LE Death and Taxes

[nocoolnamejim]

Hello all.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read about my idea.

 

I was thinking about doing some things with the economy. Like basically every Bethesda game ever made that I've played (Morrowind on), the economy in Skyrim seems to follow the same path:

 

1. First couple of hours - Dirt poor, struggling to get by, weighing each and every decision or use of resources like the next 50 hours of gaming hangs in the balance

2. Next couple of hours - Relatively balanced

3. Following 200 hours or so - Richer than Mitt Romney and nothing really to use your vast wealth on

 

I'm very new to the idea of modding, but I have a general idea on what I want to do. I am not looking to rebuild the entire Skyrim economy from the ground up since I figure I'd start my modding career kind of small. But I like the idea of introducing "Taxes" into the game.

 

How it would work is that I'd introduce a script that is tied/triggered by the in-game timer. Every so often, the script would run and "tax" a player in game of some of their obscene amounts of wealth that you build up. Taxes would be pretty simple at first, maybe tied to the number and type of player homes, but gradually I'd like to expand this mod in later versions to be more granular and introduce other "expense" type items for things like home upkeep, House Carl salaries and maybe add some player choice. (Player can refuse or be unable to pay taxes, earning a bounty.)

 

I recognize that this is not a perfect solution. As I said, not looking to rebuild the economy as I'm just learning how to do this, but for versions I was thinking along these lines:

 

Version #1 - Simple script. References in-game timer. Every so often (time period TBD), script runs and grabs a set amount of money away from a player. Script triggers message notifying taxes have been paid.

Version #2 - Start adding in a few more logical statements into the script. Ability of player to ignore paying their taxes to trigger bounty. "If "PlayerPaysMoney", then "TakeMoney" else "PayerIsDeadBeat" then "AddBounty".

Version #3 - Begin tying script to specific holds. Have a house in Solitude? You pay taxes on that house to Solitude. Don't pay taxes? Bounty gets added to Solitude hold only.

Version #4 - Start adding any other sources of revenue and expenses. Archmage of the College of Winterhold? Maybe maintaining the college costs some money?

 

Things of that nature. Hopefully as I got my feet wet on the really simple early stuff, I could make this more "fine-tuned" and even start introducing more advanced concepts like tax shelters, itemized taxes, etc. Then, beyond that, maybe I'd eventually start looking into (WAY down the road) building a real, functional economy for an Elder Scrolls type game.

Edited January 20, 2012 by nocoolnamejim

[bustillomoreno]

this is AWESOME!!!!

this could give all the guilds more quests, and would give us a better reason for having a high speechcraft skill.

also sinse there is now a monetary value with the guilds and the different cities and towns,

by establishing an actual money flow between the cities could make little towns grow into cities and force cities to be abandoned.

have mining, farming, fishing and other income sources for towns every now and then there is specially good harvest and the town gets rich, or have a drought and they all become beggars.

 

seriously, this mod could make skyrim a very diferent game, no longer a thief, mage or a warrior... now you can be an entrepeneur hahahaha

[vaknathi]

This is a very good idea that would certainly add depth to the Skyrim experience.

It would, as you say, have to be tied to the player's house. So a property tax rather than a head tax, as governments would probably assume that if you have the gold to buy a house you have the gold to pay tax on the house. Could it perhaps be a percentage of the value of the house? So if you own the Whiterun house and the tax was 10% (I'm not suggesting that, it's just an example that allows me to do the maths quickly), you'd have to pay 500 septims, but if you owned the Solitude house you would have to pay 2500, and if you owned both you would have to pay 3000 septims.

Tying it to different holds or cities would be great too, if you could implement it. It would be interesting to see if you could implement different due dates, so taxes in the Reach are due in First Seed but in Eastmarch they are due in Hearth Fire, or if it was every month, one on the 1st, one on the 15th, or the like. I know the game keeps track of the date, but I have no idea if you can tie an event to a specific date, have to wait for the CK, I guess.

 

 

Anyway, I encourage you with this, and will look out for information on it in the future.

[nocoolnamejim]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions guys. Am in the process of doing some studying and reading up to try and learn how to do this.

[Galacticat42]

Could implement the IRS or Imperial Revenue Service guild which will tax other guilds and repossess houses and buildings that don't pay taxes. The player could go up the ladder from taxman to repo man to accountant, handler, overseer, treasurer, etc... :biggrin:

 

Of course everyone will hate the IRS yet fear them at the same time - who knows DB could have assassinations against the IRS, thieves guild could steal handled amounts or the treasury of a hold, etc etc...

Edited January 23, 2012 by Budz42