Medieval game with increased focus on realism and immersion.
In the whole game players use gold coins to buy stuff and it works perfect. But there is this one place, the production and sale of a large quality of low price goods with the price fluctuating by a small degree. In short, I need something lower than 1 gold coin.
If this was a SF game I would just add fraction to the money display, like 4,99. But it does not look too well in a medieval game... So, I thought about adding silver coins, the interface would show then Gold: 1500 Silver: 74.
I also hate that the silver is used only by a mechanic, it does not add fun nor have any gameplay meaning, it just is forced on by the wares sale price part of the game.
Of course I could avoid all this by inflating all the prices (x100), but these big numbers are not looking too good either...
What you think?
Currency (fractions)
Medieval game with increased focus on realism and immersion.
(...)
Gold: 1500 Silver: 74.
(...)
Of course I could avoid all this by inflating all the prices (x100), but these big numbers are not looking too good either...
You know that realism implies sticking to what is real, right? You know gold was the most expensive stuff way back when (and still is), right? So I think that if you don't implement copper and silver, you might as well throw out the underlined sentence.
What's wrong with silver and copper? People are used to that, and it doesn't hinder anything.
Why not do what they did in medieval England and have half pennies and quarter pennies? They used to cut pennies into halves and quarters and use those for small value transactions.
Author
So, you say to make two currencies and just name them silver and copper?
You know that realism implies sticking to what is real, right? You know gold was the most expensive stuff way back when (and still is), right? So I think that if you don't implement copper and silver, you might as well throw out the underlined sentence.
What's wrong with silver and copper? People are used to that, and it doesn't hinder anything.
The game is about multiple kingdoms of many european cultures (http://www.gamedev.n...tuck-in-design/), cutting pennies into smaller ones was not universal everywhere. Anyway, I definitely need a decimal system since it is the only one that is recognized by all players.
Why not do what they did in medieval England and have half pennies and quarter pennies? They used to cut pennies into halves and quarters and use those for small value transactions.
The way I have seen in the past and liked was using shillings and that was the only currency. Sure you had some things cost 20 shillings and others 100k shillings but there was a time when all we had was the shilling if I remember correctly (thinking way back to history classes now)
" They used to cut pennies into halves and quarters"
Only up until the early 1200s. Clipping had become such a problem by that time that cutting coins was outlawed in order to make it easier to prosecute clippers. It became an offence to utter coinage which was not "round" and so hapennies and farthings (1/4 pennies) were minted (both in silver).
For many centuries, the silver penny was the only widely used English currency. There were transient introductions of "groat" (4d), "half-groat" (2d), florins (6s) and nobles (6s 8d) but they were withdrawn, re-valued, re-minted and generally mucked about with to the extent that people stuck to the penny. It was sufficient for the general population, and when the few richer men needed money in larger denominations would use foreign coins.
The gold "sovereign" (20s) first appeared in the late 1400s and was the first reliably used and reasonably available large currency unit.
The big problem that the coinages of this era had was that whenever their value as bullion exceeded their face, they got melted down or exported. English money, in particular, apparently was wont to do this because the silver fineness was higher; so they could be swapped for face value with European coins, then reminted at a lower purity into more money...
Only up until the early 1200s. Clipping had become such a problem by that time that cutting coins was outlawed in order to make it easier to prosecute clippers. It became an offence to utter coinage which was not "round" and so hapennies and farthings (1/4 pennies) were minted (both in silver).
For many centuries, the silver penny was the only widely used English currency. There were transient introductions of "groat" (4d), "half-groat" (2d), florins (6s) and nobles (6s 8d) but they were withdrawn, re-valued, re-minted and generally mucked about with to the extent that people stuck to the penny. It was sufficient for the general population, and when the few richer men needed money in larger denominations would use foreign coins.
The gold "sovereign" (20s) first appeared in the late 1400s and was the first reliably used and reasonably available large currency unit.
The big problem that the coinages of this era had was that whenever their value as bullion exceeded their face, they got melted down or exported. English money, in particular, apparently was wont to do this because the silver fineness was higher; so they could be swapped for face value with European coins, then reminted at a lower purity into more money...
"You know gold was the most expensive stuff way back when (and still is), right?"
There were and are much more precious metals in reasonable supply.
For a long time people would forge gold coins (usually British sovereigns because of their near universal acceptance) in gilded platinum because until the early 20th century, it was cheaper than gold and heavy enough to pass off as it.
The Russian Tsar bought a dinner service made of aluminium at one point -- aluminium was a rare and precious metal until new refining methods suddenly made it cheap in the mid-1800s.
There were and are much more precious metals in reasonable supply.
