11-14-2006, 09:29 PM
Economy System
One thing most of us agree on is that there is something wrong with the current economy system. Making money is too easy, as well is maxing out your relatively small bank. That's why there need to be some radical changes. Deaken made a really extensive thread (link) about this topic in dutch. I don't want to steal his idea's, but rather talk about the economy in general, and how everything can and should relate to each other. This can be a topic with all economy idea's.
This thread contains idea's from Deaken (change the way you get cash in many ways), Forbidden (stocks), MartijnC (city area's) and me. This thread has no intention of stealing idea's from anyone, but rather to keep every economy-idea in one place and translating it for the non-Dutchies.
(Rico's customs tax-thread is not covered in this thread. He made a very extensive and explaining thread about it, which I feel is quite complete)
A new start
When we make the switch to LVP3.0, every player begins with the standard $2500 and his bank reset to zero. Everybody has to start over. This will make the game confusing for regulars and probably piss off some of them. I think it's for a good cause.
Radical changes
Everything on this list will be covered further in this thread
Deaken's list
Because the admin team hasn't been Dutch-only for a while, I'll translate the points Deaken made and which I agree with. I removed everything about respect (I think that's not economy-related) and summarized his points dramatically.
One thing most of us agree on is that there is something wrong with the current economy system. Making money is too easy, as well is maxing out your relatively small bank. That's why there need to be some radical changes. Deaken made a really extensive thread (link) about this topic in dutch. I don't want to steal his idea's, but rather talk about the economy in general, and how everything can and should relate to each other. This can be a topic with all economy idea's.
This thread contains idea's from Deaken (change the way you get cash in many ways), Forbidden (stocks), MartijnC (city area's) and me. This thread has no intention of stealing idea's from anyone, but rather to keep every economy-idea in one place and translating it for the non-Dutchies.
(Rico's customs tax-thread is not covered in this thread. He made a very extensive and explaining thread about it, which I feel is quite complete)
A new start
When we make the switch to LVP3.0, every player begins with the standard $2500 and his bank reset to zero. Everybody has to start over. This will make the game confusing for regulars and probably piss off some of them. I think it's for a good cause.
Radical changes
Everything on this list will be covered further in this thread
- Every minigame has a property related to it
- Properties are more interactive, even for players who do not own the property
- Becoming a tycoon will be way more challenging
Deaken's list
Because the admin team hasn't been Dutch-only for a while, I'll translate the points Deaken made and which I agree with. I removed everything about respect (I think that's not economy-related) and summarized his points dramatically.
- How can you make cash as a player?
- Play minigames, you can double your sign-up fee with this (sign up: $10k, win: $20k)
- Loan money from the Frisia to make investments
- Buy properties. The way you make money with properties should be changed radically. I combined Deaken, Nakebod and my idea's in the next paragraph
- Kill players (not by drive-by's)
- Buy city area's (MartijnC's idea)
- Idle at ship (Deaken did not like this idea, I think it should stay)
- Probably more
- What can you do with your cash?
- Play minigames
- Bounty other players
- Tune your car
- Bank it
- Buy weapons and armor
- Buy a safehouse
- Travel between the big cities by train, airplane and taxi. Taxi only works in the current city, not between cities.
- Many other things, but these are the most important
The property-system expanded
There should be properties in everyone's price range. I hope the custom property-functions in LVP3.0 will be fixed, so they don't disappear when the server crashes. Properties should be featured in all towns, but the majority in Las Venturas. There should be a lot more properties, and props that don't make sense (eg. Jerico's traffic light disco - sorry Jerico) should be gone.
Sub: Property values
In short: Properties lose value if they are unowned for a while. They will increase in value if they're taken over often.
I've experimented a bit with different values and I think this is a good formula for decreasing value:
P = PriceCode:P = dP * ( 0.999 ^ h )
dP = Default price
h = Number of hours the property was abandoned.
Taking over a prop increases the costprice with 1%.
Let's use the Crowbar as an example. It's default costprice is $25.000. Every hour it isn't owned, it will lose 0.1% of it's current value. If it's not owned for a day, it will cost $24.407. If it's not owned for a week, it will cost $21.133. If someone buys the property after a week, it will cost $21.133. If someone takes over the bar, the costprice will have increased 1%, making it $21.344.
