[Implemented] Treasures and Banks

[Captain Jack]

Then it would certainly achieve that, although in theory as you leveled it up, it would get easier to level because your revenue would increase while the cost to level remained the same? Meaning level 19-20 could take a lot less time than levels 1-2.

Indeed. I have the solution then.

We can use the initial formula: 20 Mils * 1.15 ^(Bank level -1) plus a 50M starting fee. (We will see how many of these will go into the nation treasury. Futurely, 100% of this will go but for the initial stage, we might need to limit it.)

This way we achieve our objective without adding credits into the equation.

[Shaydo]

That would work, an initial large down payment for the right to open a bank and operate, and then incremental increases in level.
Makes it unlikely that many players can afford to open one, and less likely for many people to open even a lvl 1 bank, but the incremental cost has the effect of making it a lot more costly to level and reap the extra benefits.
I think this could work well.

So the initial first level will cost 70mill?

[Captain Jack]

Ιf the initial fee is 50M then the player will need a total of 70 M (20M for level 1 and 50M the initial fee) to open the bank (plus resources).

The initial fee will be regulated in this way:
-The game will require a 25M fee. (office costs, paperwork, seals, judges paid, etc)
-Each country will be able to "adjust" this fee by using the country treasury. So, a country that does not have a bank but wants one, could even pay this fee directly from the treasury and require 0 gold coins from the banker. Or, if the country officials feel that there are already too many banks in their nation, they could raise it to 100M (for example). In this case the nation will receive 100M in its treasury and from there it will pay the 25M fee to the game.
-The amount of the fee will be controlled by the country officials.
-Any collisions in execution (ie not enough treasury funds for the promised percentage) will always be resolved automatically in the rule that the country treasury or player treasury cannot go negative.
-The treasury will always have a minimum reserves limit for all such "investments" projects voted by the players controlling the country.

I think that we now have the final design for the Bank Cost. Your feedback has been really helpful. Of course, it is still an open discussion if you wish to add something more to it or other bank features.

[Spastic]

Well I have a crazy bizarre idea
- Some sort of international council that would control who gets permission to build a bank. All the kings/governors could be on it or the members could be elected.

As the protagonist from the master of disguise movie once said "that's crazy, so crazy it just might work"
But....maybe thats a bit too 'out of the box' thinking

[Raz Al Ghul]

What you are proposing is a sorta world council or united nations type of thing, I like the Idea of the world council itself, but just to control who has permissions to build banks I disagree with, if you have the funds you should be allowed to create a bank (free market) if the world council were to decide who can and cannot build a bank it would quickly be abused it due time, instead if anything the world council would be nothing more in reality then what the forums are now in a way, the only major difference is that everyone has a voice as opposed to only elected officials.

However if a world council were to instead decide who gets to control a world bank that every active nation adds to, thus giving the person the funds to assist new players and players that have nothing due to being raided, making it take less time for (traders in general) to build themselves up quicker, or back to where they were before they were raided, and each nation get a percentage back from the interests the world banker makes, thus giving back to the players in the game and making it easier to keep a steady flow of available targets ready for pirates to raid again, making it fun for all players even after being raided.

[Captain Jack]

Let's finish the nation control feature and make it as good as possible (with many laws/perhaps armies/treaties for peace-war-commerce/etc) and then we could discuss features such international unions etc. It's too early to throw such into the equation.

[Captain Jack]

We have added an extra ability in the whole design. A bank owner will be able to also sell his bank if he wishes. A bank sale will include all bank assets/contracts/loans/etc.

Further options of allowing control of the bank to be passed to another player for a set amount of time will be added.
This will give the option to a player going inactive to keep his bank active for the time he will be away.

These options will not make the initial release but they will be added not much time afterwards (always according to game priorities).

Co-ownership and share of earnings is a scenario that have in mind and at the distant future it may become available. Such a feature will be directly relevant to active players as the numbers are who would create such a necessity.

[Captain Eagle]

i don't know if this ideas was already posted here or now but...
1)how about every guild has it's own bank sistem...i mean all members from a guild can deposit x gold in the bank for rough days or for the newcomers that could use a boost (i saw a lot of players that spent all of their turs and gold and become inactive because they were bored and never come back finding the game uninteresting) and don't want to spend voodoo cards...in this way even in war times a guild can have a "plan b" if something get's wrong.

