Economy Guide

Market Price Fluctuation

Each resource has a set base price - the price it has when a new game begins. We also maintain minimum and maximum price range (currently 50% to 300% of base price). We also set desired sold stock percentage (75%) -> a measure of target supply (see below). Every resource that is traded on the local market (i.e. being sold by local villagers) is monitoring a number which predicts % of stock that a family will manage to sell over the course of a year (i.e. the ratio between supply and demand). The target price is calculated from this ratio:

• If the ratio is 100% (everything is sold every day consistently for a long time)

The price will continue to grow daily until it reaches it's set maximum.

• If the ratio is closer to 75% (family consistently has up to 25% of offered goods in reserves for the next day)

The price will converge to its base price and the game economy remains stable.

• If it is below 75% (family is oversupplying the settlement even more than desired)

The price will converge to a price lower than the base price, reaching it's minimum price in the case where it is not able to sell anything for a long time. The current price then always approaches the target price at a constant speed. If prices fall down to X% of

their base value, caravans will start purchasing them. This contributes to the % sold, reducing the likelihood that price will continue to fall down.

Caravan

Caravans and resources sold by the player do not account for this percentage or trigger the price change, player buying from caravans do increase market prices. This means:

• Caravans or the player can offer any amount of supply on the market and regardless of how much they actually sell it will not change the price.
• On the flip side, if a resource is offered by villagers as well as caravans / players, they can impact each other indirectly:
  • Since villagers prioritize buying from the locals before they buy from caravans, even if caravans sell some or all goods, it will still appear that 100% of the goods on the local market have been sold out and thus the price will continue to increase. In this sense, caravans only serve to prevent villagers from being idle because they don't have the resources they need to work. They are not a tool of stabilizing the price (villagers think of them as unreliable source of supply). It is important to remember here that this applies only if the local market is competing with the caravans. If the caravans are the only source for this resource, the price remains fixed.
  • Since player can undercut the market price and force villagers to buy from the player, they can forcefully direct demand to the warehouse out of the local market. This reduces the % that the local market manages to sell and may force the price to decrease.

Price Manipulation Techniques

Increase Supply/Demand:

• Update priorities of production
• Reduce taxes on supplying zones
• Get more people with same profession
• Turn a zone into stewardry
• Supply resources from warehouse (granting, selling)
• Grant resources to villagers

Reduce Supply/Demand:

• Exile family
• Seize supplied resources
• Increase taxes on supplying zones
• Enlist to clergy / army / servants
• Update priorities of production
• Add / remove inn zone