Firan Survival Guide: Economy Introduction
From FiranMUX
The economic system is easier to experience than to read about, I've found, but having a general idea of how things work is good. Here's a list of some relevant help files:
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The general economic system
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EXAMPLE ITEM CREATION
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Economics on FiranMUX is a fully coded, mostly-closed system. The standard currency is in the units of stenis, which are used in the buying and selling of goods and in the paying of wages. Money is important as everything in the game must be bought: food, clothes, housing, baths, messages, jewelry, notable pieces of furniture, whore services (as thematically defined), pantries, childcare costs, and so on.
Items on the game are fully coded. Though some items are assumed to exist, such as standard furnishings in a home, torches lining a street, and so forth, the vast majority of items exist as coded objects that must be created. Instead of describing the clothes you wear, you buy actual clothes objects and wear them, altering your description. Instead of posing that you eat food, you buy or cook actual food objects and eat them, using the coded systems available on the game. The reason these items even exist is that they all interact, in some fashion or another, with various coded systems.
Making items requires raw materials, energy, and the appropriate skill. For a list of all products creatable in the game, use the (very spammy) @products/all command. You can find information about a particular product with the @products command. You'll see mention of the raw materials that are needed, additional tools needed, required skills, and the energy cost, along with the number of finished goods that are produced (which tend to be multiples in the case of items like food, but singular otherwise).
In general all of the coded systems are tightly interrelated. In particular, the energy system, the economic system, and market system are heavily tied together. A good understanding of these systems is useful in understanding how economics work.
Economics and Firan's theme
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THINGS THAT COST MONEY
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Not all characters on Firan should be rich. In fact, some characters on Firan should be downright poor, struggling to make ends meet and relying on friends and charities for help. This is the vision that the creators had when defining the socio-economic aspects of theme, and though this vision is not always present in the game, it's a goal that the wizards strive to achieve.
Nobles should be the economic elite, with valuable land held by their families and enough discretionary income to buy clothes in excess, fine jewelry, fancy mansions, and the like. Some of this income comes from their land holdings. Other income comes sponsoring members of lower classes. Below them are the middle class, hard-working crafters and other generally high esteemed members of the community. Though their life is a comfortable one, they do have to work, sometimes fairly hard, to maintain their lifestyle. Below that are the commoners and then the outcasts, those whose economic lives are a struggle to maintain, who sometimes have to rely on charities for financial help. Such is the theme as defined on Firan.
Enforcing this theme has, historically, led to some unfortunate heartache on the game. Periodically economic changes will be put in place to move the actual state of the game world closer to this reality. Examples in the past include taking money from non-noble characters for various explained reasons, or raising the sponsoring tithe (that is, the amount of money a non-noble selling goods or services must pay their sponsor) from 5, to 25, to 75 percent.
Inevitably after such a change it takes a while for things to economically sort themselves out, and a new balance to be worked out. Some players panic during these transitions, because it's not always clear at first how exactly things will work out in response. Though it's natural that those affected by the latest changes might feel upset at having what they've gained "taken away", it's best to remember that the changes are made with the purpose of moving the game world closer in line with the theme, not to punish certain groups.
There are characters who are better off economically than others. If you find that you, as a player, are just not having much fun playing the character you chose because of the current economic situation, you can always ask around to find recommendations on a new character. In general, the nobles on the game will be more financially with less work involved, while the lower classes will be less financially secure with more work involved.
Large scale economics
There is an entire system of clan-level economics, encompassed in the @clan system. This system is what controls the wants and needs of a clan on a seasonal basis, allowing clans to trade amongst themselves while producing goods of their own. Also included in this system are clan accounts, funding improvements, sabotaging other clans, and many other things. It's not described in detail here as it's primarily of use only by political leaders, such as clan leaders, proxies, and their ministers. Of potential interest to players, however, is the fact that if a clan's needs are not met for a season (defined in game terms as 6 IC months), riots will likely erupt. Such has happened in the past, most notably with the Hydran clan following their exodus, and the Cockatrice clan following a poor trading season.