2a)the curent amount of ships/fleet are 5...why don't we have let's say 10 or 15 ships/fleet...it could be a lot easyer to manage your fleets
2b)the current fleets/page are 10...make it 25 or make a button at the bottm right of the screen for more options(25 fleets/page, 50 fleets/page, 100 fleets/page and so on)

[Captain Jack]

All banks will be privately owned in the beginning. Later, shareholding of banks may become possible. If a guild wants to operate a bank like you ask, they can although the banker could prove untrustworthy in the end...

The ships/fleet issue does not belong here so I would rather skip answering it as it is also a big topic by itself. If you wish, open a new topic and I will gladly respond.

[Captain Jack]

Banks Version 1.0 Values
===================================================

These are the starting values. According to gameplay, these may change later.

All rates are annual. (Except instant ones)

Banker configured variables:
-Maximum Bounty allowed: Bank Level * 5M
-Minimum loan duration: 7 days
-Maximum loan duration: 365 days
-Maximum interest allowed: 25%
-Minimum interest allowed: 0%
-Maximum bank fee for receiving money (from different bank): 5%
-Maximum bank fee for sending money (to different bank): 5%
-Maximum bank fee for accepting/receiving payment (per transaction, same bank): 5%
-Maximum bank fee for bounties: 10%


Banker and Nation configured variables:
-Maximum Nation Participation in Loans: Bank Level * 2.5%

Nation configured variables:
-Default Title needed for a Bank Owner: Baron (Lowest: Citizen Maximum: Duke)
-Critical Point of Nation Treasury Balance required for Loan participation. (Below that point, no participation takes place)
-Default Tax rate for Client Account Balances: 1% (Maximum: 15%)
-Default nation fee for receiving payment sent (from different nation): 1% (Maximum: 5%)
-Default nation fee for accepting payment sent (to different nation): 1% (Maximum: 5%)
-Default nation fee for accepting/receiving payment (per transaction, same nation): 1% (Maximum: 5%)
-Minimum loan interest (Nation to Bank): 1%
-Maximum loan interest (Nation to Bank): 25%
-Maximum allowed debt (Bank to Nation): Bank Level * x where x = 200M (Default Value: x = 100M - Bank cannot violate this limit)


Non-configurable variables:
-Maximum Balance per client: Bank Level * 2.5M
-Maximum Bank Balance: Bank Level * 100M
-Maximum allowed Balance for player deposits is equal to (Bank level * 100M)*1.5
-Maximum 3 active loans per player per bank.

Limitations/Explanations:
a)General
-All nation configurable variables will be passed to each nation through a single Law.
-A pirate cannot be a Banker.
-Nation officials can close a bank if a voting in favor occurs.
-While a Bank is closed, all assets are frozen (nothing can be done).

b)Loans
-Loans are added to client's account from Bank Treasury and Nation Treasury in 1 movement (on Banker's OR client's final approval).
-The client's balance limit is absolute. It means that a loan cannot surpass it therefore the loan amount can never be greater than the maximum balance allowed.
-Empty Nation coffers, mean that the nation cannot pay up their Loan Participation percentage. In this case, the loan is covered up entirely by the banker. If the nation treasury can only partially cover their part, then the percentage is narrowed downwards to meet the amount.

c)Debts from a Bank to a Nation
-They can be multiple and can receive extensions on Banker request.
-They cannot excess (in capital at the very least) the maximum allowed limit (as set by the Nation and in accordance to the hard limit which is 200M per level).
-There are no automatic penalties for the banker to pay interest of capital of the loan. The only automatic penalty is that the Bank will not be able to draw more gold coins from the nation treasury when issuing a new loan.
-The only way for a nation to pressure a banker to pay his debts are:
1)The interest rate which keeps adding gold for as long as the debt is unpaid.
2)The debt itself which is never removed unless paid.
3)The threat to freeze the bank (or even freeze it).
-The interest rates ceases to add more interest when interest reaches 50% of initial capital.
-The internal loan rates from the nation treasury can create opportunities for an active but poor banker. Loaning for example for lower interest from the nation than the one you loan to the clients and/or paying the debt to the country sooner than the clients, will generate profit for the banker.


Future Versions:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-Bank to Nation loans (Right now, there are no specific reasons as to why a nation should loan from a bank so this will not be added yet).