Considerations and Observations for Stimulation.

Gentlemen, it has come to my attention that our server has come to a stone wall in terms of moving forwards. And some key issues at hand must be addressed in such a way as to so completely eradicate them that we might hope to never see them again. The key points at hand are:

* Credits are now our focus, money wise. Diamonds, gold, etc. only become materials to buy and sell as needed.
* Taxes must be implemented. (More on that below, where the City branch is discussed in detail)
* The Resource Branch needs to become the Trader Branch, tasked with transporting, buying, and selling goods, as well as overall boosting of the economy.
* The server instability must be thoroughly exhausted of all possible methods, in an attempt to reduce the all-too-common crash and general instability.

As it stands, our Money based economy, for lack of a better term...fails rather miserably. People would rather gather their own resources and as a whole push a bad turn the economy. Instead of working towards the betterment of themselves, players need a kick in the rump to have a reason to want to sell to the Traders - Taxes.

Taxes are exactly what we need. Citizens are basically working towards hoarding as much materials as possible in an attempt to make themselves rich, stagnating the economy. By the residents of a town having to pay taxes to the city ruler, they have a reason to sell to the traders in an attempt to get the money to pay their taxes.

And to get cities booming and economically sound - we need more of them. So, we propose a ranking system revamp. The Nobles (instead of ruling over towns) rule a REGION (as well as their own cities), the viceroys watch a set number of towns in that region (as well as their own cities), the architects build and rule their own city, and the newly formed Citizens Branch resides within the city. Each member of this step owes taxes to the higher link on the chain of command.

In example of this new taxing method, citizens now pay the Architect/Mayor a tax, the Viceroys collect taxes from the architects, the nobles collect taxes from the viceroys, and the Kings/Overlords (Dimination and WussupWussup) collect the taxes and then invest the taxes back into the system to keep a cycle moving.

Of course, to keep each member of this new system well compensated, they keep the money that is left over from the taxation for themselves. So, it stands to reason, that taxes are a set amount based upon population. An Architect collects 100 credits, but the tax is only 80. The Viceroy collects this 80, but only owes 60 (per town) to the Nobles, who only owe 20 or 30 (per town) to the Kings. These are example figures, of course.

Another proposal comes from astute observation of competitor servers as well as the long discussed notions that Jack and I have shared - that our money is far too condensed for the economical good. "Spreading out" the money, if you will, will help to stimulate small transactions, which are severely lacking in our current system. Using example figures, I'll explain what I mean. Assuming that a Credit is now equal to a one-hundredth (1/100) of a credit currently, a private fortune might amass the quantity of 200 credits (instead of two.)

And say this private party (a citizen) wishes to sell lumber, it now becomes possible to buy per individual number rather than on the whole as with the old system. With the less condensed method, one can now sell less than a full stack of a good and still receive a fair price. E.g. : a citizen sells 47 lumber for 94 credits, or a full stack for 128 credits. In effect, making buying per unit more effectual.

On the peculiar subject of economical matters, it must come to attention that our proposed system will drastically change how our branches work and obtain money. It has come to mind that allowing all Architects to build and maintain a city within a region, that land disputes would come to term, almost inevitably so. Instead of returning monsters and creatures to our world, it would be asked that this not happen.

Knights, acting as mercenaries (as well as the Champions and proprietors of Gladiatorial arenas) might be hired to fight battles in defense of land or in the act of conquering land. This will surely take up a respectable amount of time and resources, and will not detract from the Knight's task book. It also must be stated (many times over) that monsters are simply too destructive to the server, both to the world and that they contribute unwanted "lag" (hesitation or stuttering in the server's game play).

The currently formed resource branch would reform itself as a Trading company, devoted to the procuring and distribution of goods. This would involve the transporting and storage of goods as well, and offers a much needed tie to the Railroads Caste. Caravaneers (groups of people who carry goods themselves) would be at risk along the roads from the inevitable bandits and outlaws, offering the Knights yet another task to add to their repertoire.