For a long time people would forge gold coins (usually British sovereigns because of their near universal acceptance) in gilded platinum because until the early 20th century, it was cheaper than gold and heavy enough to pass off as it.
The Russian Tsar bought a dinner service made of aluminium at one point -- aluminium was a rare and precious metal until new refining methods suddenly made it cheap in the mid-1800s.
Medieval game with increased focus on realism and immersion.
In the whole game players use gold coins to buy stuff and it works perfect. But there is this one place, the production and sale of a large quality of low price goods with the price fluctuating by a small degree. In short, I need something lower than 1 gold coin.
If this was a SF game I would just add fraction to the money display, like 4,99. But it does not look too well in a medieval game... So, I thought about adding silver coins, the interface would show then Gold: 1500 Silver: 74.
I also hate that the silver is used only by a mechanic, it does not add fun nor have any gameplay meaning, it just is forced on by the wares sale price part of the game.
Of course I could avoid all this by inflating all the prices (x100), but these big numbers are not looking too good either...
What you think?
Having centralized exchange-like system does not fit well into medieval setting anyways. Thus you can use fractions anyways IMHO. (And say, that this place is managed by Venetian merchants, who use their own, much more precise system of money
)Another, more realistic way is to list products in larger quantities. If prices are constantly changing, it is probably more like wholesale exchange anyways. So instead of barrel of grain costing 2.37 gold coins, list the price as 237 gold coins for 100 barrels. You can also add some extra charge for buying less than listed quantity, for example rounding up to nearest full gold coin.
I too don't see a problem with introducing the whole copper -> silver -> gold paradigm. I wouldn't add in platinum pieces though (like Everquest does), that doesn't make any sense historically as far as I know.
Furthermore, recognize that a gold coin was extremely valuable in the eyes of non nobles. From what I understand, many peasants may have never owned one. Adventurers might be more wealthy than that, but if you're really going for realism, don't start with gold coins as the "dollar" and silver / copper as change. Most commodities would be a few copper, things like furniture would probably be a piece of silver or so, and only when you bought things like a carriage or a full suit of armor would gold pieces really be reasonable.
Anyway, that gives you some flexibility in fractional charges for large costs. For low costs, perhaps you could just have half pieces of copper or something, along the lines of the suggestions above.
Lastly, just because you've got 2 or 3 types of coins to keep track of doesn't mean things have to be complicated. You could automatically consolidate coin types when making transactions or looting money, for example. Under the hood you could just keep track of how many pieces of copper (or half pieces) a player had, and do all transactions from that pool. Just display the calculated amounts of copper, silver and gold on their character sheets and for merchant prices.
Doing something like the way Everquest used to would introduce more realism, but might not appeal to everyone. In old EQ, coins did not consolidate and they had weight associated with them. Carrying around your entire fortune would weigh you down and made travel risky if you got killed and couldn't get back to your body. Thus people would actually go to the bank to have their coins exchanged for more valuable types, or to store them for safe transfer. Selling at merchants would still automatically consolidate coins though.
Furthermore, recognize that a gold coin was extremely valuable in the eyes of non nobles. From what I understand, many peasants may have never owned one. Adventurers might be more wealthy than that, but if you're really going for realism, don't start with gold coins as the "dollar" and silver / copper as change. Most commodities would be a few copper, things like furniture would probably be a piece of silver or so, and only when you bought things like a carriage or a full suit of armor would gold pieces really be reasonable.
Anyway, that gives you some flexibility in fractional charges for large costs. For low costs, perhaps you could just have half pieces of copper or something, along the lines of the suggestions above.
Lastly, just because you've got 2 or 3 types of coins to keep track of doesn't mean things have to be complicated. You could automatically consolidate coin types when making transactions or looting money, for example. Under the hood you could just keep track of how many pieces of copper (or half pieces) a player had, and do all transactions from that pool. Just display the calculated amounts of copper, silver and gold on their character sheets and for merchant prices.
Doing something like the way Everquest used to would introduce more realism, but might not appeal to everyone. In old EQ, coins did not consolidate and they had weight associated with them. Carrying around your entire fortune would weigh you down and made travel risky if you got killed and couldn't get back to your body. Thus people would actually go to the bank to have their coins exchanged for more valuable types, or to store them for safe transfer. Selling at merchants would still automatically consolidate coins though.
IRL every now and they they talk about getting rid of the penny. If you were to buy something that was 2 cents, you'd give the merchant a nickel and he gives you nothing. If you bought 5 of those 2 cent items, you give the merchant a dime and you're even. How about something like that? If you're buying a lot of low priced items, do you really need a fraction of your base currency?
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