64 bit integer for character gold variable

I posted this in comment to a picture in the Funny Pictures thread, but I think it needs separated out into its own thread. Current, the amount of gold per character seems to be a 32 bit signed integer, which gives a maximum amount of 2,147,483,647 gold. Given that this project will run for many years, I think this could be too low a value.

I think we need a 64 bit integer instead of a 32 bit integer for the gold variable. That would give a max gold of 9,223,372,036,854,775,807. This is assuming that the integer stays signed, in case we needed negative gold or debt.

 

Or, conversely, balance the game in terms of drops, weight, values, NPC merchant interactions, etc so that reaching the 2.147Billion mark is difficult to impossible for YEARS to achieve.

Also, commas/number separators. Those need to be added in as well.

Edit: Adding in some specific gold limiting examples:

- Item Weight and Carry Capacity. I should not be able to carry tens of thousands of an item much less tens of millions to begin with

- Currency Drops. These should be kept low with loot drops being geared more towards equipment and resources for crafting.

- Tiered Currency. Many people consider higher numbers in general the basis of an economy in trouble and lower numbers to be more healthy. Tiered currencies (Copper, Silver, Electrum, Gold, Paladium, Platinum) helps hide the higher number of the base currency (Copper) in favor of a higher tier (Gold, Platinum) such as 1,000 gold = 1,000,000 Copper.

- NPC Vendor Limitations. This was one aspect that kept early UO in check yet allowed players to make a decent profit while they were building a crafter's skill. The NPC vendor should never buy from the player millions of an item at a time. The vendor should have a base "need" of X items at Y price with it scaling to a "max stock" where the vendor will not buy anymore until some are "sold off" either to other players or to a timer-based reset. The X and Y values would scale inversely. In older UO, you could only sell 5 items at a time (stacked or not), however in this case, the only limit should be how many of an item the vendor will buy at the Y price shown.

 

But this would assume the client is in 64 Bit compiled?

 

No. It just means that internally 8 bytes (64 bits) are used to store the gold value instead of 4 bytes (32 bits). It has nothing to do with how the program is compiled.

Integer (computer science)

 

Ah you mean the data type ^^

 

2 billion gold is too few?

WHAT LOL

 

Excuse me for saying, but "are you nut's"?

-I was hoping they would limit Gold to 1 million
-I was hoping for Zero Gold in loot, just items to sell or resources
-I was hoping NPCs would get over stocked and stop buying every single item.
-I was hoping they would add wagons/carts and pack horses to gather at least 10 logs/ores at a time (I see weight being a real problem)

And now you're suggesting the "number" is too small at 2 billion, and you want it to be more like 9.223 Trillion (what comes after a trillion? is that a googleplex? Yes, that's a real name for a very large number, 10^googol), I guess you don't believe that currency should have any value. And the economy should just run wild...

 

9,223,372,036,854,775,808 ?

That is 9.223 Quintillion.

 

Quadrillion comes after Trillion.

Also as an aside, the largest currency bill in (real life) existence is 100 Trillion (100,000,000,000,000) and I have one

 

Umm, was that wise? Telling everyone about your fabulous wealth???

I recommend a nest of machine guns facing the front door, land mines all around your property, and explosive alarms on all entrances.

(Not that I or anyone else would even consider anything evil....)

I suppose it's in some currency like the Vietnamese dhong.......

 

hehe, is that Peso's or Ruble's? As far as I know the largest USD note was $100,000 made strictly for bank to bank transfers. They were talking about minting a 1 trillion coin made of Platinum to replace the paper bills but they can't make up their minds... I don't think China wants it.

Dude, you could pay the National Debit and have change due...

 

I guessing it's a Zimbabwean dollar (Z$)

 

Most currencies are reissued before such valuations are reached. You have to turn in all of your old dollars in exchange for new dollars by X date, or the old dollars become completely worthless.

Zimbabwean dollar

 

Yes, it's Zimbabwean and it's such a valuable note you can get one for about $5.

 

9,223,372,036,854,775,808 is
9 trillion
223 billiard
372 billion
36 milliard
854 million
775 thousand
and 808
as i see it

 

British Long Scale ?

Sound call, considering the background of the game.

 

I was wondering if this was going to come up at all. People look at me funny when I say numbers like this, however. Pity.

 

Looks at @Pyro funny.

 

Bill Gates is worth 76 billion USD. He would be capped at 2 billion with only a 32 bit integer.

The World's Billionaires