Messages

1006

General Talk / Re: Real World Economics

« on: September 15, 2011, 07:33:53 AM »

The more money you put in the bank, the more money the bank will be able to lend out, the lower their interest rates will be, which will help both businesses and consumers, and therefore consumption will be increased.

...Yeah...  Which is why we had the Great Depression. Money had been packed away as savings in banks. Less aggregate expenditure into the economy lead to income decline and massive unemployment. To make matters worse, firms rolled out massive amount of output for which there just wasn't the demand. As the times became tougher, people started hoarding even more, worsening the cycle.

You didn't read what i posted last. A majority of Firms are not dependent on borrowed money- they get their funds from retained earnings, earning which they made because some consumers bought their goods. Money spent by one is the income of another- Its a circular cycle, and if you cut out one step in the process, you are undoubtedly going to impact the entire cycle.

You are saying that consumers buy products with the objective in mind that this will allow companies to invest.

Rubbish. I was merely stating what i stated in my earlier point- by consuming goods, the consumer is increasing the earnings of the firm, which will allow the firm to invest.

1007

General Talk / Re: Real World Economics

« on: September 14, 2011, 09:15:46 PM »

Thats why high savings countries like China have such low growth rates, and high-consumption economies like the US have such high growth rates.... err... what?

The idea that either consumption or investment is a necessary or logical lever for growth is silly. Infinite investment in an idea that is basically worthless will not make it functional. Infinite consumption in an economy that is basically unproductive will not make it prosperous.

In a high-savings economy, declining wages could be compensated for in the medium term by rising return on investment in companies that enjoy lower wages. Long term returns on k and l operate differently, and short term lower wages will definitely be the predominant effect.

In a country like the U.S, consumption is debt driven- people don't have enough money and are spending over and beyond what they have. Of course, this is unsustainable.

China keeps it's inflation artificially low. So the GDP appears larger than it really is. China has recessions even when it's GDP is chugging along at around 5 or 6%, so that gives you an idea of what it's actual GDP should be. In India, inflation is in the double digits. The average person in the developing country thus spends a much larger portion of his income on food or fuel. The average person also has to worry about his future (no social security, pension or universal healthcare), and is obliged to maintain a level of savings.

When a company wants to make an investment, where does it get this money from? For a vast majority of companies, it is not from savings, but from the expenditures of consumers, the government and or other firms.

Only a fraction of savings goes to companies for their investment purposes. The rest ultimately ends up going to consumption, as banks are quite happy to lend money to people who will use the money to consume goods. Thus by consuming the good, you are providing the company with the funds they need to invest.

1008

General Talk / Re: Real World Economics

« on: September 14, 2011, 07:25:08 PM »

Yet savings are a requirement for investing, which is necessary to promote economical growth.

Whether or not a person has savings, he will always have to invest some part of the money he earns for his subsistence, so there can be this investment even without savings.

By investment, I refer to every transaction a person undertakes- By buying groceries, you are investing your money into the grocers, allowing him to continue his trade and make a profit on the side, in turn allowing the grocer to make further transaction, and so on.
If all of us decide that instead of buying that huge LCD display, to save our money, we would drive the LCD vendor out of business,  whos bankruptcy would create ripple effects that would affect the entire economy.

1009

General Talk / Re: Real World Economics

« on: September 14, 2011, 05:36:22 PM »

I think the main problem is the difference between MACRO economics and MICRO economics. For example, to help the macro economy, I should spend my money and rack up huge amounts of credit card debt. To help the micro economy of my family, I should instead pay off my debts.

Therein lies the paradox. Individual savings is a virtue, but if the everyone saves (instead of spending on goods), your economy will slow down, reducing wages and driving down the amount of money you can save.

1010

BM General Discussion / Re: Who else plays by phone? Or how do you play?

« on: September 08, 2011, 11:31:30 AM »

I've been almost exclusively playing BM from my iPad for three weeks. So far I have had a near perfect experience with the BM site, I didn't know about m.battlemaster.org, I shall give it a spin.

1011

Feature Requests / Battle Simulator

« on: August 25, 2011, 12:58:12 PM »

I remember that a while ago (maybe a year or two ago), i heard rumors of a battle simulator that used to exist in the past. You could input a few details, formations and settings, and you would get a summary that was as good as a battle report. Did this ever exist? Seems dead useful for a newbie learning about how battles and settings work, and for a marshal planning for battle. It would be an *awesome* addition to the military advisor tab.

edit: Just saw the other topic where something similar was mentioned. Instead of something full blown where one could add every single unit in battle, perhaps one or two units per side? Its all well and good to read stuff on the wiki, but if a new player could actually set formations and match his troop against another, it would be not just cooler but more fun to learn battle tactics and such.

1012

BM General Discussion / Re: Rebellion

« on: August 25, 2011, 11:31:57 AM »

Find several small issues and blow them up, raising them to the realm wide level. Be certain not to be overly critical, for you dont want to get banned before you get a chance to gather supporters.

