Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

?

!

...

[Megaman_zx]

I started my turn, but due to some unforeseen lag issues with my pet population (so many chickens!!!!) i'm going to call it a night and try to get the save up tomorrow or the next day


on the plus side i got the first death (achievement unlocked) when my caravan leader had his skull pecked open by a buzzard.

[zlob]

I thought I'd edited them to just not arrive but I guess that was a fail. 

Maybe the first caravan is hardcoded, no matter what you do?
My wealth in rings is 8200.

[Megaman_zx]

ok, finally finished, here's the stats

total wealth 29488
living dwarves: 15 adults (2 dead)
caravan currency: 21000 gold coins (12600 db)

and the save here

[zlob]

I wanted to clarify if exploiting game mechanics like melting items for metal income is banned here.
I am asking because I've recently read that it allows for smelting coins with 5000% efficiency (50 bars from one bar used to make the stack of coins), and this could possibly impact our wealth competition.

[Timeless Bob]

I wanted to clarify if exploiting game mechanics like melting items for metal income is banned here.
I am asking because I've recently read that it allows for smelting coins with 5000% efficiency (50 bars from one bar used to make the stack of coins), and this could possibly impact our wealth competition.

Since there's no real way to enforce the "no cheating" policy for that exploit, (rather than simply being able to upload a save file to see if a suspected Player's new embark has brought a wagon filled with equipment with them after all, or is over-reporting wealth by including stone rings encrusted with gems as well as the ones made exclusively from gems for instance), I say, let's play the game as if the exploit were a form of "Midas magic".  All that extra metal in coinage might not do the sites where it's stored much good if there's so much of it that caravans can't tote it away in payment.  If gold gets so common because Players overuse the exploit to turn one bar into fifty too often, the other Players may choose to have their civ stop accepting gold coins as viable currency and choose some other metal, item or substance to use in its place.  Also, I imagine that the kobolds, goblins and Titans may choose to come after your civs more often due to the presence of so much treasure, so that will be another factor any Player who chooses to use "the Midas touch" may wish to consider.

(Unscrupulous trading civs may even send out "raiding parties" themselves if they thought they could get away with it.  Historical wars have often started by such skullduggery in RL.)

[Timeless Bob]

Round 1 results:
As of Granite 1st of year 5, Fishnation is the most prosperous guild in the world. 

The headquarters of the three Guilds have been set and now the game begins in earnest!

I've downloaded the save and will be choosing which option I will be doing for my turn soon enough.

[zlob]

So now we only do one action in a turn?
EDIT: How about we (try to) apply something like gold standard system?
The currency (coins) would be worth only as much as the goods (or just rings) that you keep in your safe? That would allow for complex calculations like "How many coins do I want to emit? How much do I want my coins to be worth?" etc.
That'd also implement inflation and exchange rate calculations, which might either be good or bad, depending on what one likes.

[Timeless Bob]

So now we only do one action in a turn?
EDIT: How about we (try to) apply something like gold standard system?
The currency (coins) would be worth only as much as the goods (or just rings) that you keep in your safe? That would allow for complex calculations like "How many coins do I want to emit? How much do I want my coins to be worth?" etc.
That'd also implement inflation and exchange rate calculations, which might either be good or bad, depending on what one likes.

The way I understand it, the "worth" of any currency is its exchange rate for resources.  Caravan wealth (ie: "fiat currency") is an agreed upon, easily transported intermediary for what basically amounts to as the barter system.  The vanilla Dwarf Fortress trading depot is your basic barter system, where resources are exchanged directly - wine for luxury items for instance.  The luxury items are only worth as much as they are in the Mountainhomes because supposedly they can be bartered for other resources such as food, wine or stone.

I think the reason we used to use the "gold standard" in RL is that gold was relatively rare, didn't rust and could be pressed into coin molds with more ease than other types of metals or substances.  The amount of gold in circulation around the 1500's was finite, so that the worth of a certain weight of gold vs some good or item was able to be determined on a relatively certain scale - the coins became barter chips for the worth of goods.

Of course, the Spanish finding all that gold in the Americas increased the amount of gold in circulation, which meant that for a little while they were able to exchange those new coins whatever resources they wanted, but eventually the exchange rate of coins for goods rebalanced with gold coins being exchanged for far less than before.  The "Midas touch" exploit would do much the same - a short term increase in buying power followed by the relative worth of all gold coins being devalued by everything requiring a greater number of them to buy anything. 

My thoughts were this: since rings made out of gemstones (rather than just metal or stone rings encrusted with gems) are unable to be requested from Non-Player Caravans, and only get produced rarely even by high-level jewelers, plus the fact that they are intrinsically worth up to 300db a piece and easily transportable made them a viable choice for a possible currency between civilizations.  Part of the reason that new embarks are not allowed to bring anything with them is to make everything that is traded in the game have to specifically exist somewhere already - otherwise an unending supply of stuff and resources would make Players only want to trade those rarities that couldn't be brought on embarking wagons like FB bones or artifacts.  (Neither of which are needful items - they would only have value for the Players that were collectors of rare items.) Depending on how much gold, silver and copper was found, my thoughts were that coins would make up the differences in value between one ring and another (and sometimes be taken out of the trading system by Players who needed to melt down enough to make a gold bar for some artifact demand or something.)

We already have a "dorfbuck standard" from within the game, but how much each good "costs" would be made in any bids that are posted for resources, which is entirely up to that Player.  Eventually the amount of coins and rings that Players are willing to spend for certain goods, vs what Players are willing to risk transporting should even out.

Really,

[Megaman_zx]

haters, crushing my gilded slums dreams. (btw, i completely forgot to embark with gold weapons, and instead embarked with a shit-ton of gold nuggets, so at least i'm somewhat honest) also i suck at building fortresses, so my wealth isn't well protected (not that i should be telling y'all that)

also i agree with timeless bob about the whole supply and demand thing(if i demand anything, either of you can refuse until i name a ridiculously high price, forcing the gold to be distributed amongst the guilds.)

[Timeless Bob]

Caravan bid:
~Posted 5th of Granite, Year 5~
   Guildhouse of Charm is requesting solid gold statues.  The statues must be in the forms of the deities of your civilization (one of each, please).  In payment, a single blue garnet ring (worth 300db) is offered per statue with a bonus blue garnet ring if the full set has been delivered.

[Timeless Bob]

Caravan bid:
~Posted 5th of Granite, Year 5~
   Guildhouse of Charm is requesting edible plants, seeds and barrels of alcohol.  Will pay 1 blue garnet ring (worth 300db) per twenty-five full barrels delivered.

[Timeless Bob]

I chose option #2: Embarking at a new site with an empty wagon then immediately abandoning it.

Save file for Turn 4: https://www.dropbox.com/s/72ldans6v74zps3/Caravan%20Turn%204.zip?dl=0

(After doing some !!Science!!, it seems that adventurers can't retire in an abandoned place after all (not like the lairs in 34.11), so I'm changing option 2 back to embarking with an empty wagon then retiring it instead.

[zlob]

I choose option #3: Unretiring an embark (HQ) and playing for a season.
I'll update when I finish.
When I start playing on 1st slate (2nd month), do I play for a full season (till 2nd month of summer) or until the next season (1st month of summer)?

[Timeless Bob]

You play until the end of whatever season you start in.  This will be part of the strategy of which option/s to choose - seeing where the end date of the last save happens to be.

[zlob]

Alright then, here's my save.
Site's wealth is 26200 (8200 in rings and 18000 in coins).