Aftermath

To help support the server, currency will be sold. I'm expecting to make mobs drop between 20 and 50 crowns. So what do you all think is a good price for 1000? I was thinking $2

If you say kill a mob every 30 seconds getting lets say 30 crowns. This goes on in the long term for probably 30 minutes night time and 30 minutes day time for an hour. So with some effort in about an hour you can get around 1800 crowns. So the capability of it in an hour, but work for only lets say 30 minutes. So I'd recommend 3 $

I have no idea on the economy that you're going to set up, but I've always thought that if you kill a mob, you should get around 1-10 Crowns, but then that's based on you having 100 Crowns starter, and the prices of items are around 20+ for mediocre items, 5+ for food and easily obtainable, and 100+ for desirable items, and 250+ for rare items.

but then since your thinking of 1000 Crowns to be bought meant that your economy is basically my economy inflated XD

I like the idea of selling currency, however until a proper scale is determined, determining set numbers will likely be a bit tricky. The issue currently is not how much the mobs drop so much as how much items within the world will cost, not to mention how this trading will take place (via player set prices or server set prices, like a general store of sorts).

Since I cannot offer much more, I shall give my opinion and suggestion on this matter. Stick to the $2 price, as that is a good, small cost, and micro transactions such as these tend to add up over time. In terms of the crowns purchased, I would advise making the value high enough to seem worth the time it would take to earn said crowns, but not so high that a nation, or person for that matter, can just pay for the currency and then not have to worry about anything else until the next need of purchase.

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I suppose if I were to give a numeric example, it would be something like this:
>The cost of upkeep for Player, an average Minecraft user with quite a few hours to play per session, is 5points a day. To obtain these points, Player can:
[*]Buy 2points for $2. So a buck a point.
[*]Kill mobs or hunt players for an hour, earning him 2points. Other methods based around in-game actions produce about the same output for input.

Assuming Player just started up, he probably wants to build a house, which takes quite a bit of time and resources. The obvious trade off for not buying points is having to spend time collecting the points to play.
If Player buys his 2points, that is an hour or so he saves, and is guaranteed results. Less time hunting, more time building that four story mansion Player always dreamed his tuxedo-wearing Creeper would live in.
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The above may be overstating, possibly even clouding what is likely something previously thought out, but to repeat, the question for a potential paying player should be "Is my time more important than my money?" Finding a healthy balance between time spent and money earned is the most sure-fire way of determining how far $2 will really carry a player, and whether or not it will be worth purchasing at all.

Basically both the mob drops and the purchases have to be balanced to nation upkeeps. Ill do more thinking on it soon when I have finished an argument Im in.

Essentially prices will fluctuate completely on players asking price/offering price. The only way for the server to regulate inflation/deflation is via adjusting mob drops (Currency fountain) and nation upkeeps (Currency sink). To a lesser extent also via Invicti land pricing.

Assuming $3, then if a nation wanted to support its capital solely off donations, they would be paying $60 a month. If it was $2, $40 a month. Hmm. I guess that strikes a reasonable balance...

Wait, are you seriously suggesting having the players buy in-game money with real-world money??

Typical_Name wrote:Wait, are you seriously suggesting having the players buy in-game money with real-world money??

The short answer to that question is "Yes". The much longer answer, is "Yes, [insert my previous post]".

Assuming the process is balanced (which should be much easier, since the mob kill rewards are so much smaller now), this is both a good way to support the server and a reasonable way to enable those who find their time worth more than their money to make progress. And, in the end, since money can only be traded among players (which has no effect on the currency in circulation), and the "bank"(which generally pulls crowns out of circulation), and due to the fact that there will always be a steady flow of crowns from mobs, such purchases should not have any lasting effects upon the server economy.

This, as mentioned above as well, addresses the real life monetary issue of financially supporting and sustaining a Minecraft server.

The advantage we have at the moment is I am able to financially support the server single-handedly at the moment. This means that we don't have to pan handle for money like a lot of servers, however if I find myself unable to, or theres a lot of demand for this, then we will probably implement it.

Ok... So the idea is ok... But I'm going to say this and it better not happen. I don't want people to be able to buy a large amount of IGM for a small amount of RL money because then that just fucks up the whole game play... If someone is able to buy say 10k for 2$, then they're not going to play the economy they're just gonna pay 20$ and have 100k. I think 3$ for 1000 is ok because you can't really go far on this server with 1000. Your gonna be needing in the 10k's to be able to do much right... So if someone wants to spend 60$ real life money to get a business slot let them lol... But don't got much cheaper than that... ruins gameplay... Also don't offer other things with RL money such as creative mode. Was on a server where if you payed 10$ you got creative mode and that was dumb.

Bump.

Having seen this very thing in other games, let me suggest a two tier system. I do not know if minecraft servers can handle this.

1. A RL cash to in-game "play token" system.
2. The ability to exchange play tokens with other people for in-game coin, preferably by an automated market (in fact, if it cannot be automated, it's pointless. Even if you have to open a web browser because it cannot be done in-game. If you have to physically be online at the same time and open a trade window, it's a failure.)

3. Server creates play tokens as needed to keep the game running, and selling them at relatively high in-game coin rates. This lets people play, and gives an incentive to purchase. This feature may eventually be turned off, and you're a full fledged business.
4. "Play tokens" are used to unlock access to things. In general, "bigger" things require more play tokens; beginning stuff requires none. Frequent stuff requires little; rare stuff requires lots.

The benefit:
1. You cannot get inflation by spending RL money. It gives the benefits of RL purchasing of money, without causing inflation; the exchange rate is actually determined by the players.
2. It allows people to play for free without being at a disadvantage (growth/success may be slowed, but it's not prohibited.)
3. It allows people who want to give you lots of money the ability to do so.

The drawback:
The way that play tokens are used to access things is critical. The first system that I saw this used on was Three Rings Design's "Yohoho Puzzle PIrates", and it worked well there; the second was the same company's "Bang! Howdy", and it was a miserable failure over there. (Simply put: in that game, game-coin had no value, and play-tokens had all the value; the exchange price just went sky high and the system broke.)

Without having played yet, and not really knowing the economy at all, my first thought is that "forming a nation", "official recognition as a city", "occupying land close to the starting location", "mining rights", "rent/upkeep", "occupying land at a distance from the starting location", "Right of way to build a powered railway from the center to a distant spot", etc., are all things that could cost varying amounts of coins and play tokens.