The Value of Things

Now that quite a few people have built a branch office and begun trading, it would be nice to try to nail down the general value of things. I realize that different things are worth different amounts to different people (obviously, or no-one would ever want to trade), but some things are still generally more valuable than others, and that's what I'm interested in. The obvious unit of value is the gold coin, but none of us can produce gold and there's not really that much to buy with it right now, so I suggest measuring value in something a little closer to home: fir wood logs (FL). Below I've made a list of my estimates of the values of some of the common materials based on their difficulty to make from my own experience. Though, ultimately the value of things is determined by what people are willing to trade for them, so feel free to post some of the trades you've done and whether you think they were a good or bad deal.


Fir Wood Log = 1 FL
Fir Wood Plank = 1.5 FL
Stone = 1 FL
Fish = 1.2 FL
Coal = 2.5 FL
Copper = 3 FL
Bronze = 6 FL
Tools = 6.5 FL
Water = .5 FL
Wheat = 8 FL
Flour = 8.5 FL
Bread = 9 FL
Beer = 9.5 FL
Bronze Sword = 11.5 FL
Bow = 8.5

I haven't had my hands on enough of the advanced materials to estimate their cost yet. Let me know what you think.






more soon

This sort of quantification seems rather useless to me as the value of anything is in the eye of the beholder...

I happened to just trade someone 1 Fish for 400 Water, an excellent trade as my wells had run dry overnight

Of course it varies based on your layout, but I think it's still pretty useful for getting an idea of the fairness of a trade. For instance, if I hadn't played the game much, and somebody offered me 10 swords for 100 stone that might seem like an outrageous trade. I mean giving 10 of something for 1 of something else, but if you look at this list it turns out that's a pretty decent deal.

Your bows estimate looks completely off base, did you take into account production time or just add 0.5 to produced goods?

I just added 0.5. They might be worth more, but just one or two bow makers seems to give me more than enough to keep up with 4 weapon smiths because the archers rarely die. Supply may be lower because of production time, but for me demand is also much lower. That tends to make me think they are worth less. Maybe 9 or 9.5 for double the normal production time? Though honestly right now, I would give 20 bows for 170 logs, but, of course, that may just be because I've personally over-produced them.

I am glad we are having a discussion about this. There are already several players out to rip off the general public. I think we need to have a minimum price and a maximum price guideline so that when we get the influx of new players, we don't have more experienced players taking advantage.

Just offered to give copper for coal at 1:1, and got a few negative responses (though someone did actually take the trade). Is coal worth more than copper?

I think there are many miscalculations. Ex.: the stone should be more valuable than fir logs since we need to replace the quarry every once in a while. If we want to make a schedule based on truth of costs...let's do it right.
I also don't understand why the value must be fixed. It's normal that everygamer has material/s that he need the most and they change depending form the stage of gaming he is in and the way he decided to set the production. The bad deals don't work (especially in the long run) and the players that rip off other players become "famous" because of that (not a nice reference in a social game). There have been times i would have spent an X amount of money i would not spend right now....I think this is true for everyone. And...this is a game....fixing a virtual price for something virtual seems a bit too "risky" to me. Good luck with this all.

4 Alrecenck: I appreciate your will to spend time for us anyway. I compliment you.

Alerecek. It's very hard to determine the value

take an example wheat vs flour vs bread

bread is made from flour. Flour is made from wheat. Logically , u would think that bread worths more than flour, worth more than wheat ?

But no, due to the buff effect, flour is the most expensive one here. People buy flour, buff their bakery and get a lot more bread out of it since bread only take 3 mn to be baked.

There are too many factors affect the actual value of different goods, so a list or min-max price isnt possible

It just doesn't work like that. The game is basically a free-market barter economy where you trade surplus to fulfill need.

Prices are determined by the individual based on need and whatever they have available at that point in time and and as such market values are in a continual state of change.

A stone may be worth a fir log if you already have 4,000. But how about when you have 4? are they worth more then?

Max/Min pricing breaks down quickly when players are competing for limited resources based on need.

The only applicable rule for In-game trade is "Caveat Emptor" or "Let the buyer beware".

If players don't have a basic understanding of production cycles and material values by the time they get a Branch Office then they really can't be very serious about their game play anyway.