Cogito Currency

[Phazorknight]

Hey y'all,

Inspired by https://peoplemaking.games/@brody/113188262055439108 i remembered I was thinking of adding a simple currency system to Cogito.

The way I picture this implemented would be as followed:

• CogitoCurrency would work very similar to the CogitoAttribute, has a min/max value and needs to be part of the CogitoPlayer scene.
• Can get added/subtracted as well have a max amount.
• Can get increased/decreased by objects and interactions.
• Gets saved as part of the CogitoPlayerState
• GUI/HUD of currency display would be spawned in like the display of the attributes, so dynamically based on a packed scene. Would probably not display it in the HUD per default, but show it in the inventory screen.

Any thoughts or other ideas?

[BrodyB]

Yeah, this sounds like a good base implementation. I would say the min/max values should be made optional (or easy to remove the clamping).

[OvercastInteractive]

Economies tend to add quite a bit of interesting player choice, so I'm all for it. I imagine categories of objects (namely InventoryItemPD objects) might also need to possess a currency value (if you allow the player to sell along with spend the currency). Would there be a quick way to see the value of something in your inventory, such as an extra line in the inventory hint box?

Also, I imagine this could be generic enough to be used like tokens or points as well, or support multiple attributes, such as currency and tokens/points?

Perhaps I could add a vending machine in the lobby to test it out, using a cogito_button or cogito_switch to spawn a soda or grenade. 😂

[niefia]

To build on this could also introduce shops as a special inventory type, where transfers between player and shop inventory change the CogitoCurrency value accordingly.

If we add a value field to items we should also add sellable/unsellable

[Phazorknight]

I see this is quickly getting quite complex. 😅

objects / items might also need to possess a currency value

Though, just thinking out loud: we could add "currency properties" to items like there's consumable effects on consumables.
This way, you can add a variety of currency values to each item and they can be checked for / summarized etc.
Would set us up for a future trading / buy-sell feature.

If we add a value field to items we should also add sellable/unsellable

Checking an item for currency properties could at the same time define it as sell/unsellable.

this could be generic enough to be used like tokens or points as well

The way they're set up, you can add as many currencies as you want.

Thinking about it, they could even be used to give items a "weight" property, and with a few tweaks, the inventory could impose weight limits, etc. But one thing after the other.

[OvercastInteractive]

Are you planning to limit the scope of this system to strictly work with float and/or integer value types? As a baseline I think this would be a good scope to establish, to not go too off the rails with its complexity.

I like the idea of building it out as "currency properties", and have some property paired with a value. Then it just becomes a matter of making sense of those properties and their relationships.

Any item may or may not have a:
Buy property

• how much does a vendor want for said item
• what type of currency can be spent to obtain it (money, tokens, gems, or all of them?)
• buyer gets said item in exchange for x currency property that the item is valued as (1 apple = 1 gold, and can't be bought for tokens or gems)

Sell property

• the global value of said item as x currency property
• how much x currency property I'll receive when trading away said item

• other property types

Then you could have attributes that store the various bank/reserve pools for your currency properties:
Bank/Reserves attribute (gold, for example)

• where x currency property (gold) is added and removed when buying and selling items worth gold

Bank/Reserves attribute (crystals, for example)

• where x currency property (crystals) is added and removed when buying and selling items worth crystals

This approach would be much simpler if items can only be bought or sold for a single property. For instance, a hammer can only be bought or sold for a currency (say, gold), and a magic spell can only be bought or sold for a different currency (say, crystals). I say this because when you introduce vendors it gets complex. If a vendor is buying or selling items of which each can be bought or sold for multiple currency types (gold or crystals or both at once), now you need an entirely different interface to decide which currency to spend, gold or crystals, or a combination of the two.

I worked on a game in which I had multiple currencies/resources to purchase units and equipment, and it was a real endeavor.

Further complexity arises with the expectation that vendor's stock and currency reserves will persist as you trade with them.

As far as weight is concerned, we already have an inventory system that puts a constraint on how much the player can carry, so unless items weights can affect movement speed or stamina drain then I wouldn't want to factor in both weight and inventory space in order to choose one item over another. Then you get into negativity bias where you feel worse about losing something (negative) than you would about gaining more things (positive). I'm not a big fan of weight micro-management in games, I'd rather leave that to Bethesda RPGs. 😅

A lot of thought should go into the scope of this, as I think setting a constraint on the overall design can still yield creative uses for this kind of generic economy system.

[Phazorknight]

@OvercastInteractive

I'm not a big fan of weight micro-management in games,

Yeah, neither am I. I was just thinking out loud mostly. Would not attempt to build up a full weight-based player inventory system at the moment.

Are you planning to limit the scope of this system to strictly work with float and/or integer value types?

Yes, like I said, it should be very basic.

This approach would be much simpler if items can only be bought or sold for a single property.

Agreed and yes, I'd limit it to that (if we add a proper vendor feature)

Further complexity arises with the expectation that vendor's stock and currency reserves will persist as you trade with them.

Yeah, I'd not go into that. Basic vending machines or like an NPC that can sell you an unlimited stock of ammo or similar seems good enough for my idea of the scope of this feature.
This isn't supposed to simulate an economy.

[OvercastInteractive]

This all sounds excellent and along the same lines as what I was imagining.
Perhaps the Laboratory ammo dispenser, or a duplicate of it, is a good place to test transactions.

[Phazorknight]

I've implemented the first iteration of currencies now in 5b255a8