Ideas for an economic system within Olympia:
1) Markets have a fixed $$ cap for UNPROVEN commodities
2) Markets have a fixed $$ cap for PROVEN commodities (2 * UNPROVEN)
3) For every 10 units sold, increase cap by 1 unit value. (10%)
- This makes the market for high-ticket goods, fairly stable and very
hard to fluctuate.
- lower priced commodities will expand their cap limits, because of the
ease to move the items.
At the end of the month (This should actually be done throughout the month,
since the price of a commodity should go up with the demand, but Olympia
doesn't have a regional commodity exchange):
4) Every time the number of units is >(100 - Y)% of the cap, do the following:
a) Decrease the sell value by X% (Need to sell more, demand is low)
b) Decrease the buy value by (2*X)% (No need to buy more, unless price
is great)
5) Every time the number of units is <(Y)%, do the following:
a) Increase the buy value by X% (hey, we need more stuff)
b) Increase the sell value by (2*X)% (This stuff is really hot)
The above should widen the gaps between sell and buy whenever the commodity is
in high demand. This would also allow traders to attempt to capitalize on
regional "fads" or trends.
Additional trader skills:
A) Open commodity: This will allow a trader to start a commodity on a market
that did not already contain that commodity. The unit would have to provide
the $$ cap for UNPROVEN commodities and perhaps some sought of initial retainer.
The retainer is, in case the commodity is a flop. If providing the entire
inventory free is extreme, then the commodities INTRINSIC value is used as
the buy value and the entire inventory should be provided.
B) Ability to determine the regional levels for each commodity. This command
would take 14 to 21 days to spec out the region, but would provide the $$ caps
and perhaps the current inventories of all commodities sold in the region.
Additional thoughts:
All commodities have an INTRINSIC value, markets will NEVER sell below this
value. However, markets may attempt to buy below this value. At the start of
a game, markets should have full inventories and buy at INTRINSIC value.
Markets will be looking for a 40 - 100% markup initially (sell value).
All the above values, should be modifiable and not FIXED. To playtest, I would
suggest having most of the percentages start at 10%.
Thats all for now. I need to be able to put out all the flames that this might
produce.
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John Carr <jrcarr@grove.iup.edu>