Economy

If this has been discussed somewhere, please link it to me! Couldn't find it on my initial search.

We come from many different SA:MP servers. The most popular one, where most of us here probably come from, has their economy at unrealistically high rates. You earn about $1,500 average per paycheck (on an average payroll), with a $2,500 stipend if you have a certain mechanic side-job. Now, this is fine and all, except for the actual amounts. Players are sometimes forced to roleplay their $2500 as $25 (($2500)) to portray their money realistically as a result.

It may be too late to fix some of the prices and paychecks in game as the server is reaching completion, but I think efforts should be made in the future to generously downsize the economy. For example, a minimum wage paycheck should value around $15 (conservatives triggered?), a burger should average at around $5, cigarettes should cost $10 dollars, a red light ticket should cost $45, a driver's license fee should cost $95, et cetera, to reflect realistic prices.

The benefits to this is an environment with a stronger roleplay integrity, and the ability for players to subconsciously expand on their roleplay immersion when they're not paying a couple of grand for a bouquet of flowers.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Average Prices in San Francisco, California

San Francisco is the 7th most expensive city in the world, 2nd most expensive in the USA.

Housing

$3,709 - Monthly Rent for 85 m2 (900 Sqft) furnished accommodation in NORMAL area

$4,250 - Monthly Rent for 85 m2 (900 Sqft) furnished accommodation in EXPENSIVE  area 

$168 - Monthly Utilities (heating, electricity, gas ...) for 2 people in 85 m2 flat

Food

$17 - Basic lunchtime menu (including a drink) in the business district

$8 - Combo meal in fast food restaurant

Clothing 

$63 - Brand jeans

$50 - Summer dress in a high street store

$98 - Brand sports shoes

$150 - Men's leather business shoes

Transportation

$21,916 - Volkswagen Golf 1.4 TSI 150 CV, new

$3.28 - One gallon of gas

$21 - Five mile taxi trip

Personal care

$101 - 15 minute doctor visit

$8 - 6 day cold medicine

$16 - 1 box of antibiotics (12 doses)

Entertainment

$8 - Pack of Marlboro Cigarettes

$7 - One pint of beer

$1 - 5 minutes of prepaid mobile tariff (no plans, deals)

Salaries

$40/hour - Police Officer Starting Salary

$33/hour - Paramedic

$22/hour - Transit Operator

Tickets

$800 - Speeding in excess of 100 mph

$154 - Speeding 1-15 mph over 65 mph

$280 - Speeding 16-25 mph over 65 mph

$400 - Speeding more than 25 mph over 65 mph

$154 - Speeding 1-15 mph over 55 mph

$280 - Speeding 16-25 mph over 55 mph

$400 - Speeding more than 25 mph over 55 mph

$154 - Speeding 1-15 mph over 70 mph

$280 - Speeding 16-25 mph over 70 mph

$400 - Speeding more than 25 mph over 70 mph

$200 - Truck or Tractor 1-9 mph over 55 mph limit

$400 - Truck or Tractor more than 10 mph over 55 mph limit

$400 - Red Light Violation

$154 - Red Light Violation with Right Turn

It would be awesome , yes yes yes

Car repairs should be based on the type of vehicle. Sports cars cost more to maintain, taxes should literally KILL the player. Force players to head to the town hall to pay his taxes every 15 gameplay hours, so it gives something to LEO factions to do as well. 

Money on bank means more taxes, money on the house means no interest but no taxes > helps with money laundring.

$300-$500 per sidejob and paycheck should be OK so people won't stack up mad money whenever they use the sidejobs. This also forces new players to RP to earn their money.

1 minute ago, Lucky said:

Car repairs should be based on the type of vehicle. Sports cars cost more to maintain, taxes should literally KILL the player. Force players to head to the town hall to pay his taxes every 15 gameplay hours, so it gives something to LEO factions to do as well. 

Money on bank means more taxes, money on the house means no interest but no taxes > helps with money laundring.

$300-$500 per sidejob and paycheck should be OK so people won't stack up mad money whenever they use the sidejobs. This also forces new players to RP to earn their money.

+1

Although, I think $300-500 is a bit too much.

You should also have the opportunity to lease cars out of your payday, instead of buying a car straight up for $30,000.

Would make the proposed economy a bit more player friendly.-

I fw this heavily, it'd be something unique that makes us different from the other two known servers that have a pretty un-balanced economy system in place.

