My worry with conservation credits and franchise mode

[gillsminnow]

My only worry with this is that if it truly is a player driven market, eventually, with all of the breeding that the animals will be next to worthless. The economy will become flooded with animals and the price of them will be driven down to 1 conservation credit each, making the game too easy.

There needs to be a way to dispose of conservation credits to make the game harder/more worthwhile. Maybe something to the effect of a brokers fee (paid in conservation credits) that you pay when purchasing an animal from another player.

I think the way to effectively manage the conservation credit economy would be as follows:

• You get hardly anything for releasing an animal into the wild (1 conservation credit a time possibly)
• The AI rather than the player to determine the conservation credit price for player-traded animals (within a defined range, so a high value tiger could range from 750-1000 conservation credits whereas a high rated peafowl could range from 25-30 conservation credits).
• A brokers fee paid in conservation credits on a per purchase level from the market (either a flat rate for all animals or a flat rate for each species).

I feel that if something like this is not in place then with players having the ability to determine their own prices that everything will eventually tumble in price and that franchise mode will end up being a glorified sandbox (because if animal prices are all 1 conservation credit then it's basically unlimited funds).

 

[m2wester]

Releasing an animal to the wild offers a minimum value for each animal. Why would I sell to a player for less than I get for releasing it to the wild? I completely disagree with your idea of offering as little as possible for releasing it to the wild; especially because I think it is needed to take animals out of the market in order to avoid flooding.

I expect that on the other end, the system will occasionally offer animals for cp. That way, we'll get a range - the system sells tigers for 1500, buys tigers for 500, so the value of players tigers will generally move in between, with genetics making everything a bit more interesting. I don't think we really need a brokers fee.

 

[NeedPlanetZoo]

I was worried about the same thing. The problem night already begin with 'cheap' starter animals where quickly huge amounts of animals are thrown on the market, resulting in quickly dropping prices to actually sell them. An automaticly generated price with only a small price margin chosen by the seller might help fight the problem but the best possible option would be if the problem never occurs even without any restrictions. I will hope for the best and will see what happens.

 

[Voids Light]

The thing is though, you don't set the price of the animals you put in the market. The game does, therefore, the economy in game won't be "too easy"

 

[gillsminnow]

The thing is though, you don't set the price of the animals you put in the market. The game does, therefore, the economy in game won't be "too easy"

The developer journal stated that it's the players that set the price of their animals. My second point is similar to what you have just mentioned.

 

[Voids Light]

The developer journal stated that it's the players that set the price of their animals. My second point is similar to what you have just mentioned.

Oh okay. Yeah, thats kind of a bad idea to let players decide the prices...

 

[Swjosdotschka]

I play another game (borwser game, but still) where you breed for quality or rare colors or genetics etc. and sell to other players. There it is actually the opposite round. Because players who are longer in game earn more money, they also set the prices higher. Kind of an inflation, making it very much impossible for newer players to buy from older players and make them dependend on a shop. So my worries with the set credits is completely the opposite.

Plus, in the long run only hard core players (like me and some others) will play this game for years. Breeding will be harder and harder the older the game gets.

 

[meimento]

You make it sound like the general animal Market won’t exist

 

[Voids Light]

Actually, to be honest, if players can set the prices, I would think only sandbox players would price the animals low, if sandbox even uses the same animal market at all.

 

[La Chouette]

Sandbox doesn't use the between players trading, so that's no issue.

Just like m2wester, I believe that the amount you get from releasing in the wild should be high, because players would then have no reason to drag market prices down: why would you sell for 100 credits when you get 200 for releasing in the wild?

 

[perafilozof]

While the economy could implode or explode if left only to the players I think the developers will tweak it as we play along and community goals are set and accomplished. And anyway, until we start playing we can't know which way the market will go.

And then there is the elephant in the room, will the game be popular enough for the market to mater.