Curse

AncientPC · Nov 08, 2005, 05:02 AM // 05:02

This post is divided into two parts 1) Currency 2) Rant. Feel free to skip the rant section.

1) Currency

Either players should be allowed to hold more than 100 platinum, or there needs to be a seperate item that can be bought and sold for a standard amount without fluctuation. Ectos fluctuate too much to be used as valid currency.

If there was something like a piece of mithril that was stackable and could be bought / sold at trader for 20k always would be great.

2) Rant

I got scammed over 200k this past weekend by people who promise to pay more than 100k for an item and then go offline / block me after the first 100k. They either don't have ectos, or refuse to buy mine.

My problem is that the amount of players shopping for 100k+ items is such a small percentage that I pounce on any potential buyer. When you've been trying to sell a sword for over 200 hours of trading and run into a buyer, you would be all over them too.

I've filed 4 violation reports the past 3 days.

Luthor · Nov 08, 2005, 05:38 AM // 05:38

Off topic -

Why don't you sell your items at rpgtraders.com?
This way if they scam you not only can you give them bad feedback, but you can also file your report too.

Back on topic -

Force them to trade you a customized item off their character. Maybe with some runes. So if they don't come back you won't lose as much as you would have. And if they don't want to agree to those terms, then don't trade with them because you can't trust them.
Although having an item of high value that doesn't change price would be nice for trades.
Anyways, for the most part I agree.

AncientPC · Nov 08, 2005, 05:50 AM // 05:50

Maybe there needs to be mutual trading of items involved, the customized item suggestion is very good (although I never customize any item and don't know why people do that, especially casters).

Regarding rpgtraders.net, I mostly use this site for buying. I don't like selling on the site because:
1) People buy for less than I would sell for in game
2) Turnaround is much longer and I need to set the item aside. Since I spend pretty much all my GW time trading, it's a lot easier / faster for me to sell that way. If I preferred to farm / PvP more I would definately use rpgtraders.net.

Perishiko ReLLiK · Nov 08, 2005, 02:22 PM // 14:22

I personaly don't know why they went with just platinum and gold...

I think platinum, gold, silver, copper, iron would be quite sufficient, but i also like long lasting economies... even if it's really hard to get just 1 platinum and people eventually do it... it still gives them plenty of time to add in gold sinks and other economy saving techniques...

Anyhow, as of now, people would probably be digging into the platinum stage, but there could be good gold sinks, such as the places to get the elite armor, or some really cool looking weapon crafters that craft for alot of money... anyhow, that's that... it wasn't built that way, so it would probably be pretty hard to change everything now. Perhaps they could even have a place where you can buy the favor of the gods for a certain amount of time (for a really high amount of the gold)... Things like being able to customize your armor, or your own looks... things such as mini games, or more elite area's that cost 1k to enter.

I don't really know what their plans are for the economy now though ^.^

I mean to say... an auction house may help a little, but how can you auction items worth more then the max platinum that can be carried? Most auction systems only work if the economy works... it may be hard to set a price to non-gold items in an auction house.

Lord Zado · Nov 08, 2005, 02:39 PM // 14:39

The problem you run into is that the easier it is to trade items for a large sum of money, the more people are going to start selling items for. The limited gold storage is just one way of attempting to keep inflation in check. Of course, players will always find a way around the system (ectos). But that doesn't mean ANet should just cave in and up the gold storage/tradable amount. That would cause prices to sky rocket even more.

I think the real solution is to add gold sinks and make gold worth something again. Right now, people have huge sums of money stashed away with nothing to spend on, so they will spend 100k for +1% more armor penetration or something equally trivial.

I've been saying it since the Betas and I will say it again...they NEED to add appearance related gold sinks. In MMO's, appearance is a very important thing and clearly people are willing to spend lots of money to look unique (see fissure armor). Appearance related gold sinks are ideal because they don't unbalance the game in any way. Once a lot of the gold has been removed from the economy, prices will fall drastically.

Epinephrine · Nov 08, 2005, 05:04 PM // 17:04

w/e. If the need is there it will evolve. Rubies? That'd do. TBH, the concerns of those with a million gold probably aren't that high on the priority list at ANet.

The SoJ in D2 never had its price "set", yet it became currency because it was used as currency. If there is a real need it will evolve - I'd suggest the gems as they are rare enough to fit the bill.

As for spending 200 hours trying to sell something? Then you are charginng too much. Your profiit over time on the item is nil, so you'd be better off selling cheaper faster.

Symeon · Nov 08, 2005, 05:06 PM // 17:06

Yeah but look at your storage, I dunno isn't it something like 1400k max or something. If there was a currency for every 100k...that only 14 in ur storage. Seems pretty trivial in my opinion.

Sol_Vie · Nov 08, 2005, 05:32 PM // 17:32

I like that mithril idea... sounds pretty solid. On the other hand, you could just increase the economy to hold things higher than platinum. Though I suppose in a sense, mithril would do just that, but at a higher level.

Lord Zado · Nov 08, 2005, 08:27 PM // 20:27

No, No, No! The solution to the problem is not to enable an ever increasing spiral of pricing. The solution is to make gold worth something, which will make items cost less, which will once again bring all items under 100k.

Do you know how easy it is for the rich to get richer? Let's say you up the amount of gold storage to 10 million. 99% of the players don't even have 1 million, but the 1% of the super rich could fill up the 10 million capacity in under a month. Then we would be complaining about that cap.

The gold limit is the only thing in the game keeping inflation from being insane.

Shattered Self · Nov 08, 2005, 08:34 PM // 20:34

How about a trader who sells chunks of mithril for 100k, and buys them for 90k, and they NEVER drop in game?

It allows people to do trades of over 100k, but discourages it by taxing the transaction 10k for each 100k after the first.

AncientPC · Nov 08, 2005, 09:40 PM // 21:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epinephrine

w/e. If the need is there it will evolve. Rubies? That'd do. TBH, the concerns of those with a million gold probably aren't that high on the priority list at ANet.

The SoJ in D2 never had its price "set", yet it became currency because it was used as currency. If there is a real need it will evolve - I'd suggest the gems as they are rare enough to fit the bill.

As for spending 200 hours trying to sell something? Then you are charginng too much. Your profiit over time on the item is nil, so you'd be better off selling cheaper faster.

Those with a million gold is probably a small group of players, but they probably put in more hours playing than a considerable amount of active players.

If I spend 200 hours trying to sell an item worth 400k it may be I just didn't find the right person with that much money, not because I didn't price it properly.

I think Shattered Self's suggestion would be a good idea. Make mithril buyable at 10.5k, sell to at 10k (5% fee). It would allow players to use it in trading and work as a gold sink as well. Basically it would charge people 5% on any money over the gold cap.