USD = LOD?

[Xanathos]

I've been wondering about this ever since I started playing the game. Now that the populations has been basically reset, all countries' economics and especially militaries are going to have to be redone.

However, it's absolutely impossible to do this if we don't know the value of our currencies. All currency rates in particracy are fixed and that's fine, but we absolutely need to know what their relationship to RL money is. Only that way can we estimate the price of our military equipment based on the real world.

The claim that 1 LOD = 1 USD has been going around a lot recently. But, if that's really the case, every country in particracy is a 3rd world country that all have a GDP smaller than Pakistan and a GDP/c smaller than Honduras, which is problematic as that's not at all the way many countries have been RPed.

This can b ê solved with some massive deficit spending which exploits the game since it doesn't factor debt but we as the players ought to come to some sort of agreement on the whole issue.

[Eryk]

I do believe that this is a good idea so we can finally RP correctly. Though, I'm telling you right now - I am not going back to the Dorvish wiki and removing all that information on how modern it is. Its just too much work.

[Farsun]

I do believe that this is a good idea so we can finally RP correctly. Though, I'm telling you right now - I am not going back to the Dorvish wiki and removing all that information on how modern it is. Its just too much work.

and I'm not demodernizing the Dorvik Armed Forces.

[Darvian]

I've been wondering about this ever since I started playing the game. Now that the populations has been basically reset, all countries' economics and especially militaries are going to have to be redone.

However, it's absolutely impossible to do this if we don't know the value of our currencies. All currency rates in particracy are fixed and that's fine, but we absolutely need to know what their relationship to RL money is. Only that way can we estimate the price of our military equipment based on the real world.

The claim that 1 LOD = 1 USD has been going around a lot recently. But, if that's really the case, every country in particracy is a 3rd world country that all have a GDP smaller than Pakistan and a GDP/c smaller than Honduras, which is problematic as that's not at all the way many countries have been RPed.

I realize this issue has bothered you, and others, quite a lot, not entirely sure why to be frank as Terra isn't Earth and saying the LOD IS the equal to the USD is obviously not accurate; and never has been. Why is it said? I don't know. What I do know, and to specifically answer the most credible question posed i.e. how does a nation know the value of your currency? Well, there is a simple reason the LOD is used to produce Terran GDP; it's not because this regime of moderation loves Lodamun or past ones-it's the math. Go look at the exchange rates, the LOD stacked against all others was seemingly setup to be the standard currency to calculate global GDP lists. The last list, as you can go look at, Lodamun wasn't in the top five...was it? It isn't vital, in a game based off largely free-formed RP that is unique on it's own and not a copy of Earth, to absolutely know a real-world metric; this notion might be the root of the problem.

The LOD's conversion ratios were put in place when this game was made. And someone obviously put some thought into it as when you go down the list the LOD to X nation's rate never equals a direct parity nor does it go above it; no other nation has this ergo why it makes an excellent standard point of reference to calculate global GDP. It's really that simple and not some vast conspiracy. There has to be a standard out there to calculate Terran-wide GDP and it's by virtue of this Lodamun has rooted itself in peoples minds as a defacto superpower by virtue of all this. Well, sorry to bust bubbles...it's just the metrics. (As a sidebar: There was a clever player in Lodamun for quite a long spell who did a damn good job of playing up this fact and got a lot of people to respect his RP projection of power and I can only give him credit for pulling off what was a very intelligent PR campaign to get this reputation to be more fresh in peoples minds, but he is long gone.)

As far as this game goes, there is no single USA-esque nation, there only is if people keep saying so. The idea of superpowers, as has been in vogue to discuss lately, is only in RP, perception, projection and history; none of which 'requires' knowing any real-world metric to establish interestingly. It seems to me from the years here that people really don't try and be realistic or even fair in respect to other nations; most people use this little game of military power just to make impressive looking lists. They may impress you, they don't me and never have So to those folks who like this sort of thing and get weak-kneed about it, they tend to one-up that list and it's been a cycle for years like this; virtual chest-pounding. Then again, it is an RP game slash political simulator so it comes with the turf I suppose. A lot of people seem to lack the imagination as they can't seem to divorce the idea that Terra isn't Earth; it's not, get over it folks. Power in this game is projected, earned, perceived and so on....If people fear another nation due to it's economic output, that's flatly absurd in respect to this game. How that nation projects themselves and handles themselves has more power than some numbers people have made a sport out of manipulating.

