Guide to Economy

ECONOMIC GUIDELINES

Hello! This is a guide to explain what we would like to see happen regarding how business and factions are handled, and some general suggestions of how to roleplay economy as well. Economy has grown to be one of the more prevalent aspects of our server, and we should make it a quality of ours with, well.. Quality. The most difficult task when talking economy in a sandbox roleplay is finding a good balance between what’s realistic, and what you can bend a bit to fit the game better. We’ll cut this into a few different sections, and many of the points in each section may gloss over the points in other sections too.


Finances and other assets are as susceptible to powergaming as combat is. Please keep this in mind as you read.

As a Producer

Producers are half of what make up an economy. They provide all of the goods and services for the Antares sector, which paints a very broad picture of the possibilities for both individuals and organizations. A producer should follow what has been laid out for a faction below; One should have some form of income of goods, be it by hiring other players to gather them, or to purchase them. You should also have a storehouse/room, and a facility to manufacture said goods. And before you claim any funds, find a buyer. If you do not make an active effort to sell to players, it will cut everyone else out and delegitimize your business.


Important things to note for producers:

• Keep track of your finances in an OOC public area.

• Have real representation of what you have; a factory, storehouse, staff, and so on.
• Work for what you have. Don’t build it and claim you had what you needed all along.
• Sell your things for a reasonable price. A starship will cost more than a few thousand pixels.
• Include wages, cost of goods, utilities such as water and power, and so on. Some of these seem ridiculous or miniscule, but a large part of a business’ costs come from all of these things.

As a Consumer


Consumers are the part of the economy that lets it run; the oil on the gears. Most of the points regarding a consumer will be glossed over in the individuals section, but these also apply very heavily to factions. Consumers are responsible for putting the funds into the economy, and supporting the businesses. Consumers can purchase anything, be it stacks of wood, to an intergalactic shuttle. Consumers are expected to have their own funds to purchase these things with, and also have their own legitimate sources.

Things to note for consumers (Be it purchasing from an individual or faction):

• Have your own means to funds.
• Do not make purchases that are being sold to you at ludicrously low prices. (Transversely, producers should not sell to someone who obviously has no means to have that money. These are covered in the application process, and are expected to be followed.)
• Have fun with it! Try haggling, and getting the best deal you can.

Individuals

We’ll move to foundation of everything, and the building block to the server; you! The individual character is what makes things happen in the small scheme, which ends up amounting to the grand scheme of things. Characters move the funds around, they do each little bit of production, and more. First, we’ll take into account the setting. Antares takes place in a frontier. While this doesn’t mean there is no technology, keep in mind that wealth isn’t exactly abundant, and most characters should reflect that. Your average Antarean would likely be a middle/low class person, though exceptions do occur. This being said, keep your character’s funds in mind.

Let’s make an example. Mark Johnson is a hunter who’s come out to Antares for the game. Mark has liquidated everything he owns in order to move, and as a middle class citizen, probably made a few thousand pixels off of it. We’ll say 5,000 for simplicity’s sake. Mark comes to the Outpost, looking to purchase a hunting rifle. He finds a dealer and makes a deal on a rifle. The player behind Mark takes out about 500 pixels from his funds for the rifle, and maybe another 100 for the price of bullets. He then purchases enough food for a week long trip and some camping gear, totaling roughly 1000 pixels. The player deducts this from the funds as well.

Mark has spent some time hunting, and brings back a pretty substantial amount of game. What should he do with it? Sell it, of course! Here, he has a few choices. He can find a buyer himself, which could take some time since he is new to the sector, he can contact a trader and sell it to them, or maybe even ask the trader to establish a regular shipment to a client for a portion of the funds. After he solves this issue, Mark’s player has established an income, as well as some pretty basic funds for Mark.


So let’s recap on Individual Economics:

• Take into account your character’s past, and choose funds according to that.
• Generalize what your character will need to things such as what is vital to their profession, basic needs, and maybe a few amenities.
• When thinking of a character’s profession, keep in mind they will be in a lawless frontier. One of the United System’s best cybernetic surgeons would likely not come out to this sector of space unless it was alongside a United Systems detachment.
• You don’t have to keep a specific list of funds, but at least have a good idea of where your character’s finances are at.

Factions/Businesses

As you read, keep in mind that Factions and other organizations are kept to a more strict standard due to their direct effect on the server.


Now that we’ve covered the economics for the individual, let’s move on to the next step: a body of individuals. Factions are what make things run in the grand scheme. Whether it’s an official group of people, or just some people of a like cause in a rag tag group, the conglomerate must find a way to support itself, and its ventures. A lot of the same rules for individuals apply here: Keep the setting in mind, be reasonable in the amounts, but don’t get too specific. Factions for the most part will be the primary producers of the server, so much of this section will be tied into the producer section. For this section, our faction will be a group that acts as a minor sovereign government. This government is self sufficient (Note that it will not be completely self sufficient) for a number of things, but it will focus on one product to sell, since creating a refinery or factory for whatever that resource is will likely be expensive.



