So, as I've been saying, I have a lot of ideas for creating a regional economy for Warwick. Ideally, I would like for goods and services to circulate, and for each region of the world to have certain raw materials and goods that are native to their part of the world. Furthermore, since regions are fairly large, the distance between towns is far, making travel difficult and arduous by foot, or by horse. So, it would take a farmer traveling by wagon from Warwickshire to Shropshire approximately 13 days in good weather to reach his destination. Suffice it to say such a trip would likely only take place once per season.
By Region, the Main Products Produced are Warwickshire Wool Ore Lumber, Pine Chickens Wheat Hops Ale, Mead Chicken, Fish and Vegetables Shropshire Stone Furniture Candles Milled Grain Ale, Mead Pork, Beef and some Vegetables Hampshire Gemstones Fine Furniture Potions, Specialty goods Flax Linen Grapes Wine among other things ... And the surrounding countries are all known for their exotic goods, which cost a lot of money in Warwick owing to the long distances they must travel to reach their landlocked nation. These are things like mirrors (glass comes from Westsea), papaya and coconuts from Southsea, and magical goods like silk, rare gemstones, and strange elixirs from Seregharma. For all of this to work, I have had to devise an exchange rate for raw materials and manufactured goods. The first step was in setting up my wood cutter, Joe Borden. Joe lives at the edge of the whispering pine forest in Warwickshire. He "cuts" wood by purchasing investment coins in the same amount as the value of the trees on his lot. At the end of the season, he redeems the investment coins and purchases lumber (wood piles) at the cost of his profit, which he then sells in a community lot business. Furniture makers purchase wood to use in their trade, which requires a system of exchange in order to determine how much wood a furniture maker needs in order to make a stool, or a chair, or a bed. What I decided upon was that a 1X1 tile piece, or part, of a furniture item would require $10 simoleons in lumber to make. The furniture craftsman can only sell the amount of furniture he can afford to make. Once he purchases the lumber from the wood cutter, I then redeem it in buy mode and trade it for furniture at or above cost--some things may be "expensive" to make, i.e. time consuming. The furniture maker then sells these items in his inventory for that season and closes up shop when it is all sold. Voila! A working economy where nothing comes from nothing ... that is, everything must come from somewhere. If the wood cutter doesn't cut wood, the furniture maker can't make chairs ... and so on. The same principle applies for all manufactured goods. There is no ore for the blacksmith unless the miner digs it up. There is no wool for the tailor unless the shepherd shears the sheep. Really--none. That is the plan. Now, I just have to discipline myself not to use buy mode when building a house. That is the hardest part!
28 Comments
Ignoramus D'Arsehole (pen name)
10/13/2011 11:52:24 pm
How in the world is it possible to sell these things in a simulation game that is supposed to simulate the late 20th century/early 21st century? Can players with Open For Business expansion pack and Seasons expansion pack simply sell what is provided in those expansion packs? For example, a player with only OFB may start a food store, selling "fresh, wholesale foods" at average prices. Another food store owner can sell foods at "cheap" prices. Instead of selling wood, Sims will sell wooden products, like tables and chairs and the like. Instead of selling wool, Sims will sell "woolly clothes" and start a "woolly clothes" store.
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Heloise
10/14/2011 02:27:04 am
Dear Ignoramus,
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Ignoramus D'Arsehole
10/14/2011 09:43:47 am
Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate that very much! You answered exactly what I wanted answered. :)
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Heloise
10/14/2011 11:01:24 am
Ignoramus,
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I.D. (shortened pen name)
10/14/2011 12:33:20 pm
Note that I shortened the pen name. It's no longer "Ignoramus D'Arsehole". It's "ID" and has absolutely nothing to do with Intelligent Design. In fact, I believe that Intelligent Design is pure rubbish, disguised as science, but that's another story.
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Heloise
10/14/2011 01:34:13 pm
Indeed. That is precisely the idea. However, I'm not sure I want them to be ridiculously cheap. In fact, it may be quite the reverse so that stone masons can actually make a living wage from their labor. That is the cunning of it--I have to decide what things are worth ...
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I.D.
10/15/2011 12:49:27 am
Well, once you figure out the cost of each of those stone objects, you can make stone wallpapers with Homecrafter Plus and assign a price value for each wallpaper texture. So, let's say you have an object that looks like it has 10 stones and is worth 50 pounds (currency, not gravitational force). The stones can be made into one wall of stone wallpaper, which costs exactly 50 pounds. (1 simoleon = 1 British pound) So, if the nobleman wants to buy 1000 stones, then he has to pay 5000 pounds. Then, he must buy 100 of these objects! And that can only cover probably a room of his house! To cover the entire castle, buy more objects, which translates to more stones, which translates to more money required to purchase the materials.
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In fact, the noble need never have anything in his inventory.
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Heloise
10/15/2011 03:45:57 am
Oh, yes--the calculation .... I think I'll only have whole/half walls and calculate according to percent. To keep it from being too tedious perhaps I'll build in stages ... or maybe I'll just abandon this idea. I don't know yet ... but it does bother me that whole castles can just sprout overnight and the money the people pay to build their house disappears into the EA void. Somebody ought to reap the benefit of all that money spent.
