Curse

Greentongue · Jun 23, 2005, 12:16 PM // 12:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiritofcat

The idea of user made movies, or more cinematic trailers sounds interesting, but I question how feasible it would be.

What about traveling minstrels that can be hired at the Guild Hall?
What about acrobats or jugglers?
The entire Guild could meet for such a show. It would also promote Guild unity.

War Dubb · Jun 23, 2005, 02:46 PM // 14:46

Here is my 2 cents on gold sinks:

I have to say that I think that a gold sink idea with the henchmen is a great idea. Very few games have I played where a mercenary or henchman will quest with you for free...and having them cost more for the areas that are farmed more only makes sense. Lets flesh this idea out a bit more:

Lets say first of all that you CAN have free henchmen. This only makes sense for the people that merely need assistance in questing through the game with NPC's as their party members. However, if you wish, you CAN pay for henchmen. How? Simply insert a dialogue function with the henchmen that ask whether you will pay them for their services or not. If you pay, depending on how much, the percentage of loot they take for themselves will decrease. Therefore, you spend money, get more items, everyone goes home happy.

EX: You go to a popular farming location. Lets say Lornar's Pass, just for a good all around example. You can quest with free henchmen, drops are the same as they are now. OR you can pay in increments of 2k, 5k, and 10k, in order to get 10%, 15%, 20% more drops, or just increase the rarity of items dropped. I do believe it could be balanced out to work as an excellent gold sink.

I'm sure the idea would need some tweaking, but since the henchmen is already implemented in the game, this shouldn't take too much of an overhaul to create.

Feedback anyone?

Epinephrine · Jun 23, 2005, 02:56 PM // 14:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syuveil

They had gambling... it was called /roll... they got rid of it.

No, that was transfer of wealth between players and did nothing to reduce the gold in the system. Gambling like slot machines to get a nice max damage weapon with mods and so on is good.

Think about gambling for amulets/rings in D2 for example? Great gold sink. Of course, gold was worthless in D2 except for gambling...

rwt2006 · Jun 23, 2005, 03:21 PM // 15:21

Quote:

ByPersonal housing and furniture for houses and guild halls:
Just like the way guilds can buy Guild Halls, players would be able to buy personal houses. Furniture could be bought to decorate these spaces. Extra storage might also be included in these houses.

Taxidermy and other forms of tropies:
Players could pay to have a monster that they had defeated turned into a statue to be displayed at their house or guild hall.
This would deteriorate (Rot, get dusty, etc.) over time and require an upkeep in gold to keep it in good condition.

Already been done in Star Wars Galaxies, almost exactly how you mentioned

Hookecho · Jun 23, 2005, 03:25 PM // 15:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poppinjay

Tax the rich.

Every day calculate a each players total assets for all their chars, and tax them based on a scaling system, so that the super wealthy are taxed highly and newbies are not taxed at all.

I have suggested this about a dozen times. I don't know why the programmers have not picked up on it.

POp

Heh.....are you in the Senate?

As a strictly PvE player I'd like to see some sort of PvE guild storage unit (like our current storage boxes) that are accessable for anyone in your guild. Charge a startup fee and a weekly or monthly matianence fee (20K/2k) This would take away the need to get a charactor to post-searing just in order to packmule it (load it up with stuff you have no room for)

to get gold (enconomy) into order you have to address the supply/demand thing. Right now everyone has gold but the valuable items are few...thus people are willing to way over pay for stuff. They seem to have gone the route of taking good drops out but this has driven the price up even further. So how about de-valueing some items. Raise the trade in gold for blue/purple/gold items (the best max dam sword in my kit is worth 288g tradein) and start selling weapon upgrades at weapons traders. Cosmetic upgrades can also be used here to appeal to a person vanity.

A sellers tax of some amount on items traded for gold. This might be tricky because I just give things away to my guildies and the occsional new player.

or....if you have so much gold that you dont know what to do with it all and are feeling guilty......just give it to me....I'm sure I can find a use for it.

Mat Thirteen · Jun 23, 2005, 07:40 PM // 19:40

Good suggestion for the holes, but a lof of them would be hard to impliment. It would take a lot of work. Before any of this can happen, we better see inflation at least double so that it is seriously affecting the way the game is played. Right now its just pissing people off.

spiritofcat · Jun 23, 2005, 11:03 PM // 23:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by War Dubb

Here is my 2 cents on gold sinks:

I have to say that I think that a gold sink idea with the henchmen is a great idea. Very few games have I played where a mercenary or henchman will quest with you for free...and having them cost more for the areas that are farmed more only makes sense. Lets flesh this idea out a bit more:

Lets say first of all that you CAN have free henchmen. This only makes sense for the people that merely need assistance in questing through the game with NPC's as their party members. However, if you wish, you CAN pay for henchmen. How? Simply insert a dialogue function with the henchmen that ask whether you will pay them for their services or not. If you pay, depending on how much, the percentage of loot they take for themselves will decrease. Therefore, you spend money, get more items, everyone goes home happy.