Basics

Let’s think of a planet this faction will settle on, and the resulting resources as well as what basic needs it will be able to fulfill, and so on:

• This faction of ~15 people settles on a forested planet with clean air and water. The land is not barren, but it is incapable of supporting large-scale farming.
  • From this, we know the planet will likely be able to support a lumber mill to fulfill the wood needs, and maybe they could try to sell some to other factions.
  • Adding in another resource structure would be reasonable, but it should not have an output high enough to support all of the colony’s needs, or to supply any amenities past some very basic things. For this planet, we will include a mine, which may supply metals (And possibly stone).
  • The soil is fertile enough for small-scale farming, which will not support all the members.
• Now we can think of the most basic needs for any fauna; food, water, shelter. The water is clean of radiation or abiotic poisons, but natural water still hosts other dangerous impurities. There is small game within the forest, and here is hardly any agriculture. There is lumber for shelter, but not enough stone or metal for anything more advanced.
  • The water is unsafe to drink. A basic filtration system would be easy to make, but for any plumbing, some form of knowledge on the systems would be required. Unless the faction has a member who is aware of such systems, this person would need to be hired.
  • Hunting is possible, but to generate enough food for even a small number of people off of small game, there would need to be a dedicated team of hunters. Agriculture is possible in the small scale. Overall, the faction would not have enough food to support them in a healthy way, and a small amount of food would have to be imported to meet the demands. (Factoid: The average American eats roughly 4.5 lbs (2 kg) of food a day. For a generalization, 3.0-3.5 lbs would be a good number).
  • There is plenty of lumber, and if the demand elsewhere is great enough, perhaps some of it could be sold. It is up to the consumer and producer to find an appropriate price.
  • Stone might not be necessary, as it would likely become nothing more than a building tool. It would, however, be cheaper than metal. The faction produces a very small amount, enough for perhaps building foundations or maintenance.
  • Metal will be used almost everywhere. The faction will need some amount of copper for wiring, metal for repairs to ships, possibly armor, and guns, assuming they have a security force, or possibly even an offensive team.

Resource Allocation/Trade

The faction has the potential for wood, some food, some metal, and some stone. However, these must be worked for. Using basic tools and manual labor, the members can get a slow start. Since many of these tasks are rather basic, the members could likely get started with the basics. However, later on, they will likely need to hire more skilled workers.

Let’s say they achieve a basic lumber mill. They create some rudimentary homes without power, and are capable of warmth, cooking food, and boiling water to filter it. Whoever has a ship could maintain the group’s electronics for now, and communicate with Antares through StarNet. Once they begin producing a slow surplus of lumber, they need to store it somewhere to keep it from rotting, or otherwise being damaged from the elements. For this, they’d need a storehouse, right?

Now that the colony has a surplus of lumber, and a safe place to store it, they would like to sell it. However, none of them are traders, and none of them have a vessel whose storage is large enough to make a profit off the travel. What do they do? Well, StarNet has an abundance of traders, or even people who are willing to come retrieve the goods themselves. After some searching, the faction finds a trader who will transport the lumber, and take a cut of the profits. With their cut of the profits, the faction asks the trader to find an engineer to hire, to help them build more productive structures.

Depending on the experience of the engineer, they could supply a number of services. A younger-middle aged engineer may understand what is needed for a better mill, a rudimentary mine/quarry, and perhaps even a refinery, but when they have the resources, they may not know how to turn them into materials they need. An older, more experienced engineer may be able to help them figure out wiring and better water filtration. Keep in mind that as structures are built and improved, they may require different goods.

Now that they have the means to produce some of what they need, and have found a legitimate buyer (meaning they don’t magically gain money from what they produce), the colony can hire some workers. As these are relatively boring tasks for players, NPCs can be hired, but their wages will need to be accounted for in the faction’s finances the same as any player’s would. It’s also worth noting that any organization with any form of production should have more than one real, human player involved. As the new hires boost production, they gain more wealth, and can possibly even move towards a power source, such as nuclear energy, Erchius, or coal (Which would be ineffective compared to the other two, but still a lucrative resource). Nuclear energy would likely be far too difficult for a starting colony to produce, but it’s possible they could purchase Erchius from a mining facility, or mine enough coal for some of their power. For most colonies, purchasing Erchius would likely be the easiest and most cost-effective solution, as it would require a lower number of workers. With the help of a scientist or possibly an engineer fitting the job, a power station could be created and maintained.

The Faction has set up the beginnings of their facilities, and has started trade on a very small scale. From here they could go in any direction, finances, attitude, and manpower permitting.


Things to remember about organizations:

• Take your planet’s resources into account. A desert planet will not be able to support farms, and a jungle planet would be far too difficult for drilling oil.
• You need experts trained in certain things for certain tasks. Your lumberjacks will not be capable of wiring an entire base, and your engineer will not be a shipwright unless he specializes in that.
• When you have an idea of what to produce, start small. Your output will not be optimal at the start.
• Find traders with the potential to move your cargo. A ship large enough to support large-scale trade would likely be difficult to come by.
• Have a buyer for your product. Do not create a factory and say “We get this much money from it” and not actually be selling it to anyone.
• Keep infrastructure in mind. Your people need power, clean water, and other things. Make sure you have IC representation of these things, and that you worked for it.
• Have a storage area for your goods, and possibly even a docking platform to load up any good being sold.

That pretty much covers the gist of what the staff would like to see. This guide is not quite a ruleset, but the staff is moving towards officiating some of these things, and this is a good template to follow and rework your assets to in order to transition easily with any new rules we introduce.

 

I'm not sure what your question really is, but I'll say what I can. Florans are naturally more likely to survive in such conditions, but they aren't very intelligent, and wouldn't offer much in the way of trade or technology at all. While they can grow homes in trees and have bio-luminescent lighting, hunting animals long term will result in them dying out. Just because Florans can eat raw meat (Humans can eat raw meat without adverse effects as well), doesn't mean they are impervious to disease. They may not be subject to many of the same diseases as other races, but they still face issues with nutrients, bacterium, or forms of parasites. Radiation would also still affect them just like any other race. Immune systems do very little to protect you from exposure.