[crossfire] Banking system

[Rick Tanner]

Post on behalf of Todd Mitchell (Avion):

The Imperial Banking system was not intended to be a modern bank, more 
of an old fashioned type bank.  The Imperial Note is not money, it is a 
credit note.  Basically it was to allow players to carry and transfer 
large amounts of wealth between cities or as a way to pay for large 
ticket items (such as guilds) while avoiding inflation of value that 
large coins would bring.  The coin system is based on weight and this is 
a good thing that limits the amount of treasure folks can carry. 
Because they are low weight and easy to carry, the Imperial notes are 
not supposed to be worth anything intrinsically and cannot be used as 
money, but can be used to transfer large sums of money (and always for a 
convenience fee). All this talk of large denomination coins seems to be 
to me misplaced since the point of the coins is to limit what can be 
hauled out of dungeons easily and limit wealth accumulation.  Large 
coins will lead to inflation as they allow players to carry more cash on 
hand. As for 'credit cards' and other stuff to pay for big purchases? - 
why bother when you can easily make special altars (or use scripting) 
for expensive things that accept Imperial notes.  They are already 
credit notes.  Allowing their use as *money* however would simply make 
them into large coins and defeat their purpose.
Also the bank code was designed to allow for alternate credit 
institutions and easily changable service fees.