Curse

twicky_kid · Aug 07, 2005, 02:15 AM // 02:15

by now we have all seen the huge jump in runes in the past 2 days. heck i can't even get a sup water rune for less than 1k now.

you have to ask yourself this: what has changed in the past week or so that makes all the runes triple within a few days?

the major thing i have noticed is that america holds favor for longer and more often than any other server. for the past 2 weeks we have held favor for days at the time and we only lose it for maybe an hour or 2.

i think more people are migrating to the american server causing a huge population boom. the prices in amercian server were already higher than the other 2 servers combined. now with more people on the server more demand is making the runes skyrocket.

something has to be done about the migration option. there are probly many reasons with the invisible hand playing its part. yes people are going to argue that we don't hold favor and point out times that we lost it but its just plain logic.

america wins favor more often and longer so is it easier to fight on my server to gain favor or just switch and move my guild over. its easier to switch. this has caused a huge imbalance in the game with regards to favor and prices. people on other servers will have less players to combat america and with more people on 1 server less battles will be fought making it even harder to gain favor.

something must be done about this or it will ruin the game for new players and the casual guy that doesn't want to spend a month getting 200k just to get some desent runes. this will fan the flames of the ebayer selling gold.

anet made a huge mistake making the change from server to server possible. yes you have a limit of changing 5 times but you only need to change once for it to shift the game's balance off with everyone joining the same server.

eventually we will all be on one server then what's the point of favor at all?

Loviatar · Aug 07, 2005, 02:22 AM // 02:22

no

the us sales far outsold the EU and korea combined

notice that the runes in demand are for the new builds to solo the elite areas and most other runes not needed for these special builds have remained at the old price

new demand equals higher prices

i found a superior monk rune today that sold to the trader for 35 plat which was fair as that was half he was selling them for

twicky_kid · Aug 07, 2005, 02:28 AM // 02:28

oh really then how do you explain the prices of minor tact and minor str up to 4-5k

not to mention that sup domination are up to 5k when they were under 500g

don't think those are used for farming builds now are they

never underestimate the power of real money when ebayers are involved in a game. they will jump to w/e is the most profitable to them and if we hold favor more often and longer than the other serves its not profitable for them to stay on those dead servers.

Loviatar · Aug 07, 2005, 02:35 AM // 02:35

easy

people with the super high priced special runes would be stupid if they didnt add a freeby (no penalty) rune to help

the reason the minors are so high is a major/superior would have a nasty stacking effect on health while the minor is free so to speak

twicky_kid · Aug 07, 2005, 02:39 AM // 02:39

yes i understand this but now i'm seeing off attribute majors and sups that 3-4 days ago were still at 150g now are up to 2k+

minor str and tact is high because of runners and ever warrior is going to need it.

mainly speaking about the less common attributes rising as fast at the most popular runes are.

fix the population fluxuations and the low selling price of merchants and the market will balance out. supply and demand is directly affected by population.

you can compare this to the inflation of gas. prices went up because china is needing more gas. now compare china's population to america's and other countries. same affect prices went up very fast. like i said before the invisible hand will have a little affect but not as fast as things are changing.

merchants will not pay you enough for runes so players do not sell runes to merchants they will only buy. the system sees that has demand has gone up and prices rise. while no one is selling to merchants to lower the price.

The Amazing Krandor · Aug 07, 2005, 03:23 AM // 03:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by twicky_kid

i think more people are migrating to the american server causing a huge population boom. the prices in amercian server were already higher than the other 2 servers combined.

Supposition only, of course. It has been the case that America holds favor more frequently for at least the last two months that I've been playing, so it isn't as though this is a new trend. Why would there all of a sudden be a large population shift now?

And why on Earth would anyone migrate to a server where all the prices are far and above higher than they were on their old server? It seems to me, that if there were such a mass migration occurring, everyone would have already stocked up on runes on their own server before moving to the American servers.

And if you're talking about brand new players...what makes you think they know or care about favor in the first place? Especially enough to start on the American servers.

No, I think it's either a random spike, or there was a brief drop in prices, during which time lots of the rich folks bought up several of the cheaper runes, which drove the prices up. Maybe they're hoping to sell them back at higher prices or something.

At any rate, I'd suspect we'd see an increase in foreign character names, as well as other languages in chat, if there were such a mass migration occurring. And I haven't seen either.

Rieselle · Aug 07, 2005, 03:23 AM // 03:23

Sorry, I posted this elsewhere, but it seemed more pertinent in this thread.

I'm pretty sure they changed the trader code, which changed the way the prices behave. Apart from monk superiors, I very much doubt that any change in player behaviour has caused the recent price increases.

However, the situation that occured when the rune traders were first introduced was clearly broken - the majority of runes were always at the minimum price. There's no point having a trader with a floating price if they're always going to lying at the bottom extreme. Sure, it was great to be able to roll a new char and fully outfit it with minor runes for 5x 120g, but considering the drop rate of runes, I dont really think it was intended to be like that. (otherwise, why not just add them to merchants?)

