Curse

Tharg · Jan 15, 2010, 09:38 PM // 21:38

The price for ectos is be based on the supply and demand for ectos. In a realistic game economy, the demand for ectos should be based on consumption of ectos (chaos gloves etcetera). Presently, the main demand for ectos is for saving accounts and making trading of high-ticket items possible. I have no real problem with that, but having said that, it could be better by implementing the bank note idea.

Implementing the bank note system is super easy to code. Anet can implement this over the weekend if they would want to:

They can add a new item (bank note). Then they add that to the merchants' options (both buy and sell at 100k). And they add a collector that trades 12 ectos for a banknote and fix the price at the rare material trader at 8,333. Or whatever value they want the ecto to be at (bank note 14 ectos and a value of 7,143). After 3 months they take the collector out again and let the price at the rare material trader float again. Done.

Lusciious · Jan 15, 2010, 10:34 PM // 22:34

yes i agree that letting this bank trader accept ectos for bank notes is a good idea .

but back to what we were discussing about, you said that ectos were worthless at best but i agreed with the suggestion of freezing ecto prices. yes i know the trader buys ectos at a lower price back . but wouldn't you want to sell your ectos for say 7k/ecto instead of 0/ecto ?

End · Jan 15, 2010, 10:57 PM // 22:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lusciious

yes i agree that letting this bank trader accept ectos for bank notes is a good idea .

but back to what we were discussing about, you said that ectos were worthless at best but i agreed with the suggestion of freezing ecto prices. yes i know the trader buys ectos at a lower price back . but wouldn't you want to sell your ectos for say 7k/ecto instead of 0/ecto ?

I would prefer the outcome the involves 0 loss to anyone involved

I mean there are people who are forced into hording ectos due to the cap...why should they loose money they worked hard to earn because anet RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOed up when they created the game...

I only have a few myself I am holding onto until I decide what I want to use them on...I don't want to loose anything...I also though don't want those people spending their time working hard for their money that have earned 2 stacks to be screwed out of their money.I mean you do risk loosing money when you move it over to ectos...but that should be because of natural economic shifts not anet fixing what they messed up.

Yawgmoth · Jan 16, 2010, 12:03 AM // 00:03

Obviously a good suggestion, repeated many times for many years.
It would essencially remove the horrible trade limits, which are only getting more and more painful as the game gets older.

The only nominal that would make sense them to have is 100k (100,000 gold) per unit. Absolutely no reason to use any lower. Remember they are only meant to be used for trades above 100k value. Save storage space, 25 million gold per inventory slot is the best we can wish for as only a very small % of players would ever need to hold more than one stack of them (imagine over 15 stacks of ectos). And it would be super easy to calculate the prices, people would just need to switch mentality from doing 100k gold +X units of another currency (those who keep suggesting 5k or 10k bank notes) to simply dealing with hundreds of plat.

As for protecting the ecto value I wouldn't be worried (and I say that as someone who holds a large part of my wealth in stacks of them). Ofcourse initial panic is to be expected but I can bet the prices would return to almost where they're now after 2-3 months. Don't underestimate the buying force of players who buy ectos to actually use them in crafting, it's bigger than most think.

Also it's possible to implement additional measures to completely protect ecto values in case of an update like this. For example:

(1): Setting a guaranteed ecto buy price for a limited time, for example 1 week. Either FREEZE the trader price of ectos for that time or put a new NPC that would just buy at a fixed price, so players can dump their stacks at a fixed guaranteed price (trader buys for 6k/each now I believe and it's a good rate to set a guaranteed rebuy).

Now it would be a strong influx of new gold into the economy, which may sound very dangerous, but in this case it isn't. It wouldn't cause inflation. That's because players who would dump won't just go and let the new gold on the market, they won't buy Superior Vigors for their heroes and Black Dyes for all armors, because they could have sold ectos to players for more than trader pays and do the same. Instead all the excessive gold generated will just fill the same role as the ecto stacks did - will be used in big trades between players. All ectos sold at the fixed price would be completely removed from the economy (as opposed to selling to an active supply/demand trader npc) and the average market price of ectos after the 1 week of fixed buys should remain equal or likely ABOVE that fixed buy price. NOBODY LOSES!!!

(2). Instead of rebuys for gold they could add another ecto sink that players would want to use, it could be a new craftable item or a new kind of service, in case of items it could be also a limited time offer, for example 1 month. Then the crafting price doesn't need to be high, even 10e would do in case of a limited time offer. This would protect the value of ectos more than well enough.

At the end I must add something nobody mentioned yet:

This update is a MUST HAVE if there's ever to be implemented an automated trading system, like Xunlai Marketplace! It just can't work with multiple currencies with changing exchange rates or with a limit of gold in storage.

RedDog91 · Jan 16, 2010, 12:45 AM // 00:45

Ecto farming is a major part of how most players accumilate the wealth they would transfer to the note system. But once prices of ectos drop to nothing, people wont have a way to generate more money.

Also, what is the point of stablizing the economy in the game? The some-what unstable system now works just fine BECAUSE of the fact that its unstable. People who bought some ectos b4 Dhuum was added un-knowingly made an investment with a good interest rate. They could re-sale the 4k ectos they bought for 6k thru 7k.

As i've already said, this method would be better credited in the release of GW2 than added into GW. If it starts out in the game, the effect on prices will have no conciquences because it started that way. Adding it late in the game is what causes problems.
(not that it NEEDS to be in GW2....but if this idea gets any notice, it should go there and not GW)

Tharg · Jan 16, 2010, 03:08 PM // 15:08

I am sure Anet wants the ecto-game. Maybe they even view it as 'content'. The bank note idea is fine but Anet could implement even easier to increase the amount of gold a Xunlai chest could hold and the maximum amount of gold can be traded. No, I think that for some reason they deliberately want the ecto trading in the game.