Kusari
2006-08-30 |  | A simple fix for a big problem |  |
Any of you who play RT know, there just aren`t enough resources to go around. There is a constant demand, but a very limited number of suppliers for just about everything. To his credit, stephen has tried to fix this but so far nothing has seemed to work. Perhaps that`s because the soulution isn`t something we need to ADD but something we need to REMOVE.
In the real world shortages occur, but they are infrequent and rarely last unless there is some mitigating factor involved. So why is there a constant shortage here? Anyone with even a small knowledege could give you the answer: Price Caps. In the real world, as supplies of something become scarce, prices increase. As that happens, the number of people who can afford the resource decreases, and eventually prices begin to fall back down. The market cycles up and down between extremems, but most of the time prices will be somewhere in the middle.
In GC there are mandatory price caps. That means that suppliers rwach a point where they can no longer increase prices, even if the demand continues to climb. As a result, demand quickly outpaces the suppliers ability to produce and the market sells out. By removing the price caps we could solve much of this.
Yet another benfit of a truly open market is increasing the number of suppliers. As the price of a resource increases, more and more people will try to cash in on the boom, helping to increase the available supply.
All I ask is for a trial run. Just remove the price caps for a month or 2 and watch what happens. I think we will all be pleased with the results. |
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Kusari
99+ day(s) ago | You may be right gormach. For this to work, the price caps would have to be left off long enough to see an effect, at least a few months. It will take time for miners to begin producing again.
I would also suggest altering the stats of the miners to prevent them from being tax miners. Part of the problem we have right now is that it is usually more profitable to be a tax miner than a mineral or CG producer. It is much harder to drive prices out of controll when you don`t have a cushy tax income to fall back on. |
Gornach
99+ day(s) ago | If my idea is no good. It might help to remove the pirce cap. as you stated Kusari. But it has been tried before to raise the price cap. to x2 times and it only made the prices rise and people to start saying it's to costly, get it back so we can fight, so it might not solve the fighting issue. |
Gornach
99+ day(s) ago | How much work can it be to make a megastore or what even name for that extra market. He already made 1 market that is far more complex and he has also made a bot to throw goods to the market at max price.
This market should only allow Empires to buy goods at x2 times normal max and the bot can easily be made so it put up a new stack whenever a stack is sold.
Im not good at coding and making games, but can not see it will give Stephen much work to make it.
The idea I made will not interfer in the races adv's. It will however give everybody a chance to buy what they need if there is a shortage in any. |
Kusari
99+ day(s) ago | An interesting thought gormach. The main advantage to removing price caps though is that it only requires a minimal change to the existing game code. Stephen is busy enough as it is so the simpler the solution me can come up with the better. As for more fighting, it is my understanding that at very high power, most of the players are not fighting anyway. It would definitely increase activity at lower powers since people would actually have enough minerals for ships. |
Gornach
99+ day(s) ago | Ok Kusari that seems more fair. I do not know if that will give more fighting, due to people then have less money to fight with.
I think it would be better to make a mega store, that only sell resources, that would always have resources but sold to x2 the normal max. market prize.
Then you could always get what you need, but at an extra cost, that would also still give the different races there adv's.
Don't know but would that not be simple and fair at the same time, even for All server-speeds ?? |
Kusari
99+ day(s) ago | I thought of that Gormach. In my original post I said that A miners should not be taxed, or if they are, make it a much lower tax. |
50CENT
99+ day(s) ago | i say bring back the bot |
Mycaeron
99+ day(s) ago | I think that Kusari is right, but I also think that the minimum amount of resources should be removed as well. If someone is in need of cash fast, and they only have 1800 ore, and are going into debt, it is totally illogical for them not being able to sell the ore.
Although I think Kusari`s idea is good, I also think that the prices of thingsbeing sold should be determined by people buying it, to make it sorta like an auction. |
Gornach
99+ day(s) ago | Ahhh and then do you think there would be any A. Miners left. The real producers of big piles of minerals will be doomed, that will not give more minerals to the market would it ??
