DiscOH
Adept
People often make the mistake of thinking wealth is based on what you have or on what you can afford to lose. Both are wrong. Wealth is what you can obtain. The distinction becomes more apparent as you travel. You might be too poor to afford spice in the West, but in the East... your coin suddenly works much harder for you. The entire life of a traveling merchant is based on this fact. Buy low, sell slightly less low.
As the merchant travels they provides a service (cheaper goods) and receives compensation (modest coin). If the coin ever becomes not-so-modest, more merchants join the crowd, and the coin returns to it's comfortable point of rest. It is in this way that a market flows as water to the lowest (cost) point. Just like water, structures can block its passing. When that happens, everyone dies of thirst.
These lands are at risk of being choked to death, and by no sudden act of villainy. There is a history of harm that grows with every passing moon.
The land is dangerous, and so, many merchants lost their lives coming to it. This discourages more "water" from being brought to the lands while encouraging the looting of corpses over the pursuit of production. Water is lost, and more is not coming.
With no one to let the wealth flow to and from the city, it's blood grows stale. The treasures, even when rescued, are rarely able to be delivered to those who truly care for them. A wizard orb becomes a paperweight, a warrior's sword a decoration. Remember, the items have no value by themselves, it is by moving them that they grow in importance.
A noble few step forward to share their own coin as blood. They transfuse their vitae into the failing countryside, but the problem only moves. They are the nexus of all things trade, and they alone are the beneficiaries of it.
But I hear you say:
"You speak in riddles old man, what is your intent"
I will cut to the point.
You people are poisoning yourselves.
No one is willing to pay for anything that anyone is willing to produce. People clamour hungrily for potions, but have only a miser's means to pay for them.
After a victory, people rush happily home to sell their findings, but have no idea of what they're worth. Only a few have coin, and they invent their own prices. The only people who grow from this transaction are the ones that are already full of coin, and the ones that handle the process.
This is not an attack on the wealthy. Far from it. Again, wealth is only significant in what it lets you buy. Currently, the countryside is too poor for money to do anything but shine. We need to start making practices that are aimed at empowering people to join the game of gold.
There are a hundred changes that we could benefit from, but all things start at the beginning.
For this reason I suggest:
Auctions - Should be changed. Instead of counting up from nothing, with the final bid determining price, auctions should count down to nothing. There is a good deal of maths here (that I will skip for the sake of brevity), but the important factor is there are not enough powerful players to challenge each other to the point of fair market value. Any rogue bid not part of a group plan can be overwhelmed with the coin saved from all the previous purchases. Margins of profit can be cut so small as to be useless for anything but immediate use and so again, no one but those already heavy with wealth and the auction curator have anything to gain.
An obvious proof of this should be the "Copy Formal Scroll" currently in the auction house. It seems painfully obvious that this would be at the very least some fraction of the most valuable scroll on the auction (and at most some fraction of the most valuable scroll in existence). But those who would bid on it lack the collection needed to turn its silver into platinum.
But Desky, you say, what price shall we start from? How shall we count to 0?
I'm glad you asked that. It is a trivial thing to track the history of previous auctions. Using the purchasing value as a starting line, we can set the initial price at 400% of that value. Over the next 20 days, the value will drop by 20% per day. We can leave the auction unattended entirely aside from the first day and the last.
Auction values go up, clearing the forest of fowl beasts becomes more profitable, more people join the hunts, and soon merchants feel safe enough to bring back their rain.
As people become more accustomed to this type of market, a similar fix can be applied to crafting.
But I'll dream about the future as it gets closer.
As the merchant travels they provides a service (cheaper goods) and receives compensation (modest coin). If the coin ever becomes not-so-modest, more merchants join the crowd, and the coin returns to it's comfortable point of rest. It is in this way that a market flows as water to the lowest (cost) point. Just like water, structures can block its passing. When that happens, everyone dies of thirst.
These lands are at risk of being choked to death, and by no sudden act of villainy. There is a history of harm that grows with every passing moon.
The land is dangerous, and so, many merchants lost their lives coming to it. This discourages more "water" from being brought to the lands while encouraging the looting of corpses over the pursuit of production. Water is lost, and more is not coming.
With no one to let the wealth flow to and from the city, it's blood grows stale. The treasures, even when rescued, are rarely able to be delivered to those who truly care for them. A wizard orb becomes a paperweight, a warrior's sword a decoration. Remember, the items have no value by themselves, it is by moving them that they grow in importance.
A noble few step forward to share their own coin as blood. They transfuse their vitae into the failing countryside, but the problem only moves. They are the nexus of all things trade, and they alone are the beneficiaries of it.
But I hear you say:
"You speak in riddles old man, what is your intent"
I will cut to the point.
You people are poisoning yourselves.
No one is willing to pay for anything that anyone is willing to produce. People clamour hungrily for potions, but have only a miser's means to pay for them.
After a victory, people rush happily home to sell their findings, but have no idea of what they're worth. Only a few have coin, and they invent their own prices. The only people who grow from this transaction are the ones that are already full of coin, and the ones that handle the process.
This is not an attack on the wealthy. Far from it. Again, wealth is only significant in what it lets you buy. Currently, the countryside is too poor for money to do anything but shine. We need to start making practices that are aimed at empowering people to join the game of gold.
There are a hundred changes that we could benefit from, but all things start at the beginning.
For this reason I suggest:
Auctions - Should be changed. Instead of counting up from nothing, with the final bid determining price, auctions should count down to nothing. There is a good deal of maths here (that I will skip for the sake of brevity), but the important factor is there are not enough powerful players to challenge each other to the point of fair market value. Any rogue bid not part of a group plan can be overwhelmed with the coin saved from all the previous purchases. Margins of profit can be cut so small as to be useless for anything but immediate use and so again, no one but those already heavy with wealth and the auction curator have anything to gain.
An obvious proof of this should be the "Copy Formal Scroll" currently in the auction house. It seems painfully obvious that this would be at the very least some fraction of the most valuable scroll on the auction (and at most some fraction of the most valuable scroll in existence). But those who would bid on it lack the collection needed to turn its silver into platinum.
But Desky, you say, what price shall we start from? How shall we count to 0?
I'm glad you asked that. It is a trivial thing to track the history of previous auctions. Using the purchasing value as a starting line, we can set the initial price at 400% of that value. Over the next 20 days, the value will drop by 20% per day. We can leave the auction unattended entirely aside from the first day and the last.
Auction values go up, clearing the forest of fowl beasts becomes more profitable, more people join the hunts, and soon merchants feel safe enough to bring back their rain.
As people become more accustomed to this type of market, a similar fix can be applied to crafting.
But I'll dream about the future as it gets closer.