EX: You go to a popular farming location. Lets say Lornar's Pass, just for a good all around example. You can quest with free henchmen, drops are the same as they are now. OR you can pay in increments of 2k, 5k, and 10k, in order to get 10%, 15%, 20% more drops, or just increase the rarity of items dropped. I do believe it could be balanced out to work as an excellent gold sink.

I'm sure the idea would need some tweaking, but since the henchmen is already implemented in the game, this shouldn't take too much of an overhaul to create.

Feedback anyone?

The problem with this idea is that if what you have to pay is more than the benefit you are likely to receive then people won't do it, and if it's less, then it's not a gold sink is it?
It's people spending money to make even more money.

rwt2006, do you mean house/guild hall customisation or taxidermy?
Anyway, if it's already been done, that just goes to show it's possible.

Hookecho, I agree, increasing the availability of those items that are so expensive right now would help.

KVargs · Jun 23, 2005, 11:11 PM // 23:11

I like the idea of a gambling thing like in diablo 2. I always wasted my money there on unidentified items hoping to get a gold one. I think it would work well for guild wars. It would also allow people to unlock more items for pvp.

Firestreak · Jun 23, 2005, 11:36 PM // 23:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by zim3031

The hair dressing would be intersting, but how great are these new ones that people will spend money on it?

I like the armor thing as it would finally give some distinction between players other than the color of their armor

Gambling i don't like because I would likely go poor if they implemented it

The housing thing is interesting and I'm sure one way or another they could make it work

I remeber one game i played required you to repair your weapons upon use. THe price wasn't extreme but it help you from getting ridiculously rich

RYL had that. It has x durability and after ever several monsters you killed it lost durability until it finally broke and needed repairing. That would also give use for multiple weapons.

Firestreak · Jun 23, 2005, 11:45 PM // 23:45

The issue I see with personal houses (and I think they're a great idea too), is simply what do you do once you've made it. Bear in mind this game lacks world interaction, so you cant sit in anything or do anything to anything except run to it, hit it, or cast a spell on it. What would be cool is perhaps a mode of gameplay where you are assigned a room in a large castle for you to do with as you wish. There would be X other people with you in that castle. This could potentially be your guildmates, or perhaps it could be a random assigning thing for those who would rather not wait for their guildmates to all be online. It would eventually turn into a defend the castle thing, where you spend money and time fortifying your castle and building stuff. Then you get attacked by an opposing castle, and if you win you get a lot of cash, and if you lose you lose everything that you spent fortifying the castle.

That would essentially be gambling but at the same time it would be a fun investment of money...

spiritofcat · Jun 24, 2005, 04:20 AM // 04:20

I don't like the idea of having weapons become less effective over time, it just provides an annoyance to the players. In gold sinks we want something fun for people to spend their money on, not something that annoys them and costs them money.

Your idea of the castle sounds interesting. Seems to me like it might be a good addition to the current Guild Hall system.

UsagiNoSenshi · Jun 24, 2005, 05:36 AM // 05:36

I love fun gold sinks, love anything that customizes your character even more, and my pet too. Oh what i wouldn't give to have a pair of bunny ears in this game XD kinda goes against the feel of the game though. Hair styles, hair dye, armor customizations, pet collars all that stuff, i'm a girl i like spending my money on useless things!

spiritofcat · Jun 24, 2005, 07:55 AM // 07:55

There was talk of kitty ears for female elementalists. Some novelty hats, or just different looking hats would be good. I'm absolutely sick of my glowing floating rock.
I agree that visual customisation of pets would be a great idea, but what about the rich people who aren't rangers?

Magus · Jun 24, 2005, 08:44 AM // 08:44

I like the "novelty hats" idea. Perhaps they could add some "equipment" slots on the left of the hero in the inventory window, next to the weapons; these slots would be for the novelty items that have absolutely no effect on your character's stats, but give them that extra uniqueness.

In Ragnarok Online, (in general) the headgears did not have a huge effect on the character's stats. There were 3 "head" slots, top (for hats, bandanas, etc.), mid (sunglasses, binoculars, etc.), and lower (cigars, mouthpieces, etc.) People often shelled out millions of zeny (RO currency) for the right combinations of headgears, most of which had negligible bonuses to their character's stats.

Firestreak · Jun 24, 2005, 02:38 PM // 14:38

Lol, my warriors name is 'Time For You To Die,' I can only imagine the look on someones face getting killed by a warrior with that name, with shades on and a cigar. Heck while he's at it he might as well be carrying a sawed off shotgun and be saying "Hastalavista Baby!!!"

Yeah, I'd definately spend gold on that.

