Treasure and Money

[Thre3zekiel 1]

This idea would go in tandem with my idea for some kind of player economy and a potential neutral zone for transactions to securely go down. This would be some kind of a money system. It could either be as unofficial as bartering without a neutral zone or as complex as an in-game item that can be looted and used as a means for trade and has some kind of destructible purpose. Food and drinks are too uncommon to use as a form of money and things like cans have no purpose and thus are indestructible with no real ... sink to drain out excess funds. Bullets are a viable candidate but they are a little too necessary, like food. Something like bolts and screws that could be used for mechanical or car mods, or scrap parts for guns that might be used to maintain guns ( if a deterioration mechanic were introduced ). It would have to be something viable, though. And it would have to be believable for the setting. People are not going to just start using paper money again if no one is printing it and noone is backing it as a viable currency.

[enforcer1975 1111]

Treasure: Your gear

Money: My bullet to your head.

With all the backstabbing going on this is the only way trading will go.

[carbine781 (DayZ) 131]

I'm not a big fan of having currency, especially when 1 bullet to the head would make it a lot easier. I like the realism factor of DayZ, and in a zombie apocalypse, you don't randomly go to a safe zone to get supplies that you can trade with people. Maybe they will have a server that has it, but i'm not a big fan of it.

[sp86 508]

I'm not a big fan of having currency, especially when 1 bullet to the head would make it a lot easier. I like the realism factor of DayZ, and in a zombie apocalypse, you don't randomly go to a safe zone to get supplies that you can trade with people.

I don't really support the OP, but as to your statement, why not? If safezones were able to be established, why wouldn't people trade with scavengers to get what they needed?

[psstloaf 17]

trading may naturally happen between communities of friends and maybe a few outsiders. this game has the potental for that. we already know there are servers where lots of player have cordoned off an area of the map to store all there junk/ heli's etc anyway. cant see people always shooting seeing that they maybe next!

saying that gives a single player a disadvantage unless there jack power :)

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

The freedom for the community to create systems for trade and barter is the most important thing.

Rocket made it clear he doesn't want to have any enforced economy, or predefined systems.

I would prefer the game-world to have many scattered, seemingly useless items.

This would provide potential units of currency and/or crafting ingredients.

@OP, Hypothetically, why wouldn't people use paper money?

Does it matter that nobody is printing more? It's not exactly in high-demand when everyone is dead.

If I don't want/need what you're offering, or don't regard the sames items as "valuable", your trade, whether it's in money, nuts and bolts or scrap, is worthless to me.

The players themselves will decide what's worth trading for, and any trade-hubs can decide what their unit of currency will be.

Nothing should be enforced by the devs, but the options should be explored.

[Thre3zekiel 1]

The freedom for the community to create systems for trade and barter is the most important thing.

Rocket made it clear he doesn't want to have any enforced economy, or predefined systems.

I would prefer the game-world to have many scattered, seemingly useless items.

This would provide potential units of currency and/or crafting ingredients.

@OP, Hypothetically, why wouldn't people use paper money?

Does it matter that nobody is printing more? It's not exactly in high-demand when everyone is dead.

If I don't want/need what you're offering, or don't regard the sames items as "valuable", your trade, whether it's in money, nuts and bolts or scrap, is worthless to me.

The players themselves will decide what's worth trading for, and any trade-hubs can decide what their unit of currency will be.

Nothing should be enforced by the devs, but the options should be explored.

I agree with this whole-heartedly, tbh. I missed this discussion. Paper money would be worthless, in my opinion, just because it is degradable and it is just paper. That could make it valuable as a heat source but as a game goes, it needs to be something that is drained out fairly regularly to facilitate a circulation. When the society has a lot of this currency, trading might happen more often. But as I use more nails, nuts and bolts to build structures, our money supplies dwindle and this maintains a need to continue going out and scavenging like a nut. I really like the idea of each group or society having its own form of currency and all that and it would make a sort of exchange rate. But ultimately, I feel like it would be good if the standalone ended up having some kind of system in place to subtly guide or just facilitate this sort of system. Rather than people just winging it themselves, it would be nice to be able to go somewhere to make solid trades and find out what people want for what items. A sort of make-shift economy could arise out of that. The sort you might expect to find in a real post-apocalyptic scenario.

[whatsmynameagain 31]

Like gold could be rare

[gloopsgf 35]

Cans... Best currency ever!

[Wep0n 532]

well bullets ARE the best currency you could find. and because they have a high demand and use for all survivors, thats what makes them worth something.

if you want to have a currency it must be something very hard to reproduce, which come in enough small quantities that you can set an amount on them (bullets or beans)

but because the request for beans is very small for pro gamers, there is only bullets left...

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

In the current state of loot-spawns, I wouldn't consider bullets a rare commodity.

They are literally everywhere.

If bullets were used as currency, they could be massively devalued with just a 30 minute raid to any military installation.

For anything to have major value it has to be in demand and rare.

The bullet-money economy would crash "depression" style with the discovery of a STANAG box.