Yes please.

Yes! I can see this making the economy a lot more realistic!

Love this. Can't reiterate how dense it looks when you pay three grand to repair your vehicle.

I think that a realistic economy would be awesome. It would help with immersion and promote better roleplay in general. I hope that within the jobs that players will be able to do, there will be a progression system in place where you can make more money based on job experience. This is a fantastic opportunity to fix a long known issue with SAMP servers.

Would definitely be nice to have realistic prices and pay.

I agree to realistic prices. Cigs should be like five bucks and a meal around ten or five bucks, depends what you're ordering. All the other stuff too, of course. 

Yes, please! I'd love to see realistic house and vehicle prices, too! It would be great. Totally supporting this.

On 11/26/2017 at 2:39 PM, Lucky said:

Car repairs should be based on the type of vehicle. Sports cars cost more to maintain, taxes should literally KILL the player. Force players to head to the town hall to pay his taxes every 15 gameplay hours, so it gives something to LEO factions to do as well. 

Money on bank means more taxes, money on the house means no interest but no taxes > helps with money laundring.

$300-$500 per sidejob and paycheck should be OK so people won't stack up mad money whenever they use the sidejobs. This also forces new players to RP to earn their money.

Listen to this guy...

A realistic economy where $25 is actually $25 would be fantastic. The only thing I desire about the economy is this. Realistic numbers, realistic prices.

Supporting. Although as posted above, cigarettes should  be $5 and meals should be priced depending upon what you're buying. Vehicles and repairs should be priced by the type of vehicle. Another thing that might add another element: actual rent to be paid for apartments. This can add other roleplay opportunities for real estate such as leasing/renting to own, etc. I.E., I roleplay a gangster character and he has to sell drugs to gain the money for rent. A realistic economy would allow players to really immerse themselves into the server and their character if they are really here to roleplay. I think the economy will also weed out the players who are  just here to stack up on guns, money, and dm videos to add to their YT channel.

Added average prices, salaries, and ticket prices.

San Francisco is the 7th most expensive city in the world, 2nd most expensive in the USA.

This is exactly what i wanted to post glad to see someone posted it! Supported and this would mean drugs specifically weed would be 10/15$ a gram for the ghetto factions.

Played in a server that economy was SOOO realistic and it was awesome. Average paycheck is $200(mechanic and other simple jobs), GOV workers get $500 paycheck. Houses should cost around $15,000, cars.. for example a Premier should cost around $8,000, a cheetah around $40,000, an admiral $4,000 and a Bullet $60,000. A desert eagle would cost like $2000 I guess? Drugs go around $100 per gram, cheaper for weed of course.

On 11/28/2017 at 1:07 AM, Midnight Tick said:

A realistic economy where $25 is actually $25 would be fantastic. The only thing I desire about the economy is this. Realistic numbers, realistic prices.

^ Basically something like this, make it real life equivalent and it'll be awesome.

Ah, I saw this somewhere else as well. Look, since we are playing a game with a limited amount of players, this means that some aspects can't be the same as they are in real life. In real life, in a city such as San Francisco, there are 846 816 people (last update in 2015), on the server, we will have up to 500 people at the maximum. This means that prices cannot be as realistic as you wish.

Why? Because there are not enough people, therefore, the profit of businesses / government income generated by tickets will not be sufficient. This is why prices are inflated at unrealistic rates, otherwise nobody would make profit. In game, you can expect to get up to 10 customers per day in your shop (just a generic example, maximum 500 customers if even), in real life, a shop generally has way more, especially in San Francisco, I'd expect at least 1000 customers per day. So there you go, the profit of the owner will be too low in game.

Here is a suggestion:

Have the prices as inflated as they need to be, RP the money as you wish (so long you RP having less money than you actually have script-wise). Money is a necessary item in the game, with it you buy what you need, be it a car, a house, etc. Those items are beneficial for your RP, you develop your character with them. Not having enough money to buy a car when you own a shop would be highly unrealistic, and it would happen with a realistic IG economy unfortunately.

PS — I don't think you'd like a (too) realistic economy, where it would take you quite literally 1 year real-life time just to buy a house in game, or any other item for that matter. RP is RP, but hey-ho, I doubt anyone would love to live a second life literally.

Word, i dig this. I definitely don't want a fucked up economy. It would be cool if the server made the economy just like irl it'll be cool as shit.