This can b ê solved with some massive deficit spending which exploits the game since it doesn't factor debt but we as the players ought to come to some sort of agreement on the whole issue.

Indeed. Soft-development rules will be implemented sooner than you expect. You've dealt with it for a long time, just a bit of patience will get you through this most recent irritation. The Kafuri Accords often mentioned have seen 4 revisions and have had several veteran players contributions and thoughts put into them. I'd hate for this thread to derail onto this topic as I'm not going to go into specifics at this time. Be it known, as a point of fact, within the next two weeks moderation will be training and confirming new members of the moderation team. A large part of what is going to happen is a heavy (I mean heavy) emphasis on both the soft-development workings involved with the economy and a cultural protection program, as well as some other much-delayed changes. Just thank your local mod for being pro-active and often reactive to the communities collective wishes as opposed to a rather long tradition of my predecessors merely processing requests.

PS: This is my attempt at clarifying an issue, or at least giving people the benefit of how I view this far too often cited issue. If there are follow-up questions/comments posted below which are directed at me...someone might want to PM me to say as much. I nip in when I can, drop my two cents worth, and walk right back out; it keeps me sane and this is the second post in General today on "issue clarification" so my head is already hurting...

[meisme]

I've been wondering about this ever since I started playing the game. Now that the populations has been basically reset, all countries' economics and especially militaries are going to have to be redone.

However, it's absolutely impossible to do this if we don't know the value of our currencies. All currency rates in particracy are fixed and that's fine, but we absolutely need to know what their relationship to RL money is. Only that way can we estimate the price of our military equipment based on the real world.

The claim that 1 LOD = 1 USD has been going around a lot recently. But, if that's really the case, every country in particracy is a 3rd world country that all have a GDP smaller than Pakistan and a GDP/c smaller than Honduras, which is problematic as that's not at all the way many countries have been RPed.

I realize this issue has bothered you, and others, quite a lot, not entirely sure why to be frank as Terra isn't Earth and saying the LOD IS the equal to the USD is obviously not accurate; and never has been. Why is it said? I don't know. What I do know, and to specifically answer the most credible question posed i.e. how does a nation know the value of your currency? Well, there is a simple reason the LOD is used to produce Terran GDP; it's not because this regime of moderation loves Lodamun or past ones-it's the math. Go look at the exchange rates, the LOD stacked against all others was seemingly setup to be the standard currency to calculate global GDP lists. The last list, as you can go look at, Lodamun wasn't in the top five...was it? It isn't vital, in a game based off largely free-formed RP that is unique on it's own and not a copy of Earth, to absolutely know a real-world metric; this notion might be the root of the problem.

The LOD's conversion ratios were put in place when this game was made. And someone obviously put some thought into it as when you go down the list the LOD to X nation's rate never equals a direct parity nor does it go above it; no other nation has this ergo why it makes an excellent standard point of reference to calculate global GDP. It's really that simple and not some vast conspiracy. There has to be a standard out there to calculate Terran-wide GDP and it's by virtue of this Lodamun has rooted itself in peoples minds as a defacto superpower by virtue of all this. Well, sorry to bust bubbles...it's just the metrics. (As a sidebar: There was a clever player in Lodamun for quite a long spell who did a damn good job of playing up this fact and got a lot of people to respect his RP projection of power and I can only give him credit for pulling off what was a very intelligent PR campaign to get this reputation to be more fresh in peoples minds, but he is long gone.)

