Unused feature #4: Banks

Since it was requested on the list, well, here's a topic on banks! Right now they're not used much (or at all, really) because of two reasons: One, gold is completely safe even if you have it on you, and two, there's a withdrawal fee. Thus, there's really no point in keeping gold in the bank, since you'd have to withdraw it (and lose a bit of the gold) in order to use it. With that in mind, here are some solutions I've thought of, but feel free to add your own as well!

  • More automation.
    • Link a beast in the stable to the bank, and it'll be paid for until you go inactive (which I think happens at 30 RL days).
    • Link an ad, and it'll be upkept with a fee every RL day of, say, 20 gold. Or a little more, it's not as if ads even cost any real gold anyway. Again, goes away on inactivity.
    • Link a stockroom, and taxes will be paid, first from the gold on the floor and then from the gold in the bankaccount. If any gold remains on the floor, it'd be deposited automatically.
  • Add a tailoring/enchantment combo to let you take gold out of the bank through a pouch. A tailor would first have to make the pouch, and an enchanter (or tinker) would then have to enchant it to magify it. Then you'd have to stand at the bank in question and create the link between the pouch and the bank.
  • Remove the withdrawal fee. I doubt it'll affect anything negatively, since banks are virtually unused today anyway.

I'm sure someone will suggest an interest on the gold in the bank, and to that I'll just say: No thank you. We really don't need another gold influx into the game, it's bad enough as it is.

Anything else that can be done with banks? Suggestions and comments, please!

image

Comments

  • I like those suggestions! Especially the magic pouch thing.
    A horde of beings swarms about Your bulk. They are diverse in shape but are, without exception, horrific to look upon. Claws and teeth without number flash across Your vision, and nebulous masses of compound eyes and writhing tentacles and spindly antennae all twist around You. With the merest thought, You open wide Your maw and lazily swallow one.
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    This topic always makes my gold sitting in the bank feel just a little awkward. Poor dears.

    I do like the concept of auto-paying certain fees, though. Just like how I set up my RL bank account for automatic payments, so I can go and look at all my bills in one location (plus I can just check that one account's balance instead of having to run all over the place, as one must if they have multiple shops and pets).
    image
  • RiviusRivius Your resident wolf puppy
    Yeah, using banks to autopay certain things like stable fees would be pretty fantastic.
  • Oh, one thing I failed to mention: In the case of stockroom automation, it'd send a message when it happens (so you know how your shop is doing).
    image
  • SilvanusSilvanus The Sparrowhawk
    Banks withdrawl fee do go straight to the city/commune. So thankfully the money doesn't disappear.
    2014/04/19 01:38:01 - Leolamins drained 2000000 power to raise Silvanus as a Vernal Ascendant.
    2014/07/23 05:01:29 - Silvanus drained 2000000 power to raise Munsia as a Vernal Ascendant.
    2015/05/24 06:03:07 - Silvanus drained 2000000 power to raise Arimisia as a Vernal Ascendant.
    2015/05/24 06:03:58 - Silvanus drained 2000000 power to raise Lavinya as a Vernal Ascendant.
  • Silvanus said:
    Banks withdrawl fee do go straight to the city/commune. So thankfully the money doesn't disappear.
    I've never actually looked at those numbers (although I did know that's how it works)... How much do cities get per year (roughly) from bank income? Is it even listed?
    image
  • edited June 2013
    Ssaliss said:
    Silvanus said:
    Banks withdrawl fee do go straight to the city/commune. So thankfully the money doesn't disappear.
    I've never actually looked at those numbers (although I did know that's how it works)... How much do cities get per year (roughly) from bank income? Is it even listed?
    You have to manually appropriate it into City coffers, only time I ever did it contained maybe 20k and I have no idea how long it had been since someone did it last.

    The numbers on the fee are pretty irksome too, as it isn't an addition of 2% to get the right withdrawal amount. You have to figure it as A x ( 1/.98 ) to get the proper amount, as on larger or stranger amounts the fractional amounts add up.

    .oO---~---Oo.

    "Perfect. Please move quickly to the next post, as the effects of prolonged exposure to the signature are not part of this test."

    NARF!

