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How does money work?

False ProphetFalse Prophet Member
in General Discussion
Just a quick question. Since mobs don't drop money, are quests and NPC vendors the only source of gold? If most materials dropped from mobs are used in crafting or auctioned to others, then the market produces a lot of products but doesn't print enough cash. This deflation is basically what's going on with every other MMO but in the opposite direction.

Comments

  • NoaaniNoaani Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    Mobs drop certificates.

    You turn certificates in at nodes for coin.

    The further away the node is from where the certificate dropped, the more coin you get.

    Certificates are subject to the same dropping while killed in PvP as raw crafting materials.
  • tautautautau Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    In addition to what @Noaani explained, there is a lot about the economy we do not yet know for sure, but we can speculate.

    We know that players can craft equipment and sell it. We know players can have shops and stalls to sell things. We think that they can also have shops to put augments or some type of benefits on weapons and armor. All this is similar to prior games, but the new stuff....

    We know that caravans will take harvested materials, and perhaps other things, to other nodes where their value will be higher, so a successful caravan can be quite profitable. These caravans can be raided and the contents stolen, though the thieves would then need to caravan the same goods to a profitable selling point and run the same risk of loss.

    Perhaps the most interesting profit potentials lie in other 'newish' game concepts. For example, players can run taverns selling food that provides buffs, hosting mini-gambling games (a cut goes to the house), renting planning rooms and sleeping rooms, and providing other player services. Another example is animal husbandry. Players can learn to tame wild animals and breed them into unusual mounts. Those who master the breeding provide faster mounts and/or mounts will better attacks, jumps or other abilities, all of whom can be sold.

    So it looks like there will be all kinds of ways besides just picking up drops in order to make some good coin. Most of these opportunities we will likely have to wait until the beta phase for discovery, it is gonna be hecka fun time!
  • False ProphetFalse Prophet Member
    edited May 2021
    tautau wrote: »
    In addition to what @Noaani explained, there is a lot about the economy we do not yet know for sure, but we can speculate.

    We know that players can craft equipment and sell it. We know players can have shops and stalls to sell things. We think that they can also have shops to put augments or some type of benefits on weapons and armor. All this is similar to prior games, but the new stuff....

    We know that caravans will take harvested materials, and perhaps other things, to other nodes where their value will be higher, so a successful caravan can be quite profitable. These caravans can be raided and the contents stolen, though the thieves would then need to caravan the same goods to a profitable selling point and run the same risk of loss.

    Perhaps the most interesting profit potentials lie in other 'newish' game concepts. For example, players can run taverns selling food that provides buffs, hosting mini-gambling games (a cut goes to the house), renting planning rooms and sleeping rooms, and providing other player services. Another example is animal husbandry. Players can learn to tame wild animals and breed them into unusual mounts. Those who master the breeding provide faster mounts and/or mounts will better attacks, jumps or other abilities, all of whom can be sold.

    So it looks like there will be all kinds of ways besides just picking up drops in order to make some good coin. Most of these opportunities we will likely have to wait until the beta phase for discovery, it is gonna be hecka fun time!

    Yea but all of those methods are players trading coins between each other so no "new" money is injected into the economy. Also Idk if the wiki is wrong but it says these certificates refer to the materials mobs drop. "Hunting certificates is a term that covers items, such as Pelts that house the value of a mob's death. These certificates are specific to an economic region.[4]"
  • ThexBlackxKnightThexBlackxKnight Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    False Prophet wrote: »
    Yea but all of those methods are players trading coins between each other so no "new" money is injected into the economy. Also Idk if the wiki is wrong but it says these certificates refer to the materials mobs drop. "Hunting certificates is a term that covers items, such as Pelts that house the value of a mob's death. These certificates are specific to an economic region.[4]"

    Certificates are turn into npcs that is where the money is generated.
  • AsgerrAsgerr Member, Alpha Two
    edited May 2021
    ThexBlackxKnight wrote: »
    False Prophet wrote: »
    Yea but all of those methods are players trading coins between each other so no "new" money is injected into the economy. Also Idk if the wiki is wrong but it says these certificates refer to the materials mobs drop. "Hunting certificates is a term that covers items, such as Pelts that house the value of a mob's death. These certificates are specific to an economic region.[4]"

    Certificates are turn into npcs that is where the money is generated.

    Yup.

    OP, think of it as you get fur from a slain wolf, and sell it in tow. The more remote the town, the rarer said pelt will be to them, and thus more money for you.

    If you're worried about inflation, a lot of systems are meant as gold sinks (repairing gear, buying items, taxes, etc)
    Sig-ult-2.png
  • akabearakabear Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    what is the intent behind certificates and not some form of gold, to keep the currency regionalized to a node by chance?
  • SongcallerSongcaller Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited May 2021
    I think its because they don't want gold to be a major factor in PvP. You can drop certificates in PvP but not Gold which I think is a good policy.

    Edit: By Gold I mean currency, you can drop Gold the resource on death.
    2a3b8ichz0pd.gif
  • NagashNagash Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    akabear wrote: »
    what is the intent behind certificates and not some form of gold, to keep the currency regionalized to a node by chance?

    Think of the certificates as trading bonds which you can use for goods and services. saves carrying around 10 tons of cold coins
    nJ0vUSm.gif

    The dead do not squabble as this land’s rulers do. The dead have no desires, petty jealousies or ambitions. A world of the dead is a world at peace
  • akabearakabear Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Tanks!
  • AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    The term 'certificates' doesn't always mean exactly that.

    In design terms it can sometimes just refer to 'any item that has a value and is tied to a specific creature, as a drop'.

    So in that sense, the Alpha test has 'certificates' now in the form of Essence Shards, which we just... take to a merchant and sell for Gold.

    You see, in economic terms, MMOs are ... ~trails off into a 20 page dissertation on MMORPG economies~...
    ♪ One Gummy Fish, two Gummy Fish, Red Gummy Fish, Blue Gummy Fish ♪
  • GubiakGubiak Member
    edited May 2021
    I wanted to post this as a joke in recognition of this thread's title:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A81DYZh6KaQ
  • AsgerrAsgerr Member, Alpha Two
    akabear wrote: »
    what is the intent behind certificates and not some form of gold, to keep the currency regionalized to a node by chance?

    The concept was born out of the question: "Why would a wolf carry gold coins, boots and a dagger?? It's a wolf."

    So you get some plets etc, called certificates here, but basically a proof of your kill.

    Then the risk vs reward philosophy of the game takes place, and you get the option to turn it in at the closest node for a quick buck. Or you could travel a greater distance to sell a rare pelt or animal to a different node, for more money.

    A fun fact: the term Buck for dollars IRL, comes from the fact that in the very early era of the US, people in the colonies and the frontier, could/would pay by bringing deers (or bucks) they had hunted.

    AoC does pretty much this.
    Sig-ult-2.png
  • ThexBlackxKnightThexBlackxKnight Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Certificates are to promote trading , rare spices from the far east will sell very well in the west and yeti hides from the frozen tundra will sell very well in the southern desert.
  • tautautautau Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    If you think about it, our dollar bills, Euros or other paper currencies are really 'certificates' themselves. They are recognized as valuable just because we all agree that they have value. So these dropped 'certificates' could be viewed as the paper money value of the pelts, teeth, edible livers and other parts of the mobs which have value.

    Gold, silver and copper are non-decaying metals which were accepted as valuable due to their rarity. When the world economy (and population) grew to where there was insufficient amounts of these precious metals for the necessary trades, we switched to paper money.
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