March 1627 - Day 36

Martti had noticed the improvements in the game economy, which is starting to look pretty much complete. Crypto Kingdom prides itself of being the world's most advanced resource-based economic simulation game (that is actually playable). The foods, drinks and wisdom substances that the player characters and NPC's (who are also played but in batches of 200 per controller) consume annually to keep themselves in good shape, are provided by farms, merchants, homegrown and -distilled, breweries, etc. These are owned by rich players and must compete in an open marketplace with each other and the NPC, whose controllers also have utility functions and incentives to play nimbly.

At present, the town has 1,500 inhabitants (countryside lives their own life separately) who consume, for instance, more than 200,000 kilos of vegetables and 70,000 liters of beer every year.

Martti's checking of the markets shows that the price of the IC point has plummeted. There has not been interesting things to convert to since Ming China, and that was in 1621, after which many things have happened and IC has accumulated to the owners with no buyers. This is a good time to spend what has been accumulated then! The sword is awaiting! With 24*IC, Martti gets an Imported, Powerful shortsword, backdated to 1621 when Martti was 14. (The player can decide what the story is if backdating items; backdating price is 3% per year).

Foods are expensive this time of the year. As has happened before, the March consume quota is filled with beer, since breweries produce now and beer generally enjoys a stable price. Everything else is so high that it makes more sense to try to sell them and buy back in the autumn.

The main business, accumulation of SCI (science points) to be converted to S-B22 (shares in the new borough between Old Town and San Pietro) is going on as planned. Martti now has 20 points, and the optimum consumes are 24 or 40 points, with declining marginal utility (40 points gives only 4 shares whereas you already get 3 with 24 points).

It is not good to overextend - the shares need to be sold as well, and there is no guarantee on the price - so Martti hopes to get the missing 4 points from the market at bid, but is planned to buy them at ask if necessary.