Let's kick the dead horse.. again and again...and again.
The.Puppeteer
... kick.
Doesn't our economy suck? *kick*
For two months I have been working a salary of $20 a day, and I consider myself lucky. What if that could change? What if our salary could cover the cost to move one region? What if Uncle Buck had an ill-conceived plan that may work if it was implemented? Or crash like the Hindenburg. The latter being the more likely.
The obvious problem with our economy is over saturation. So let's solve this problem, if we can. Our current market has our raw material (RM) selling at $0.02 per unit. This is a travesty. So how do we develop a way to get rid of RM, while at the same time appease our admin overlords? I'm not exactly sure, but I offer an idea.
**NOTE: I am not an economist, nor do I plan on this idea working without a large overhaul of the original plan, but maybe if this ball starts rolling we could get somewhere.
So here is my idea. You know our rocket factories? The one they expect us to make weapons for, then magically fashion them into a large rocket? Well, they obviously aren't enough to clean out the massive number of RM and weapons we currently have on the market. My idea is simple. Let us be able to make rockets using RM only, and/or a combination of weapons and RM. It would work as an "add-on" to the current system we have, and here is how it would work.
The idea is obviously harder than it sounds, but would create a sinkhole for RM. The amount of RM needed to make each rocket would be up for discussion, but I think a start point would be the equal value of RM to make the weapons.
i.e. A level 1 rocket requires 10 weapons ranging from Q1-Q6. The cost it would take to make those 60 weapons in RM is 2100 units. Therefore the rocket would cost 2100 units of RM to make or a combination of weapons and RM. Simple, right? They could play with the cost and make it a 10% higher cost to produce if you are using just raw materials.
An example of using the combination method for RM and weapons would be; 10-q1 weapons, 10-q2 weapons and 1800 RM units. Simple, right? *I actually wrote this whole article and then had the thought of having a combination, so I am adding this part on the fly.*
Now, this leads to other divisions using a high amount of RM. Level 4 rocket is the highest after the update, needing a staggering 25,200 units of RM. The problems with this besides HOLY HELL THAT IS A LOT OF RM, would be storage. This is, of course, in my noob opinion. I really don't know what the average amount of storage is for players.
Now, how do we keep the Admins happy, and keep their pockets full? Well, the obvious answer is the one we will go with. It will cost gold. You would have to buy this option every time you upgrade your Rocket Factory. Sorry, but I can't see a way the admins would make this cheap on us.
i.e. It costs 20 gold *I think* to buy the first tier rocket factory. In addition to said fee, you would pay, say 25% of the overall cost, so 5 more gold, to have the option to build rockets using the RM option. Note: You would not lose the original option of using weapons to build rockets doing this, you would have both options after paying the additional fee. Just to be clear.
It's been a while since I had a picture. Here.
The main goal of this is to have it as an option to the weapons platform that we currently have. To have a RM drain in the game so that the costs start going up again, and not sit flatline. I don't know the future projections for this, nor am I ambitious enough to try and figure them out. Like I said, it is just an idea that would have to be thoroughly analyzed before ever taking flight.
Do I expect this to fix all of our problems? No. But it could certainly help if it were implemented properly.
Cheers,
Buck.
TL😉
R - Save your time, it might not work.
Comments
Strength and Honour
Watched Gladiator yesterday with my buddies...every once and a while (whether happening in movie or not) one of us would just out of nowhere say "Strength and Honour" then everyone else would respond "Strength and Honour"...It is now a running joke in my circle (again)
While the new rocket update will cause additional demand for WRM within the eRepublik marketplace ultimately your initial assertion of oversupply will continue to grind the Econ module to a halt.
The only way to Truly compete economically is to be entirely self sufficient as an individual; thereby enabling the community as a whole to congregate and combine their surplus production in order to offset national costs such as The US Armed Forces whom currently rely on a broken and ineffective eTaxation policy here in eAmerica for revenue.
V/s
Getting a region on the map might help us get rid of some excess RM. Right now we're underselling China, USA and other large countries by 0.01cc.
I don't know if that'd work since we'd only be creating even more WRM. Yeah, we'd be making more weapons too but the amount of weapons and WRM produced are proportional.
Math:
We make, oh, 1,000 WRM. We make 10 Q1 weapons at 10 WRM each for 100 WRM used. That leaves us with 900 WRM surplus.
Now let's add a region. We're now making 1,200 WRM. We're making 12 Q1 weapons for 120 WRM user leaving us with 1,080 WRM to sell.
Multiply that by 1,500 citizens and you more or less have the economy.
I get the feeling the economy is exactly the way the admins want it, always.
Agreed. There's a reason they don't allow you to make WRM directly into rockets: the companies that make the weapons that are actually used in rocket factories cost gold. They want you to build lots of gold and build lots of companies. And I say you instead of us because I'm not biting.
No klop, no vote ^__^
Admins control everything
The solution is in how the real life money flows in the game.
Everyone who tries to make money, in some sense, will be disappointed.
Don't buy companies....
The rates of return in this are so astronomical as to be non-existant. If I were to buy gold I don't think I'd even bother with companies anymore and would just convert gold into cash to buy really cheap food and weapons while using the rest to train. Hell, I might even start recommending that for normal players.
HW + SS (if using just the lowest two training grounds) = ~18 gold a month = ~$5,000 a month = ~$165 a day
You can buy enough food for 2400 worth of energy for $24 leaving ~$120 which is enough for 15 Q7 weapons which is enough for 150 food fights, which is plenty for most of us.
I sort of got a bit lost and confused reading this, but it's still sexy as hell. I love you buckfuckducklucksuckcucknuckmuchpucksuckcanuck
It's sad how you have to keep asking "how do we keep the admins happy?"
Comment deleted for awesomeness
If it'll make Admin more money, they'll consider it. That is if they are listening. A broken economic module drives folks to use RL to buy gold in order to stay ahead, Admin likes that.
Its so crazy, it could work.
Good analysis (the economy module is still 'broke', especially bread and all mfg. companies except Q7 weapons); changing RM for guns (if one includes grain) makes sense , but guns also need RM. The whole rocket thing has little player payback (except for sniping BH medals). in that adnin does not add any points to military rank points or to total experience points, so why bother?
Gives you that edge. I like using them even if I'm not going for a BH. Helps us in battle.
If you get no points anywhere except the extra say 500k of just 'damage' (with no points given in rank) in one battle, how is this worth the cost to produce a rocket?
Well if you're fighting for your country it gives you the damage towards the True Patriot medal. Also, I will use one for a country fighting a hard battle. I don't mind sucking up some of the cash to give our Allie an advantage. Just who I am.
I like the idea as it would take a lot of extra RM off the market. It would drive up prices of RM, causing prices on goods to rise as well as the standard wage due to the (hopefully) extra profit.
However, if the wage does not rise at the rate of prices, then we may have an even worse problem for those not in communes.
There is no economy. Once you accept this, things sort themselves out.
I love ya Buck, ya know, platonically, but I don't think this is the answer. My belief is that if everybody had more energy, they would need more weapons and food to do even more killing out on the battle grounds. So, why not up the maximum allowable energy?
That's my 2 cents.
WRM should be useable to upgrade weapons
Good idea, in a free market that would probably work (at least somewhat)
Problem is that by using bots or any number of other changes admins can change the economy without any of us players knowing a thing about it. Reality is there is no "free" market in eRep it is subject to the whims and fancies of Plato motivated by the drive to make players buy Gold.