Home Economy & Markets

Economy & Markets

Related: 37 — Economic map zones, 43 — Boundary zones, 08 — Inventory & storage, 22 — Chat & player trade, 18 — Unique items, 13 — Workers, 53 — Town market NPC price.

1. Summary

The economy is open: players craft, farm, and gather, then sell into player-priced market halls. There are no artificial trade bans — inflation is managed with volume caps, crown sales tax, and narrow NPC dump shops, not by locking what may be listed.

Stackable materials list as lots. Items with listable: false (default for currency, keys, quest/document, lodging, harvest nodes — including coin stacks) cannot be listed — deposit coin at a bank teller instead.

Three complementary layers:

  1. Market halls — tagged buildings with a clerk NPC; listings escrowed at the hall; browse scope set by boundary-zone lists
  2. NPC shops — rock-bottom buy/sell of narrow catalogs (inventory dump valve only)
  3. Direct P2P trade — trade window (22)

Banks settle copper; town storage (and on-person inventory) move goods into/out of halls. Workers deposit finished goods to town storage vaults (and still to chests/lodging).

2. Design principles

Principle Meaning
Player pricing Sellers set any unit price ≥ 1 copper
Zone-linked share Halls with intersecting market_boundary_zone_ids share browse books; disjoint lists stay isolated
Escrow at hall Listed goods leave person/vault and sit in the listing hall until sold or delisted
Storage-first logistics List / buy / delist from town storage or on-person inventory
Bank settlement Buyer bank debit → crown tax sink → seller bank credit
Confirm buys Buyer sees unit price and line total before commit
NPC dump valve NPCs buy specific templates at rock-bottom rates; they are not the open market — including hall NPC price mode (53)
Listable gate Category defaults + optional listable on templates
Physical + ledger Coins have weight; bank for transfers (08)

3. Trade modes

Mode Counterparty Price set by
Direct trade Player ↔ player Mutual agreement (window)
Market hall list (Fixed) Player → hall escrow → player buyer Seller unit price
Market hall list (NPC price) Player → hall escrow → NPC sweep NPC buy price − convenience fee (53); players cannot buy
NPC shop Player ↔ NPC YAML rates / fixed coins — dump valve
Worker NPC sell Employer’s worker → NPC buy list Job config (13)
Bank transfer Account ↔ account N/A (currency only)

All item moves are central-audited transactions.

4. Market halls

4.1 Building + clerk

  • Building tag market
  • Interior blueprint; NPC with role: market_clerk and matching schedule labels
  • Fields on the building:
Field Meaning
market_boundary_zone_ids Segment boundary_zones[].id values this hall participates in
market_max_volume Escrow capacity (same volume model as town storage); blank = server default

Player loop: enter hall → walk to clerk → interact → market panel.

4.2 Shared browse (boundary zones)

Each hall H has zone set Z(H). At hall B, visible listings are those held at any hall H where:

Z(H) ∩ Z(B) ≠ ∅

Disjoint zone lists → isolated markets. Overlap on one shared zone → shared book. See 43 — Boundary zones.

4.3 List / reprice / delist

  • Seller chooses source: town storage vault (jurisdiction intersects hall zones) or on-person inventory
  • Chooses pricing mode: Fixed (unit copper ≥ 1) or NPC price (mode only — 53)
  • Sets quantity; Fixed also sets unit price
  • Goods move into that hall’s escrow; volume counts against market_max_volume
  • Seller may reprice Fixed lots or delist either mode; delist returns goods to chosen dest (storage or person); soft-fail if dest full

4.4 Buy (Fixed listings)

  • Browse listings visible under §4.2

  • Player buys apply only to Fixed listings; NPC-price lots are dump-queue only

  • Confirm unit price and line total (qty × unit)

  • Buy partial quantity or all

  • Choose dest: town storage or person

  • Settlement (atomic):

    1. Debit buyer bank for the listed line total
    2. Credit seller bank total − tax
    3. Sink tax (LedgerCategory::Taxes)
    4. Move qty from hall escrow to buyer dest
    5. Reduce or remove listing

Insufficient bank balance → reject (hard), unlike soft harvest tax.

NPC-price sweeps (phase schedule, FIFO, convenience fee, no hall tax) are specified in 53.

4.5 What may list

Stackable / template lots (crops, ores, mats, potions, and other listable templates). Equipment instance browse/inspect listings are a deferred extension — not required for the craft/farm → hall loop.

5. Goods logistics (storage + workers)

Workers → town storage vault (and/or chests)
Player at clerk → list from vault or person → hall escrow
Buyer → buy into vault or person
Delist → back to vault or person
  • Town storage vaults are eligible when the storage building’s boundary/jurisdiction intersects the hall’s market_boundary_zone_ids
  • Workers: route deposit/withdraw to owned chests/lodging or a storage-tagged building vault
  • Craft/farm → market path: deposit to vault, then list at the clerk (no forced mass on the player’s back)

6. Crown sales tax

Tax zone covering the listing hall supplies market tax (see 37):

Field Meaning
market_sales_tax_bps Basis points of sale total sunk to crown
market_sales_flat_copper Optional flat copper per purchase

Buyer pays the listed line total from bank; tax is taken from the seller’s proceeds. Regional harvest tax (rate_bps) remains separate.

7. NPC shops (dump valve)

NPC buys / sells YAML catalogs stay:

  • Narrow template lists
  • Rock-bottom buy rates so players prefer halls for real prices
  • Do not feed the player Fixed order book

Two dump paths use the same buy tables:

  1. Face-to-face shop sell at the NPC
  2. Hall NPC-price listings swept on schedule (53) — convenience fee instead of visiting each merchant

Worker BrokerSell continues to sell to NPC buy lists.

8. Currency integration

Action Settlement
Hall purchase (Fixed) Buyer bank debit; seller bank credit; tax sink
Hall NPC-price sweep NPC treasury → seller bank (convenience fee); goods sunk; no hall tax
Hall list Items escrowed (no coin until sale)
Direct trade Physical items + coins in trade window
NPC shop Physical coins / bank-first spend rules as elsewhere
Remote bank withdraw Not allowed — coins physical only at bank branch (08)

Uses the single character bank ledger (not per-jurisdiction balances).

9. Central authority & anti-cheat

Responsibility Owner
Escrow items during listings Region worker + snapshot persist
Bank debit/credit + tax Authoritative sim + ledger
Duplicate item prevention Central mint/burn
Zone intersection browse Deterministic from authored zone lists

10. Client UX (gfx)

Key Action
L List goods (source → stack → qty → Fixed price or NPC price)
Tab Cycle listing category
/ Search filter
↑↓ / PgUp/PgDn Select / page listings
Enter Buy selected (confirm) or delist your own
Esc Back / clear search / close

Show labels over raw ids for halls, vaults, and templates. Capacity meter for hall escrow volume.

11. Design notes

Zone-linked halls keep isolated frontier towns and linked regional networks without a global auction house. Storage + worker deposit closes the craft/farm → market loop. NPC dump shops and hall NPC price mode prevent stuck inventory without destroying player Fixed pricing.

Crafted roadside player stalls and magical cross-region quote networks are out of scope — zone lists are the share/isolate tool.