  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    I have gotten a hundred thousand from the appropriation process (granted, it had been a bit).
    image
  • So it's definitely nothing the orgs live or die by, which is part of what I meant by "it won't affect anything negatively". Well, I guess a little, but nothing that's really of any real consequence.
    image
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    I get far more funding from Trade, yes.
    image
  • it orgs are concerned about lost item, charge to open and account and if that isn't enough, charge to increase the size of an account. Given how many alts and people quit that is probably far more over the long term.
  • I have always used banks in Lusternia, though it's mainly because I lack any understanding of how theft works here. Coming from a game which has numerous ways to steal pretty much anything you have including all your gold through inventive theft tactics I am pro-active in making sure anything that can be stolen is kept as secure as I am able. Are there no ways to steal gold in Lusternia?
  • I think all forms of ordering people to give stuff were removed entirely from force-skills. Dropping packs were also removed from Stupidity, I believe. I'm not sure if Vestiphobia will make you drop packs though. The only other way to steal gold would be from the Leprechaun fae, which steals 25 gold every 10 seconds from the target, assuming the target has any gold out. Which is a non-amount, really.
    image
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    You can still be forced to give stuff, but not if selfishness is up. Vestiphobia makes you drop things if selfishness is not up.

    It is possible to steal still, just difficult on anyone worth stealing from. The biggest disincentive is that the community is very anti-theft and tends to frown on thievery.

    That, and shops have been changed to be unrobbable.
    image
  • There is also the mentality of the players of Lusternia, I guess. Theft did happen occasionally back when it opened... and the thieves were pretty much immediately ostracised and outguilded. Heck, I've been killed mid-harvest at times (dropping many thousand herbs), and have gotten most of it back when asked. I also know of someone losing a pack due to stupidity before the change that had a couple of hundred thousand gold in it, and that pack was also returned as soon as the person who picked it up noticed it. So theft is pretty much eliminated on both a mechanical and a social level.
    image
  • edited June 2013
    Ouch, I think thievery is perfectly acceptable against enemies of your Orgs. As long as there are preventatives and some mechanical restraints in place. An example would be a theft timer on a successful theft of an item, so that the player can't be stripped of everything they own, encourage the use of banks for excess gold and Bob's your uncle, Sally's your aunt.
  • I've never seen the point of theft, really. Yes, from an IC perspective it makes sense (remove an enemy's means to fight, and you win the war, kindof). However, on an OOC level, it's just bad. If you've been working towards getting enough gold for an item for several hours, and then seeing it gone in a matter of seconds, it's just... not really encouraging. I know players left Achaea permanently after getting robbed of everything they own, and that's not exactly my idea of a healthy environment for a game (which, when all is said and done, is played for the sake of enjoyment).
    image
  • I rather like the view we the community has on theft. Simply don't do it. I totally consider theft to be simply an anti-fun mechanic. That is, a mechanic with a purpose that only causes players grief and adds no value to the game besides, in this case, paranoia.

    Unless that theft is of your life.
  • If done properly, I think theft can add a fantastic element to the game. While I was never a thief archetype, I was stolen from time to time, sometimes my designbook (used to craft your personal weapon/clothing/armor designs), sometimes a rare item of clothing or jewellery from the Banapis fair (I think Lusty's version is Czigany?) or if I hadn't visited the bank, then maybe an hour's worth or two of gold. Gold theft aside, there was usually an RP opportunity for recovery of the items, or failing that then a hunting party would be formed to hunt down the culprit to kill him or steal it it back. If the consensus here is that of "no theft", then great, I'll go along with that safe in the knowledge I can leave my city with less vigilance, as all I have to lose is a small amount of experience.
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    It is never really done "correctly" though. The closest I have ever seen in Lusternia was Yrael, and even he would be a jerk about it if he decided he did not like you.

    The "hunting party to steal it back" also does not work since any good thief will have the abilities to make stealing from them nigh-impossible (and as a last resort, can always just heartstop). From an OOC "fun" standpoint, it is just better to play nice. I am occasionally fond of little bits of targeted personal things (mmm, eat a delicious centaur steak, Serenguard leaders!), but I feel there is a certain line where you need to acknowledge that the person on the other end of the internet is also playing a game and has invested possibly quite a bit in the thing you just made off with.

    I return packs and weapons I find, always have and hope I always will. It will be a pretty sad day for Lusternia when we lose even that bit of restraint and comaraderie.
    image
  • Aside from that, the only things that could really be stolen are things in your inventory and wielded items (but if you're a magical class, you can summon a new one or call the one stolen back to you and if you're a knight, you have gripping).

    The mechanics of ordering in Lusternia simply go against being able to thieve effectively.  Not a single archetype has access to two orders, and all orders are on a pretty hefty cooldown.
  • EnyalidaEnyalida Nasty Woman, Sockpuppeteer to the Gods
    Indeed, there isn't anything really worth stealing from anyone you can steal from. Equipment is rather hard to steal if it's being used, gold isn't worth enough to bother with for most people, and anything else would just be to personally annoy the victim's player.
  • The worst case of theft I've ever seen is people managing to steal weapons from raiders and then trying to smelt them. And then disfavouring anyone who tells them they're being dishonorable/a jerk. So, it does happen, if only by a few bad eggs.
Sign In or Register to comment.