JoeUser Forums
It’s time to name the currency in Elemental.
The Random House team has come up with rigma which we like a lot.
An alternative would be gildars.
But if someone has a really cool name we’ll consider it.
I agree that the detail is minor and will be fairly easy to ignore/accept in sandbox play, but I hope that the campaign has a good backstory reason for the game world having a single, universal currency. Maybe something as simple as some 'gold mines' being coin vaults from the pre-cataclysm 'unified government?'
Generally, I think it would read better to use a plain-language word like Nail, Crown, or Dragon.
Rigma does indeed sound like something you might treat with an anti-fungal creme, or perhaps an exotic dancer's stage name.
Exotic dancer? Thats like Star, or Dimonice (Is she Dimonized?) and Lilly - not not going through the rimgarole of rigamortis or the rigours of uncleanliness.
Basically Rigma makes me think "ugh". I don't want to handle your Rigma! NO WAY!
Would you accept the Orc's rigmas as payments?
Only if I can cut them out myself...
Ewwwwww...
I think it explains why there is more trade in winter, the currency lasts longer than under the sun.
Wait, do rigmas spoil or dry?
Hmmm... I don't much like the sound of Rigma. To me it doesn't really scream "money".
Gildar(s) is better, but I am still not a huge fan.
How about Dail(s) or Oril(s) or Orn?
Aurum is my favorite here, but of the two in the running Gildar is much better, doesen't sound like a medical condition.
+1 for Aurum.
It really does sound the best and is also relevant.
+1 for Aurum too.
Algo likes Orn and Oril;
Also would suggest: Lyr
Cheers,
Traldar
Another vote for custom currency names.
By default, people will just refer to currency in any fantasy game as 'gold' in multiplayer matches, and 'credits' in any scifi game, it's unavoidable.
No one will use <insert made up currency word>.
However, players will _read_ whatever you write regularly, so if it sounds good, it does affect the flavor of the single player game. Having a description of the currency somewhere would help (what is it? bits of magic crystal? some metal? rings? squares? hung on a string? stored in a pouch?)
But yeah - let us name our currency. I can't think of a game that has done this, and it would have hilarious implications for stories, plus it'd be unique.
Indeed. When you develop the tech "currency", you'd get to pick up a name.
But what I meant, initially, is that you don't necessarely want to have a currency based on precious metal. You could have a currency based on magic elements, or monstruous body parts. Or food. Or slaves.
Looks like the forum ate my previous post.
I don't like Rigma that well. The G + M combination is uncommon and somewhat awkward. I'd prefer to avoid anything that sounds like a real-world currency like the Guilder. I really like the Aurum as it sounds to me like something that we might come up with in the real-world if wer had an Apocalypse and for some reason had to rebuild on a gold coin standard. It just has a nice ring to it as well.
Bottlecaps and Bullets.
Wait, sorry, wrong Genre. Rigma is new and original and we all fear new things, justified or not. I could get used to it. I also like Aurum, but what is the plural? The singular?
The orc fondled the rigma between his two fingers while thinking about his purchase. He could buy the Oxen for two rigma less here, but they might be sick and getting a healer would cost hundreds of rigma, and that was out of his price range. This wasn't like the settlements, where he could just kill the merchant for cheating him - there, blood rigma was demanded to pay back the family of the murdered, but here he'd simply be executed on the spot, rigma or not. It wasn't worth the risk. He put the rigma back in his bag and left the merchant babbling.
The orc fondled the aurum between his two fingers while thinking about his purchase. He could buy the Oxen for two aurum less here, but they might be sick and getting a healer would cost hundreds of aurum, and that was out of his price range. This wasn't like the settlements, where he could just kill the merchant for cheating him - there, blood aurum was demanded to pay back the family of the murdered, but here he'd simply be executed on the spot, aurum or not. It wasn't worth the risk. He put the aurum back in his bag and left the merchant babbling.
I don't really like Rigma or Gildars very much. Rigma sounds odd to me, while Gildars sound like a name varient on currency that has been overused.
I think the best suggestions so far have been 'Sovereigns' and 'Skaels'. Just for fun though, I'd like to throw 'Draginols' into the mix. 