In Metro, this currency only worked because of the comparatively limited exploration opportunities.

[Quartermaine 34]

DayZ already has an economic system of supply and demand as Enforcer discussed. A neutral zone would definitely take away from the spirit of the game imho.

[Brittanica 26]

The Money-system in Wasteland is a pretty good idea.

It allows you to buy stuff in stores who are ran by AI.

In order to stimulate fair trading one can make it so that gold is not lootable on a dead body.

However, I dont think our 'Realism fanatics' would appreciate this.

[JPMiller 0]

No formal currency, why would anyone put trust in money after the world fell apart?

[OrLoK 16185]

Until a stable society were set up, it's going to have to be the barter system. cash is an artificial concept.

L

[GoverningNick 12]

Money should be bottle caps

[guisho 258]

Money should be bottle caps

Fallout style, I love it.

[GoverningNick 12]

Fallout 3 is best one

[Bribase 251]

Until a stable society were set up, it's going to have to be the barter system. cash is an artificial concept.

Strictly speaking, it still is a form of bartering but the goods are never actually exchanged in full. That's why banknotes have "I promise to pay the bearer" written on them. In the UK the Bank of England holds the goods and all banknotes are hypothetically redeemable there for actual stuff.

There is a really cool episode of a BBC show called Survivors (1975) about a viral apocalypse. In the episode a character tries to establish a currency payable in the form of fuel when redeemed.

He tells everyone that he has secured a military depot with a million gallons of fuel secure underground, he actually shows people the same 20 55 gallon drums over and over.

The point is that currency works because it is redeemable for things people actually need and that redemption of currency is garanteed by the government. In any post apocalypse (or even a localised disaster) no goods are secured, everything can be looted, stolen or killed for and no currency is secured. You can make an arbitrary government like a WarZ style cash shop but that would ruin what DayZ is meant to be.

That said, I think that if loot is added that has no discernable use but can be carried in unlimited amounts (I like the idea of cigarettes, prison currency) and the ability to properly secure an area and store goods some servers will try their very best to centralize goods and equipment. To build some kind of market town. It will be interesting to see what happens when some servers never take to currency and stay wild while others thrive because there is a form of civilisation.

[OrLoK 16185]

Strictly speaking, it still is a form of bartering but the goods are never actually exchanged in full. That's why banknotes have "I promise to pay the bearer" written on them. In the UK the Bank of England holds the goods and all banknotes are hypothetically redeemable there for actual stuff.

There is a really cool episode of a BBC show called Survivors (1975) about a viral apocalypse. In the episode a character tries to establish a currency payable in the form of fuel when redeemed.

He tells everyone that he has secured a military depot with a million gallons of fuel secure underground, he actually shows people the same 20 55 gallon drums over and over.

The point is that currency works because it is redeemable for things people actually need and that redemption of currency is garanteed by the government. In any post apocalypse (or even a localised disaster) no goods are secured, everything can be looted, stolen or killed for and no currency is secured. You can make an arbitrary government like a WarZ style cash shop but that would ruin what DayZ is meant to be.

That said, I think that if loot is added that has no discernable use but can be carried in unlimited amounts (I like the idea of cigarettes, prison currency) and the ability to properly secure an area and store goods some servers will try their very best to centralize goods and equipment. To build some kind of market town. It will be interesting to see what happens when some servers never take to currency and stay wild while others thrive because there is a form of civilisation.

You have my Muffins.

[enforcer1975 1111]

well bullets ARE the best currency you could find. and because they have a high demand and use for all survivors, thats what makes them worth something.

if you want to have a currency it must be something very hard to reproduce, which come in enough small quantities that you can set an amount on them (bullets or beans)

but because the request for beans is very small for pro gamers, there is only bullets left...

In the current state of loot-spawns, I wouldn't consider bullets a rare commodity.

They are literally everywhere.

If bullets were used as currency, they could be massively devalued with just a 30 minute raid to any military installation.

For anything to have major value it has to be in demand and rare.

The bullet-money economy would crash "depression" style with the discovery of a STANAG box.

In Metro, this currency only worked because of the comparatively limited exploration opportunities.

Which brings us back to the issue of server hopping...

[dallas 5195]

Lead monetary system, no refunds.

[Nicolaitic 26]

Money would be useless...

It would just be a ''Item''

Can you eat money? Not really.

Can you kill with money? Bare hands?

Can you feed your pet goat with money? Pet goat does not approve.

Can your money fly you anywhere? Don't do drugs m'kay?

Can you use your money as a bulletproof vest? You would need THIS much.

It has no use when food is more wanted than paper.

-Nicolai

Edited February 19, 2013 by Nicolaitic

[CreepySalad 108]

N-No.

No safe zones, no trading posts, or anything, unless they are created by the player, and not a game mechanic.

Fuck.

[Perigrin 105]

NO MONEY OR ECOMOMY, SCREW CAPITALISM, THIS IS RUSSIAAAAAAAAAA