Rebalancing the Empire Economy [slow induce]

Well the problem with demand is when it goes up, the supply goes up until the demand can't be satisfied. Then the players start going out and getting it themselves. Supply and demand doesn't really apply to minecraft because unlike in real life if I want something most of the time I can go and get it myself if the price is too high.

Hm, this is pretty complicated to think about in the evening... Very interesting though.

Agreed. If a shop runs out of stock but demand is so high that there aren't enough suppliers of it, then the price will just go back up as when people get stock it will be:
"I can charge more this for this as XXXX mall doesn't have any stock"
Or they go opposite:
"I can be even more cheaper now, and beat the competition and get more market share"

EDIT: To be honest, there is no easy way to judge the way shop owners will go. I will always go the cheapest way. I find it easiest than making people pay more for stuff they want. Plus I can get more money as people only want the cheapest things

so... dragon eggs are now 2-4million...

I will comment more soon. Here is my first reaction and initial thought.
If you raise in game rupee bonuses only... it punishes those of us who save our rupees.
It would also award those who keep their rupee balance at zero, when players purchase every 'valuable' commodity at current prices. (unless the plan includes to also re-value peoples savings at the same rate as the rupee bonus, etc...)

Do not forget about supply and demand when attempting to make sense of this economy, or failure is inevitable. Using your example, why is Iron 2r each? Supply is much greater than demand/use. Even if you re-valuate the currency, supply and demand will not change one bit (until 1.8 shakes things up a little if not prepared).

My challenge to you is to get past 'rupees' and see that its 'in game currency' that is a transfer medium of 'goods' and 'services'. (and the voting and sign in bonus is a 'base salary')

I understand what you are trying to do though. And getting off topic a little (just a little) when promoting and offering quadruple rupee bonuses for the holidays, and then re-valuating the same immediately after the quad-bonus ends is... disappointing.

Ok, I will post more on this topic soon. Now back to RL.

I say leave the economy untouched, the next update will likely cripple the widespread usage of iron and gold farms, leading to a higher demand, meaning shop owners will have to increase their prices.
But that will lead to players needing more money, which I think could be partly satisfied by an increase in voting rewards.

If iron - the 2r price item ... later gets nerfed - they will be more rare and should go up in price anyway ...
same with gold ...

If inflation is instilled into everything - then what would be the point of an inflation? - everything would be closer to the same basis - plus* personally I wouldn't see items rising in prices, i'd see people just obtaining more money and buying more things - keeping prices as is ...

So, for now - I just say leave the prices and rupee gain as-is ... and wait out until after 1.8 is released.

Which means no change, it would be just be the scale of things of things changing.
Rupees go up by 10x, and so will prices.

aside from we don't have confirmation of savings being multiplied to suit, meaning that only those of us with prices to afford the eggs could buy, which if we want them have already done... eggs become a stale commodity and never trade again till newbies get the money from sign in bonuses.

Rebalancing it wouldn't be about making iron prices higher, it would be making pricing for everything much more competitive and easier to vary from the usual cost of an item.

That would be the general idea, rupee logins, vote bonuses and everything else would be gradually scaled up.
And new players would most likely benefit the most, with their rupees for joining and registering on the forums.

Current rupee balances would not be touched, logins and vote bonuses would.
And as for Dragon Eggs, thanks to Dragon Tombs, buying them will no longer be the only way

Aikar I would try this after 1.8 comes out. A ton of stuff that hardly anyone uses is going to become more profitable the night of the transfer. Smart people, like my self, are already getting a ton of the new stuff.

These would be the same dragon tombs we discussed for not being the only way to obtain eggs over a year ago now?
Unless Tombs comes out tomorrow to beat this update the eggs will be fixed in the hands of those who hold them now and we will be in the same situation we were in back with the original eggs, no one will wish to let go of the eggs when land claiming comes into effect either as 4million rupees for the item they have held for so long is not worth the stretch of land.

Revaluating IGC does not ‘solve’ economic issues.
Even if you place a zero after every piece of currency, it is just manipulation, solving nothing but causing instability in the short run. Solves nothing in the long run.

If you want to fractionalize one piece of iron at 2 rupees each,
Sell them at a stack for competitive pricing.

64 x 2 = 128 rupees.

Next shop sells them for 1.8r each, so one stack is 115rupees…
If you want a single piece, you pay more. Pay for ‘bulk’ items then you get a discount.

Or sell in a block, if you want to sell at 2.2 rupees per iron ingot, one block is 20 rupees.

Why manipulate currency when we have the tools to accommodate for this already?

Shop signs are not limited to one item, you can buy, sell, etc… at any fraction you can imagine.

So this begs the question… What exactly are we trying to accomplish with a revaluation?

OK. As far as I see, prices are fine as they are, but given the nature of the game as it is, there exists no simultaneous problem with inflation. Basically, I don't think it'll matter either way.
As to the people with lots of liquid cash, they must worry about the devaluation of their bank.

One addendum!

I believe the monetary supply should be multiplied by 25. I agree with Aikar, while prices will obviously increase, so will your daily bonus; they'll cancel each other. I was having a thought experiment as I was taking my dinner. I thought "If I bought diamonds in bulk at 40r with all my money, then sold them following the first day of the x25 daily bonus, how much would I make?"

Well, with my current funds, I'd be able to buy around 87 diamonds. With the x25 price bump, diamonds would be x25 the value. So my 3,477r would become 86,925r through this process, assuming everyone's money magically multiplied by 25. At the start of my thought process, my main concern was people exploiting the monetary expansion to make loads of rupees, but I just realised just there now that it would be a natural consequence of the increase in the monetary supply. Everyone would buy into diamonds and sell out again as the price lifted, and their money would immediately be 25-tupled. They would immediately hop on top of the inflation, whereas those who chose not to buy in would have their monies built up by the daily bonus.

Inflation is not really a concern when you can control it. It's only a concern with fiat currencies, where governments and even central banks don't have control over inflation, but individual fractional reserve bankers do. In contrast, here in EMC, Aikar can do as he wishes with the rate of inflation, but it'll be okay, because if he screws up, he can just reset the rate again.

tl;dr; whatever rate Aikar eases the expansion of the monetary supply into the economy at, you will not practically notice it, he could multiply the monetary supply by 100 and, in real terms, there will not be a single difference