Well let's have a tax on food too. So the food prize don't get so high. This is also a bad idea and could make the game less fun for Food Terrans and Collectives.
Sorry can not see the good in a tax on resources. Think about it you have used a load of time and made a Mineral-Miner or CG-Miner and then they get a tax on there product.
If you had worked for years to make a good A. Miner on Slow and it suddenly got taxed, for making minerals to the other Races. Then I think you would find the game a total waste of time. |
Kusari
99+ day(s) ago | It would not kill the game. In the same way that you normally don`t maintain massively expensive fleets unless you have a target or are attempting a UW, players would only be able to maintain large stockpiles of minerals over brief time periods when the minerals were needed. |
Gornach
99+ day(s) ago | Hmm the last part to put a tax on how much minerals you got will surely kill the game. You will not be able to fight, due to the payment mineral tax.
If there also was a limit to the number of purcases within a given time, like there is to sales. Then there would be plenty of chances for everyone to get some.
Maybe even have a 1 million limit to purcases of minerals and 100 million to CG's, then any can get there fair chance. |
Kusari
99+ day(s) ago | Like I said, Put a tax on minerals and ore. For example, if you had 150 mill rutile, you would pay a 15 mil per turn tax. |
Clemens
99+ day(s) ago | if black market occur there maybe cases where people trying to transfer credits or minerals...i don think that it will work ... remove the rishest list sounds better...
less mineral = less battle = boring...T.T |
Baley
99+ day(s) ago | Removing the richlist sounds like a simple and elegant solution, especially since that`s what created this problem in a large part. However I`m not sure this would be enough, as there`s almost no drawback in having your ressources in minerals / ore (the advantage beeing that you`re almost immune to dineros).
So now that people have realised this, why would they stop doing it? If you`re known to have a lot of ressources / are involved in a war / are hated by a lot of people, you`ve got chances to get dinero`ed, even without a richlist. |
Karolinerna
99+ day(s) ago | Kusari, u missing the point of richlist, noone wanna be there, that is the problem. why ? cause some people spam dineros on u. belive me I know a few that would max out cred if they wanted but they stay out of that list cause of dineros meaning no minerals for others |
Kusari
99+ day(s) ago | Thread creator option: This is the answer
"Removing the price caps would probably help reduce the shortage, but it`d also make minerals way too expensive for newbies / people who can`t spend much time on the game.
Other solutions can be found easily (most minerals list + arti to destroy minerals, tax on large market buys, lower caps on minerals, adjustements on a.miners, etc.). Stephen just needs to sit down 15 minutes and think about it; but that can only be achieved if he starts to actually care about GC and its problems again."
First of all, this is not a UC thread. Please don`t spam it up with UC suggestions. So far Baley is the only really logical response I`ve seen here. And to answer his concerns, the price cap was intended to help the newbies, but all it really does is create shortages for everyone. If I`m a newbie, I would much rather be able to pay higher prices for that last little bit of resource I need than to wait around for ours or days waiting to catch a lucky post. As for the tax on large purchases, that could be circumvented simply by making many smaller buys. If the tax is based on the amount of resources they own it could not be avoided. It would also eliminate the need for caps on minerals since most players would reach a point where it simply becomes too expensive to keep any more resources in stock than what they have.
In response to removing the rich list, I fail to see what purpose that could serve. Generally, those who manage to get on the list have worked very hard to get there and deserve some reconittion. Instead of removing the dineros, perhaps make another artifact that can be used to protect your empire from their effects. |
Achilles
99+ day(s) ago | i like the uc black market thingy |
Loof
99+ day(s) ago | how about removing artifacts`? |
DarckKnight
99+ day(s) ago | rich list is fine so we know who is using way too much turns and gets dineroed down for it xD |
EvilDora
99+ day(s) ago | Very simple, remove richest list.
Lots of those peoples on Richest list are the big buyers who buy out all the minerals.
Just asked those Miner. It shows the same person who buy their minerals. |
