Rebalancing the Empire Economy [slow induce]

** NOTE: Based on some feedback, I've decided on another solution that does not raise the daily bonus, see this! Thanks everyone for feedback. We will not be re-evaluating rupees! **

Hi everyone.

This is a discussion I think 72volt will love to have...

Contrary to popular belief, I am not out to ruin the economy I research and optimize economic things on a daily basis (specially now with the business) and was a major economy player in other games.

One of the biggest problems I see with the Empire Economy is that the scale is so low. Prices for items are in the single digits, and even stacks go for prices of less than a single rupee per item.

This is extremely dangerous for an economy, as it makes it EXTREMELY difficult to be competitive in pricing. When an iron ingot goes for 2r.... you can't compete with that price or else you undercut the market and your income by 50%!

So lately i'm sure everyone's noticed that rupee rewards are getting larger, more promos being released, and more items that the richer players will value.

It's been a silent goal to hopefully stimulate the economy, getting money circulating and hopefully raise the price on some items.

But I do not believe its been enough since prices haven't really moved although the buying power is there more.

I am wanting to raise the amount of daily rupee income too, to help instill some more inflation.
Note, do not be scared to see the word inflation. Right now, It's what the economy needs, to help balance things out more efficiently.

Consider if we raised everything 10x. Iron Ingots would now be 20r, giving flexability to set iron price to 18-25r a piece.

A single piece of Cobblestone could actually be competitive in pricing.

Dirt might would actually be worth a selling price of say 20r for a stack!

So I ask for your thoughts on this idea, and to what scale should we take it?

If you have any concerns against the idea please be very specific with facts on how it would hurt the economy to raise rupee incomes, as right now the facts show we clearly have problems and an unhealthy economy.

Even if shop owners did not raise prices, more new players with higher rupee balances would provide more demand, and those shops will sell out quick, which then opens the door for them to consider raising prices.

This would be healthy for the economy.

We welcome your feedback!

Real world economics and game economies are polar opposites.

You very well can manipulate in game economies. I did it a ton in other games and got very rich from it... Only If the real world economy was as susceptible!

But if you like a 2r ingot, if we inflate 10x, then 20r is still the exact same price.

When your sitting on 40k rupees, you won't mind if that Iron Ingot costs 25r.

We wouldn't want to go messing with the current numbers, but just let things balance themselves out.

We would not modify anyones numbers, just a going forward new logins gets more money, rewards for things increases etc.

This would let the process "slowly" happen, and as you said, gives people time to adjust. The free players are some of the biggest buying power there is, so giving them more access to rupees is where things will start to really boom.

The shops will run out of stock quicker, therefor inviting room for price increase.

It would not be an instant change to the economy, but more of policy changes that are designed to slowly grow the economy to a more healthy status.

That is roughly the idea, to keep a similiar value comparison to items, but increase the scale.

Everything would be identical as it is today in "Value compared to Income", but much more flexibility with pricing.

It wouldn't be instant so no, and I would say that richer players have the better end of the deal, as they would be the main ones in control of the prices.

Part of playing economics and getting richer is, the more money you have, the more you can make...

For example, a rich player can buy up tons of items and store them then when prices rise, sell them, making insane profit.

An inactive players shop would sell out within days/weeks. This thread is more about the long term health of the EMC economy. Once that shop sells out (which a single shop owner could do to resell), then their shop is no longer part of the economy and can be ignored.

I'm not sure what you mean about communism though. This really has nothing about communism attached to it (Maybe you are thinking communism means something else?).

I'm not talking about forcing people to do something, but more of setting things in motion that things will improve on their own through the players own control.

This is natural economics. If absolutely no players feel they can afford a price, then that price might be too high for the current economic state.

Also, if shop owners create more supply with more iron farms, that is also natural economics. Supply and demand controls prices.

The intent of this discussion is to build more demand, as right now our supply GREATLY outweighs the demand.

With more demand, the economy will get healthier.