Alternative Currencies for OpenTTD

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kamnet
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Alternative Currencies for OpenTTD

Post by kamnet »

As there exists the possibility of creating alternate currencies for OpenTTD via NewGRF, I will endeavor to do just that. Alternative Currencies for OpenTTD will be a collection of various currencies, both real and fictitious, not yet represented formally in the game.

Features
  • Differential exchange rates: Formally, the in-game currency is said to the Great Britain Pound Sterling (GBP), and by default all listed currencies are at a fixed 1:1 ratio unless changed in "Custom Currency", in which you can devalue the custom currency to be less powerful than the in-game currency. This set will introduce the concept of the in-game currency being more or less powerful, frequently by fractions not ordinarily seen. Why? Because we can. ;)
  • New currency symbols: Currencies will have proper symbols, either drawn from standard Unicode or using a Unicode font glyph. I've been warned that the former will not scale very nicely, but this is a minor consequence.
  • A brave new world: Currencies may be included from any real or fictitious source, both current and historical.
  • License: Source code, graphics and NewGRF will be licensed under US Public Domain, and freely available to anybody.
The exchange rates for fictitious currencies are typically established by the "Law of One Price", basically find a commodity item between the two worlds (food, clothing, homes, vehicles, salary, etc.), establish their costs and then calculate the ratio. Much of my research has relied on the research of others, using known quality sources for reasonable estimates. As most of these sources are stateless, I'm not going to be very concerned as to what the exchange rate might be on February 1, 2016 versus February 1, 1989.

The exchange rates for virtual or other real currencies are based on whatever the listed exchange rate is from the source I find at the time I find it. Again, not going to be pickled as to the particular date, as long as it looks reasonable. It will never fluctuate in the game, aside from adjusting upward for inflation if you have inflation enabled.

Currency Under Consideration - Last Updated December 20, 2018

Code: Select all

INSPIRED BY			NAME				     RATIO (GBP/x)
================================================================
Game of Thrones 	Silver Stag			      50/1
					    Copper Star			    7.14/1
The Demon Princes  Std. Value Unit (SVU)   7.83/1
Harry Potter		 Gold Galleon		      5.12/1			
Elder Scrolls		Septim				         1/0.68		
SpaceQuest			Buckazoid			         1/1			
Dune				   Solari				         1/1			
Fallout				Bottle Caps			       1/1.15
Star Trek			 Federation Credit	       1/1.60	
Star Wars			 Galactic Credit		      1/2.70		
SimCity/TheSims    Simoleons			         1/3.13		
Pokémon				Pokémon Dollar		       1/170		
Final Fantasy		Gil					         1/400		
Monopoly			  Monopole					    1/?		
 
Not Under Consideration
  • Generic "credits": Many media franchises and games use generic "credits" as an alternative to named denominations. In these franchises currency isn't important and typically there's no effort to have currency match anything in our world. The exceptions to this rule so far are Star Trek and Star Wars, where the expanded canon in novels and other media have not only given us named denominations, but backstory and items for sale or trade that compare with the contemporary world.
  • Mario Bros Coins, Sonic Rings, Zelda Rupies: No common commodities can be found to establish an exchange rate.
  • GoT Gold Dragons, ST Gold-Pressed Latinum: The exchange rate is so imbalanced that it would be pointless to include it. Smaller denominations (Copper Star, Federation Credit) are substituted for better management.
Suggestions for other currencies should be sent to me via PM instead of posted here. If it appears to be a good fit, I'll update the list. When time allows me I will get a NewGRF rolled out.
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SkiddLow
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Re: Alternative Currencies for OpenTTD

Post by SkiddLow »

oh, that is the alternative currencies for OpenTTD was sourced from video game and movies.
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Emperor Jake
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Re: Alternative Currencies for OpenTTD

Post by Emperor Jake »

What ratio would be high enough to be considered imbalanced? 50/1 already seems impractically high, what would happen if you pushed it further to 300/1 for example? How will the game react to displaying very small amounts of money such as the "Would you like to buy X company for $1"?

That said, I'll keep an eye on this project, I like little niche GRFs that haven't been done before :)
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kamnet
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Re: Alternative Currencies for OpenTTD

Post by kamnet »

Emperor Jake wrote:What ratio would be high enough to be considered imbalanced? 50/1 already seems impractically high, what would happen if you pushed it further to 300/1 for example? How will the game react to displaying very small amounts of money such as the "Would you like to buy X company for $1"?
It's been stated by frosch that despite what the specs say, I won't be able to have fractional currencies. If so, then that would be really disappointing and take away one of the best possible features. I still have not had the time to hack on any code yet.

50/1 is probably too high itself. It's not going to be any fun reading that your sale of coal that you hauled long distance only netted you 0.05 units of income. But I doubt anybody minds if moving a passenger a block gets you 1500 yen.
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Re: Alternative Currencies for OpenTTD

Post by kamnet »

So, after a few years of kicking this idea around, I'm going to declare it abandoned until OpenTTD makes fractional currencies and regressive currencies possible.

Instead, I'll just occasionally update the first post with some ideas that fascinate me, and users can consult it for reference in how they want to use currency names and values in their own games, since you can adjust both in the game settings.

I may decide to revisit this if I ever decide I want to create a NewGRF set with custom font glyphs for these fictional currencies.
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