Mall Currency

I am finally to the point with my resources that I am comfortable doing a large build without having to worry about what's remaining in the AE. To that end, I'm going to start working on an updated Mall.

But before I can even start, I need a currency. I'm fine with a finite currency (that I have to manually make myself), and I'm not interested in a discussion about inflation, deflation, or volume. All I care about is: I need to be able to craft an unspoofable item. Best if that item can be crafted to varying sizes like coins, but safety from counterfeits and the ability to mass produce is more important.

Now, last Alice we had coins that appeared to be IC2 crafted, but I can't seem to find documentation on how to mint named coins; we were either using a mod I can't find, or the coins were created in creative mode/mod coins.

Is there a way to craft custom coins without mod intervention?g

 

Since this will be my currency for my own store, and I plan on buying everything that I sell, it will be irrelevant what it is forged from; you will be able to sell a wide variety of things to get currency, not just one limited one (like Certus Ore). Of course it will be beneficial to me that others adopt this currency and find it useful, but I'm not seeking to set some kind of mandate or server policy.

 

Thenrin, that doesn't help me if I can't craft them. In order for my Mall to have a stable currency, I need to be able to craft a unique currency. If someone else can craft it and come to my store, then I am susceptible to players with a lot of resources buying me out or otherwise destabilizing the currency by utilizing their existing resources.

However, if I am the sole provider of the currency, via players selling resources to the Mall, then the currency is tied not to the value of a single resource (Certus, Iron, whatever), but to the value of all resources that I trade in, as an average. This has a strong stabilizing effect on the value of the money, and helps prevent runaway inflation.

The downside of this method is liquidity; the value of the goods I personally can produce will be the sum value of the currency in circulation. I believe I am rich enough that this will not be a significant hindrance, but I could be wrong. Imagine if a town had goods, but no money... and only a singe millionaire was buying goods. When he ran out of cash, nobody could sell to him anymore, though his cash would now be in circulation and coming back as he sold other goods back out to the market.

I believe the value that the stability of a multi-resource backed currency (a currency backed by a store, by a market, not by a single resource) outweighs the value that liquidity brings with a currency that can be 'created' via a resource anyone can gather.

I could be wrong. But I would like to try my experiment. I just need a craftable currency now.

 

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE! Here is a simple way to make a locked, craftable currency. Make it so it's craftable in a basic machine (such as a rolling machine), and whenever it is crafted it is stamped with the GROUP that owns the chunk the machine is in. If the chunk is unowned, it has no stamp. If the chunk is owned, it is stamped with the friend list that owns the chunk.

It's a simple and flexible method. Anyone can make a currency, and naming your currency is as simple as claiming a chunk of land with a friend's list that has the name you want for your currency. A single person could do it, or multiple could control the currency production. It would be un-spoofable (since friend lists are uniquely named), and require no special UI coding at all.

It would probably need to limit the allowed characters in the friend list; if the friend list had extended non-ascii characters (which they may allow for international compatibility) then players could make counterfeit currency that LOOKS the same, even though the computer would not accept it since it had a similar-looking-but-different characters. Changing non-ASCII characters to _ would prevent that type of spoofing, at the cost of making the mod less compatible with non-English speaking players. If this is an SKCraft only mod, that would be a minor inconvenience.

 

Unfortunately, that would lead to different issues; logging in with alts to get coins, and the collapse of my stock as everyone bought but few sold. I can't survive an externally generated currency.

 

That would be very cool of you, thank you Path. It would mean a dependency on WorldGuard, but marking with the chunk owner group allows more flexibility than the username with no extra work.

Want to name the currency 'Florins'?

/friends create Florins
/claim Florins

But I could be wrong about the ease of that method. Any craft able multi-denomination currency would be awesome. I would also like to note that I don' t expect to be open for business for at least a month. I just finished excavating, there is so much more to do.

 

Because the realities of economics don't stop being real even when it's a game.

 

Partly true. You tie the value to everyone's possession of resource X. Alice with 100k of resource X in her ME is rich; Barbara, who converted resource X into other valuable resource Y, is broke and has no money. I consider this a poor introduction to an economy that is introduced partway into the life of a server. If the money trade had been accessible from week 1, that's one thing. Transforming a specific resource into currency equivalence in week 15? Not as good.

Very true! And an excellent point, were I not designing my store to be maintenance free.

The CC program I've written will maintain the pricing of my inventory automatically. It's very similar to the market software I wrote back when I was a WoW day trader... it sets the bid point for buy and sell orders based on stock and trade volume, as well as automatically crafting derivative products when the markup is profitable and the risk is low.

Second, the fact that I will be buying everything that I also sell means the players will maintain my stock for me. Barbara will sell me coal, and Alice will buy some Coal Coke. Dexter will sell me Certus Ore, and Charles will purchase ME Cables.

As my stock of Coal is depleted, the software will increase the buy offer in the store, and more users will sell me Coal; if I get a lot of Certus the sale price for ME Cables will drop, and Charles will get a better price on ME Cables.

Quite true, but that would eliminate my secondary goal... to prove that a completely player driven economy is viable without mod intervention. This is less an economic goal as a personal one. The mods could drop a million coins on my head, and economically the result would be the same... my store would remain the sole source of coins, my economic plans would succeed.

But.

But if the economy took off, and others decided to open their own stores and utilize the coins made popular by me, then I would have a very unfair advantage... I would be in possession of a million admin generated coins, and they would have none. Even if I did not take advantage of this, accusations that I could not refute could be levied.

Furthermore, it would create tacit admin approval of my project. If they turn down another player's request for admin coins, are they playing favorites? Is someone allowed to set up a competing store? If so, do they create compatible coins (eliminating my economic goals) or different ones (artificially fragmenting the market)? If denied, I get resentment that I was 'allowed' to do my project but they were denied. My success is no longer based on my merits, but based on the admins protection.

I would far rather avoid any moderator assistance at all, other than providing the ability for anyone to manufacture a counterfeit proof coin.

All good points, but I believe it would ultimately be less successful than the alternative I suggest.