In Override, every price on the market is set by a player. Sellers list goods at the price they want, buyers post orders at the price they'll pay, and neighbours strike deals directly. The only fixed offer in the city is the port: its ship buys anything at a low rate, and its warehouse sells anything at a high one.
What gets traded
Goods: the raw materials, building materials and finished products a city runs on. Grain, timber, stone, coal, planks, cement, furniture, bread, first aid kits and the rest. They come in three tiers, from raw to finished, and the higher tiers are worth more.
People need them for real reasons, every day:
- Bread keeps your energy up, and energy is what every shift costs.
- First aid kits restore health, which drains if you live in a smoggy district (see where to live).
- Coal and furniture pay for the daily upkeep of homes.
- Building materials go into new homes, companies and upgrades.
- Inputs feed companies: a factory needs the goods it turns into something better.
That demand is what gives the market a reason to exist. Trades don't depend on distance: what you buy goes straight into your store, or into your company's input store if you choose.
Four ways to trade
Override has a ladder of trust, from a quick swap to a standing deal.
| What it is | Taxed | |
|---|---|---|
| Sell listing | "I have this many, at this price each" | Yes |
| Buy order | "I want this many, at this price each" | Yes |
| Barter offer | Goods for goods, with creds on one side if needed | No |
| Supply contract | A set amount every day, at a set price, for a set number of days | No |
Sell listings and buy orders
These are the two sides of the market's book, and anyone can post either.
A sell listing puts your goods on the market. You can list from your personal store or straight from your company's output. Buyers can take any part of a listing, not only the whole lot. If you cancel, whatever is left comes back.
A buy order shows what people want. When you post one, the creds for the whole order are locked straight away, so sellers know the money is there. Sellers fill it in portions from their own stock. If you cancel, or the order runs out of time, the unspent creds come back to you.
There's no automatic matching. Listings and orders sit side by side, and a trade happens when a player decides an offer is good enough: one tap to take a listing, or to fill an order. Every trade is a decision someone made.
Barter offers
An offer is a direct swap: "my cement for your flour", with creds added on one side if the values don't match. You can send it to one player or leave it open for whoever accepts first. Your side is locked when you make the offer, and the other player can accept, or answer with a counter-offer.
Next to every item, the offer shows what it's worth in creds at recent market prices, and the total for each side. A newcomer can see at a glance if a swap is fair.
Supply contracts
A contract turns a neighbour into a partner: "ten planks a day at this price, for a week". Either side can propose it.
When it's accepted, the buyer locks the full value of the contract, and the supplier puts down a bond, a share of that value, as a promise to deliver. The supplier then delivers any time during each day, from their store or straight from their company. Every delivery is paid on the spot.
If a day is missed, that day's money goes back to the buyer. Miss too many and the contract defaults: the bond goes to the buyer, and the supplier gets a mark for breaking a contract. The mark shows on their offers and contracts for a while, right next to their count of contracts completed. Finish the contract and the bond comes back.
Who sets prices
Players do, and nobody else. A good that's hard to find gets buy orders at higher and higher prices until someone decides it's worth selling. A good the city is drowning in gets listings at lower and lower prices until someone decides it's worth buying.
The price the game shows for a good is the average of what players actually paid for it recently, weighted by volume. Asking prices don't count, only trades. Barter doesn't count either, since a swap has no single price. When a good hasn't traded for a while, the game falls back to a longer window, and then to the good's base price.
Nothing else draws prices. The city's daily event can change what grows or what the port pays, but it never sets a market price. Prices move because players react.
What the city takes
Each sale through a listing or a buy order pays a market tax into the city treasury, taken from what the seller receives. The mayor sets the rate for each tier of goods, within a range that stops a mayor from strangling trade. Barter offers and contracts are tax-free, so trading with someone you know costs nothing extra.
The mayor also sets the size of the bond on supply contracts. A change applies to new contracts only. One that's already running keeps the bond it started with.
The port ship: the buyer of last resort
Sometimes nobody wants what you have. That's what the port is for.
A ship leaves the city's port once a day. You can deliver goods to its queue at any time before it sails, and when it sails, it pays you for them. The port also sells any good to players, instantly, at a markup.
Both of the port's rates follow the market. The ship pays a fraction of the recent price that players paid each other on the public, taxed market. The port sells at a markup over the recent average price. On top of that, the port never sells a good for less than the ship is paying for it that day, so there's no loop where you buy from the port and sell it back to the ship at a profit. The port takes a fee on both, for the treasury.
A few rules make the ship work:
- Once delivered, cargo is the ship's. You can't take it back out of the queue.
- Hauling costs energy. Delivering costs energy for every unit and every hex between the goods and the port. Goods in your personal store leave from your home, and goods in a company's store leave from the company's hex.
- Each voyage has a limited hold and a daily budget. Whatever doesn't fit sails on the next ship, keeping its place in line.
- Everyone gets a share. Residents who have lived in the city a while are guaranteed a slice of each day's budget, so big exporters can't crowd them out. The rest is shared by how much each player has exported recently.
That gives every good a floor and a ceiling. The ship's price is the floor: you can always get at least that. The port's price is the ceiling: you can always buy at that. Everything players agree on happens in between.
The ship sets the floor, the port sets the ceiling, and players set every price in between.
Both can move. The mayor can spend treasury money upgrading the port, and each level makes the ship pay more, carry more and bring a bigger budget. The mayor also sets the port's markup, within limits. And the city's daily event can shift what the port pays for a good, like a day of high demand for medicine. Tomorrow's event is shown a day ahead, so you can plan your cargo.
Selling something: where to look first
- Check the buy orders. If someone is already paying your price, fill their order. It's instant.
- Check the listings. See what others are asking for the same good. Undercut them, match them, or wait.
- List it. Set a quantity and a price. Your goods sit on the market until someone buys them or you cancel.
- Find a regular buyer. If someone needs your goods every day, offer them a supply contract.
- Ship what nobody wants. If neither buyers nor listings make sense, deliver it to the port and get the ship's price when it sails.
Buying works the same way in reverse: take a listing if the price is right, post a buy order if it isn't, and buy from the port if you need something now and nobody else has it.
Why a player-run market
Because it's the most honest way to price things in a shared world. Override is a PBBG: the city keeps running between your visits, and so do the orders and contracts you leave behind. A buy order you post in the morning can be filled by a player you've never met while you're at work.
If you'd like to be there when the city opens, join the waitlist.
