Game Economy - please fix it (some ideas)!!!

[cairnsb]

<DIV>Before I start, I an <STRONG>not</STRONG> talking about rares...rares are ment to be rare (includes imbuned items). I am however talking about just <STRONG>average everyday items</STRONG> such as armor and weapons.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We all know the economy in this game (all servers) is inflated very high for lower lvl items, and about average or deflated for higher lvl items. The reason is obviously because there are fewer low lvl crafters, and lots of high lvl crafters / adventures.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>An example on my server, I have a T5 tailor, a T5 Alch, and a T3 Jeweler.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I bought 600 T5 pelts for 2 copper each off the black market...yes off the black market with a 40% markup meaning those pelts would have cost me 1 copper each if I resided in the opposing city....and 600 pelts is more then enough to gain the last 10 levels of my tailoring. Not to mention I can turn those into 14 slot bags that go for 3 gold easy.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I went to buy gold and agate - lowest I saw was 10 silver each...can you say OUCH?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>(someone will obviously point out that I really should be harvesting this myself)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So I went to buy a weapon for my lvl 20 assassin - lowest price I saw for a prestine carb cresent axe (not imuned) was 1 gold.</DIV> <DIV>At lvl 20 one gold is pretty much everything that charactor owns including the shirt off his back.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Went to buy a weapon for my lvl 42 wizard - lowest price I found for a prestine wand (not imbuned) was 60 silver...I know for a fact the person selling it was basically breaking even with the high T5 fuel costs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So basically T5 crafters are struggling to make sales (some would argue otherwise - aka - sell what sells) and the low level adventures can not (unless they have rich alts) afford to buy the <STRONG>basic gear</STRONG> they need...not to mention most quested gear is horrible in compairison to prestine crafted items. (not including armor quests, but even that armor starts to grey out before they hit 30).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Please consider one or more of the following...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1. Increase the stats / lifespan of quested items so they are compairable to crafted ones. (once again not talking about the UBER quested stuff). And so they do not grey out at lvl 24, but instead con green at 30. I know you guys increased the loot drops and loot tables - I just feel they still need to be bumped up a bit in the lower lvls of the game.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2. Add NPCs that sell the player crafted items at what would be price scaled for each lvl of the build (shapped to prestine). So a shapped carbonite sword would cost 5 silver and a prestine would be 25 silver. That way players can still sell the prestine for 20 silver and make a profit. Do not include adepts / imbunes / rares on these NPCs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3. There are NPCs in the game now that sell weapons / armor / spells - but they have no stats or are the apr 2 (usless) version of the spell. These could be the NPCs that sell the items I talk about in #2 - maybe sell the items they sell now and if you do a simple quest for them they sell the items with the player made stats.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think that if these ideas (and others in this forum) were implimented that the game would be more attractive to the casual player and those not in guilds or just plain don't know anyone in game.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As for myself - I consider myself very fortunate to have a lot of in-game friends and a huge network of crafters on my friends list - if it were not for them, I would not even consider playing a lower lvl charactor.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV><p>Message Edited by cairnsb on <span class=date_text>08-04-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:08 AM</span>

[Ahtener]

There's an easy solution... without ANY game changes. If the prices are so high, go and SELL something.There are many quest items, and most of alts don't want to spend time to do these quests... they want to spend money instead to buy a reward. So SELL that reward, you'll get a lot of money...You see that you can't afford adept1 books for your character? But at the point when you really need adept1's (that's in late 10's - early 20's), you have a lot of books for another subclasses... go SELL them for several golds...You can't afford rare? Of course you can't, it's rare... but don't forget that drop rates are significally increased for t2 and t3... I can't imagine you won't find a coral or silver while doing Dwarven Workboots heritage... and palladium cluster while doing PGT and Ghoulbane (i've found 2 of both)... So, you have upgrade for at least your most signifficant spells... first players couldn't ever imagine that. And, yes, you can SELL palladium for 75+ g on our server, and buy jasper for your upgrade for just 50-60g, leaving 15-20g for your other needs (that's because palladium is used for another heritage, SBR, and jasper is not).And at last... If you really need something but can't afford it right now (while you know where to get money in future) - there's a good thing called Guild. Ask them, maybe they can help you (if they feel you worth it).

[roarfrost]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ahtener wrote:<BR>I can't imagine you won't find a coral or silver while doing Dwarven Workboots heritage... and palladium cluster while doing PGT and Ghoulbane (i've found 2 of both)... <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Yes, what is true for you must be <EM>exactly</EM> the same for everyone. I have done DWB on 3 characters, never got any rares. I have done PGT on 4 chars, no palladium. Actually, I've played since November and have never harvested a palladium.<BR>

[Barq Bandit]

<DIV>i don't think the devs should step in and control prices.  this is a player-driven economy.  if players want it changed, they will change it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>i think the problem with broker items in t5 isn't that there are too many crafters.  it seems to me that not every player is going to have the patience to take their crafters all the way to 50.  i think the problem is that by the time most players get to 50, they are like you and have a network of crafter friends they get their stuff through, or they are part of big guilds or a group of smaller guilds that keep all the business flowing within their associations.  all this adds up to no customers.  why would i buy from the broker when my friends can make it for free or traded items?  also, there's a lot of off-broker business going on.  i see lvl 40 tradeskillers popping up on the Qeynos_Crafting channel all the time LFW.  the broker is only one facet of coin-shifting in the game.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>overpricing at lower levels is something only players can do something about.  those pristine maple strong boxes selling for too high?  make some and price them at what you think is fair.  easy as that.  hear someone complaining about the price of t2 heavy armor?  offer to make him a set at a price he can afford.  it's up to the people selling.  unfortunately, the first time through with your first character with no lucky encounters (like a kind-hearted stranger giving you 10g as you step off the dock for the first itme) just isn't going to be easy as far as coin goes.  but then again, it helps to have friends.  need armor?  befriend an armourer.  etc.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Ahtener]

Hmm... i've played since November too... Combined number of rares (from t2 to t5) found by my 2 chars and my wife's char is about 30-40... what am i doing wrong?Maybe it's just a matter of time investment?

