Could the mods please move this back to Dangerous Discussion? This isn't a suggestion or feature request to Frontier to do this. It's a player built system. (I can make a mirror post if you think Frontier Devs would benefit from this.)
While speaking to CMDR Unifex in the Colonia Citizens Network Discord, about the open ship registrar we started talking about more uses for the PIN system. (This was his idea) I was reminded of my thread a long time ago, The biggest issue in Elite Dangerous that no one really talks about - The Economy. I was touched by an idea about creating a virtual player driven economy and started writing about it on the EDCD Discord (Elite:Dangerous Community Developers) in discussion with CMDR Garud In.
I realise that this is something we as players can do on our own. This was what I came up with:
While speaking to CMDR Unifex in the Colonia Citizens Network Discord, about the open ship registrar we started talking about more uses for the PIN system. (This was his idea) I was reminded of my thread a long time ago, The biggest issue in Elite Dangerous that no one really talks about - The Economy. I was touched by an idea about creating a virtual player driven economy and started writing about it on the EDCD Discord (Elite:Dangerous Community Developers) in discussion with CMDR Garud In.
I realise that this is something we as players can do on our own. This was what I came up with:
◬
The Virtual Player (Driven) Economy
Account
Players of Elite dangerous will be able to make an account with their frontier forums account.
This will ensure all players are beholden to Frontier Devs' one forum account per player rule.
A player's account will have a virtual currency balance, owned equipment and a profile page with equiped items.
Their ships will also have crew quarter slots where they can put virtual equipment.
Daily Income
Each player will earn a daily income of virtual currency (in this example, the currency is the Tridot, ◬, or tD)
They can increase their daily income of ◬ by connecting more accounts, such as EDSM, EDDB or Inara accounts. (this is an incentive to ensure you are just one person)
They can supplement their daily income by playing Elite:Dangerous and doing things in the game world. (rewarding players for playing Elite:Dangerous)
Virtual Goods & Player Mission Board
Players can use their ◬ to purchase virtual goods such as cosmetics, personnel equipment, vehicles etc. all to add to the roleplay of their story.
These Players can also offer "missions" to other players (for a certain amount of ◬) and that's a way for other players to earn ◬.
The way mission acceptance completion is tracked is via a plugin for EDDiscovery or EDMC that reads the journals.
Player Factions
Players can create and align themselves to a player faction and earn an income dividend from that faction based on their rank within that faction.
If a faction has many systems and stations under its control, the ◬ dividends will be large. This incentivises being successful with your faction.
These factions are player owned and are attached to a single minor faction. The owner gets to decide who gets to join the faction and what their rank will be. (and thus how the dividends are distributed)
Each player can only be a part of one player minor faction with all their accounts.
Crafting and finding of raw materials
The crafting system allows folks to purchase a virtual raw material such as leather or textiles and bring it to a player with the right skill to turn it into a virtual cosmetic item. (like a player skilled in sewing, able to create eyepathes or a kimono) Players will only be able to learn up a certain amount of skills and will require levelling to be able to craft more complex equipment or simpler equipment to a higher grade.
Players can purchase virtual materials and goods when they are docked at a station that has a working commodities market.
The availability of specific virtual goods and materials will be based on the station's economy, government type, allegiance, current active state, and other stats.
Tridot sink
As written here, credit sinks are needed to prevent hyperinflation. So there will be a small administrative fee for each transaction to take away a few ◬ from the economy. It will be a small percentage of the total transaction. New players will not have the administrative fee (incentivising new players) for the first week or 2. Players who conduct a lot of trades or transactions will have their administrative fees reduced. (to incentivise spending).
There will be a daily transactions limit to prevent players from abusing the system to reduce their administrative fee/gaming the system. The point is to promote meaningful activity.
Players will also be required to purchase food and water. (this can be set automatically). Players don't die if they don't have food or water, but their base income will not get a small boos that other healthy players have.
System diagram
◬
FAQ
Can tridots, be exchanged for real world currency or Credits?
No. Real world currency exchange is a can of worms no one wants to open. Credits in game are worthless.
Why do you want to force this on everyone?
This is an opt-in system. If you think this idea is fun, you can join in. You're not required to join in to play Elite: Dangerous.
This is just another example of the shortfalls of FrontierDevs...
Yeah...guys and gals, folks I understand your frustration but this is not the place for it.
Shouldn't Frontier be the one to do this?
