Currency Backing

[Zenthar]

My server has just started using Ducats as currency which requires gold bars to make. The currency report properly shows Ducats as being backed by gold bars but there is no apparent way to exchange them back. Is this intended or is it simply unfinished?

[Canadian Normandy]

I believe its intended. In my mind you turn the bars into coins so it makes sense its irreversable

[QC]

You can turn the Ducats back to gold ingots. You simply Buy Gold Ingots

[Zenthar]

We were hoping to revert the coins back into bars to make a different coins instead of Ducats without having more than 1 coin type in circulation. If more gold has to be mined to start a whole new circulation then we'll probably just stick with Ducats rather than be wasteful.

[~* BiZZ Keryear *~]

I also think that that is unrealsitic, in RL the stuff backening the currency still exists, and if the bars are really made into coins, then those coins still could be melted down back into bars.

[Mlaaan]

It doesn't just have to be gold... we have a glass based currency :)

[QC]

Once a currency name (Ducats) is selected and the medium selected, in this case gold bars. Then the moment you turn the first gold bars into Ducats that is the point of no return. Buuut you can create another currency with an alternate mill, but this is what you don't want. Otherwise i believe the Currency Exchange can be used to convert one currency into another, But how The Currency Exchange works is beyond me. I have not fugured that out

Originally posted by Mlaaan:

It doesn't just have to be gold... we have a glass based currency :)

The only options i ever got were Gold Ore, Gold Ingots and Gold Flakes for Currency Medium. How did you impose a glass or rather non gold related Currency Medium

[Mlaaan]

Uploaded screenie, look under newest

[Mlaaan]

When you first create your currency click on the picture to change it, there's lots of options to choose from

[Mlaaan]

When you change from a credit system to a currency, I just put up an additional store for the new currency and only sell things in the old credit to use it up. I buy the same things at the new store in the new currency so no peeps get stuck with old credit they can't use. Also linking both stores to the same stockpile/chests makes a loop that buy/sell the same item pretty much forever. You can also use different stores in different credits/currencies selling the same items from 1 stockpile/chest...

[Aramitz]

Gold is however an excellent medium for currency, since its:
- Relatively scarce (I mean, compared to the rest; it's not THAT rare anyway)
- Relatively useless outside of currency backing (except in small amounts for electronics)

[Mlaaan]

I think gold is a very poor choice for currency backing
- excessive pollution to smelt
- excessive sp's to smelt
- excessive equipment need to smelt
One of the most important things about currency is utility,; you need a currency that is easy to get out into circulation.
I think gold is a very poor choice in ECO.

[~* BiZZ Keryear *~]

Originally posted by Mlaaan:

It doesn't just have to be gold... we have a glass based currency :)

Which probably shatters someones dream of becomming rich fast.
(had to make that pun)

Originally posted by Mlaaan:

I think gold is a very poor choice for currency backing
- excessive pollution to smelt
- excessive sp's to smelt
- excessive equipment need to smelt
[...]

In other words hard to come by, which actually makes a good stable currency. Unless you want to have inflation.

[Mlaaan]

But not for Eco where the drop out rate for players is excessive. You have to get the currency into circulation fast, and you have control over the creation of new currency unlike in rl. This is pure economic theory, not how currency works in our modern world.
In Eco you need fast introduction with broad acceptance. You don't want high sp costs, or a lot of pollution. You need to produce new currency as fast as players drop out holding your currency.
In most games there is a currency sink, in Eco, it is the short attention span of the players who drop out after 1 day of being on a server.
So again, gold may be stable, but the player base doesn't stick around long enough for that to matter.

[~* BiZZ Keryear *~]

Originally posted by Mlaaan:

Or you play with reliable friends

[Explicable]

So what is the best material? Copper?