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[Captain_Action]

Toady I did some more movie watching and noticed you had some of the dwarves minting coins!

So what can these coins be used for?

[Toady One]

Once you get a broker and a bookkeeper, or a manager and a bookkeeper (don't remember which), the economy starts up.  These dwarves are nobles (purple), so their presents represents your official inclusion in the larger dwarven system.  The bookkeeper doesn't come until you have some coins (a bookkeeper also lets you count all of our items and zoom to any item).  Once the economy has started, non-noble dwarves have wages and must pay rent.  They can also buy and sell things in stores that you set up.  The stores are run by the broker/bookkeeper at first, but any enterprising dwarf can buy in to one.  The stores are stocked by goods that the dwarves make.  It would be too messy to have them all bring their goods to market and waste time selling them, so instead, they are paid for producing the good, which becomes state property.  The store owners can buy state property at a discount, and then sell it at whatever price they like, and keep the profits.  It's kind of strange, but since the laborers didn't pay for the materials they are using in the first place, it makes sense in a way for things to revert to state ownership, provided the laborers are paid in some way.  The broker and bookkeeper hate being burdened by running the shops, so they eventually all pass into private ownership, so long as any of your workers has enough money to buy one.  The shopkeeper isn't very burdened though...  they really don't do much of anything.  I think anybody is paid a small amount for moving a good to the shop.  The shopkeeper just decides which goods to purchase for the shop, and how much to sell them for.  All buying and selling is done on the honor system -- they just trade some coins over the the shopkeeper, in return for the object in question.  Everybody actually has an "account", which is kept independent of the coins (this is a supposed role of the bookkeeper, although his/her death doesn't change anything).  People do grumble if they don't have coins to match their account though, so you have to try to keep coin production up.  The bookkeeper constantly hassles you to produce coins if you don't have enough, and if you ignore the mandates, the bookkeeper might become angry and throw tantrums, as usual.

This is all implemented, but is subject to some changes, since I might affiliate workers to workshops more closely, and mess with some other things.

[Captain_Action]

Thanks, that clears it up some.

What about the "price adjustments" that pop up? Do they reflect world conditions or dwarves' settlement?

[Toady One]

The ones in the movie were a minor bug, since the economy hadn't started.  Once the economy starts, nobles will occasionally inflate the prices of objects they like so that people can't buy them as easily -- the nobles can acquire any state-owned objects they like, so they attempt to hoard them in this manner before they become privately owned.  There is also a tax collector, and the royal guards, which can help them with this.

[Captain_Action]

Acquire as in theft? Or as in "able to buy anything becuase of unlimted purchasing power"

[ November 01, 2005: Message edited by: Captain_Action ]

[Toady One]

Well, they belong to the nobles, as a group, so they simply take what they like, according to how large their quarters are and how much furniture (chests/cabinets) you've given them.  Lesser nobles demand less storage space, and greater nobles will get angry if a lesser has more than they do.  Any dwarf that has achieved a very very high skill level in any trade falls in this group as well, but they don't make any demands, and they continue to work (they just don't have to worry about rent or being able to replace worn clothes like the other dwarves).

[Captain_Action]

So the nobles are honored elders, interesting. What prevents the player from "retiring" nobles? Cave-ins can and do happen you know.

[Toady One]

While there is the bug with the psychotic sheriff, cave-ins and and drawbridge accidents became quite popular.  The downside to eliminating nobles is that they all play some kind of role in your society, and it often takes a year to get a new one (or longer).  That said, it occasionally might be a useful strategy, if someone is getting really out of hand.

[Captain_Action]

Are you planning to allow the travelling merchants to bring coinage to the dwarves' settlement?

[Gezol]

Man, the more I hear about this game, the better it sounds...

Do the nobles have any rank themselves, or are they just identified by profession? I mean, are there barons, counts, dukes, that sort of thing? And can they pull rank on each other if there are, maybe get into power struggles? I have a feeling I'm getting into bloat territory...

[Toady One]

I'm not sure about having the merchants bring coins -- one of the fun half-implemented things with dwarven coins is having them have the year on them, and an image depending on the year and the metal.  If the metal is one that is not used for currency (e.g. bronze), then they will be commemorative coins, much like the masterpiece detailing scenes we discussed before.  This is all kind of bloating, so who knows what will be done.

There are professional nobles, guild nobles, nobles that have reached the peak in their trade, champions from the military, and then there are the standard "noble" nobles.  Right now I'm using the king/queen, dukes, counts and barons.  I think discussing the benefits etc. of these nobles is a bit spoily, and it's part of the core stuff I'm working on.  Suffice to say, as your cave gets bigger, you get these nobles rank by rank, and your life becomes much more interesting.

[Ancient_Sleeping_Dude_Rei]

Will there be resource caravans? Maybe a caravan from a nearby mining outpost or logging village come with a bunch of resources?

[Toady One]

Resource caravans seem kind of strange, at least if you don't have any shortages.  There are some other things that might bring this on, but I don't want to get into it too much.

[Ancient_Sleeping_Dude_Rei]

Not really resource caravans from the main part of the world, but from farther away, and you're the nearest settlement or something.

[Captain_Action]

Here's a quick thought on coinage and traders. Traders should only lug coins around if the player sells them. I don't know all the races toady will be adding to the game, but humans would most likely be only other race to deal with coins. Assumming, they have the technology for minting. Kobolds could make gold/silver covered "slugs" to cause economic chaos.