Maybe? I mean again not the place for it. I've always believe from the bottom of my heart that the Community leads the way and we have such potential to create so much out of this shared sandbox. We can't always rely on Frontier to do this for us. We have been blessed with a useable and practical journal system that makes this virtual player driven economy system possible. So enough about this okay? ^_^ Ask me more questions regarding my idea. I want to hear what you think!
Is this a scam?
Since no money or in game currency is involved, this is assuredly not a scam.
Why would I want to get involved in this meta-game when it has no effect in the game?
It does have an effect! Despite how it make look, the core idea it to reward players for playing the game and to encourage players to interact with each other.
It's akin to an ARG, except instead of being over the framework of the real world, it's over a virtual one, Elite:Dangerous.
Isn't this really similar to the Prismatic Imperium's Diamond Market?
Yes! They have a working implementation of virtual currency and virtual goods. My post was inspired by what they've done. I want to push that idea further than they've done and integrate it with Elite:Dangerous. If you're not familiar with the Diamond Market that the Prismatic Imperium has set up, have a look at it and maybe give it a go.
How would I get started playing this?
When it's made, you'll make an account, and download the EDDiscovery or EDMC plugin. While you're playing the game, you can browse its mission board or check what goods are available for purchase at the station.
When will this be made?
I'm looking to hear what you guys think and attract interested parties to help me make this. We'll need server space, a database set up for accounts, transactions, playergroup and such. and plugins written to parse through the journal. What I need first and foremost, is player interest. Are you interested in this?
Why don't you play Eve if you want a player-driven-economy. Keep it out of my game.
I've never played Eve and I don't intend to. Nothing you've said is constructive to this discussion. I like and want to build things for Elite ^o^
How will I view and showcase my cosmetics, equipment and items to others?
The best implementation I think would be a website, followed by a discordbot that can display your character using embeds on a server. It's pretty snazzy stuff. It could also be viewable in the plugin.
Since you're providing cosmetics under this system, will this take profits away from Frontier Developments?
The cosmetics sold on the Frontier Store show up in the actual game. the cosmetics in the virtual PDE will not. They also serve a different purpose that's not covered by the game.
in-game cosmetics will always be shinier than out of game cosmetics. This system is not a threat to their profits. In fact, I believe it is a system that will help increase engagement with the game for those who use it.
Conclusion
There we go. This is as much as I can write about it for a v.1 proposal. I've been thinking about player driven economies and player initiated projects for a long time. here are a couple of my previous posts.
The Evening Bank Discord bot, a player-run bank
The issue with Elite:Dangerous that no one talks about:The Economy
The Explorer's Legacy - A metagame for explorers
Elite Factions wiki - A wiki for player minor factions to archive their in-game stories and histories.
Each time I've written about this I get a better idea of what I want to see. I hope this is something you folks like and If not, leave your support and criticisms in the comments below.
I'll be sure to add anymore questions to the FAQ as they come.
Seriously if you like it, leave me a comment^^ it helps me more than you know.
The Virtual Player (Driven) Economy
Account
Players of Elite dangerous will be able to make an account with their frontier forums account.
This will ensure all players are beholden to Frontier Devs' one forum account per player rule.
A player's account will have a virtual currency balance, owned equipment and a profile page with equiped items.
Their ships will also have crew quarter slots where they can put virtual equipment.
Daily Income
Each player will earn a daily income of virtual currency (in this example, the currency is the Tridot, ◬, or tD)
They can increase their daily income of ◬ by connecting more accounts, such as EDSM, EDDB or Inara accounts. (this is an incentive to ensure you are just one person)
They can supplement their daily income by playing Elite:Dangerous and doing things in the game world. (rewarding players for playing Elite:Dangerous)
Virtual Goods & Player Mission Board
Players can use their ◬ to purchase virtual goods such as cosmetics, personnel equipment, vehicles etc. all to add to the roleplay of their story.
These Players can also offer "missions" to other players (for a certain amount of ◬) and that's a way for other players to earn ◬.
The way mission acceptance completion is tracked is via a plugin for EDDiscovery or EDMC that reads the journals.
Player Factions
Players can create and align themselves to a player faction and earn an income dividend from that faction based on their rank within that faction.
If a faction has many systems and stations under its control, the ◬ dividends will be large. This incentivises being successful with your faction.
These factions are player owned and are attached to a single minor faction. The owner gets to decide who gets to join the faction and what their rank will be. (and thus how the dividends are distributed)
Each player can only be a part of one player minor faction with all their accounts.
