Graal Forums - Kingdoms' Economy

It dawned on me years ago that the Kingdoms and their respective islands weren't being used to their fullest potential. Since I began GK over half a decade ago all the way to today nothing has changed. Kingdom islands, despite little development, are still stagnant and rarely used for anything but houses (storage).

This little idea came to mind several years ago when I just found myself looking at Dustari's chest while going bmode. Why don't Kingdom islands have their own seperate economies so that they can compete not just in combat?
Well, I took some time out this week from my studies to finally catch up on that idea and layout a blueprint for what could be a very interesting feature to GK.

Firstly, the Kingdom chest would be linked to all stores on a Kingdom island and also take revenue from ferry's.

Member's with the right 'F' will be able to toggle and set new taxation options such as increasing ferry prices from the island to mainland, adding a fee to ship building, changing the prices of goods in all shops throughout the Kingdom, taxing home owners quarterly and others.

Prices will have maximum and minimum limits set and any changes in prices/tax would only be possible once every 6 months to avoid abuse. The 'F' right will most likely be limited to the Leader and whomever he/she selects for the responsibility.

Kingdom leaders will not be able to simply withdraw the accumulated revenue from the Kingdom chests as it would obviously lead to those with the 'F' rank being able to abuse and purchase items for free. Instead, the platinum accumulated would be used by those with the 'F' rank to purchase admin-set bonuses/improvements to the Kingdom island, ranging from a variety of things such as improved agricultural land (better farming yields), greater constitution of houses, faster ferrys and more. Next point introduces an important aspect.

Kingdom islands will ofcourse need further development in the way of introducing trade houses, scroll, ring, armor, potions and accessory stores. These stores will initially begin stocking items of equal stature at equal spawning rates. Kingdom accumulated platinum can be used to upgrade these stores to stock better quality of items and increase the chances of valuable items being spawned. Kingdom's will not be able to improve all stores in one go, but have to choose which stores they'd wish to upgrade and therefore specialise in. This I believe will eventually lead to all Kingdom's being unique in what they offer. All of these stores will ofcourse be subject to taxation/price changes.

Kingdom accumulated platinum (KAP) will not just be able to be used for purely financial and miscellaneous purposes, but also to benefit members of Kingdoms, specifically new members. KAP will also be able to be used to purchase new membership bundles which would vary from Rookie Class sets, House Kits, store discounts, tax relief and a the ability for members to use any bell (either on their kingdom island or on main island) to toggle in and out of bmode. Other bonuses may also be possible, but primarily they would be limited in that they would not breed super soldiers but help new members and slightly benefit the already established.

Kingdoms will initially start with similar levels of stores and other revenue generating stations and KAP will be used to limit the speed of growth in terms of an increase in these stations and stores (new towns, more stores etc). KAP will be able to be used to purchase new stores, including more unique ones. Any introduction of new stores would not stack with existing improvements to stores of the same category. E.g. A Kingdom has made 5 improvements to Accessory stores, the introducing of a new 'Exotic Accessories Store' will not automatically raise it's improvement level to 5, it would be at 0, subsequent improvements to accessory stores would have the new store and the old stores follow this path of progression 0:5, 1:6, 2:7 etc. This would ofcourse stem off hyper growth.

Using KAP should be very expensive as it's the accumulated amount of 'activity' on a Kingdom's island, it shouldn't be possible for a single player to be able to manipulate this system in a way that they can essentially hyper evolve a Kingdom. KAP, and it's uses, need to be monitored and made transparent and visible to the general public so that cheating does not occur.

Even though this KAP system breeds competition, and a Kingdom can boast about it's stronger or more varied economy, or it's member benefits, it essentially benefits the entire server. When a Kingdom upgrades it's stores, the server will benefit from that as well as the Kingdom, a win win situation for all.

It's late and I'm tired now, but this is where I've left off. The idea is still a little rough around the edges but I believe it has alot of potential and would add alot of value to GK. Thanks for reading if you have, I'd appreciate feedback :)