NPCs and credits in the economy

[Ynemey]

What I think would work is to have the population from each sector consume goods, and they would have an infinite wallet. The size of the local population for each sectors would dictate the demand for each of the goods. Their purchasing power would be a continuous source of revenue for the player or NPC selling to them.

The error in this model is that it ties the consumption of goods to a fixed credit amount. What if said goods are valued higher than the earned credits for the player/NPCs? Value is lost, and the economy would collapse, as the player/NPCs would lose money by selling goods for this consumption. If the value of consumed goods is priced lower than the money received, NPCs will accumulate more money than they can spend and will likely never run out. This is the same result as infinite money. In the real world, modern economies run on fiat currency, and money is infinite. Goods are finite, and this is the direction Egosoft is (and should be) focusing their attention to improve their economic system.

[Honved]

It's quite possible to have "infinite money" in the long run, but finite limits in the shorter term. By using planetary populations (and their associated Trade stations) as either money sources or money sinks, depending on the amount of money available in circulation, the game could compensate for the player taking too much money out of circulation, or spending an exhorbitant amount in one shot.

The calculations only need to be done once per day in each sector, where prices and stock levels at the Trade Stations would be adjusted to compensate for the local/regional credit level. This could correspond to the arrival/departure of a dropship to/from one of the planets in the sector. The player could still pull enough money out every day to keep the sector relatively poor, but there would be some small daily influx to prevent a complete collapse.

If the player suddenly dumps a lot of money into a sector through purchases, the surplus will gradually be sucked up by the planets, but could cause a temporary building boom until it's mostly gone, and a surge in prices throughout the sector on account of the greater ability for the residents to buy what they want. It should all balance itself out in the long run.

[spankahontis]

If the NPC's had finite amounts of money, you'll regret it.

You start out with barely nothing, so all the money is in the hands of the NPC's.
When you get rich, the money comes from somewhere: the NPC's.
The richer you get, the poorer the NPC's will get.
There is also the fact that there will be ship-losses along the way, which cost resources and money to buy/build.

The money supply will run dry someday and your game will be over.
Without any money in the NPC's hands, you won't get more money either.

Even in the real world, money isn't finite because they print some more whenever needed and introduce it in the economy.
People lose money sometimes and at some point, without printing extra money, it would all dry up and the economy would stall, leading to a crash.

That would actually be interesting.. The poorer People get, the greater increase of NPC's turning to Piracy, so the downsides to getting super rich is the increase in Piracy that will make life harder for you; more Pirate Galleys flying around in space, more Pirate Bases popping up.
Which will greatly threaten your Capital ships and M Class Vessels as their Cargo would have a greater chance to be raided. You lose Profit to Piracy more often.


Then there is the cost of maintaining your Navy in an economic crisis, many could rebel and become Pirates themselves, taking your Destroyers with them.
Through this chaos, your factories can get hit by Pirates, or your workers strike.
In all Factories could change Faction as Workers and security staff on your station turn on you.

There could be many scripts put in place to make sure the economy doesn't become too one sided.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

While X4 The Descent Into Anarchy looks like a good idea, I am not sure I want that as part of the standard game.

I would like pirate factions to have a "working economy" of some kind probably based on criminal activity and "modern slavery". So hacking, extortion, corruption, terrorism, actual piracy with violence, robbery, blackmail, sex trade, drugs... You know the stuff that criminal gangs and actual pirates engage in, in today's world.

Not sure that I want my own employees to rebel and take off with my hardware if the financial situation gets a little tough.

No, to be honest I would not be happy with a game that was financially constrained in this way. Modern economics is founded on the idea that growth is good. I am not saying that this is necessarily a good idea, but in this game I am happy for it to be the case.

[Falcrack]

Honestly I would be happy if there were entities in the game, similar to the player, which are constrained by limited funds, and can expand their operations, like the player. Not necessarily races limited in this way, but several minor corporations, like unto the player, scattered throughout the galaxy. They would exist alongside the major races, which would not be constrained by the need for credits.

The existence of such entities wouldn't threaten the wider X4 universe, unless and until they get too big, and start to throw their weight around.

If there were NPC entities like this, then they would be able to form the basis of the X4 RTS idea I had which several people don't seem to like!

[Sandalpocalypse]

It wouldn't work for much the same reason. It would place a time stress on the player rather than letting them play at their own pace.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

The player can do a lot of different things to earn money and reputation.

The AI only really has mining and trading. The player can reload a save game when things aren't going his way. What you said sounds simple enough, but I wonder if it's possible, for Egosoft to write an AI to do what you want.

I'm not entirely sure why your so focused on this whole money constraint thing.

I could see a lot of small factions starting with say a single station and some traders / mining vessels. Just let them get on with it. How many of them the player would ever see is interesting to speculate on. Would they have been destroyed, would the station still be producing by the time the player got to that particular part of space?