Disabling krono trading would just result in RMT plat and item sales that existed before kronos. The krono sales spam would change to the like of "visit EQplat.com ! Best plat prices!".
The solution is changing how Krono works , making it a one time trade only item that converts into a consume only item. Also it's rather easy to monitor high amount's of platinum being traded , also most player's are not willing to risk being scammed by third party sites.
For me, EC is just a headache, just aggravated by the WTS Krono fake spams. Sure the nostalgia is there briefly, but the pain of people who auction an item and say "PST Serious Offers Only" and when you send a tell with an offer, they get angry. I just do not have the time and patience to get into their greedy little head to figure out how much they want for an item as they won't put a price on it (as they hope someone overpays for it).
This is why I have a personal rule of never buying from someone that won't put a price on an item. If I really want it, I will happily pay a little extra within reason. But I am not playing some stupid game because someone is trying to sell it for 2-3x what it's worth.
There are workarounds. You can park a toon in EC and keep track of a TLP trading site that's usually available these days. But honestly if we're doing all that, we may as well have the bazaar interface. The krono spam is just so annoying, I don't even bother trying to read the chat spam on recent TLPs. I just try to reference the website and send a direct tell if I'm interested. I don't sell much stuff though, so I could see it being a real pain to just hang out there selling stuff if you'd rather be out adventuring.
Bazaar, guild lobby, housing, and fellowships would be nice QoL items to start a server with. Lobby / housing can be accessed via a new NPC added to the Bazaar. Until PoP unlocks, the PoK books can take you to the Bazaar zone. Fellowship NPCs / vendor can be added to the Bazaar. Doing it this way keeps fast travel intact, but still gives people a way to congregate and group faster with their regular friends. Housing would give people something to do and encourage spending in the market to help support the server. There's very little downside here and it would be minimal work to add a couple NPCs at zonelines that move you to the appropriate zone before the zonelines to Nexus/PoK become active. The PoK books would flip to PoK when PoP launches and those temporary Magus/porters would despawn.
Not sure how this hasn't happened. Only people that want CL tunnel are people that are botters and exploit market 24/7 and never leave the tunnel on their tunnel account. The tunnel is the most cringe part of the trilogy. It should be easy to activate ports to Nexus, disable all zones but Nexus and Bazaar, and empty all vendors but the satchel vendor. We know for fact that all zones are up at launch of the server. We know for fact that they can block zones by expansion. We know for a fact people can exploit their way in to POK. We know for a fact they are able to easily empty the vendors in POK since it has already been done. It should be simple to just reclassify Nexus/Bazaar to original on the back end and everything but the banker and satchel vendor disabled.
I also know what I don’t want to have. I definitely don’t want to start with a 50% exp penalty only to have to level multiple toons to max level just to receive 10% increase for each one until I am out of the penalty only to have to do it again every time there is a level max level increase. Is that called the legacy system? Yuck!!!! The FTE is a good system though and can yell for help to make the PL work. That was a pretty sweet idea. Kudos because they worked the bugs out of it.
I solve this problem by ignoring the tunnel entirely. I don't participate in the EQ economy until Luclin. I despise the EC tunnel that much. I can pretty much always get all the items I need/want through looting them. I'll hit up the guild tradesmen for any crafted items. It is just not worth the hassle to me. I would love to see the Baz at the start.
I agree it is time there is a port to the Bazaar on day 1 of a TLP. Plop a translocator down in EC tunnel and deactivate the zone lines in the bazaar to keep people from going to The Nexus and Shadow Haven. This really is a QOL change that is past due.
I, generally, believe through the years there were updates created that were good solutions to problems that existed for years from when released. Bazaar, instances, no corpse runs (because of time lost), FTE (to cut down on reports of KSing), Kronos were good until they controlled the market and duping (possible solution would be to mark Kronos w/ unique tag so they can’t be duplicated. Simple solution to that and then easy to track a possible exploiter to tell them to stop. Also only new unique Kronos could be used on the new server. Just an idea. Also easy to implement.
All Krono are already marked and tagged and tracked. If somehow someone duped one they'd catch it and instantly ban whoever did it. AFAIK the recent duping involved something like Blue Diamonds which can be changed into tons of plat fairly rapidly. Anyway, duping a Krono is sort of like duping a Bitcoin it's just not feasible
It occurs to me that making Krono "one time trade only" would make duping Krono a legitimate strategy going forward.
It just sucks that we have to do it this way because they haven't opened baz at the start...they give the RMT / botters an edge up every single TLP. 25th shouldn't do that.
Honestly, give us the Nexus even. Let there be a port hub it doesn't negatively impact anyone. Disable the spires. Druids and Wizzies could sit in the Nexus to do porting. A safe place to AFK. If you don't do that everyone would just congregate in the bazaar in addition to all the traders. Yikes, too many people! If you have the bazaar there is no reason to disable nexus zone. Just all other zonelines outside of Baz/Nex should be disabled.
Just a thought or two. Corpse runs penalize equipment heavy characters i.e. Warriors, Clerics, plate users in general. I seldom use anything but a spell to start and run them near naked. If I lose some tattered, BFD. Understand it doesn't really effect me, if you think SKs and Bards should receive a heavier penalty then a naked Wiz, that's fine, I personally don't think it would be a good idea. I'm not against later expansion starts if there is enough $$$ involved for DB to do it. I always start a Druid so transportation has never been a problem for me. Even when I do start a non-port, non-gate character, it just means I have to level where I started. This is not a big deal for me. Only one it seems to effect are ~people in relationships of some kind where one insists on starting a Gnome Necro and other an Erudite Enchanter. Difficult when they want team up. This can be solved with a single port to starting area of choice after talking to the Guild Master or something. Kind of a drastic mod to insist on later expansion vs a single port. I whined for years about not being able to start a Halfling Ranger, but I've gotten over it. I just start them at a later date. The tunnel! I can work with it. I've never had problems there selling or buying so I can't see it as a big deal. It is no worse then the Bazaar, just fewer features like item search. IDK, maybe if they could implement something like the Barter system in Common Lands they wouldn't need to add a complete zone like the Bazaar. Takes me ~hour to do the Stein of Moggok quest. 5 mins tops to sell it in the Tunnel for 250pp. Whoever buys it either uses it themselves or starts selling it for 400pp. If they are still selling it when I come back an hour later with another one, I effectively undercut them and still sell mine for 250pp. If they find someone in a hurry, they sell the one they bought off me and make 150pp for doing nothing but standing there. Good for them! I am happy for them. They do this a 100 times a day with various items and are the richest PC in the game. Me, I got my spells and equipment covered for all 3 accounts. I be happy too! I'd be just as happy if I sold to into a Barter type system though, not sure about the merchants. It would be nice if there was a game wide Barter system for people that can't travel i.e. Warriors. Not a game breaker for me. If you are following the other thread on making Rogues viable, just make Rogues the only ones on which a game wide 'Black Market' barter system works. Everyone will start one then!
Trading in classic is an awful experience. Please enable /bazaar in the EC tunnel. <And don't forget to add a satchel vendor.>
And miss out on being verbally abused by Elfpie for making an offer, do you guys not into nostalgia or something?