It will be interesting to see what happens to the traders when the Better Player Trading System(tm) is implemented. Right now it's more convenient to sell to the traders, especially for things that are really expensive. However, if players can easily and conveniently undercut the traders, then they wont be able to maintain their current profit margin. They'll probably be replaced with fixed price, ultra expensive, unlimited stock traders... so that, if no players are selling what you need, you can pay a lot and get them from some unlimited source in the game. It would also act as a price ceiling, to prevent players from really gouging each other when the environment allows. (in a similar way to how the merchant acts as a price floor)

Darksci · Aug 07, 2005, 03:24 AM // 03:24

I dunno about you - but i never sell anything to the rune trader.
I just check the price and sell to players accordingly.

Also if i find something like a minor mesmer rune which i know is very low price, i can't be bothered to sell to a trader. I just sell it to the merchant. I'll make like what? 25gp extra? The hassle of swaping towns and then walking to the rune trader is just annoying.

Nevertheless, if i want a rune, i'll usually buy it off the trader than other players because i cant be bothered to say "WTB MAJOR DEATH" hundred times.

My only conclusion is that prices are just fluxarating as normal.

twicky_kid · Aug 07, 2005, 03:28 AM // 03:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darksci

My only conclusion is that prices are just fluxarating as normal.

2x to 3x the price in 2 days is normal?

Drakron · Aug 07, 2005, 03:30 AM // 03:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by twicky_kid

2x to 3x the price in 2 days is normal?

Sure ... in 1920's Germany.

twicky_kid · Aug 07, 2005, 03:33 AM // 03:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drakron

Sure ... in 1920's Germany.

i think that was the way for eveyone during that time but still its out of control w/o any way to bring prices down b/c no one is selling to merchants

Drakron · Aug 07, 2005, 03:57 AM // 03:57

Yet things like that were not normal and neither is the current Guild Wars economy.

twicky_kid · Aug 07, 2005, 03:59 AM // 03:59

true but there was a way to "fix" the problem

with the current system the only way to fix this problem is sell to merchants and lose profit. no one is going to do that for more people to buy them and raise the prices again.

Drakron · Aug 07, 2005, 04:08 AM // 04:08

There are deeper problems, for example rare materials minimum price does not reflect the crafting price, either the price sould go up to meet crafting price or crafting price sould go down to meet minimum price.

A way to fix it would be creating maximum and minimum prices on the traders to regulate trade, there would still be some margin of price change but nothing as radical as the current prices.

GreatLich · Aug 07, 2005, 04:35 AM // 04:35

To comment on the "population boom" suggestion: I know that that simply can't be it; prices have increased likewise on the european servers and i doubt that the prices over the different servers are linked. ( i think this because there's no rune/sigil traders in the international districts, at least not in Tombs )

Prices for materials have been fluctuating wildly over the last couple days. ( for example, scales jumping as high as 230 per 10, coming from 30 per 10, and dropping back, in a matter of hours) Made upwards of 50k speculating on those prices, btw: selling when high, buying when low...not counting trading with other players

I for one am glad that the rune traders offer decent prices when u want to sell, the insane low-high spread was causing the prices to go up anyway (as players were trying to get near max trader-prices when dealing P2P) and nobody was selling to the Traders.

@Drakron: I agree about the rare crafting materials, for giggles, you should look up the Scroll crafter, who is located way in the back of Witman's Folly... Hero's Insight is a staggering 5k to craft (not counting the 100 granite slabs and then some materials required). That made me sit back in my chair for 5 minutes straight going "whaat?!?!"

twicky_kid · Aug 07, 2005, 04:36 AM // 04:36

that is true but only on certian rare materials

the common materials for those rare are very cheap so it doesn't really affect the market that much.

still don't understand the price of scales last night peaking at 900g for 10 but hey it does spike every now and then but at least those prices do come down. the runes are a long time problem and will not be coming down unless anet steps in somehow.

stoned bob · Aug 07, 2005, 04:49 AM // 04:49

so maybe if I go to the EU server I can get my runes/dyes cheaper?
any1 care to check what the sup monk runes cost on the eu server

Drakron · Aug 07, 2005, 05:00 AM // 05:00

58, 38 and 49 k.

Mariena Feladon · Aug 07, 2005, 05:01 AM // 05:01

Funny. For a moment I thought "Yes! Runes are actually WORTH something now!"... Well, I guess that applied for a day or two, because now the trader gives you at least 113 gold for a Major Vigor, while he sells them for 6+ plat.

Same applies for every other rune I tried to sell. Yay for the GW trade system =/

aB- · Aug 07, 2005, 05:57 AM // 05:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mariena Feladon

Funny. For a moment I thought "Yes! Runes are actually WORTH something now!"... Well, I guess that applied for a day or two, because now the trader gives you at least 113 gold for a Major Vigor, while he sells them for 6+ plat.

Same applies for every other rune I tried to sell. Yay for the GW trade system =/

That's odd because yesterday or the day before yesterday I sold a few major vigors for somewhere between 2-3k to the rune trader.

It seems as though someone or some people are abusing the market causing prices to spike. How does silver dye become nearly 8k (as of right now)? What else explains fur prices rising like mad, scale prices increasing far more than normal, and other spontaneous price fluctuations?

However, I am almost glad to see minor rune prices increasing. I felt that they should be worth at least something, as it is now.

And superior vigors selling for 99k at the trader is absurd. That was happening more than a month ago.