I will start by saying I do think there needs to be a good plat sink in this game as I think the pure amount of inflation is out of control. With that said it has to be done with intelligence and not push people away. I have suggested something like a modernized casino in game which would be totally optional and would probably be something that people with plat problems would not waste their time on unless they wanted to go farm plat specifically to play at the casino. The items would have to be unique enough for someone with lots of plat to even spend their plat on while not giving them some kind of in game advantage (p2w situation although one could argue with rares this system is already in place). Increasing the cost of new trade skill combines (cant confirm but from what I have read) is a good start at removing plat from circulation but it does place some items out of reach for some players. Overall inflation is just not a high end krono farmer problem. As a crafter I have seen materials go up 100-1000% or more over the last two years. The end result is items I craft and sell have also had to go up. This in turn just hurts those who already have said plat problems (both crafters and those who buy their products) and potentially creates issues where items are no longer even viable to craft and sell because the time and cost to make yields so little returns its basically a charity case to even do it. Keeping the economy balanced is a good thing but it has to be done in a fashion that is beneficial for all players.
Why do people post these types of posts ? "Please charge me more because I have too much money!" Do they do this in real life ? Or is it a case of they have a load of money and wan't to feel superior to those who don't ? "I can afford to spend 10k pp every 5 minutes on a merc, aren't I impressive!"
You have to say "good bye" to the general idea that RL definitions of "inflation" would translate into a game like EQ, or that EQ had any kind of "economy" that could be, or would even be worth to be, balanced. The Tradeskill stuff is an "on top", not in integral part of this game's design so any "economy" is bound to fail. The more mature a server and it's population is, the more pp you have - there is nothing "healthy" in that, nor anything that needs to be curbed. Your "prices for my supplies hav egone up so i had to adjust my prices for my combines too" statement is also untrue: I recall a time where people sold whatever they made at a loss just to sell it at all - that's the nature of TS in this game. You CAN make pp off TS for a short while (like when an expansion is new and you are properly prepared in terms of fail rates and farming capability), but that is not - can not be - the "goal" of tradeskills in this game, since the basis (as in: game-economy design) is lacking. The only game i know that comes close to "doing it right" is EVE - and not only did they employ their own economy experts for the design, they also built their game around a constant supply+demand - with it's own shortcomings, sure; but if economy is what you're in for, then EQ is certainly not your game, while EVE were more like it.
Actually I will have to strongly disagree with you on this as I have managed 4-5 traders for several years with 80% of my products sold being player made items ranging from caster pots to poison, to bags, armor, weapons and well a mix of everything ranging from end game all the way down. There is also a natural trend in terms of overall value of said items with the peak being when an expansion releases and then a slow and steady decline but after some time the value will usually rise again and top off. I personally try to market to different level ranges to increase my total sales and by doing so I am selling more in bulk which adds up over time. The problem with this is when the mats for mid and lower level items goes up drastically the target audience that would purchase these items cant afford them due to inflation which means I replace those items with things that are aimed more at end game players with plat. As far as only making plat for a short while off trade skills this is very untrue you just have to know what items are worth making vs selling the mats for and making a profit off trade skills most certainly can be the goal but it takes a lot of research and trial and error to figure out what you are doing. Its not a patient persons game and it is far from an easy route but I have been doing it for years. I generally agree with your opinions on things but this is something I strongly disagree with you on.
