Rebalancing the Empire Economy [slow induce]

I honestly just think some of them shouldn't be free. :/

I don't think ANY of them should be free

It would be helpful if Aikar would give us some meaningful stats, but even if there is a need for slight inflation, it is surely nowhere near x10. Money supply should cover the sinks and add for slight inflation of perhaps 5% annually. If more money is needed it would be best to make some extra bonuses.
As any increasing of inflation beyond that will surely only harm EMC.

Any redenomination that is not power of 10 would confuse people too much.
I guess, if redenomination is wanted that it would be x10 or it would face massive protests.
The majority of people just can't multiply by anything but 10 in the head. And fast.

Only if you get caught

I'd say push for the 10x right now.
Currently, there is no "wiggle" room for the prices of things and it's standard.
With the 10x rupees out there, if iron is cheaper in one place, it will run out quicker.

Now, one problem with this theory is the amount of players. Until we have to raise the 60 player limit I do not think we should do this.

Nominal profit, not real profit.

Very true.

You mean decrease in price, but effect of inflation (= of increase in amount of money) is increase in prices. Iron price dropped due to overproduction.

RL example: I guess many do not know that OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), an international oil cartel, coordinates oil production quotes - also to prevent overproduction and drop in oil price.

Iron producers on EMC were not that wise - they just went for fast rupees, although they might have made much more in the long run

True, inflation (raise in amount of currency) wouldn't help in any way, and it would be ridiculous to increase inflation because of overproduction of iron!

But why increase? What is really the problem? 10 iron ingots for 20r, or 19 is not a problem at all. You also can not cure overproduction of iron with inflation - with reducing value of rupees!

... perhaps no big harm done, but there would be harm done:
- it's psychology: if you change there and back again, you bother people, and you very probably destabilize economy which bothers people even more. Bothered people leads to depression and bad economy...

True. But you don't need a major crash - clogged and inefficient economy and depression, demotivated people - that's enough to do harm that needs long time to repair.

I think this is great. The main purpose is to give players a better chance of having competition. A good example of how the inflation is happening is in real life. Remember reading about the olden days when people thought 10 cents was a lot? Now it can get you... well, nothing. The EMC economy has been slowly doing this. As someone said before, the value of rupees used to be less. Items have cost less and have slowly risen. The rising has mostly halted now, and seems to be going backwards for some items.
How does inflation help?
Inflation used in the way Aikar plans will lower the value of the rupee. This is fantastic news for shops owners. Most items currently have a very small range in prices. That range makes it hard to compete. If everything went up x10, we would hopefully see that range raise by ten too. Currently the price of diamonds is mostly consistent with a 5 or so rupee range. (based on the last time I checked. I may be off but it is no more than ten) Currently all shops selling rupees try to stay within that range because you can't sell to low or you will be fighting to remain in stock. If you go too high then you don't sell. Imagine that range multiplied by ten. Now the range is around 50 rupees. That is a lot more and gives shops a much better chance to compete and differentiate themselves in the established economy.
Won't we all lose rupees though?
As it has been said many times, no. The value will go down SLOWLY. You will not be impacted very quickly. Any member truly interested in maintaining their wealth will be able to keep up with the change.
How will this happen if our accounts don't magically change?
There are 3 main classes in EMC that affect the economy.

1. The mega mall owners: These people control our economy. Their prices are commonly used as a comparison and tons of profit is made. Called MM in the diagram
2. The small shop owners: This is the class that needs help. How can you make yourself more appealing than megamalls if you have only a few rupee range to make a difference? SM in the diagram
3. Simple buyers: These people don't have a shop and get money through other means. These other means are what Aikar will change. SB in the diagram

Diagram:
Higher bonuses --> SB has more money to spend ---> MM adjust prices seeing as they can get much more profit. ---> value of rupee lowers ---> SM find that they have much more area to adjust prices ---> economy slowly balances out and we have a much more competitive economy.

This also helps a little with new players. When you have 1000 every day, you feel rich and powerful. When something makes you feel this way, you stay.
There will be some turbulence and everyone may not like it but once we reach the last stage of this, things will be much better.
Questions about what I said? I will try to answer them the best I can.

Will there be wild claiming in the DT Update? Cause I know how it will work out.

1. DT Update arrives and Wild Claiming
2. People get Eggs and stuff
3. People want the eggs, they sell their promos, items, and such.
4. People sell the egg and the people who bought the egg has it.
5. They venture out to Switzerland or wherever and claim an Empire.
6. They quarry it out and build a base.
7. Now that they can easily transport, they get rich and go into a DT
8. Repeat 2-8

Land claiming and DT will be separate.

I think they should come together. It would make an awesome Empire update. Possibly 1.8 + Land Claiming + New /wild Outposts + DT all in one update. It would take a February Miracle for that to happen.

One thing I believe always should have been added is ... an actual log-in bonus

Yes - I believe voting and supporting is fine ... but what about logging in every day - you could get an inflation that way? By people logging in they gradually get an increase in their log-in money ... It then might make people feel like they get something extra for actually coming onto the server every day.

Sorry. I think this is a bad idea.

By intentionally causing inflation, you are devaluing the rupees current players already have. I understand this is a game. But wasn't EMC advertising - asking players to spend real money$ to buy rupees? 10x inflation means you just took 90% of the value of their rupees away.

I think by raising this thread… you are actually shrinking economic activity of current players. Hmm.. Rupees will be devalued soon. It's best to buy blocks and items… as my rupees will soon lose 90% of their value. Players will hold on to blocks and items instead of selling them. This happens in the real world too. Why did you think the value of gold rose five times in price when the great economic recession hit? People thought their money will soon be worthless. It turned out they were wrong fortunately. But by scaring players with the idea of devaluing rupees… players will just go to bartering. I'll trade you a stack of redstone for a 5 stacks of wheat etc.

I think the bigger question that needs to be asked is, what does EMC see itself as? It's not a PVP server. Is it a mob arena server? Is it creative server? Or as this thread suggests… it's an economic server. Don't get me wrong, I think an economic server is a lot of fun. Everyone has a shop, buying/selling, and trying to be billionaires (at least virtually). I think this is why some players are unhappy. By trying to be so many things at once, EMC isn't very good at any thing.

One other suggestion. Please provide a mechanism to be a supporter and gain supporter privileges… without requiring a credit card be linked to Paypal on a monthly basis. I am willing to buy a gift card or money pack … to do one time purchases… but my real credit card being permanently linked to Paypal … has been a terrible experience. I have had my CC number stolen twice. In both cases, I blame Paypal.

But, its not like our rupee balances actually change, you need to have involvment, whereas in low-size investments they can grow because of supply and demand with no involvment from the investor. I think i'm split on whether I support this or not