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Trading (view source)

Revision as of 05:50, 23 January 2021

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Expanded article to talk more about trading and economy, as water is not the only currency and there are more systems to trading.
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(Expanded article to talk more about trading and economy, as water is not the only currency and there are more systems to trading.)
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=== Trading Formula Details ===
=== Trading Formula Details ===
{{Excerpt|Commerce#Trading Multiplier Formula}}
{{Excerpt|Commerce#Trading Multiplier Formula}}
== Economy ==
=== Drams ===
The central currency to the game is clean [[Water]], often simply referred to as their measurement "drams". 1 dram of water is universally valued at $1, and is used to pay any outstanding difference in transactions: if the player offers $32 of material for $35 of material they are required to throw in 3 drams to cover the outstanding $3 debt. Only drinking water is accepted as balancing currency: if the water is contaminated by any other liquids then it ceases to be counted as drams unless it can be purified.
It is important to note that dram exchange requires appropriate space:
* First, any containers of Drinking Water will be poured into until full.
* If the container fills then excess drams will be poured into the next Drinking Water container with space.
* If there are no more Drinking Water containers then excess drams will pour into the next empty container.
* Drams '''will not''' go into containers filled with anything but Drinking Water, as it will cease to be currency of the same value once mixed.
Having insufficient space for owed credit or insufficient drams for owed debt will result in the transaction being rejected.
===Balancing Bias===
While exchange prices have three decimal places of accuracy, the amount paid will round to the nearest integer. In such cases the bias always favors the trader:
{| class="wikitable"
! Trader Value
! Player Value
! Difference
! Balance
|-
| -$112
| $208
| -112 + 208 = +96
| Merchant pays $96
|-
| -$500
| $500.999
| -500 + 500.999 = +0.999
| Merchant pays $0
|-
| -$130
| $87
| -130 + 87 = -43
| Player pays $43
|-
| -$145.001
| $145
| -145.001 + 145 = -0.001
| Player pays $1
|}
=== Alternatives ===
4 drams of any liquid weighs 1lb, so the weight of a filled container is the capacity divided by 4; an empty 64D water skin weighs 1lb but the same one filled will weigh 17lbs, as '''64D / 4 = +16lbs'''. While an acceptable cost early on drams will slowly start to eat into your carrying capacity as you find more liquid containers and start selling loot, so materials with higher guaranteed $/lb will eventually become necessary. It should be noted that it is still strongly advised that the player keep one or two water containers with space so that owed currency can still be easily managed between transactions.
==== Liquids ====
Water is not the only liquid that can be traded, though unlike drams they cannot be automatically poured: liquids other than drinking water must be sold with the container as added value, so the actual profit is '''(Drams * 1D Value) + (Sold Container Profit - Replacement Container Cost)'''. For example, 64D of honey always sells for $128 ($2/D), but to sell it you first need to put it in a $3 [[Canteen]] which gets you a total of $131; if canteens sell for $3 then they cost $8.574 to buy, so the final profit is $122.
Note that this table simply provides the minimum value for a container of the appropriate size, as factors like player trading stats cannot be accounted for. Liquids such as [[Asphalt]] and [[Putrescence]] are not listed as they have a trading value of $0, so the only profit they earn is for selling their container.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! Liquid
! Value<br />($/D)
! 16D<br />(4lbs)
! 32D<br />(8lbs)
! 64D<br />(16lbs)
|-
| [[Acid]]
| 1.5
| 24
| 48
| 96
|-
| [[Blood]]
| 0.25
| 4
| 8
| 16
|-
| [[Brain brine]]
| 1,233
| 19,728
| 39,456
| 78,912
|-
| [[Cider]]
| 3.8
| 60.8
| 121.6
| 243.2
|-
| [[Cloning draught]]
| 1,250
| 20,000
| 40,000
| 80,000
|-
| [[Gel]]
| 0.5
| 8
| 16
| 32
|-
| [[Honey]]
| 2
| 32
| 64
| 128
|-
| [[Lava]]
| 50
| 800
| 1,600
| 3,200
|-
| [[Neutron flux]]
| 1,000
| 16,000
| 32,000
| 64,000
|-
| [[Oil]]
| 3
| 48
| 96
| 192
|-
| [[Primordial soup]]
| 4
| 64
| 128
| 256
|-
| [[Sap]]
| 2
| 32
| 64
| 128
|-
| [[Slime]]
| 0.1
| 1.6
| 3.2
| 6.4
|-
| [[Water]]
| 1
| 16
| 32
| 64
|-
| [[Wine]]
| 4
| 64
| 128
| 256
|}
==== Trade Goods ====
Trade goods are effectively non-liquid (figuratively and literally) financial assets. While this does free up skins and can end up lighter overall, they can only be returned to $/D value by selling them to traders. This can cause issues in some cases, as high value items require you to either trade for a lot of items or be prepared to accept a lot of drams. Additionally, dormant items carried for value do not quench [[Thirst]] nor can they provide additional uses like [[Lava]]. As such, it can be important to not convert all drams into trade goods.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! Item
! Value<br />($/1lb)
|-
| [[Copper nugget]]
| 10
|-
| [[Bronze ingot]]
| 20(*5)†
|-
| [[Silver nugget]]
| 50
|-
| [[Rough agate gemstone]]
| 100
|-
| [[Rough topaz gemstone]]
| 150
|-
| [[Gold nugget]]
| 200
|-
| [[Rough jasper gemstone]]
| 200
|-
| [[Rough amethyst gemstone]]
| 250
|-
| [[Rough sapphire gemstone]]
| 300
|-
| [[Rough emerald gemstone]]
| 350
|-
| [[Rough peridot gemstone]]
| 350
|}
''† Ingots currently only come in bronze and weigh 5lbs''


[[Category:Mechanics]]
[[Category:Mechanics]]
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