Consider Implementing Banks/Ore Exchanges

[MasonMcBadbat]

Hello!

There has been some interest in new layers of economy for Loka such as trade routes, agreements etc.
While those paths might be out of our reach, this suggestion might be attainable.

Currently, to exchange your mined goods, you go to spawn and find a little ore exchange machine in a room near the town portal. You toss the valuables into a bin, click the button, and the shards appear. While the system does work, it's a missed opportunity to add a more engaging feature, especially to a part of the game we all use.

The suggestion is a bank/exchange industry or building that towns can build. In these banks, players can exchange their valuables for shards just as they do with the ore exchange. However, there are a few key differences:

• Banks have a high upkeep, meaning that if you run a small town or one that doesn't acquire significant income from mined goods, it's not worth while to build. These town residents would travel to another town with an existing bank to cut costs in exchange for some extra risk.
• Towns with banks encourage visitors, as a certain % fee decided by the owner is taken from the exchange for the use of their bank. However, if an owner marks their fees too high, or the path is too dangerous, their foreign consumers will just find someone else with a lower fee and safer roads. Competition that doesn't require armor.
• Towns are encouraged to connect to one another through roads in order to guide investors into their bank as well as provide an open space within the town in order for the investors to enter. This partially opens the town, while still remaining hesitant of raiders.
• Town banks level up through cash investment or some other method. With each level increase, banks provide a larger return on valuables. This extra return is a huge incentive for foreign investors, and might give owners some extra wiggle room when it comes to those fee %s

There are some big questions to be answered/discussed about this concept.
Q: Will banks hold items? That could really nerf raiding.
A: No items stored. A better title might be an exchange as that's all that you do here. Ores for shards.

Q: The ore exchange at spawn works fine. Why do this?
A: While it works great, it could be significantly more engaging. I've listed just a few of the possible social changes it could present to Loka above. I think these changes are positive additions to our world.

I'm sure there are other questions I haven't looked at yet. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

I took inspiration/completely copied from CivCraft. You can find their version of this concept here.
https://civ-war.gamepedia.com/Bank

Thanks for reading

 

[Cryptite]

What would the possible incentive be to using somebody else's Bank if you effectively just give them money due to their fees?

Or are you suggesting that these come to exist instead of the Ore Exchanger?

 

[MasonMcBadbat]

What would the possible incentive be to using somebody else's Bank if you effectively just give them money due to their fees?

Or are you suggesting that these come to exist instead of the Ore Exchanger?

Instead of. It makes the game harder but sometimes difficulty is better.

 

[Cryptite]

Instead of. It makes the game harder but sometimes difficulty is better.

I like the idea, though I feel there would almost still need to be a server one(s), but perhaps it has a much higher rate. It would be really overwhelming for new players to have to go to a town, not knowing at all what kind of denizens live there and have to use their exchanger.

 

[Mrp]

Great idea, I love it. The only issue is what Crypt brings up. New players will have no idea how to get to towns, look at a map, even what shards are. Adding a barrier to understanding this will hurt them tremendously. Just need to think of a way to implement where they are not left behind. Maybe you have a chance at some kind of drop in foreign town player run banks? But the exchanger at spawn remains?

 

[MasonMcBadbat]

I like the idea, though I feel there would almost still need to be a server one(s), but perhaps it has a much higher rate. It would be really overwhelming for new players to have to go to a town, not knowing at all what kind of denizens live there and have to use their exchanger.

Agreed. On CivCraft they had a ./exchange that was significantly lower return. Once I got my footing I discovered foreign banks but I couldn't have traveled around every time I wanted to get some extra cash in the beginning. Great point

 

[MasonMcBadbat]

Upon some pretty minor research, I have some potential start numbers as well as some more opportunities using the system.
As stated above, new players have a lot on their plate when they first arrive and a more complex financial system isn't in their interest. To combat this, Civ had a ./resident exchange that would remove the valuables in your hand from anywhere with a rate of somewhere between 20-30%. This lower return option could be the new job of the ore exchange at spawn.

Their bank return rates and upgrade costs were as follows:
Bank Level 1 40% at no cost ( initial building )
Bank Level 2 50% at 4,000 currency
Bank Level 3 60% at 6,000 currency
Bank Level 4 70% at 12,000 currency
Bank Level 5 80% at 14,000 currency
Bank Level 6 90% at 16,000 currency
Bank Level 7 100% at 18,000 currency
Bank Level 8 120% at 20,000 currency
Bank Level 9 150% at 22,000 currency
Bank Level 10 200% at 24,000 currency

Note: This doesn't include upkeep costs.

Some new opportunities for mechanics:
Interest: A tile buff or bank upgrade tree that adds a % interest income according to your town bank balance. This would have to be balanced to be sure towns cant just live off their own interest. Interest rates ran between .75% and 2.5% on CivCraft with 30,000 currency needed to fully upgrade.
Extra Returns: Tile buff for an extra 5% return at town/alliance banks.

 

[OperaGhost2004]

I honestly don't think this would improve Loka's gameplay at all.