Economy in Elite Dangerous - What ARE Credits?

Vasious

Vasious
Riverside said:
The value of the Credit now is a good indicator of the directions in which the game has been pulled since release. At release, a combat bond was worth 300Cr, running costs were high and exploration & mission value was low, A-B trading hasn't changed as much.

It made more sense in 1.0 I think.
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Aye

This was a starters guide I made in Gamma, look at the payments, low but made sense

[video=youtube_share;8WH-SVh6kjM]https://youtu.be/8WH-SVh6kjM[/video]

Same for the Beta

"High price" Missions due to a war

[video=youtube_share;evRCXf5zSks]https://youtu.be/evRCXf5zSks[/video]
 

Cosmo

Cosmo
So are credits like bitcoin? Are credits backed by precious metals? Or is it FIAT money? All FIAT money eventually becomes worth the paper its printed on (nothing).

262e859970a0bfe9174875b89b176e47--ludwig-politics.jpg
 
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Riverside

Riverside
Cosmo said:
So are credits like bitcoin? Or is it FIAT money? All FIAT money eventually becomes worth the paper its printed on (nothing).

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/26/2e/85/262e859970a0bfe9174875b89b176e47--ludwig-politics.jpg
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I think in ED it's like the opposite. Instead of inflation, the goods are worth about the same as at launch (a tonne of gold is still around 9,000Cr despite loads having been mined), our ships are worth about the same but we get paid more for services (missions, bounties etc).

I believe the general & relative value of goods & services was thoughtfully considered & balanced at launch, with the result that you did A-B trading to earn money, and combat & exploration were more purely for rank progression & the challenge.

While subsequent updates have upset the definition of what a Credit actually is, from the perspective of playing a game generally people seem happier to be able to choose more ways to earn the cash for upgrades. It does make some activities (piracy & some A-B trading) look like poor revenue earners in comparison though.

Personally I find straight A-B trading difficult to concentrate on for long periods, and when long distance missions were introduced in 1.4 (1.3?) I was very happy to have a more engaging way to earn my 6-7mCr/Hr. My utmost respect goes to those that attained Trade Elite purely through A-B trading, it's not something I find easy at all.

So I'm happy that there are more ways to earn money, but at the same time a little less happy that the value of being cash rich is somewhat diminished.
 
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NecasekO

N
I think one issue with credits in ED is that they serve both as currency and as a replacement for experience points. Games that have both money and XP can award both at appropriate rates, and since XP are purely a game mechanic there's no issue with their "worth". ED only has one type of reward for all kinds of missions and other activities (Cr), and those rewards are sometimes balanced more based on time or skill requirement of a particular task, rather than what would made sense as a monetary reward within the game economy.
 

Morbad

Morbad
galahad2069 said:
No matter how much USD is a credit worth, no passenger in their right mind would ever pay 1 million credits for a sightseeing trip, if they could purchase a shiny new ship for a tiny fraction of that cost.

It's like paying the taxi driver 500,000 USD for a 3 mile trip.
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That's because the ED economy is utterly nonsensical.

It's not beholden to any vague approximation of supply and demand, it's a command economy in a post scarcity society used to keep people with an unhealthy fascination with numbers from feeling like it's all meaningless.

Vasious said:
Aye

This was a starters guide I made in Gamma, look at the payments, low but made sense
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The economy felt a lot better in Gamma.

Cosmo said:
So are credits like bitcoin? Are credits backed by precious metals?
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There is no such thing as precious metal in a setting with cheap space travel.

If getting out of Earth orbit was similar in price to rail or even air freight, everyone on the planet would be able to have their own meter cube of gold, even if they couldn't afford food or a toilet.

Riverside said:
the value of being cash rich is somewhat diminished.
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You mean rendered completely meaningless.

My CMDR is sitting on 1.15 billion cr in liquid assets, with nothing to spend it on, without going out of his way to get any of it.

NecasekO said:
I think one issue with credits in ED is that they serve both as currency and as a replacement for experience points.
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ED doesn't have and doesn't need an experience point equivalent. It's not abstract enough.

Vasious said:
Id say there is noting backing CRs and it is entirely Fiat
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It's not even fiat.

It's clear that everything is free and even bothering to track any of it is just insanity.
 

Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
Old Duck said:
Very interesting.. I might have to get this book, even though I don't have anyone local to play the roleplaying game with. It sounds like a valuable resource for the video game as well :D
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Just buy Traveller, instead. :) It's a much cheaper knockoff of Elite, published in 1978, after Elite came out in 1984. Traveller stole Elite's basic ship-building model, too. :)
 

Lucifera Danzig

Lucifera Danzig
Ralph Vargr said:
"Ten *thousand*?!? We could almost buy our own ship for that!" -Luke Skywalker. :)
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I see this quoted a lot, and every time the second line is left out, which pretty much explains things:

"Yeah, but who's gonna fly it, kid? You?" - Han Solo

When people with a lot of money want to go somewhere, and want to go really badly, they're going to pay a lot of money. And in an interstellar economy where billionaires rule over vast empires, they're going to be willing to spend that kind of money for a pilot who's good enough to get them to where they're going and do so in one piece, and on their own schedule instead of the commercial space-liners.
 
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