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jasonrohrer

Administrator

Registered: 2013-04-01

Posts: 1,235

Re: I'm back from vaction (and plans moving forward)

Yeah, tool dump was invented for the same purpose... well, along with balancing out the infinite backpack (so you wouldn't just carry loads of everything, just to be safe, because you'd lose it all).

Well, actually, getting the tools left by a killed robber was in the design from the very beginning.  I don't think that has ever changed.  Dumping them when you run out the door was invented to balance the infinite backpack.

BUT, that doesn't actually inject new money into the system, beyond the starting budgets (tools are bought with money).

I think it's pretty clear that new money needs to come into the system from somewhere....there were times way back when when there was no new money coming in (except for starting money after respawn) and it really felt like the economy stalled out.... because everything you do in this game eats money.  People robbing each other for $1, etc.

SO, the question is where that money comes from, and what kind of game players can play to get that money.  If there's a skill-free way to get that money, people will gravitate toward that way of progressing in the game (aka, grinding).

Yeah, dalleck, I'm not totally happy with the thematic implications of luring robbers into your house.

You can still, obviously, just sit there at the bottom and keep your family safe.  You can still, obviously, rob others to get more money. 

What you can no longer do is sit there in a fortress and let money roll in over time (salary is gone).

In some ancient version of this game, there was no salary, and the economic stagnation that I saw should have been predictable using a tragedy of the commons model.  If everyone else is spending down to $0 in the game, what should you do?  You can't steal from them (nothing to steal), so you can't raise yourself up as a robber.  You can't keep some money around (because it makes you a lone target for everyone else in the game, and attracting robbers offers no advantage).  So, you have to spend down to $0 too, and the whole thing freezes.

With bounties, even if everyone else in the game is spending down to $0, you can gain an advantage for yourself by breaking the cycle and building a trick house with some money in it as bait.  There is at least $500 waiting for you if you pull this off.

Josh:  I set up the bounties the way that I did just to keep everything simple and easy to reason about.... and also to ensure that every robber death generated some money for the house owner.  Also, it feels more cold and law-like to just apply a fixed fine for each offense (an not some percentage of money taken).  But, like salary, bounty increments are tweakable in the server settings file.