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I.D.
10/15/2011 04:12:41 am
I have a simpler idea:
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Heloise
10/15/2011 11:21:04 am
Interesting ideas, but they won't work for me. I want the people who did the work to get the money, and for the materials to come from somewhere in the game. That way, there is a limit to the number of goods available--which places a value on every item in the game. What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment. Though, it is possible for my nobles to own multiple estates by the method you describe--I do that already. And there would be nothing wrong with rich nobles to host lavish fund raising parties .... all of this is good, good. :D
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Chris P. Bacon
12/28/2011 05:02:33 am
Cool game! I don't know where to drop off comments for your Warwickshire stories, so I am going to drop a comment here.
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Chris P. Bacon
12/28/2011 05:10:05 am
Can you explain more about scorekeeping? For those of us who want to challenge ourselves and keep score, it seems like this challenge involves a great deal of points, scorekeeping, and recordkeeping. Is there any way to record this data? Can you upload a step-by-step guide on how to play this challenge and go through all the nitty-gritty details?
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Heloise
1/5/2012 05:53:09 am
For record keeping purposes, you may want to check out Extensa's Excel Workbook which she published on MTS2, available here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HO3ZHDL8. She also has a handbook that she published to help you with setting up the spreadsheet--all of this is on the MTS2 thread, here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=422049&goto=lastpost
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Chris P. Bacon
1/7/2012 08:16:58 am
Hmmm... do you mind if I make Access database then? It looks like an Excel version has already been made. So, I could make an Access version of the challenge -- a version that allows players to fill out forms, input data into a database, calculate some data, and output the results back into the database.
Heloise
1/7/2012 09:49:32 am
As I said, I have an Access database already made--and it works fine for me. I'm open to you making one and publishing it ... but I would like to have some input in the project. And, of course, you should properly credit me.
Chris P. Bacon
1/6/2012 02:30:00 am
And maybe also update the Warwickshire page. It's still 1.2 rather than 2.0
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Chris P. Bacon
1/6/2012 11:09:44 pm
Hi again,
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Chris P. Bacon
1/6/2012 11:27:32 pm
I have also looked through your Warwickshire Renaissance Challenge 2.0 PDF file (amazingly long, isn't it?), and noticed the equations used. I am wondering about why you choose 2, 3 and 32 in the first equation of Maintaining One's Honor: the Legal Case of Adultery. Why choose these constants?
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Chris P. Bacon
1/7/2012 02:20:43 am
What I mean is, if there is a reason for those constants, then can you give the reason?
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Heloise
1/7/2012 09:52:19 am
The constants chosen ensure that the results will fall between 1-100--different constants will cause the results to be greater or lesser than 0 or 100, resulting in a percentage that is too high/low to be possible.
Chris P. Bacon
1/7/2012 12:03:11 am
Oh, and I forgot to add one more thing! The equations on the Theft part are so confusing and complex! May I ask if you can simplify them? For the first equation under Theft, it looks like A is not or should not be considered, because A divided by A divided by E would be the same as A multiplied by the reciprocal of A divided by E, or E divided A. Henceforth, by this logic, A is an unnecessary variable. Is this the meaning you intend?
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Chris P. Bacon
1/7/2012 12:16:33 am
On the other hand, A divided by A divided by E could mean 1 divided by E. So, that means V divided by E, and that means the whole equation is T divided by V divided by E. Simplify this further, and I presume it really means that I should have T * E / V, which means that the class level of thief multiplied by expertise and then divided by class level of victim equals the odds at which the thief escapes detection.
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Heloise
1/7/2012 09:46:40 am
The truth is, I know next to nothing about math .... :( so the equations work for me, and I experimented around with them for-ever to make sure that they output reasonable results. Beyond that, I don't have any argument for how/why they work--bottom line is this: if you or anyone else can make a simplified and more workable equation, I'm open to it, and if it works, then I'll consider revising 2.0 with them in it. For me, math = MAGIC.
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Chris P. Bacon
1/7/2012 10:58:25 am
Actually, the math part isn't that bad. The superscripts may be a little misleading, because they can easily be read as exponents. And the A divided by A part can easily be simplified as 1. But that's it. So, the odds at which the thief escapes detection is T * E / V. The "Amount" variable can be eliminated. In other words, the probability does not depend on the Amount value at all. :D The probability only depends on the values of T, E, and V. :D
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Chris P. Bacon
1/7/2012 11:18:30 am
I just want to let you know that this name that I have been using is really a pen name, and the reason why I've chosen it is that it sounds like "crispy bacon". *snort* *snort*
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Heloise
1/7/2012 11:29:01 am
OK, yes. I see what you mean. However, that simply means that the equation is crap. There should be an effect to modulate the success/failure based on the amount stolen. So, the equation needs work. >..< Annoying since I thought I'd tested these equations ad nauseum, but as I said, not a mathematician here.
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Chris P. Bacon (DMellon)
1/7/2012 09:31:24 pm
Not exactly. It merely paints a different picture. At least it's still usable. I am going to read the PDF file more thoroughly and see if I can simplify some things...
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Heloise
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May 2012
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