Economy

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Systems and Tools

Online Avlis is attempting to develop a self-sustaining player run economy. What is meant by this? In single-player NWN there is no economy to speak of. Your single-player PC will soon gain much more wealth than he can possible use. But in Avlis an attempt has been made to balance the amount of money in the game world, such that the amount of money entering the game is the same as the amount of money going out.

How money enters the game

There are two primary ways:

Adventurers gain money by killing monsters and taking their treasure, or completing quests and
Crafters sell the items they have made.

Since most crafting ingredients are free and never run out, this means that gold is constantly entering the game, just as in single-player NWN. If Avlis were the same as single-player NWN in terms of how money could be spent, then many Avlis player characters (PCs) would soon become multimillionaires, with nothing to spend their money on. This is because all they would really need to buy are potions and ammunition, since your weapons, armor and other worn items never rust or wear from use.

Dungeons

Dungeons are subject to the Dynamic Placeable Loot System (DPLS), which will produce gold or recyclable items. Individual dungeons offer thematic loot as well.

Quests

Your PC can make money through selling dungeon loot (and some crafted items) to NPCs in Collectors Quests, as well as running Delivery Quests (also known as Fed-Ex quests). Other quests exist as well, which will result in net gain of gold pieces (GP) and experience points (XP).

Crafting

PCs involved in the Crafting System (crafters) can sell their finished goods to other PCs, as well as to Collectors Quests NPCs and Biomerchants. They can also trade them for tokens using the Recycling System (see below).

Biomerchants

"Of course! I'll buy pretty much anything you've got, long as it ain't stolen. Granted, I won't give you as much for it as a specialist would - for example, Grimli the weaponsmith will give you a good price for weapons and armor, but that's all he'll buy." -Fofur Blockdelver, Verloghokbol Biomerchant

The standard Avlis Bioware merchants (Biomerchants) function much like those in single-player NWN, with the following modifications:

A Generalist Biomerchant will buy whatever a PC sells to them. There is at least one of those on every Avlis server.
A trap supplier Biomerchant and some Rogue guilds Biomerchants may buy stolen goods as well, if you know where to find them.
A merchant selling specific goods (a specialist) will only buy this kind of goods, typically at a better price than a generalist. eg. a cobbler will buy boots.

The net gain may vary depending on whether or not the Biomerchant allows for the Appraise PC skill (most of them do).

How money leaves the game

The word 'persistence' is the key. Avlis is a persistent world (PW). That means that the servers are running almost all of the time, and even when they aren't they have saved your inventory and location. So if you log out of the game, no matter how much time has passed, when you log back in you will find your character with the same inventory and GP as before.

This is not true of most things in the game. Whenever a server is reset, anything that PCs have sold to a standard Bioware merchant is now gone – those merchants are now selling only the items that they usually sell. Dungeon loot containers are reset to their default state. Persistent storage and merchants are what remains the same and owning one comes at a cost.

In what ways is gold disposed of?

Gold Sinks

When a PC buys an item from a Biomerchant, that gold leaves the game. Some of the more powerful items that can be crafted require expensive ingredients that can only be bought from a Biomerchant (the so-called gold sinks). Crafting tools and appliances befall the same category. Consumables such as ammunition, healers kits or potions, if purchased from a Biomerchant (as opposed to a persistent merchant), also contribute to gold leaving the game.

Inn Room Rental

Perhaps you would like access to a persistent chest but cannot afford one. In that case you can rent a room in one of the many inns and taverns located across the servers of Avlis. Your character pays a monthly fee and in return gets a key to that room and access to its persistent chest.

Player Housing

Yet another way is character-owned housing. Some characters that have become well-established in the community may want to own a house in a city, or a cottage in the woods, a mage tower, or even an inn to run as a business. And some player-run guilds may want to build some sort of meeting place where they can organize meetings and discuss guild business. All of these buildings are also persistent, and can contain persistent storage chests and even persistent merchants. Persistent storage and merchants can be acquired at a markedly higher cost than the expenses of everyday adventuring.

What bridges the gap

Recycling

The money flow is influenced by the Recycling System. It creates a continuous process tasked towards the disposal of loot drops and crafted durable goods, combined with a way to obtain crafting ingredients through a token exchange system.

A PC has the option to trade in junk for gold. However, their net gain will likely be much higher if they opt to have the junk processed into crafting ingredients, in exchange for a small fee. If the PC is not a crafter, they can sell the ingredients to crafter PCs (through Persistent Merchants or in person). Similarly, a PC can convert tokens obtained from the Recycling System to crafting ingredients (at a token store), or sell the tokens to another PC.

Persistent Merchants

Persistent Merchants are available to Avlis players through Player Housing. When someone sells an item to a persistent merchant it stays in the merchant's inventory, even after a server reset. As well, any gold in the merchant's inventory remains there unless spent buying items offered by PCs. Persistent merchants have Artificial Intelligence – they keep track of how much they have bought and sold, and they attempt to make a profit. Though, ultimately, profit is up to the intelligence of the player.

Rare Item Auctions

Events such as the Ferrell Trade Fair or the Deglos Craft Fair, as well as the Avlis Marketplace (forums) often see rare items auctioned off for a fortune in gold. If the auction is held by a PC, gold remains in the game. If the auction is held by a DM (NPC), gold leaves the game.