(and to the rest of the community: please feel free to jump in!)
This proposal is a simplified conceptual framework drawing inspiration from real-world Forex mechanisms (such as reserve currencies, cross-rates, and local transaction fees) combined with my gameplay experience in Prosperous Universe. My goal with this post is to present the development team with a practical set of ideas and core building blocks that hopefully inspire and help shape a functional, active, and player-driven Forex market.
1. Forex & Base Currency Pricing (The ECD Anchor)
ECD as Base Currency:ECD/XXX pairs act as the primary benchmark. The value of each faction currency is established relative to ECD, providing a clear reference price for cross-rates.
Secondary Faction Pairs for Direct Arbitrage: Direct faction-to-faction order books (e.g., ICA/AIC, AIC/NCC) exist as secondary markets. This allows direct conversion between factions and creates secondary arbitrage opportunities whenever a direct cross-rate diverges from the value implied by the primary ECD/XXX pairs.
Player-Driven Arbitrage (Zero Dev-Side Mechanics): Developers only need to host standard, independent order books (ECD/AIC, ICA/AIC, etc.). Arbitrage is strictly left to the players: when exchange rates drift out of alignment, traders naturally execute cross-market trades to profit, balancing the order books on their own.
Single Order Book per Pair: Eliminate mirrored duplicate markets (e.g., separate ICA/AIC and AIC/ICA books). A single consolidated order book per pair automatically matches buyers and sellers.
2. Strict Currency Binding on LMs & CXs (Closing FX Bypasses)
Local Markets (LM) on Faction Planets: Accept exclusively the local currency of that system.
Local Markets (LM) on Neutral Planets: Accept exclusivelyECD. This stops players from misusing LMs as informal off-grid currency exchanges.
Commodity Exchanges (CX): On Faction CXs, players can choose to list goods in either the local faction currency or ECD, receiving their payout in whichever currency they selected for the trade. Neutral CXs in deep space trade exclusively in ECD.
Revised Starter Capital: Foreign faction currency handouts set to 0 (eliminating artificial currency printing). New players receive 20% ECD and 80% local currency corresponding to their chosen faction (e.g., Sol Credits).
Upfront Local Listing Fees: CX fees must be paid upfront in the local currency of that specific CX. Foreign exporters must acquire local currency via Forex before listing cargo.
4. Restructuring Local Market Access (Account Tiers)
Lowering the Local Trade Paywall: Provide Free and Basic accounts with capped access to Local Markets on their home planet (note: order limits below are illustrative examples subject to dev balancing):
Free Account: Max 10 LM orders (example).
Basic Account: Max 25 LM orders (example).
PRO Account: Unlimited LM orders.
Clear Economic Roles: Free players drive the baseline planetary economy using local currency. Expanding to inter-faction trade or CX hubs requires stepping into Forex and ECD.
I hope this proposal serves as a helpful baseline or inspiration for future economic improvements. If any part of this proposal is unclear or needs clarification on what I mean, feel free to ask!
Not sure how good that would be as the ones in faction space already pretty much exclusively have the local currency in contracts there. But for multi-factional planets like Etherwind it would be very weird and many FREE and BASIC players would be effectively locked out as the FX is a PRO feature.
I agree that there should be no foreign currencies in the starting package but the CX listing fee, especially paid up front just means that many people move to direct contracts because they have no fees which would be very unhealthy for the CXs.
Sooo many things here…
A order cap doesn’t make much sense as currently you can ship 5000t in 1x5000t for a HCB or 10x 500t so that other ships can pick it up. So dynamic contracts would be needed first so that you just make one big contract and people can pick how much they need with the LM updating the cont afterwards. Also shipping containers to be able to put many different mats into one container which then can be sent with one cont. So that “one contract” would be more standardized and not every RAT needing one cont slot.
There also needs to be a warning if you set the required rating to U as the chance of a TRIAL player going AWOL is way higher than a BASIC or PRO player. Also the whole rating system would need to be updated to not be “A or not A” (I can breach multiple millions worth of contracts without the system moving me off A).
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I generally like the idea of a standardized currency where non core planets would have their fees paid in universal as that would give another reason why a faction would want to claim a planet.
Non PRO on the FX would be limited to their currency (faction where their HQ is) <> universal currency to be able to pay taxes there.
But the big question would be how the universal currency would be generated. Only leaving it to new players joining would be pretty unreliable and would cause fluctuations after updates for example when many new companies are being made.
One idea would be faction contracts from that faction, for example for “mega projects they build” and players get conts to deliver parts. For example gate parts as that would create a market for them.
Oh Bretton Woods but for PrUn, and without the political restraints.
All of these already exist
There are No CX Fees; Only FX Fees
I think there should be, to reduce inflation, and limit MAT storage in the CX’s
The very fees paid, perhaps; fees collected are resold on the FX by a dynamic MM, recycling surpluses into ECD, which can be more easily recycled into deficit currencies. The 5%-10% delta between MM buy/sell could be used as the monetary sink to restrain inflation.
As I already mentioned elsewhere with the current WAR system cheap but heavy wares like minerals or ores will be the most affected ones by a storage fee if it would be “need space in the WAR”. If it would be x% of the up ask niche wares like HTE would just not be sold on the CX because you would pay so much until it is sold that it doesn’t make sense to even produce them.
My thinking was that the seller pays a small, near negligible fee (0.5% or so) for posting the ASK. That way the cost is in the cancelling of the order, as you have failed to realise the profit on those goods, (for which you would cover, by selling, rather than storing). For some goods, this cost would be marginally better than the equivalent warehouse fees, and for a few others, vice versa. But in general it would disincentivise the practice.
Additionally, it would also disincentivise using the CX for transfers of assets (which is why i think a similar fee be applied to CONTS)
For regular trading where sales are at or about the cost+ price, this would disincentivise delist/relist trading, and also reduce inflation by removing monetary supply from those making profit