Quoting Supurcell, reply 142Really I don't see the problem with being able to name your own currency and have every state with it's own unique coinage. No need for exchange rates or anything, just make it all the same and put a coin icon next to it and everyone will know what it means inside diplomacy dialogues. It would be a nice little touch that I don't believe I've ever seen in any civilization sim game.
The problem with that is that it's pointless and confusing. Everybody is trading and using the same thing, we just gave it 10 different names. In conversation everyone will resort to calling it "gold" or "money", because I'm not going to know what a "whatchamacallit" is when my currency is called "wardells".
People wouldn't advocate renaming mundane weapons, because it'd be silly. We'd wind up with one faction using "swords", another using "pointy blades", and a third using "lasers", all of which are identical.
Besides, if Random House came up with "rigma", it means it's from the book. They still need a name for currency in the book.
I agree with Tridus' point that having different named currencies would eventually degenerate into a signle name, since in the end, money would be the same value regardless of what nation possesses it. Although this would only be the case in multiplayer games. In single-player, calling the currency whatever you want would at least satisfy those who really wished to create their own world, with its own history.
But what about the single-player Story Campagin? Since the story is created by the devs and there already is a history to the world they have in mind, shouldn't they also have a designated currency made for that world as well? Now, I wouldn't go and say since Random House liked the name Rigma we should go with that only because a book is being written along side the game. Since, after-all, the book should be based on the game, not vice-versa.
In the end, this is how I think naming conventions for currency should go:
1) The story campaign has a single currency named by the devs.
2) Multiplayer uses the same currency name as the Story campaign to minimize confusion and streamline the game.
3) Sand-box single-player mode should allow you to name your own currency, or use the default in use within the story campaign. This would please both those people who wish to name their currency or who don't care to.
While I also see the benefit of adding depth to the game by adding multiple currencies of different value, I think this would be more confusing than helpful in the end. While we may wish to have multiple currencies in the game simply because there are in real life, we also have to remember that there has almost (and I exagerate almost) always been one currency accepted by numerous cultures... Gold. Even then, most cultures that did not wish to trade using gold as a means-of-exchange could not accept other cultures currencies and would instead only wish to trade goods and resources over legal tender.