Also for the Sovereigns suggestion, I think the spelling should be changed to avoid confusion between currency and leader. IE: 'Soverins' refers to the currency while 'Sovereign' refers to the leader.
Then we got the standard Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
100 Coppercoins = 1 Silvercoin
100 Silvercoins = 1 Goldcoin
100 Goldcoins = 1 Platinumcoin
Looking through wikipedia you'll find all sorts of dumb names for currency....like REALLY dumb....
Really I don't see the problem with being able to name your own currency and have every state with it's own unique coinage. No need for exchange rates or anything, just make it all the same and put a coin icon next to it and everyone will know what it means inside diplomacy dialogues. It would be a nice little touch that I don't believe I've ever seen in any civilization sim game.
"What's wrong with Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinium etc?
Most people who plays RPGs can relate to those. While most of the fanboys here will claim it's not original, I'd like to point out that, giving it some bizarre name gives the game no extra value at all. Players dont care, so most companies stick with what people are familiar with. I think you should."
Agreed.
I do like the custom names after developing a certain tech. It would be awesome to have each nation have their own currency and that there is some advisor or table or something in the game that gives the going rates how much of your coins for the coin of a neighbor, like they do in the stock market. At the moment the Euro is 1.30something dollar, and it would be nice to see this in Elemental too. Having some index of how well your economy is doing would be nice and comparing your 'gildars' against the 'ziltings' of the neighbors to get an idea of how well you are doing seems nice.
I like the idea of custom currencies, especially if there would be a special ability like "money changer" in the game.
You can always capture foreign currencies by conquering cities or defeating armies, but you cannot spend them unless changed to your local currency. Well, during times of peace one could use foreign money on treaties with that fraction and get some pretty fair exchange rate, but if at war this money would be useless unless exchanged through some black market and without the "money changer" ability, the exchange rate would be lousy.
...just some random thougts..
The problem with that is that it's pointless and confusing. Everybody is trading and using the same thing, we just gave it 10 different names. In conversation everyone will resort to calling it "gold" or "money", because I'm not going to know what a "whatchamacallit" is when my currency is called "wardells".
People wouldn't advocate renaming mundane weapons, because it'd be silly. We'd wind up with one faction using "swords", another using "pointy blades", and a third using "lasers", all of which are identical.
Besides, if Random House came up with "rigma", it means it's from the book. They still need a name for currency in the book.
Pointy sticks. The Emperor's Pointy Sticks
The great thing about letting th eplayer name their own is that it would simply chnage the string, so all the currnacy, even in trade would be the same to you. It might be different but you would see "Virgins" and they would see "Gems" and another player would just take the default which could be "Rigmarks" - whatever.
I agree with Tridus' point that having different named currencies would eventually degenerate into a signle name, since in the end, money would be the same value regardless of what nation possesses it. Although this would only be the case in multiplayer games. In single-player, calling the currency whatever you want would at least satisfy those who really wished to create their own world, with its own history.
But what about the single-player Story Campagin? Since the story is created by the devs and there already is a history to the world they have in mind, shouldn't they also have a designated currency made for that world as well? Now, I wouldn't go and say since Random House liked the name Rigma we should go with that only because a book is being written along side the game. Since, after-all, the book should be based on the game, not vice-versa.
In the end, this is how I think naming conventions for currency should go:
1) The story campaign has a single currency named by the devs.
2) Multiplayer uses the same currency name as the Story campaign to minimize confusion and streamline the game.
3) Sand-box single-player mode should allow you to name your own currency, or use the default in use within the story campaign. This would please both those people who wish to name their currency or who don't care to.
While I also see the benefit of adding depth to the game by adding multiple currencies of different value, I think this would be more confusing than helpful in the end. While we may wish to have multiple currencies in the game simply because there are in real life, we also have to remember that there has almost (and I exagerate almost) always been one currency accepted by numerous cultures... Gold. Even then, most cultures that did not wish to trade using gold as a means-of-exchange could not accept other cultures currencies and would instead only wish to trade goods and resources over legal tender.
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