Economics

### Basics

Economy in this server is a combination of player-driven and server-driven. There is a server currency, symbolized by $, obtainable by selling items in the shop, just like many faction servers.

**However,** you ***can't access the shop via a command.*** You have to go to one of five prebuilt merchant cities of the server, where you can find villagers, which you will right-click and they will provide you access to the shop. You can buy items, at a very high price, and sell items at a normal price, in a safe space where PVP is disabled. You can also trade with other players via /trade, however this will be done in a non-safe space where PVP is allowed.

This is meant so you have to actually travel to said cities in order to get any money, or buy items with it. There are two cities which are coastal and are very safe to travel, since it's hard for bandits and warmonguers to attack you on the sea. However those two cities have more expensive buy prices, and they won't pay you as much for your products. The bigger profit is found on land cities, where traveling to is way riskier. **Keep in mind warps in this server are disabled (except during your first session on the server)**

You can reduce the risk by:

* Travelling by Sea, Rivers or Canals where you can.
* Buying/or selling in bulk. Backpacks are recommended.
* Bringing more people with you, either from your own nation, or from an allied nation or from mercenaries.
* Having connected territory next to a Merchant City. (comment: we should find a way to disable nations that are next to a city to trade in that city)
* Having religious perks that improve movement speed or resistance, such as Hermes'

**There are certain items that can't be bought on the shop, like Silk or Diamonds. Most building blocks will be on the shop, and certain items and materials will be avaliable on special days. (Silk will be avaliable during a Chinese day)**

As buying items from the shop can be really expensive (and risky), it is encouraged that you either produce the items yourself, or trade with another nation that has a surplus of them and can give a lower price than buying in the shop, but a higher one that they would get by selling them.

Trade between players can be done in Merchant cities, however in a non-safe PVP space, or can be done safely in one of the involved nations.

Resources are less farmable now, and balance has been added so each region has a certain resource rich at, but a lack of another important resource.

f.e.: Crops can't grow on certain biomes. It's now way harder to find iron or coal in certain spots of the map, but still possible.

### What is money for?

* Buying items and resources from other players or the shop.
* Culture upgrades, which are necessary for new technology, (like stronger iteration of weapons), more colonization, or being able to conquer more.
* Maintaining the faction taxes.
* Buying more land for the faction.
* Hiring mercenaries, making treaties, or just overall helping your diplomacy.
* Funding wars. (To start a raiding war you need 1000$, to start a conquest war you need 5000$.)

### What does all that mean?

It means that while its more profitable to sell or buy from players, it is still possible to get a whole variety of blocks and items from the server shop, and players who don't involve much in diplomacy can still develop an economy, even if the server ever runs low on players.

It means that /shop is now instead the act of right-clicking an NPC on one of 5 merchant cities, and /ah is now doing the command /trade in proximity of other player.

That being said, it is obvious that in the initial economic phase, there will be more people selling to the server, due that they need an initial amount of money to even trade with. New players also begin with 1000$.

### Some examples

Asturias is a nation which has many Iron and Coal resources, allowing it to have a good armory industry. However they don't have access to Olive crops since the biome does not allow planting them. and it also lacks Ruby, and they need it for Mage equipment. They could play as melee users but they aren't specially good at PVP. Also, Olive is needed for a certain type of potion that has Mana buffs.

Sparta is a nation which has many Olive crops and Ruby, but lacks Iron for their equipment. We know its Sparta, so they are probably playing as Melee users.

Asturias could:

* Go to the shop and sell the Iron surplus, and buy Olive and Ruby. However, Iron buys for 4000$ and sells for 40$. Olive buys for 80$ and sells for 4$. Ruby buys for 10000$ and sells for 100$.
* Colonize, buy or conquer territory that can produce Olive and that is rich in Ruby.
* Trade with Sparta. Asturias would benefit from buying Olive and Ruby for a way cheaper price, and Sparta would benefit by having accesible iron.

*yes we need to change prices and money and balance all of that*