This is another thread in my series of economic ideas. It follows on from the two earlier threads.
Dynamic consumer demandsLabour motivation ideaThese ideas function to disrupt the present economic order that works so perfectly at the moment. Dwarves gradually develop new demands as their basic needs are met and dwarves are not always motivated to work as hard as they possibly can. While dwarves are still quite happy to work for free, how hard they work depends upon social integration, as a fortress's wealth grows and it attracts a larger and larger number of immigrants, there are more and more dwarves but few friendships among them. The problems of labour motivation are trivial for the initial group of dwarves but becomes a major nuisance as your population rapidly increases through immigration.
Because demands now tend to increase as existing demands are met it is also now potentially neccessary to restrict consumption of scarce resources in order to keep demand for those items under control so that a few lucky dwarves do not end up depriving their peers of said resources. This problem also increases over time because as demands for abundant resources are easily met the demands that are not so easily met will tend to pile up. Since labour is the main limiting factor for wealth, this issue and the one above will tend to reinforce eachother in a vicious circle, idleness reduces productivity, which means that fewer demands can be met, which causes unhappiness, which causes idleness.
The 'Economy' then is not percieved of as a 'thing' but rather as a set of emergant problems to which the player is offered a set of solutions all of which have their own drawbacks.
Dwarves do not laze about, they procrastinateDwarves that are struck by idleness for whatever reason do not laze about in the dining hall. Instead they travel off to do whatever job it is that they should be doing, occupy the space (the worshop or designated object), with all the resources needed and they sit about doing nothing. They clock a certain amount of time doing nothing and then they finally get to work. The reason for doing this is that idleness is more annoying/destructive since another job with the same labour activated cannot simply snap up the workshop/raw materials and replace them. It also allows for an idle dwarf job to be logged into the system for those interested in the matter.
Procrastination is infectious but so is hard workIf a dwarf is presently procrastinating it increases the likelyhood of other dwarves procrastinating if they can see them doing so. Similarly the presence of other dwarves presently working reduces the procrastination clocks of other dwarves in the vicinity (so they procrastinate for less time). Social relations matter in both case, the greater the relations between dwarves is the greater the effect and if dwarves actually hate eachother then the effect is inverted (seeing your enemies working hard makes you lazier). This creates a dilemma for the player, do you design things so that dwarves work side by side and can potentially benefit from the infectious nature of hard work or do you isolate all the workshops to keep procrastination from spreading from one dwarf to another.
Motivational dwarvesThe simplest method to deal with procrastination is to have other dwarves deal with it. This is done by the motivation skill and job, the dwarf with motivation labour active seeks out a dwarf that is procrastination and speaks with him. This can drastically reduces the amount of time the dwarf spends procrastinating. The more skilled the motivator is, the faster the dwarf gets to work, personality matters here as more likable/charismatic dwarves are better at motivation inherantly. As with the previous entry personal relations matter, a dwarf is more motivated by another dwarf he likes and can actually be caused to spend more time procrastinating by a dwarf he hates. There is a bogy skill that opposes motivation called intransigence, the more time a dwarf ends up procrastinating having been motivated the greater gain of this skill there is. The drawbacks of using this method is that motivational dwarves are not doing other work and can be tied down by intransigent dwarves, also motivational dwarves can themselves procrastinate and tie other dwarves down, potentially creating a chain of dwarves procrastinating about motivating eachother at worst.
RationingRationing is essentially done by item designation. At least one of a particular new building called a rationing board (or somesuch) need to be built ideally near to the stockpile that contains rationed objects. A ration is defined by item type, it can be a general category such as any-food or it can be a very specific item. An individual dwarf is either allowed to collect a certain amount of that item per a designated period of time or can only own a certain amount of an item. Rationed items cannot be used (they are effectively forbidden) unless there is a eligable ration of that item that can be collected but unrationed items can be collected freely, not counting towards the dwarves ration at all *unless* that ration is based upon how much of the item they own. In order to work the rationing board must be manned, this probably not best done by a position but by an ordinary labour using a generic administrator skill. Aside from the loss of labour involved in keeping it manned the drawbacks of rationing are that it cannot be adjusted in order to meet the idiosyncratic demands of particular individuals by subtracting from demands in other areas.
