank accounts, not just cash
* Introduce funds/trusts (the last main thing on the economy agenda)
** Simply a balance, to which and from which all aid sent is public, but only cash may be sent, multiple users may manage it, rather like a non-profit, and on death of all the owners the funds go into the raffle. A very simple management interface. This is mostly what the description says: funds or trusts or charities.
What remains to be decided: market ownership, goods' value calculation, this all happens in the other thread, and this one is updated when necessary.
Implementation plan:
1: Global markets and clan markets
2: Global bank and clan banks
3: Economy-related gameplay changes (e.g. smithies)
4: Full market functionality
5: Full bank functionality
6: Trusts, misc. stuff
7: Fun stuff, stats
8: Stock market, futures market, whatever else