As far as this game goes, there is no single USA-esque nation, there only is if people keep saying so. The idea of superpowers, as has been in vogue to discuss lately, is only in RP, perception, projection and history; none of which 'requires' knowing any real-world metric to establish interestingly. It seems to me from the years here that people really don't try and be realistic or even fair in respect to other nations; most people use this little game of military power just to make impressive looking lists. They may impress you, they don't me and never have So to those folks who like this sort of thing and get weak-kneed about it, they tend to one-up that list and it's been a cycle for years like this; virtual chest-pounding. Then again, it is an RP game slash political simulator so it comes with the turf I suppose. A lot of people seem to lack the imagination as they can't seem to divorce the idea that Terra isn't Earth; it's not, get over it folks. Power in this game is projected, earned, perceived and so on....If people fear another nation due to it's economic output, that's flatly absurd in respect to this game. How that nation projects themselves and handles themselves has more power than some numbers people have made a sport out of manipulating.

This can b ê solved with some massive deficit spending which exploits the game since it doesn't factor debt but we as the players ought to come to some sort of agreement on the whole issue.

Indeed. Soft-development rules will be implemented sooner than you expect. You've dealt with it for a long time, just a bit of patience will get you through this most recent irritation. The Kafuri Accords often mentioned have seen 4 revisions and have had several veteran players contributions and thoughts put into them. I'd hate for this thread to derail onto this topic as I'm not going to go into specifics at this time. Be it known, as a point of fact, within the next two weeks moderation will be training and confirming new members of the moderation team. A large part of what is going to happen is a heavy (I mean heavy) emphasis on both the soft-development workings involved with the economy and a cultural protection program, as well as some other much-delayed changes. Just thank your local mod for being pro-active and often reactive to the communities collective wishes as opposed to a rather long tradition of my predecessors merely processing requests.

PS: This is my attempt at clarifying an issue, or at least giving people the benefit of how I view this far too often cited issue. If there are follow-up questions/comments posted below which are directed at me...someone might want to PM me to say as much. I nip in when I can, drop my two cents worth, and walk right back out; it keeps me sane and this is the second post in General today on "issue clarification" so my head is already hurting...

Ow, my brain hurts from reading that. I'm still not done.

[Eryk]

Quite a read Darvian gave us, didn't he? Anyhow, I thank you Darvian for clarifying the issue and I agree with you, especially on the fact that Terra is not Earth. Even I forget myself sometimes and go overboard, ah well.

[GreekIdiot]

I find myself in a position where I do have to congratulate Darvian for making such tasteful points. A post Particracy needed as of late, for all of you who noticed.

[haven222]

I have an idea

What if 10 USD=1 LOD?

Lodamun brings about 144 Billion LOD in Revenue and Spends 143 Billion LOD which gives us a surplus of 1 Billion LOD
That would then be 1.4 Trillion USD in Revenue and ALMOST spends about 1.4 Trillion which gives us a surplus of 10 Billion U.S dollars

We use our revenue to spend ( We are a right wing country)

In Defense 100 Billion
Health and Social Services 5 Bilion
Education and Culture 5 Billion
Infrastructure and Transport 2.5 Billion

which would translate to

Defense 1 Trillion
Health and Social Services 50 Billion (which is realistic because we only have 100 million citizens and dont have any universal health care, only medicare for low incomes. Maybe is not realistic now, but i am planning to cut military spending in order to boost this sector)
Education and Culture 50 Billion
Infrastructue and Transport 25 Billion

So if you look at another country, like Luthori

When you make their LPD into LOD and then multiply it times 10
Luthori would have a revenue of about 630 Billion USD(because they have very low taxes) and spends about 1.43 Trillion USD(because they like to keep a pretty powerful military), which causes a deficit of about 800 Billion.

You might ask " How can 100 million people bring a revenue of 1.4 Trillion?" well we have kind of high taxes in our country, and we have a modern economy like all other countries.

In all, depend on there tax system, countries would be bring revenues ranging from 500 Billion to 2 Trillion on average.

what to you guys think? This idea only came into my mind about 15 minutes ago, so its not very constructive.

[Siggon Kristov]

The claim that 1 LOD = 1 USD has been going around a lot recently.

In the real world, the USA's currency is not the strongest.
I don't get how 1 LOD would be equal to 1 USD.

[EEL123]

I proposd that the total Terran GDP is equal to the real world GDP $70 trillion). Then we calculate the value of the LOD based on that.