[cairnsb]

<HR> <DIV>Ahtener wrote:<BR>I can't imagine you won't find a coral or silver while doing Dwarven Workboots heritage... and palladium cluster while doing PGT and Ghoulbane (i've found 2 of both)... </DIV> <DIV>You see that you can't afford adept1 books for your character? But at the point when you really need adept1's (that's in late 10's - early 20's), you have a lot of books for another subclasses... go SELL them for several golds...<BR> <HR> </DIV> <P> </P> <P>Those are my points exactly...</P> <P>I have done that quest on 3 charactors ... never gotten a rare from doing it. </P> <P><STRONG><FONT color=#ffff00>Also I started this thread excluding rares.</FONT></STRONG></P> <P>As for selling - no one buys the normal quest items other then NPCs which litterally buy them for a few copper.</P> <P>As for selling adepts for several gold, thats is the entire point of this message. </P> <P>On my server Cut throat adept 1 (20 assassin spell) was listed for 20 gold ... how many lvl 20's out there are walking around with that type of cash (no not talking about people with rich alts or are lucky enough to find a rare their first week in game).</P> <P>The apr 4 version of Cut throat was going for 5 gold...I consider myself a rich player on all my charactors. My lvl 20 has 1.5 gold and that was from selling everything he looted, and crafting and selling items.</P> <P>There just is not a teir 1 or 2 market anymore and thats why teir 1 and 2 are insanely over priced.</P> <P>Going off the economy - just to upgrade to all prestine player made items at lvl 20 is much more then a new player can afford.</P> <P>All items at one gold (armor / weapons / not spells) would be 10 to 16 gold.</P> <P>All items at the current market value - 40 gold to 60 gold - and thats if you hunt down the good sales.</P> <P>When I hit 20 with my 1st charactor I had crappy equipment mainly because there were not many crafters high enough and the ones that were, were flooded with requests - now I see lvl 20s running around practically naked because they can not afford to upgrade.</P> <P>This whole thing does not effect me very much, rich high level ats - but for a new player coming into the game...would be very difficult to deal with the economy.</P> <P>PS - one star me all you want - I don't care.</P> <P> </P><p>Message Edited by cairnsb on <span class=date_text>08-04-2005</span> <span class=time_text>12:13 PM</span>

[Rijacki]

The only cure for prices on crafted items "too high" is for higher level crafters to make lower tier stuff for reasonable prices.  Most, however, don't ever want to make anything that's not for XP.  A lot of low tier harvests get waaaay overpriced because there is the perception that crafters are wealthy.  But... if it costs 10s to just get a harvested raw and you expect that crafter to sell the item for 5s... ummm... But... the prices are high because someone was willing to pay a gouging price to get something (i.e. someone with a high level alt who made money at high levels and has nothing more on which to spend it) so someone else saw that price and decided he needed to sell what he was selling for a higher price to afford that gouging price, in essence also creating a gouging price.  It's a snow-ball effect. Also... the prices you see on the broker are often NOT the prices at which things sell.  If you see an item there, it hasn't sold.  If you see the same item offered by the same person day after day, odds are it has not sold.  Pricing your whatsis at the same rate doesn't mean that you will get that amount for it.  That may be what some want to deem as the "market rate" but it could very well be far far above the selling rate. There have been several attempts in a lot of different ways to try to corner an aspect of the market and drive prices up.  It only works when no more supply is being brought in.  If you have crafters or harversters or collectors or questors bringing in new items and pricing them reasonably, those who have high high prices won't sell their goods. <div></div>

[Cagefighter]

<P>In response to the thread header. If it isn't fixed it doesn't need mending. As for a weapon costing a gold, and not being imbued - sheesh, 8 gathering tasks at 12 sp each from the corresponding tier is like 96 silver. I don't see what all the fuss is about - you could if you wanted have anywhere from 1-5 plat earned by level 20 without any crafting just harvesting killing names and generally trying hard to earn. And as I think I have mentioned before on another post - if you are trying to level and get to 10 and there is nothing affordable then go craft. You can get level 15 in a couple of sessions and make your own gear and fund the other needs. Also - talk to other crafters, get to know what they need and circumvent the board altogether. </P> <P>I don't know - maybe I seem harsh but all these people I see complaining about prices and asking for either fixing, GM controlled economy etc wow, I mean - it is all out there go earn some. As for taking our free market away and having the equivalent of a state controlled economy - lol - on yer bike ;p</P> <P> </P>

[PhozFa]

Crafting up to lvl 20 is pretty quick therefor you don't see many items for sale in that range. If the ones you do see are overpriced why don't you become the one selling them? not only will you have your own products but if they are that overpriced you'll make a killing. If you happen to fail then i guess the prices were fair. Getting money is simple. find out what people wanna buy and sell it to them <div></div>