Council doesn't share information with realm? Hint at conspiracies. Complain that nobles are being taken for granted.

War not going well? Blame it on incompetent military led by fools who are leading the great realm into a gutter.

Complain about cliques, complain about families hogging positions at the expense of knights who have won glory to the realm... The list is endless. You will surely get some supporters. Befriend younger knights and the older ones without posts, and slowly explain the failures of the government. Once you have a bunch of cronies watching your back, you can aim for bigger fish, maybe a lord or two for added legitimacy to your noble cause. If you did it right, the rest should be history. 

1013

BM General Discussion / Re: When is economy?

« on: August 15, 2011, 05:14:10 AM »

When is the dynamic economy coming online? Regarding region resources? And will they actually have an impact on a realm? I would love to see a kingdom needing metals to forge weapons, or different types of food sources that are better or worse than others. It would give so many more reasons for realms to fight and try and control points of rich resources.

I am really looking forward to this one

1014

BM General Discussion / Re: Adventurer Game: Searching for items

« on: August 12, 2011, 06:55:56 PM »

Yes there is a difference, but it is more pronounced for more experienced advies with better adventuring gear.

I guess this makes sense. My advy has 24% advy gear. I'll keep checking the values as he gains skill.

1015

BM General Discussion / Adventurer Game: Searching for items

« on: August 11, 2011, 06:41:19 PM »

13 hour search for "pretty plenties".

You wander around the rural and...

    1st hour: You find nothing of value.
    2nd hour: You find nothing of value.
    3rd hour: You find nothing of value.
    4th hour: You are disturbed by peasants and militia and can not gather anything.
    5th hour: You are disturbed by peasants and militia and can not gather anything.
    6th hour: You find nothing of value.
    7th hour: You find nothing of value.
    8th hour: You find nothing.
    9th hour: You are disturbed by peasants and militia and can not gather anything.
    10th hour: You have found a piece of moonstone.
    11th hour: You are disturbed by peasants and militia and can not gather anything.
    12th hour: You find nothing of value.
    13th hour: You find nothing of value.

I am not a usual advy player, playing one regularly after a couple of months. But in the dozen odd searches i've done for items, i have never received more than 3 items, and a search like the one above is the norm.  Is there really a difference between pretty plenties, balanced and boring, and rare and risky? I have not noticed it.

1016

Beluaterra / Re: If the current war was a bar fight...

« on: August 11, 2011, 12:46:18 PM »

Enweil reveals that its actually two people in a trenchcoat and that the shorter of the pair has an unpronounceable name.

This one was awesome

1017

BM General Discussion / Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best

« on: August 09, 2011, 12:54:19 PM »

Funnily enough, my page on the wiki was deleted too.. Luckily i found a link from my mail, for I had forgotten flickr username ad password 

http://flic.kr/p/5GjSYi

1018

Beluaterra / Re: Latlan

« on: August 08, 2011, 07:25:42 PM »

My hunch is that Artemesia had a character in Netherworld... wonder if I'm right. /me wanders off to find out

His character was conducting blight "research" He got himself banned, turned rogue, somehow making his way into the blight.

1019

Beluaterra / Re: the conflict looming

« on: July 30, 2011, 05:58:28 PM »

Yes. And new players will not be very concerned with all of this background information.

I only have an advy there - I don't care.  New players will quit. Old players need to stop having "cooling down periods" and "region rebuilding periods" and think about making the game fun, if they want new players to stick around.

You must move a character to BT. So by the time a player moves to BT, he usually already has a decent amount of time in the game, and is no longer "new".

1020

Beluaterra / Re: the conflict looming

« on: July 27, 2011, 06:43:57 PM »

There may not have been any official whole-realm consensus on such a deal, but I know for a fact that the monsters were told that DoA and Riombara were good targets by someone high up in Enweil (though I don't remember who).

Alex Kidd, If I'm not mistaken.

The deal you speak of did not exist,

This Chancellor? I do not know. I know his full title is Supreme Chancellor of Enweil, just like your title of Great Chamberlain of Riombara. I do not care to remember human names.

My Epic will either be impressed with your offering or not. He looked upon favour to Enweil merely due to their bravery to talk to him and also their quickness at responding to his will. Enweil has spoken regarding your people, that you are insidious and evil. You will turn on my Epic when his back is turned and even now you are trying to develop plans to thwart the will of my Epic. You know I cannot allow these things to reach my Epic's ears or your people will not exist for much longer. I cannot verify these matters, but it certainly seems that you are wasting time and trying to go against the will of my Epic and it seems Enweil speaks somewhat truthfully about your habits.

Enweil has stated that the people of the south are evil and sly, and deserve to be punished. I have not seen proof of this, but it does seem that Enweil is willing to live up to its promises regarding the regions it is giving to us.

Do you suppose Enweil may betray us? Indeed, that thought has come to me. But I will let you into some of my thoughts. Think, if they do betray us what will they gain? Right now they have traded 2 not so important regions and juicy information for a period of peace with my Epic.  - Wisdom

I'm used to calling something like this a deal.