Just an idea, you could set the Median price, and use this to make a timed function to gradually adjust prices to the median, like: [ NewPrice = OldPrice + (MedianPrice - OldPrice) * Ratio ] so: If an item have a median cost of 100px With a current price of 50px and a ratio of 0.5 over time you would have [50 75 87.5 93.75 96.875 98.4375 99.21875... ] With a current price of 150px and a ratio of 0.5 over time you would have [125 112.5 106.25 103.125 101.5625 100.78125... ] I believe this could make adjustments easier and prevent overcharges or very low costs since the changes are dependent of the Delta price. Sorry for bothering.
Another classic game that comes to mind that I would like to see an economy based on is Sid Meyer's Pirate's Gold. I thoroughly loved this game and the trading between ports would be a great example of what trading would be like between planets, solar systems, and/or galaxies. Also, after reading some of these posts, I got to thinking of how the Outpost could actually show growth through the game based on the progress of the character or how well the trade merchants can grow financially with the character running jobs for them. Imagine the outpost starting at it's basic stage now, but later growing upward with new levels or outward or downward. These new levels opening up new areas for the character to decorate or open up new merchants buying/selling higher priced, higher tier items and other NPCs that we can interact with. I like the outpost idea and would love to see it have the capability of expanding passed it's original size. I figure, if we can enhanced the size our ships now, then why not the outpost.
I hold out hope this will segway into allowing players to completely circumvent the need for bosses and dungeons to progress, offering a purely mercantile avenue for those of us who cannot be assed with such annoying gaming conventions.
Segue, mister president. "To move smoothly from one state or subject to another." A segway is a silly two-wheeled vehicle. They're homophones, though, because the vehicle moves smoothly. (A viola is an instrument.)
Selling items! Finally! The world is complete, it signals the coming down of Jesus, the Illuminati and even Half Life 3! No but seriously, that sounds great!
Unless some gameplay mechanics are changed, the multiplayer economy in Starbound will be limited to individual servers, and even then some things will need to be disabled. Reason is: mods/admin mode, low entry barriers, and few item sinks. With mods/admin, it's possible to literally print money, or mod in a way to infinitely spawn a high-value item. An economy only works because of scarcity, so if any player on a server has access to mods or admin mode, that server's economy is compromised. If a server disables admin mode, and disallows mods, then the economy for that server should work normally. Even then, you won't be able to allow characters in from other servers without these rules for fear of them crashing your economy. You could probably combine server economies, to get a larger pool of market players, but all of those servers would have to disallow mods and admin mode too. Even if they can lock down the Pixel so it can't be arbitrarily made and must be earned, there's still RMT (real money trading) to think about. Supposing the market is closed to artificial influences, we still have very small entry and exit barriers. Meaning, anyone can craft anything; it doesn't take any money to 'tool up' for production nor to cease production. Because of this, the market would probably only be used to trade ore, and trade items that have rare blueprints or are uncraftable. Nobody has to invest time and money into a market niche since anyone else can walk right in and produce just as good as you. Add the fact of the 3D printer, and nobody will ever have to buy more than one of any scannable item. And finally, there are very few item sinks. Guns don't need ammo, your equipment can't be destroyed unless you choose to, and few items are actually expended for anything. Combine this with low entry barriers, and it makes it very easy to produce goods, and very hard to lose them. A player may need to buy something once, but they rarely ever have reason to buy it again. The markets will be saturated in short order, and will stay that way indefinitely; causing high supply and low demand and resulting in basement level prices. I'd really like to see something similar to Eve's economy. Nearly everything in the game is crafted by a player. When you buy a hull, equipment, and ammo, all of that stuff was built by a real player somewhere. Some players do nothing else in the game but speculate on the market, or manufacture items, or mine. It can work this way because nobody can spawn arbitrary items. There are very few items that can't be destroyed without your consent, and many other item sinks besides, so there is a constant demand for replacements. Getting good at your niche requires investment of time and money. Anyone can walk up and start mining, but to really turn a profit you need a better hull, better equipment, some research into good and safe mining locations, etc. Anyone can do it, but not everyone wants to spend the time to do it well. Those who are willing to invest in their niche profit from the people who specialize in something else. By making it harder it get good at a niche, it encourages players to specialize, resulting in a more lively and dynamic market. All that being said, I would love to see an economy for multiplayer. I'd love to travel from planet to planet looking for rare and valuable goods to bring to market, or spend some time setting up my garden just so to keep profits high. All this stuff really doesn't matter for someone playing on their own or with a few friends; the economy will function in whatever way is fun for you. However the amount of freedom in the game limits how well an economy will function in multiplayer. A complex economy would be cool, but it seems like we'd have to give up some freedoms to get it. In Starbound, I don't know how many people would be willing to give up some of the fun stuff you can do just so someone can sell Pearlpea seeds for a living. Edit: Clarifications
It really depends on how ecconomy reliant you want the player to be. Currently there is little to no need for pixels in general but it's planned to change. Hopefully, there will be other ways to spend and earn pixels than mob drops and random boxes. A more advanced crafting system would be welcome for high-end tiers that could be progressive and based on player interaction/crafting. Tho, not sure if they can pull it off. If not, im sure server mods may provide that later on.
Spoken like someone who hasn't ridden a Segway. Also, Viola is a character from Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'. Or was it a character from one of the later Soul Calibur games? ... or the evil witch in an indy RPG maker game? ... the first name of an online author of self published fantasy romance novels? Whoa... lots of Violas out there. /silly , or to be up to date... #wackysillinessofdoom?
True, that. That does not mean it's correct to use "viola" when you mean "voilà". Or "presto", or "and there you have it." Edit: "walla" is right out, being a kind of indistinct-like background murmur, basically.
Time to bring a crowbar with me an loot as I do in every game. As long as it is not nailed down, it is profit!
