User:Kislev/Standard Obol (Proposal)

This is a proposal for the Standard Obol, a method for accounting currency in Fallen London.

What is this?

The simplest way to put it is that Obols are a way of measuring value in Fallen London that is agnostic to currency and assumes you are spending the least actions possible, for the purposes of providing a floor on action value and making comparisons easier.

Huh? Why would I bother with that? Why not just use Echoes?

In economics money has three functions: a medium of trade, a store of value, and a unit of account. We can see Fallen London's gameplay mechanics reflecting each of these functions: if we purchase The Judgemental Hat from the Bazaar, we are paying Echoes and using them as a unit of trade. When we take advantage of Bone Market Fluctuations: and Zoological Mania to sell skeletons at a higher premium than we could usually, we are using it as a store of value, since within a week those bones will be worth less but you'll keep the Echoes and Scrip you earned. And finally, the unit of accounting is most often seen in our own notation of EPA, SPA, and StPA, but is also seen in-game when it performs calculations like determining conversions in A Rat no Longer or anything with Overflow Payouts (Guide).

The issue is that these three uses sometimes conflict with one another. For example, what is the overall value of calling in Favours with A Black-Clad Archivist? Thirsty Bombazine Scrap is 2.50 each, but since Unlawful Device has three trade-ins, for echoes, scrip, and rat-shillings, which should we use? It's worth way more at the Rat-Market than any other option, but only if your Saturation isn't high and the stars align for it to show up. Furthermore, if we're interested in the echo value, should we not mention that you get slightly more Echoes by selling it for scrip and then buying Tinned Ham? As it is, the wiki has made these decisions on a sort of ad-hoc basis, and it's been fine, but particularly as we expand to the Roof Failbetter has enjoyed creating more and more mixed-currency payouts and dealing with this gets wordy.

This is because functionally we are swapping between the different functions of currency here: the store of value, the medium of trade, and the unit of account, and doing so is fluid and intuitive to us because it's such a common feature, not only of games, but also of life, at least until the Liberation. However, functionally, as a wiki, when we are discussing the value of actions we are almost always discussing it as the unit of account, and hence the idea to create a new term which refers solely to account, and therefore cannot itself be used as trade or as value, thus making talking about money a bit easier.

In the real world, contradictions like these are the motivating factor behind ideas like John Maynard Keynes's Bancor, and the Obol is functionally a Neathy version of the Bancor.

Okay, so how do I calculate it?

The important thing to note is that the Obol provides a floor of value. Smart play can significantly optimize it, but for the sake of comparison we assuming unoptimized frictionless play in a vacuum.

The rules for calculating Obol value are simple:

1. Assume a character at endgame who has all options unlocked for simplicity's sake.
2. Assume the player has a use for every currency in a payout, values each equally, and merely cares about the overall efficiency.
3. Convert all currencies to their face value in Penny. One Penny equals one Obol.
4. Multiple sales to reach a currency are allowed (e.g. many of the items at Iremi Exchange), but once an item is saleable for one of the major currencies of the game, it must use that value.
5. If an item is saleable in multiple currencies for different amounts, e.g. Tinned Ham, Memory of a Much Stranger Self, always assume it is being sold in the currency that gives the highest Obol value.
6. Use an item's value for being sold without an action when possible: e.g. Fabulous Diamond should be valued at ȯ|31250|, its Echo sale value, and not ȯ|32250|, its value if redeemed at Licensed by Mr Stones in the Hurlers.
7. Amortize action costs for items that require them to be redeemed.
8. Items which cannot otherwise be sold directly, but have value as fuel for another activity, such as Trace of the First City, should use the value from that redemption.
9. Bones which cannot be sold should be assumed to be added to a skeleton and broken down for Bone Fragments. Bones which can be sold directly should be assumed to be sold directly.
10. Assume the item is being sold with unfavorable World Qualities: so no Rat-Market markup, no Bone Market bonuses, etc.
11. Payout qualities like Hinterland Efficiency and Stashed Treasure use their face value.
12. One Favour is worth ȯ|750|, which is their value when redeemed at Jericho Locks.

Why not include simple and common conversions?

This is a good question: almost nobody sells Night-Whisper directly anymore, they sell it to the Rat-Market. Similarly, the above method values Trade Secret at 60, not the 125 value through ...something else that most people would redeem it for, and money-minded players never sell Solacefruit for 0.50 when you can get slightly more echoes for selling it for 1 and redeeming that scrip for echoes with Tinned Ham.

There's a few reasons we choose to not do this:

• It makes the math easier. This is important, but not necessarily a deciding factor.
• The obol is supposed to represent the floor, not the ceiling of value. While we can trust the floor to be relatively stable with the exception of the relatively rare balance patches and hotfixes, opportunities for arbitrage and
• Once we are thinking about the overall value we have to ask what our goal is, as we are necessarily making choices about optimal play, and this does not apply in all situations. For example:
  • A player who is stockpiling echoes for their 77th bottle of Hellworm-Riding Boot Polish and a player who is saving for their first Overgoat might both acquire Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory, and both might sell it for Scrip, but it is slightly more valuable for the second player than the first.
  • Even for players who are grinding for the same currency, the same item can be worth different amounts. To continue the Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory example, it's probably worth selling for Scrip for someone attempting an Overgoat or even something much cheaper, but a player who is saving up for Firkin of Hesperidian Cider knows they're in this for the long haul and it'd be better off to wait and exchange it for Assortment of Khaganian Coinage and Crackling Device to sell at the Rat-Market.

Thus, not only does this complicate the math, it also makes

That makes sense, can I see some examples?

Sure! Note that in my notation, we notate obols like so: Template:O. There is a template: Template:o. The ὀ is of course the omicron from the original Greek ὀβολός, but is used here with the identical Latin O, so it can be typed manually without needing a special Greek keyboard

(tbd: ecdysis, vanities, currencies) (also invent some templates for this)

Why "Obol"?

Because I picked it and frankly this community has proven it cannot be trusted with names.

As for why I picked it, I went through a few ideas. First I picked "standard penny", but because we're trying to avoid thinking in Echoes, I wasn't satisfied with it. I was toying with the Spesmilo, an Esperanto currency with a similar idea, since Esperanto does have its origin in the late Victorian era, but I was never quite happy with it and besides, the last thing this community needs is another currency that begins with S, even if it does have its own special symbol in ₷. The aforementioned Bancor was also an option, but frankly Keynes is probably an urchin running around the Flit if he even exists at this point in the Fallen London universe, so it doesn't feel quite right. I think "obol" is a suitably chthonic name for Fallen London, and while there is one example of them being used diegetically as a currency, I think there's not much of a risk of there being any confusion.

Besides, it's easy to remember that this notation represents the obolrall value.