PunishmentsPunishments come in two kinds. There are collective punishments which work roughly as mandates do at the moment, the task or job has a deadline for completion but one set by the player and there is a punishment of a particular severity attached to it. A dwarf with the relevent skills is selected at random to recieve the punishment of the designated severity. The greater the punishment and the shorter the deadline the greater the motivating effect on dwarves, however collective punishments that are due but not implemented reduce labour motivation of a fortress. Dwarves are only motivated by collective punishments if the job they are presently doing is connected to the terms of the punishment.
Individual punishments by contrast work somewhat like motivation. A punisher dwarf finds a dwarf that is procrastinating and deals out a punishment of a defined severity. This ranges from purely verbal abuse up to mutilation of a small body part. Individual punishments cause unhappyness but also greatly increase labour motivation of the punished dwarf, all witnesses and all dwarves that he tells about his punishment. Cruel dwarves punishments are more effective than less cruel dwarves punishments.
Professional PrideThis involves creating or allowing the creation of professional organisations/guilds dedicated to a particular type of skill. Members of such organisations naturally work harder since they take pride in their work and the social status it gives them. Additionally all positions work harder than normal when doing tasks related directly to their office in a similar manner. Particular skills can be manually assigned in the raws to positions, which has a similar effect. The drawbacks of professional pride is that involves creating political organisations that can become problematic and persue their own agendas which may clash with the player's. Also members are collectively upset when any jobs related to their skills are deactivated by the player, reducing the player's control over production.
WagesThis involves first designating items as commercial items, similar to rationing. Two buildings must be constructed, the bank and the shop which must both be manned in order to work. The bank is set to hold up to a certain reserve of currency, dwarves will automatically haul an amount of coins equal to the defined value into the bank. Wages are set at the bank, each type of labour is given a particular wage per task, that means either an designated object harvested, a service completed or an item made. A log is kept in the bank of the personal wealth of each dwarf in the fortress, as a dwarf completes tasks his or her personal wealth goes up by the designated amount. The key thing here is that the amount of wealth can exceed by far the total amount of coins actually in the bank, because the coins only appear in the hands of dwarves when they are taken out and spent. Dwarves do not like it however when they cannot withdraw because there are not sufficient reserves in the bank to do so.
Prices are set at the shop. The dwarf takes money from the bank and then buys a particular item that is designated as commercial but does not have an owner. The bought item is then retrieved by the dwarf from the stockpile, it is his private property now but it remains a commercial item. The shop itself has a certain cash reserve, anything above this goes back into the bank's cash reserve by means of haulers. Commercial items belonging to dwarves may themselves be sold to the shop for money which removes their private property tag or they may equally be exchanged for another commercial item of lesser value and a dwarf may independantly trade commercial items with other dwarves (or potentially adventurers). Dwarves naturally do not like their private property being de-commercialised by the player even though it still remains their private property.
In order for wages to work to motivate dwarves it is needed that said dwarves demand a commercial item that they cannot acquire by normal means or rationing and that they cannot presently afford to buy. As long as the dwarf is 'saving up' for said item they will not suffer from procrastination except in extreme conditions, but as soon as they have enough to buy all the items they want money no longer motivates. The dilemma is that in order to get the maximum value out of money as a motivator items demanded by the maximum number of dwarves must be sufficiantly expensive that they have to save up to buy them but this involves depriving dwarves from using said items, causing unhappiness. Also there must enough currency available in the fortress bank for the dwarves to be able to withdraw enough money that they can actually buy the items from the shop.
Author
Topic: Economic regulation ideas (Read 928 times)