Agora economic FAQ (updated 2018-02-26)
This is an informal summary of the board-game-esque areas of
gameplay (as opposed to proposals/offices/CFJs), and is not
guaranteed to cover nuances or otherwise be fully accurate.
Types of assets:
* Coins and such.
Unrefinable currencies: stones, apples, corn.
Refinable currencies: ore, lumber, cotton.
Refined currencies: coins, paper, fabric.
How to get them:
- Welcome Package (10 coins, 5 lumber, 5 stones, 10 apples,
3 papers) once per registration, can be claimed or given.
- Monthly Paydays (10 coins, 5 apples, 2 papers; 5 coins and
1 corn per office, unless you got dinged for it last month
or didn't hold it long enough).
- Stones and ore: Produced by mines.
- Apples and lumber: Produced by orchards.
- Corn and cotton: Produced by farms.
- Coins: Processed by refineries from ore.
- Paper: Processed by mills from lumber.
- Fabric: Processed by looms from cotton.
How to spend them:
- 1 paper to pend a proposal.
- Apples to move to adjacent Land with non-Aether type (1 if same
type as current Location, 2 if different).
- Apples to set a Land's type.
- You own it: 2 for non-Aether type of your choice.
- Aether and Public and adjacent to you: 3 for Alternating or
4 for type of your choice.
- Aether and Public and not adjacent to you: 6 for Alternating.
- Can substitute 1 corn for 3 apples.
- Lumber: Used to build/upkeep/upgrade facilities.
- Stones: Used to build/upkeep/upgrade facilities.
- Coins: Used to upkeep/upgrade facilities.
- Fabric: Used to upgrade facilities.
- Ore: Processed into coins by refineries.
- Lumber: Processed into paper by mills.
- Cotton: Processed into fabric by looms.
- 1 coin to create a contract.
- Give 1 coin to a contract (limit 1 per month per contract) for its
sustenance (due first week of month, Notary can exempt
public-interest contracts but shall destroy others for
non-payment).
- 10 coins to start a Poetry Duel (limit 1/month).
Miscellaneous:
- Coins are the default currency for auctions.
- Blue Cards can penalize up to 25 coins even if the bad sport's
illicit profit was less.
* Land.
- Each unit has integer Latitude and Longitude (-6 to +6). Default
Location is (0, 0). Units are adjacent if one coordinate is the
same and other differs by 1.
- Public (belongs to Agora), Communal (contract), Private (other);
Proprietary = Communal + Private.
- Land types (Black, White, Aether). "Alternating Land Type"
alternates between Black and White.
- Weekly auctions (up to 5 units) if not enough Land is Private.
- Monthly Go-style captures based on types. Captured land becomes
Public, entities there are returned to (0, 0).
- Land may be Preserved (becomes and stays Public).
* Facilities.
- Max 1 per Land unit. Owner of the Land unit also owns the facility.
- Monthly upkeep = destroyed if not paid.
- Assets generated in the facility's possession, exceed carrying
capacity = excess destroyed.
- Weekly production or processing.
- Assets of a Public facility can be taken by anyone at that location,
Communal = they must be a member and allowed by the contract,
Private = they must be the owner or have owner's permission.
- Rank 1 to 5, default 1, upgrade cost varies by type.
- Production types:
- Mine (lumber to build and upkeep, produces stones and ore)
- Orchard (stones to build and upkeep, produces apples and lumber)
- Farm (lumber and stones to build and upkeep, produces corn and
cotton)
- Processing types: (lumber and stones to build, coins upkeep)
- Refinery (converts ore to coins)
- Mill (converts lumber to paper)
- Loom (converts cotton to fabric)
* Medals of Honor.
- During first week of month, can declare yourself eligible if you
posted and avoided Cards during past month and your karma >= -3
(see below).
- Herald conducts election to determine which eligible player
gets one.
- Cash in 6 for a win (limit once/player).
- Fixed (can't be transferred).
* Pledges.
- Defined as assets just to reuse concept of possession.
- Fixed (can't be transferred).
* Contracts can define assets.
Other quasi-asset things:
* Ribbons.
- Achievement badges of varying difficulty.
- Collect them all for a win.
* Karma.
- Can go negative.
- Weekly, each player can transfer 1 from one player (possibly
emself) to another (not emself).
- Quarterly, non-player karma is halved (rounded toward zero) and
Agora's karma is set so sum(karma) = zero. Transfers can
specify Agora if it brings its karma closer to zero.
- Prerequisite for Medals of Honor (see above).
