by Sir Henry Morgan » Sat Jun 02, 2018 8:07 pm
On September 14th, 2014, Captain Dungeness and I founded the goverment of Tokelau on the idea of becoming a banking nation - like Switzerland or the Cayman Islands.
At that time, it was understood that:
1) The devs wanted few players playing as bankers.
2) Banking at level 20 was a gold burner, ie, you would spend 2.1-2.5B to build it. You would make a safe income from it, but you would never get your investment back. (I can vouch for that).
Credit exchange in banks helped, but when that moved out to the larger market, that was gone. No worries, as it was better for the game.
Tokelau continued to pursue banking as a national purpose rather than port control and recruiting new members. The people who joined Tokelau understood and like the idea of a banking nation - it was an investment in the future of PG, not a get rich quick gambit.
Tokelau eventually developed a bank building program using the Tokelau treasury ro help Dukes build banks while I and the governors also worked to maintain influence in ports as well as populations. We helped them build their banks with low interest loans. Several left the game - others switched nations. So be it - it would help the game, regardless of the flag they flew. It's a game, and it was a long term vision.
Now comes an upgrade for those who have invested in banks, to aid in making plantation transactions possible. The 3.75 years that Tokelau has pursued the mission of a banking nation has got a boost. Even with the new techs, it simply increases the size of possible transactions - transactions that will provide income, but will never cover the cost of a bank or her upgrades.
Plantations will operate in a similar manner, with more benefits to a nation treasury than banking will. You can dump resource into banks to work as a national bank, or you can get out and get plantations rolling.
Tokelau welcomes Captain Da Vinci - we now have 4 banks that can handle large transactions until you get your banks where you want them.
Tokelau will continue to maintain banking as her mission as long as I am King. There's too many features and avenues of play to master them all, invest in them all and succeed. More are coming. We will see where we are in the next three and a half years.