Another example is with Caligula. It's default costprice it $1.250.000. If it's abandoned for a week (not likely), it will cost $1.056.604. If lots of players buy it after that week, let's say 10 players have bought it and it hasn't been abandoned for more than an hour, it will cost $1.167.149.
Sub: Investments can be made in every property
Even if a property has been bought, and not been in possession for more than 10 minutes, other players can still benefit from it. Players can invest money in the property, which will increase the costprice and give them a small share of the profits. If properties are sold to another player, the investors will get a bonus fee. If the property is sold to no-one, the investments will stay and will decrease in value over the hours, as the property will decrease in value.
Sub: Property's pay taxes to the city area owner
This plan is an extension to MartijnC's city area's idea. Every property should be in a specific city area. Every property owner pays taxes every x minutes that the city area owner will get. This will make it even more challenging to pick a good city area if you want to be rich. The price of a city area should be relative to a combination of the costprice of all properties currently in that area.
Sub: Minigames will have properties connected to it
Personally, I like properties with special features really much. I think most players think so too. So why not give the players more control over everything the gamemode has to offer? Since SA-MP 0.2 will be able to have races indoors, players could own a derby stadium or the 8-ring racetrack. They can set the rake (a small percentage of the sign-up fees) for hosting the race/derby. Some deathmatch-area's could be owned, even the Pay&Sprays could have owners! Imagine different owners for different pay&sprays, that will make the poorer players think about the best deals. Of course property owners need to be limited in their powers, €10.000 to spray your car is way too much.
Hosting races, selling cars, owning a train station, deathmatch area's or an Ammunation can all add to your cashflow, and to your investors. If these kind of properties have a relatively high percentage of tax they have to pay to the city area owner, they will have to make a good decision about the prices, so they will get a good balance between cost of usage and players that want to pay that amount to join. It will probably make LVP the first really strategic tycoon game, combined with everything else we have to offer.
Example: Owning an Ammunation
Let's say you buy the Ammunation at the end of the Strip. It's a little bit more expensive than the other Ammunation in town, because it's location is great and lot's of players make use of it. Let's say it costs $120.000. You borrow some money from the Frisia and buy it. Note that this Ammunation does not make money per minute, that just makes no sense. You only make money by selling guns. Contrary to the Shooting Place, you only get a percentage of every gun sold. This percentage can be anywhere from 10%-50%. If you change this percentage, a newsmessage will appear: "Newsmessage: Chillosophy's Ammunation has lowered it's prices with 20%". This will draw attention to your store and could make more players buy guns. If another player owns the other Ammunation, he could respond to this news by lowering his prices even more. This will get a healthy competition going. Of course you're limited to changing your prices every 5 minutes. Every x minutes you will have to pay tax to the city area owner (if any), which IS relative to the costprice of your property. If the server is crowded, other players could make an investment in your store, giving you and them some extra cash.
Example2: Owning the 8-track race
(note: This race is fictional, it doesn't exist. It would be nice to see in LVP3.0 though. This race track is shaped like an 8 and has two large screens displaying parts of the track, would look really, really sweet if you play it multiplayer. I think it's located in the large egg-shaped arena west of the city, north of the derby-arena)
As an example, owning this race will cost $180.000. As the owner, you will be able to set the entrance fee you get from race participants as well as for visitors who want to watch the race. If 8 players join the game and 2 players are watching, with the gameprice at $5.000 and the spectator-fee at $1.000, you will earn $42.000 just by hosting a single game. In combination with Deaken's idea of giving the winner two times the sign-up fee, you will earn $32.000. You will be able to start a game yourself (giving you a free game of course), but this is time-limited too. You won't be able to start a game for more than once every 10 minutes. Other players can start the game anytime they like.
Sub: Miscellaneous sidenotes
If some of these idea's are implemented, 10 minutes is too short to make a successful business. I haven't thought of the perfect way to handle this yet. 30 minutes seems more reasonable, but maybe it should be made impossible to buy out a prop, unless you offer the player a lot of money.
Another possible problem could be the spam you will get in your main chat screen. Newsmessages about changing prices, players that buy properties, etc. could be limited to be received by players that are currently in the same city.
Safehouses
I don't know much about the safehouse idea, but I think the tax you have to pay for owning a safe house should be paid to the city area owner too. - Play minigames
- Play minigames, you can double your sign-up fee with this (sign up: $10k, win: $20k)
