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You are reading an article written by a citizen of eRepublik, an immersive multiplayer strategy game based on real life countries. Create your own character and help your country achieve its glory while establishing yourself as a war hero, renowned publisher or finance guru.

Money and Warfare

Day 1,253, 19:03 • Published in USA USA

• by Teucer

As I have been saying over the past month or so, pegs are falling and there’s isn’t a whole lot we can do about it. This occurrence is global, but it’s hitting some nations harder than others. Today, I’ll be looking at the effects this has had on two major countries, the eUS and ePoland, since we are at war and are both major players in opposing alliances. I intend to show how this affects each country in terms of purchasing power and the ability to wage war.

1 gold = 237 USD
1 gold = 136 PLN

Above, I have posted the current rates to purchase gold of the Monetary Market as of 17:30 eRep time. As you can see the USD is currently sitting about 100 above the PLN, but that number alone is not an indicator of the value of the USD versus the PLN. On average, prices and wages in Poland are only 60% of what we see in the US, but that is because the gold rate is also about 60% (136 PLN / 237 USD = ~57😵. Most player’s initial reaction when seeing these gold rates would be to expect that Poland is far better off than the US, but this is not the case for normal markets.

Q5 Weapons
34.66 USD = 0.146 gold
20.14 PLN = 0.148 gold

Q5 Food
3.38 USD = 0.014 gold
2.04 PLN = 0.015 gold

Grain
0.48 USD = 0.0020 gold
0.28 PLN = 0.0021 gold

Iron
0.51 USD = 0.0022
0.28 PLN = 0.0021 gold

Again, I have posted the current prices for Q5 weapons, Q5 food, grain, and iron above. This is because these are by far the most relevant to the normal population. As you can see, the costs for each of these products and raw materials are the same for players in both ePoland and the eUS, even with the large disparity in pegs. With wages also hovering at the same 60% ratio (PLN/USD) this means that people in Poland make and buy just as much as American citizens from their working income. This also applies to gold earned from medals or purchased from our beloved admins. With the gold value of major products being effectively the same that means any gold converted into USD or PLN will still buy the same amount of stuff in either country. While Poland has managed to hold their peg from falling as steeply, the effect has been the same.

However, the large disparity in pegs between the US and Poland does have a very important effect on the ability of each government to utilize gold in battle. Taxes are received as USD and PLN for the US and Poland respectively, and this means that Poland has a far greater ability to tank than the United States. As we all know, tanks are forced to burn through gold with no alternative because of wellness packs. In order for a country like the US to get ahead, they would have to pull in more tax revenue than Poland in order to offset this glaring issue. Thankfully, with recent changes making resistance wars and MPPs cost local currency and not gold, governments around the world no longer feel the effects of their falling peg as much on warfare (excluding tanking).

What does this mean for the eUS? We need to be fighting smarter, not harder. Communes, new citizen programs, and recruitment need to be pushed hard to maximize citizen damage in order to decrease reliance on tanks to win battles. In the long term, this will make our country’s foundation much stronger and will allow us to compete against nations who try to outspend us on the battlefield. I encourage both our government and citizens to continue to support and utilize programs like Meals on Wheels, Bewbs 4 Newbs, and Arm America in order to build ourselves up over time. This will require time and money, so I ask that Americans continue to display generosity and help their neighbors in any way they can.

One man is not an army.

Except maybe these chicks... drop dead gorgeous...

Comments

Fitisin Day 1,253, 19:11

Nicely done, Teucer.

Kemal Ergenekon Day 1,253, 19:20

In fact cheap USD makes it easier to purchase land, boosting investment. After the next change in the module, it will also mean cheaper transportation within the US, and from US to other countries.

The only downside that occurs to me is the loss of the government's ability to collect seignorage revenues via printing money. We could write an open letter to the admins to reduce the gold cost of printing money for this reason.

Devoid Day 1,253, 19:24

Don't bother these people with numbers and logic.

Kaiser Toast Day 1,253, 19:28

Very well researched and implemented article. Useful information as well. V + S

Emerick Day 1,253, 19:29

Very informative. I'll have my Chief of Staff look into this

Teucer Day 1,253, 20:06

@ Emerick

Oh hey, I see what you did there.

Jude Connors Day 1,253, 20:27

Thanks for the information, Teucer.

Mr. Rotondi Day 1,253, 21:29

Great analysis (V+S). If a players has lisences to sell in multiple countries then he could sell his goods in whatever country has the cheaper gold prices. The player could the buy gold with that countries currency. God bless exchange rates 🙂

Veni_Zelos Day 1,253, 21:57

actually, if their gvt is receiving 60% the nominal currency (ie, 60 PLN for 100 USD) per citizen, then there is no difference in the ability to get gold, per citizen. our advantage is that our taxes are higher, so we make more for every person living in the US, but our problem is they have more citizens.

Veni_Zelos Day 1,253, 22:12

either way, traditional tanking (ie one dude with 4000 gold doing all the damage) is dead. one can only receive 10 gold per day from the game. even if the gvt had a ton of gold, they would only be able to give out 10 gold to a large number of people instead of sending it all to one guy. tanks now have to actually buy gold with RL money. i remember thinking about a scheme to set up paypal accounts for tanks where people would donate RL money but then i almost puked and stopped thinking about it.