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"Real-Time" Markets
While working on a tool to find the best loadout - for hauling and trading - I found that market prices for Trade Goods don't seem to be changing, at all. From prior discussions, I know that the number of devs is quite small and they have bigger fish to fry: ATM. I am a coder but my Bachelor's degree is in business: with an emphasis on economics. With that in mind, I have a couple of questions.
My first question is "in which language or programming environment is Vendetta Online written?" My second question is "would a good intermediate step, on the way to a true "real-time" market, be to introduce pseudo-random variations?". I'm guessing that the back-end of the global set of Trade Good markets is a database. Implementing a real-time market (keyed only to actual, in-game trade activity) will be a lot of work. If I am correct about the markets' back-end, however, implementing pseudo-random variations should be trivial: by comparison.
Simply tying each Trade Good to a real-world commodity would force global variance. For example, the in-game value of Aquean Ore could be tied to futures trading for tin: which could be pulled programmatically, each day. This could be further shaped by giving each region a highest-possible volatility: areas central to a "race" would be the most-stable while the unclaimed regions would be the least-stable. Every day, a dice-roll (for lack of a better term) would determine a multiplier (in that region's volatility range) for its real-world index. If tin went up 2% in the real world and the multiplier for the Itani capital was 3%, then that day's "pseudo-random" price would be 5% higher than the day before. 1.02 X 1.03 = 1.0506. If tin went down 3% the day after and the multiplier the day after was 1%, then the day after's "pseudo-random" price would be 2% lower. 0.97 X 1.01 = 0.9797.
How say you?
My first question is "in which language or programming environment is Vendetta Online written?" My second question is "would a good intermediate step, on the way to a true "real-time" market, be to introduce pseudo-random variations?". I'm guessing that the back-end of the global set of Trade Good markets is a database. Implementing a real-time market (keyed only to actual, in-game trade activity) will be a lot of work. If I am correct about the markets' back-end, however, implementing pseudo-random variations should be trivial: by comparison.
Simply tying each Trade Good to a real-world commodity would force global variance. For example, the in-game value of Aquean Ore could be tied to futures trading for tin: which could be pulled programmatically, each day. This could be further shaped by giving each region a highest-possible volatility: areas central to a "race" would be the most-stable while the unclaimed regions would be the least-stable. Every day, a dice-roll (for lack of a better term) would determine a multiplier (in that region's volatility range) for its real-world index. If tin went up 2% in the real world and the multiplier for the Itani capital was 3%, then that day's "pseudo-random" price would be 5% higher than the day before. 1.02 X 1.03 = 1.0506. If tin went down 3% the day after and the multiplier the day after was 1%, then the day after's "pseudo-random" price would be 2% lower. 0.97 X 1.01 = 0.9797.
How say you?
1) The game server is written in C++, Lua, and Erlang. The client is written in C++ and Lua. This is from the NAOS engine webpage which VO runs on. This may have changed.
http://www.naos-engine.com/
2) There does exist a dynamic economy in Latos. Prices and stock of a lot of goods depend upon delivery by NPC convoys and players.
The real-time economy you mention sounds interesting, but I don't see the need for it. Most commodities are so cheap, variations in real-time will not only have a minuscule effect but will also probably put a lot of strain on the servers. Not to mention doing the work to map all the commodities to their equivalent real-time products.
Maybe a better way would be to tie commodities to their raw materials. High demand and price of xiRite, should lead to increase in demand of xithricite. Similarly, a shortage of xithricite should cause a xirite deficiency and hence push its price up.
http://www.naos-engine.com/
2) There does exist a dynamic economy in Latos. Prices and stock of a lot of goods depend upon delivery by NPC convoys and players.
The real-time economy you mention sounds interesting, but I don't see the need for it. Most commodities are so cheap, variations in real-time will not only have a minuscule effect but will also probably put a lot of strain on the servers. Not to mention doing the work to map all the commodities to their equivalent real-time products.
Maybe a better way would be to tie commodities to their raw materials. High demand and price of xiRite, should lead to increase in demand of xithricite. Similarly, a shortage of xithricite should cause a xirite deficiency and hence push its price up.
The prices for commodities are dynamic, across the universe, and change based on what players and convoys ferry between stations. They move between a minimum and a maximum, which is probably why you didn't notice any changes. Had you sold some items, you probably would have noticed the offered price drop. Unless of course someone else had already driven that price to the minimum value.
Thanks for the coding-related answer, as well as the other answer.
I'm calling this thread ANSWERED.
I'm calling this thread ANSWERED.