Currency Mod Idea

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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NikitaTheTanner
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Currency Mod Idea

Post by NikitaTheTanner »

Another idea for a small mod, which I think would be rather easy to implement.

In Daggerfall, like in many RPGs, the only available currency is gold. That tradition, as far as I understand comes from a table top game about a gold rush, where in the setting it actually makes sense that Leather Cuirass (assuming leather armor makes sense, of course :lol: ) would be worth 30 gold, since gold is abundant and merchants charge a fortune to get anything useful. Makes complete sense.

Then, it got carried out into other games, but the gold is supposed to be a precious commodity in these games, so it creates a paradox. A linen shirt costs 5 gold, a piece of bread is worth 1 gold! These prices are ludicrous and I am not even talking about houses worth more gold, than you can actually fit into them...

Some can ignore this element and not be bothered by it, but with my attention to detail, it is rather annoying. So what I propose is a rather simple 3 Coin System:

Bronze Dime, Silver Septim, Golden Drake

Image Image Image

100 Bronze Dimes = 1 Silver Septim and 100 Silver Septims = 1 Golden Drake (both value AND weight)
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Technically, I don't even think it is necessary to change any actual coins in the game. Only representation in menus and dialogues need to be altered.

So, for example, when you have 155.460 coins in inventory, it would show up as 15 gold coins, 54 silver coins and 60 bronze coins.

In dialogues, NPCs would say: "I would give you 1 Septim and 54 Dimes for the head of the beast!", meaning 154 coins total.

This is still kinda gamey, since values are so simple and coins magically change when you reach a certain number, but it makes the game world slightly more believable in my opinion. There would still be many problems with the economy, but it would be a nice first step to fixing it.

Of course, we can make even more complicated system and make you exchange currency in Banks, but that would be harder to do and not necessary.

I really want to see some slightly more realistic prices for things, it would be nice, so I propose this simple, yet elegant solution. The only thing that would kinda break immersion is the fact that you see piles of gold in the dungeons, but these are often lying anyway and have no gold in them, so it shouldn't be a big problem.
Last edited by NikitaTheTanner on Sat Apr 15, 2017 8:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Biboran
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by Biboran »

Gold and silver coins sprites can be founded in october 1995 demo

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Jay_H
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by Jay_H »

This system was present in Everquest. The cheapest unit was copper, and then silver, then gold, then platinum. All coins had a weight to them, and I believe more valuable metals weighed more. 10 copper = 1 silver, 10 silver = 1 gold, 10 gold = 1 platinum. Low-level players would set up a meta-banking system for higher-level players: "I'll change 1000 copper for 8 gold for you so you don't have to leave camp." Banks would store money and items to free inventory space and weight, and interchange any kind of coin.

A fun prank was to find some new player swimming in a lake somewhere and give them 2,000 copper as a gift. Most players didn't understand how to get rid of money very quickly, so they'd drop to the bottom of the water and drown. Then when they go to get their corpse, the copper's still on their corpse so they sink again when they loot their corpse :)

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NikitaTheTanner
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by NikitaTheTanner »

Banks would store money and items to free inventory space and weight, and interchange any kind of coin.
That can also be done, though it would be a bit more work. So, all the gold you find in the world or gold you are given will automatically transform into proper coins, but once you have the coins, you need to exchange them.

In that case, 1 Silver Coin should weight less than 100 Bronze, and 1 Gold Coin less than 100 Silver coins, to make it worth exchanging. Will make Banks even more useful.

But that is slightly more complicated and first version of the mod can probably exchange money automatically for you, once you reach the 100.

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Arl
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by Arl »

In latter TES games the currency it's just called Septims, which are essentially gold coins. I don't remember how they manage prices for small things, maybe the septim it's not that valuable that you need lesser value coins like "cents" or equivalents.
My Deviantart page, I have some Daggerfall stuff in there.

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NikitaTheTanner
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by NikitaTheTanner »

Arl wrote:In latter TES games the currency it's just called Septims, which are essentially gold coins. I don't remember how they manage prices for small things, maybe the septim it's not that valuable that you need lesser value coins like "cents" or equivalents.
Later TES games suck as well in this aspect, even Morrowind. Gold was never intended to be such meaningless commodity, that you would need to pay 1 Gold coin to buy an apple! Raw gold ore is worth 50 gold coins in Skyrim and 1 Pearl costs 100 gold coins in Morrowind. There is no consistency, it's just a name that sticks. Gold sounds nice and looks shiny, that's it.

That's why I want to make Daggerfall currency system slightly more complex and interesting, but not that difficult either. I mean 100 coin exchange is also not very realistic, but it's easy to count for the player. It would be ridiculous to implement realistic Medieval coin system in a videogame.

What I want would make Gold coins stand out much more! I mean, if you find 1 Gold Coin, it means that you just found 10.000! And that's quite a lot.

As well as carrying coins would be more realistic. I can't imagine player character carrying 251.355 coins at once, but I can imagine having 25 gold coins, 13 silver coins and 55 bronze coins in your purse. It's just for immersion purpose.

As for names, Drake is from Morrowind and since it represents Akatosh, I thought it makes great Gold coin. Septim is important silver currency, also quite valuable and represents the ruling dynasty. Dime is my invention, it also has one of the Imperial symbols and is called Dime, because of the diamond shape symbol on it :) I think the names work, but they are not the most important part here.

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Arl
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by Arl »

Yeah, maybe you are right, besides some numbers get very elongated in the game, like buying houses or Daedra summoning, we can decimate that a bit with your system. Also we can make the bank also serves to convert change (just an idea).

As for the names of the coins, I love them.
My Deviantart page, I have some Daggerfall stuff in there.

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Biboran
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by Biboran »

Maybe even more like New Vegas system - each country/barony has his own monies. Player also can find acient nordic/breton/ayleid/dwemer coins in dungeons. Also chances to find fake coins. Also, system of animal fur for most lowest monies! :D

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NikitaTheTanner
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by NikitaTheTanner »

Maybe even more like New Vegas system - each country/barony has his own monies. Player also can find acient nordic/breton/ayleid/dwemer coins in dungeons. Also chances to find fake coins. Also, system of animal fur for most lowest monies
Each country and barony - no, I am definitely against it. It's too much work for too little gain.

Even New Vegas uses bottle caps as default money. We can say that Empire is very strict about it's currency, for example, and that would be lore explanation. Or maybe Imperial currency is purest and provinces recognize its quality. Doesn't matter why - it's simple and it works. Don't want to complicate things just to make them complicated.

As for rare coins in dungeons - why not? They would go as junk and you would sell them to a pawnbroker, most likely, or maybe smelt, once we add crafting 8-) But that has nothing to do with actual money you pay in the stores.

As for animal fur - also no, but I think we could have barter system similar to Fallout and Morrowind, where you can exchange items and then pay the difference, if there is any. It's also outside the scope of this mod idea.

Narf the Mouse
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Re: Currency Mod Idea

Post by Narf the Mouse »

Given the relative sizes of the coins, 1:100 seems reasonable. I'd think something like 1:20, which is more historical AFAIK, would be more for coins that are roughly the same size (but different materials, of course).

The simplest implementation would be to change nothing but what the player sees. That is, the game gives the player "150 of item_gold", and the info box says "You receive 1 sp and 50 cp"; or whatever.

My understanding is that GUI boxes have a specific string to show the player's current gold? If so, that function could be changed to return a string containing gp/sp/cp values.

Should probably investigate DFU sources again. In fact... *Heads off to do just that*
Previous experience tells me it's very easy to misunderstand the tone, intent, or meaning of what I've posted. If you have questions, ask.

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