Inflation Index - Development Log #537

In this week's devlog Michi introduces the inflation index command INFL.

Michi (molp)

In devlog #535 I mentioned that I am working on the Dynamic Inflation Adjustments concept. The first step in this concept is to actually visualize the inflation, so we have a proper foundation to base everything else on. We decided to make this data available in an in-game command called INFL. Here is a quick preview of the work in progress:

The chart features two graphs: the inflation index is the yellow line, and its values correspond to the right y-axis. The graph always starts at 100% for the set time interval. The bar chart shows the relative changes from period to period. Values above the center line mark inflationary periods, those below deflationary.

At the top of the chart you can see various settings.

The first one sets the interval and allows you to choose between daily, monthly and yearly. Depending on the selection a series of periods is shown. There is no support for custom periods right now.

The controls in the middle select the currency.

The controls on the right allow you to select a set of materials. "All" will use every material and thus show an overall inflation index. It can also be limited to a selected material or material category. The last option, "basket", has a set of predefined baskets that differ from the material categories. While material categories alone already result in interesting data, the really interesting baskets do not align with material categories. To get started, I added consumable baskets for each type of workforce that contain basic and luxury consumables. There is also a basket for each type of production prefab. The agricultural produce basket contains everything produced in farms.

The command is available on the test server, but there is little data right now to view.

As always, we'd love to hear what you think: join us on Discord or the forums!

Happy trading!