@csbrown28 -- Ignoring people's argument about how they happen to define what is or is not a flow chart, did those examples help in your issue of presenting the economic system flows?

On 7/15/2018 at 11:48 PM, frob said:

@csbrown28 -- Ignoring people's argument about how they happen to define what is or is not a flow chart, did those examples help in your issue of presenting the economic system flows?

 

It's what I would have figured.  I was just curious having never submitted work to a game developer if there was some sort of expectation in terms of how these kinds of chart/ diagrams should look.  I've recently been asked to consult on the economic aspects for a game and I was looking for any insights I can get.

Thanks for following up.

You know that first diagram is actually pretty good lol. Your work may be done for you.

Ofcourse the devil is in the details. Figuring out how to balance everything so the economy doesn't go completely out of whack is a daunting task indeed. It may be good to search for where there are succesful ingame economies and terrible ones and what caused each to be that way.

On 7/28/2018 at 2:12 PM, Jordan Hoffman said:

You know that first diagram is actually pretty good lol. Your work may be done for you.

Ofcourse the devil is in the details. Figuring out how to balance everything so the economy doesn't go completely out of whack is a daunting task indeed. It may be good to search for where there are succesful ingame economies and terrible ones and what caused each to be that way.

Yeah, that chart is pretty good.  As far as MMO economies, believe it or not, I've spent years developing my own.  Recently I've been asked to consult on this progect....

https://www.decimated.net/

-Cheers
 

For me, it is important in an economic flowchart to show movement of resources. (The kind of flowchart used for a finite-state diagram focuses on steps and decisions.)

I think you can help your audience by indicating the significance of a flow through heat-mapping or line-weight. Take your example, is "Decay" at the same scale as "Botched manufacturing"? Is one far more significant than the other? Are both insignificant compared with "Selling to NPCs"? Heat-mapping or line-weight could help comprehension, which is important because I think this kind of analytical artifact has a role in helping to know where making change will matter.

Therefore were I in your position I might look for software that includes connective line colouring or weight among its features.