Crafting and finding of raw materials
The crafting system allows folks to purchase a virtual raw material such as leather or textiles and bring it to a player with the right skill to turn it into a virtual cosmetic item. (like a player skilled in sewing, able to create eyepathes or a kimono) Players will only be able to learn up a certain amount of skills and will require levelling to be able to craft more complex equipment or simpler equipment to a higher grade.
Players can purchase virtual materials and goods when they are docked at a station that has a working commodities market.
The availability of specific virtual goods and materials will be based on the station's economy, government type, allegiance, current active state, and other stats.
Tridot sink
As written here, credit sinks are needed to prevent hyperinflation. So there will be a small administrative fee for each transaction to take away a few ◬ from the economy. It will be a small percentage of the total transaction. New players will not have the administrative fee (incentivising new players) for the first week or 2. Players who conduct a lot of trades or transactions will have their administrative fees reduced. (to incentivise spending).
There will be a daily transactions limit to prevent players from abusing the system to reduce their administrative fee/gaming the system. The point is to promote meaningful activity.
Players will also be required to purchase food and water. (this can be set automatically). Players don't die if they don't have food or water, but their base income will not get a small boos that other healthy players have.
System diagram
◬
FAQ
Can tridots, be exchanged for real world currency or Credits?
No. Real world currency exchange is a can of worms no one wants to open. Credits in game are worthless.
Why do you want to force this on everyone?
This is an opt-in system. If you think this idea is fun, you can join in. You're not required to join in to play Elite: Dangerous.
This is just another example of the shortfalls of FrontierDevs...
Yeah...guys and gals, folks I understand your frustration but this is not the place for it.
Shouldn't Frontier be the one to do this?
Maybe? I mean again not the place for it. I've always believe from the bottom of my heart that the Community leads the way and we have such potential to create so much out of this shared sandbox. We can't always rely on Frontier to do this for us. We have been blessed with a useable and practical journal system that makes this virtual player driven economy system possible. So enough about this okay? ^_^ Ask me more questions regarding my idea. I want to hear what you think!
Is this a scam?
Since no money or in game currency is involved, this is assuredly not a scam.
Why would I want to get involved in this meta-game when it has no effect in the game?
It does have an effect! Despite how it make look, the core idea it to reward players for playing the game and to encourage players to interact with each other.
It's akin to an ARG, except instead of being over the framework of the real world, it's over a virtual one, Elite:Dangerous.
Isn't this really similar to the Prismatic Imperium's Diamond Market?
Yes! They have a working implementation of virtual currency and virtual goods. My post was inspired by what they've done. I want to push that idea further than they've done and integrate it with Elite:Dangerous. If you're not familiar with the Diamond Market that the Prismatic Imperium has set up, have a look at it and maybe give it a go.
How would I get started playing this?
When it's made, you'll make an account, and download the EDDiscovery or EDMC plugin. While you're playing the game, you can browse its mission board or check what goods are available for purchase at the station.
When will this be made?
I'm looking to hear what you guys think and attract interested parties to help me make this. We'll need server space, a database set up for accounts, transactions, playergroup and such. and plugins written to parse through the journal. What I need first and foremost, is player interest. Are you interested in this?
Why don't you play Eve if you want a player-driven-economy. Keep it out of my game.
I've never played Eve and I don't intend to. Nothing you've said is constructive to this discussion. I like and want to build things for Elite ^o^
How will I view and showcase my cosmetics, equipment and items to others?
The best implementation I think would be a website, followed by a discordbot that can display your character using embeds on a server. It's pretty snazzy stuff. It could also be viewable in the plugin.
Since you're providing cosmetics under this system, will this take profits away from Frontier Developments?
The cosmetics sold on the Frontier Store show up in the actual game. the cosmetics in the virtual PDE will not. They also serve a different purpose that's not covered by the game.
in-game cosmetics will always be shinier than out of game cosmetics. This system is not a threat to their profits. In fact, I believe it is a system that will help increase engagement with the game for those who use it.
Conclusion
There we go. This is as much as I can write about it for a v.1 proposal. I've been thinking about player driven economies and player initiated projects for a long time. here are a couple of my previous posts.
The Evening Bank Discord bot, a player-run bank
The issue with Elite:Dangerous that no one talks about:The Economy
The Explorer's Legacy - A metagame for explorers
Elite Factions wiki - A wiki for player minor factions to archive their in-game stories and histories.
Each time I've written about this I get a better idea of what I want to see. I hope this is something you folks like and If not, leave your support and criticisms in the comments below.
I'll be sure to add anymore questions to the FAQ as they come.
Seriously if you like it, leave me a comment^^ it helps me more than you know.
Last edited:
