MPV Development Diary: The Economic System
In MPV, with most people on Earth now sharing a common language, using a common currency, not needing to go through customs or otherwise facing trade barriers, naturally economic activity has exploded in a way never before seen in human history. While variation is allowed in the various local economies of the world, the fear of the UN invoking Supremacy has kept most variations to a moderate variety; even states that lean towards more communist ideologies tend to have some form of private property to encourage an influx of foreign capital.
Naturally, with an economy that now is so free from the many barriers of the present day, I felt a need to diversify it, to make up for more things to do with the ever-peaceful world MPV presents. The goal was to increase complexity without making it too complicated for players to understand, nor micromanagement heavy.
To start with, I had to make economics automatic and not requiring much GM input so as to keep turn times low. It was not hard to do so at all; the global economy now adjusts solely as a result of players’ actions rather than anything I do. And this is without me changing anything outside nation stats; the economy is thus dynamic and not heavy on GM time, unlike the resource system of MPIII.
States basically may allocate their production capacity (simplistically represented by total province count) between four fields: Organics (Agricultural, renewable goods), Raw materials, the secondary (manufacturing) sector, and the tertiary (service) sector. Now here’s where the fun starts: the market is assumed to be in equilibrium each turn, and so there’s a global price for each that changes with each turn. Supply may change, but the ultimate way to fluctuate the price (and thus increase your own profits) is by controlling demand.
Demand for organics goes up with more people, simple enough; organics also have the least value in the long run. Demand for raw materials increases with better infrastructure and a larger industrial sector. Demand for the industrial sector is tied to the demand for manufactured goods. Manufactured goods’ demand increases with the rise of one’s educated middle classes; investments in human capital are how one will increase demand for those goods. The world economy, as a result, starts off with its largest sectors being industry and agriculture, but player decisions over time will gradually shift it towards the service sector associated with developed nations.
The price system becomes important, for it automatically determines a player’s economic power. Being geared towards high-demand, low-supply goods proves immensely useful as a result. At the same time, however, other players are liable to rush towards these areas, leaving one with the gamble that is the prisoner’s dilemma. Thus, despite the competitive nature of the world, it becomes somewhat important to get an idea for what other players’ economic plans are, so as to gain the most profitable result.
Ultimately the system allows for varied economics and the rise and fall of nations’ economic clout on a regular basis, keeping everyone guessing as to where things will head. At the same time, besides obtaining raw money, directing the economy towards certain sectors can prove rewarding; for example, going agricultural can allow for explosive population growth, an economic weapon in and of itself.
Players will only be able to adjust their output parameters (the percentage of the economy geared towards a certain sector) by so much per turn, but it nonetheless will provide an interesting challenge to those seeking greater power in the world; it is no longer a case of “spam infrastructure to win.”
With regards to the actual hard numbers, players begin making a large chunk of their money from foreign trade; even if the Federation were to magically vanish, becoming a pariah remains a bad idea no matter how one slices it. The dissolution of independent nation-states has made it taboo to try any sort of exclusive trade arrangements or embargoes, but the intact client system allows one to distort the markets of target nations to receive advantages over other nations and thus an informal “preferred trade status” that yields additional trade revenue from that nation.
Tax policy’s ability to affect growth has returned, and debt no longer adversely affects growth; instead, excessive debt reduces the confidence of businesses in your economy, while also causing a loss of influence as the powerful bankers of the world mobilise to collect installments by other means. Local politicians around the world are all too eager to repossess your assets to pay your debts for you if it means a few hundred thousand donated to their campaigns or programs.