Dzan · Jun 24, 2005, 03:57 PM // 15:57

I find inflation not to be a huge problem. Here is the thing, inflation is only effecting the the very top of the food chain. Godly items, like a +5 energy staff head, are going for way too much, 75k in some cases. However, average items, like a +3 staff head have trouble selling for 1k. A max damage sword with +15% over 50% health? 100k. A max damage clean sword? Can't get 300g for it.

Why? Because demand is far greater than supply... supposedly. But that's also what we thought when average major runes were selling for 5-10k and major vigor for triple even that. Then the rune trader showed up and suddenly far from "ruining" the market, it showed us what the market really looked like. People who complained that the trader ruined the market are actually people who were artificially manipulating the market for their own gain, and the trader put an end to that.

The same thing will happen with a weapon/upgrade trader. The real supply/value of those items will come to light and the real price will be found.

None of what I said, however, relates to gold supply inflation, with the exception that an upgrade trader will be removing gold from the economy at about 15% per transaction.

But I am not convinced that gold over supply is the problem though, because at least in theory, gold enters the economy at the same relative rate as rare items. The only tweak A-net could really do easily is tweak the ratio of item vs gold drops. Some mobs drop gold every third kill, they could make it every 5th kill and have the other drops be non-collector, non-salvage items. Alternatively, make item salvage not fail, like rune salvage does not fail. When you expert salvage a rare staff/sword/bow, allow the player to pick which of the two upgrades he wants and have it succeed 100% of the time, like runes.

waughzac · Jun 24, 2005, 04:03 PM // 16:03

I am newly registered so please..be gentle.

There are some really good ideas floating around on this thread, I had a couple based on my reading of these submissions;

Betting on the PvP matches (Nomad’s post) - Players bet on the regular PvP matches with rewards being not gp but some sort of points system with which you purchase item prizes.

Remember the battle arena in FFVII? Something along those lines. So basically you pay the entry fee, place a bet on either red or blue and depending on the amount bet you would win a certain number of purchase points, you then can trade these in for items costing varying amounts, so the more you bet/ win the better items you can afford. This would go nicely with the PvP spectator suggestion. Items could be randomised or regularly rotated, and vary in value/power dependant upon which arena you are betting in. Balancing this system with imposed limits would not be too difficult.

What about financial penalties on player death? Missions aside, death really is not that much of a hassle in the PvE game, so perhaps a small level based penalty?

I love the idea of Guild hall upgrades. What about if they instituted a "Guild Hall Invasion" PvP mode and Guilds had the ability to purchase defenses such as traps Monster etc? _ bit leftfield this one and would take a concerted developer effort so not a quick fix.

SisterMercy · Jun 25, 2005, 02:06 AM // 02:06

Any additions requiring new models and textures (i.e. armor, hair, taxidermy, homes) are additions requiring that all users be able to see these as intended, and either creates more draw from Anet servers or more information included in the game resident on their system. Translated: more of an idea for expansion packs, otherwise there is a bit of a cost to implement, with less bang for the buck.

OTOH, it might be able to work if Anet began modular expansions, i.e. mini armor-packs or hair-packs that could be purchased and d/led. Hmm....

Armor maintenance: yes. I expected to have to pay money to maintain my equipment, and it only makes logical sense. If it degenerates from battle and conceivably becomes useless from lack of upkeep, that's an excellent gold sink.

Dyes and Scrolls: The dye system appears to have been working somewhat, since the pricing has stayed fairly consistent (black dye is creeping up a bit, but much more slowly than other elements). I say, introduce more colors (how about white?) and allow dying of different parts of the current textures, so you can spend more to dye the trim and then dye the body color. Scrolls are new, but look like a sensible way to satisfy the PvP crowd.

Gambling: Not a bad idea, but you know there will always be people upset by the outcomes. However, if you can gamble away that slightly-less-than-max gold weapon you can't sell to anyone for a chance at gold or runes, I'm all for it.

I think one of the best ways to nip the inflation is to overhaul trading into the marketplace / auction house concept, and put a sales commission on it. Being a scaled percentage, bigger sales cost larger amounts to conduct.

Night Daftshadow · Jun 25, 2005, 03:50 AM // 03:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiritofcat

I don't like the idea of having weapons become less effective over time, it just provides an annoyance to the players. In gold sinks we want something fun for people to spend their money on, not something that annoys them and costs them money.

I agree. Also someone mentioned about degrading armor after taking damage in many battles and having to spend money to maintain it. I think this idea is absolutely ludicrous. You barely have any gold to even spend on good armor these days. Especially for a warrior. Warrior armor is a gold killer!

gabby2600 · Jun 25, 2005, 03:53 AM // 03:53

Renting storage and merchents is a good idea for the guildhalls. However toher items you buy for a fixed fee could be destroyed if you lose in a GvG battle.