With these proposals in mind, it is our wish that our esteemed administrators take full advantage of our (in our minds) sound advice and consider making drastic changes we feel will be good for the well being of all of our regulars and players. Our server needs new life, a certain...je ne sais quoi, to it that will revitalize Caste to our residents as well as prospective players considering our fine server as a potential home.

this sounds good but wouldnt anyone in living in a city be a citizen rather than have a branch for it and i thought with 4.0 there werent anymore "citizen" classes. you also never said how much taxes someone that owns a plot would have to pay you said you would need to collect 80 credits in taxes so how would you tax plots.

and wouldnt 128 cred for 1 stack of wood be a super inflated amount to pay for wood

Matt, you clearly didn't read my little "disclaimers" that the values I used in any given situation were simply example values to help show with moderate clarity how the proposals might work in use.

I also have a feeling you didn't take the time to really read the entry as a whole and that you skimmed over it and missed large amounts of pertinent information.

I agree with most of your points, but let me propose something; We need a boost regarding the coin system, right now a single coin is worth a fortune, I propose to multiply everyone's coins by 100 or 1000 and dramatically decrease their value, and totally ignore any other form of official payment (in between individuals, material exchange wont be forbidden though).

This means no exchange of diamonds per coins, the only way to introduce new money woud be trough new payers or working directly for a king which will introduce new money if needed. Taxes will also be higher for people with higher fortunes, therefore not stacking the system.

This is mainly because when I had to pay my workers yesterday they were like "Wtf only 2 coins for a whole tunnel?" Say I give them 200, immediately happy face. This is all psychological, the value hasn't changed, the amount has. Increasing the amount of currency in the system makes for a much more fair economy, and will make buying common goods far easier.

So in a common store you could buy a sword with 10-15 coins or food from 2-5 coins. Plots would go for 700+ coins. if everyone starts out with 500 or 1000 credits this is much more easy and rewarding, even though the absolute value hasnt changed at all.

O.o

I thought I basically proposed that?


But yes - that's the exact point I was trying to make. Not only the psychological benefits from the increased monetary system, but also the added benefit of being able to buy in forms other than wholesale. Say, if you only need 27 glass, you can just buy that at street value. With our current system you have to use whole numbers, meaning you either buy in bulk or you buy with diamonds.

:EDIT: It's kinda like handing someone a hundred dollar bill versus five twenty dollar bills. The twenties will more likely bring a smile - because there's more bills to be passed about.

Either way, I'm looking into how best to implement some of these ideas into a small scale test with which we can all see the benefits and unintended side effects these ideas have when actually put in practice, and not preached about on paper.

so we need to get set values for items for this to work better

No, we need less hoarders and more buyers. People don't buy what they need, they go find it instead and THAT'S where the biggest issue is. Me and Jack are playing with ideas on how to force a boost on this, but you probably won't see them all for a while.

So i should sell my hoarded materials to help the economy.

also to boosting our credit amount if everything is boosted equally then nothing has really changed

MatthewAtreides wrote:So i should sell my hoarded materials to help the economy.
also to boosting our credit amount if everything is boosted equally then nothing has really changed

They're not proposing to change the values of items, but rather make 1 credit become 100 credits so that smaller amounts of an item can be purchased - which will stimulate the flow of money.

An economy is a complex system, even in minecraft, so before we make any more large changes to the server, we need to identify all of the problems and make sure to find the best solutions.

When we have downtime due to updates etc. the flow of new players completely stops.

I have more to say but don't feel like sorting my thoughts right now hehe

The only way you control resources in this game is making a huge island in MCEdit,whats there,is there,no problems,sure someone will make sand,*cough*admin to make a small island,basically if you think about it,trees are a big resource for every thing,with out it,you cant make things from a level 1 standard and build or advance to other things that give you an advantage such as the mine pick,with out it,mining is a bitch,if this works out and people actually play right,I've got dibs on being the towns blacksmith,saying this,please dont use those annoying bukkit addons that have classes,make people learn what your job is,not out right shove it in their face and make it obvious.