I don't mind people disagreeing with me - only through disagreement do get progress at all. I am rather "economy-minded" myself, more of the the "builder" type of player than the "pirate" or "predator" one. When it comes to EQ and tradeskills, i do my own tradeskilling. When you run 4-5traders and possibly manipulate "the market" as i see it being done. that's certainly your thing. All i am saying is that "buy-sell" only works on a few items, and on TS stuff usually only when something's new. Oh sure, conflagrant armors and augments and such will hold some value for quite a while - until easier transferable stuff comes around, be that new TS items or farmable attunables. But how much they go for is another thing. And a game that basically has an unlimited influx of materials and currency, while there is no built-in regulating mechanism and next to no usage/decay, CAN not have a "working economy". Almost by definition even. I make my own potions, my own poisons, my own bows and so on. I have never sold any TS stuff to a vendor - i have either given them to a tradeskilling friend or held onto them. That enabled me to skill my main up for artisan's prize relatively easy and quick without additional farming. And i even had stuff like essences of discord to give to friends for those 301+ recepies. These days, when i or a friend of mine needs ITU potions, i make a bunch, give him what he needs and put the rest up for sale. If you are making the same "for profit" your markup is probably higher than mine, and you can now live with people buying from me first or buy me out. Buying me out will make me do more portions and raise my price ever so slightly. and i continue that until i am no longer bought out. Other items, similar functionality. Or with the old armors... i could keep vanadium and similar templates around and still sell them every once in a while - but since my trader space is limited, i'd rather not - it's not worth it because while they still sell, the number of potential customers/applications are simply too low. And with the Artisan's prize the number of players that are able and willing to take care of their own needs increased many times over. (Artisan's prize was a HUGE incentive for people to start with TS and max them, and with ability comes the willingness to take care of their future needs themselves) So your "market" for anything TS is ever shrinking (you counter that by catering to multiple level ranges at the quite real cost of multiple traders for extra space), while the amount of materials and pp is ever increasing. Your "natural reaction" is to call that inflation and raise prices accordingly - but in so doing you shrink what market you have left (new/returning players, a few that did not do TS after all) even more. Sure you will sell something every once in a blue moon. (e.g. the vanadium templates) But chances are people wanting that have a proficient ALT or friends that do it for them for free and those that actually buy it are probably those that are just too lazy to relog for whatever prize you'r echarging. That's fine and you make money off it, but that's also your limited market right there, and with every sale that market is shrinking even more (players are finite, character slots are finite, characters in level range are even more scarce). The only "lasting" way to actually "make profit" from TS in EQ is to farm the materials yourself and not to care to translate that "effort" into "price". (you could still farm all ingredients for an ITU potion and undercut me that way without realizing a "loss" in pp) Aside from that, the only time to actually make some money off it is - as i said, at the very beginning. The problem isn't how well you think you "understand the market" or how well you "play" it; the problem of "mudflation" is an inherent, built-in one. And i agree with you in that when new TS stuff requires old materials, the ones that "suffer" are those that are making the old items from those materials and the people who'd be willing to buy them. Yet, especially at lower levels, there's far more "cost effective" ways to substitute.
Mercs are bad tanks, bad healers, and bad DPS. Who cares what they cost. Who cares how much they cost. Invite a real player and things are much nicer. Even if the real player is 7-8 levels below you.
Clearly the OP cares, and those of us that commented care. If YOU truly don't care, then why bother posting? You post literally adds nothing to the conversation. I use mercs and I care how much they cost.
If you're actually using them to kill things. In that 250ish pp cost for 10 minutes of merc time, you can have killed 3 mobs and gotten one blue diamond that sells for over 300pp (plus whatever else drops)
Plat sinks are bad. They won't hurt the players with plenty of plat. They'll just hurt the new/returning players. Those players are already punished by having to use mercs until they find friends.
lol... yes... - nerf classes, reduce dps - make old content unplayable with casuals and fun classes (HAs) - raise mission difficulty (EoK end mission) and make it a dps race with a bought raid tank - then raise merc costs at the end? Besides they are pretty useless in RoS anyways... Yes, prevent every low performing classes or players from progression through content, be it the progression items or stats you get from progression. Shall I explain what the end result is? On me: I canceled all accounts now. Perhaps EQ changes with the next expansion, when old content is playable anymore, who knows. At moment this game is not worth the money. To get money is easy - like in real life - if you put a bit dedication and time into it and invest it properly. Farming old zones and getting tradeskills up to be able to sell stuff is easy but a long way to go. But if everything is build around paying money for getting stuff which is more and more closed behind a dps and elite race, it is simply stupid and no "game" for fun anymore. The end of the story is that most people buy Krono to sell it to afford things they normally don' get a hand on or pay for the Draught of the Craftsman in real money because the horrible failure rates eat the hard earned tradeskill items (which btw does not work properly either). I will not pay Krono for plat, sorry. And I don't want to pay money for a fraction of the game anymore. If old progression would be possible to complete but even that is gone now. This game is meanwhile - like many games - a fraud. It is called free to play but even if you have a gold account and don't invest much time into the most boring activity called raid (except perhaps from running AA-HAs all day or grinding only the whole day the same mobs to race to max level and AA) then this only more and more money - everything is designed in that way instead of having fun with it. This wouldn't be such a big problem if you get something worth for it. But meanwhile it is time to think about the usefulness of it. Compared to many other games this is really a joke. It is hell boring to play a game designed for raiders and plat-buyers which is more and more built on specialised dps racers with bought raid tanks instead of diversity, roleplaying, excitement about new zones or discovery of old zones and a sense of fascination with others. I even don't need to be sorry about the people which run with my box from time to time. I dragged them partly through EoK and a bit into RoS. But they are not online anymore because of the recent changes to the game. So i better race in real life again - I get more real money for it instead of paying for challenges which some really don't need Perhaps people think different if EQ will go down the drain again. They only know what they had when they have lost it - it seems something like that is needed in EQ urgently - and perhaps after useful changes it will make fun again too. EoK was great at start - it was the best expansion ever - and went down the drain after these mission nerfs and raising of difficulty which prevented to get the progression items. RoS was bad from the start. No chance without buying EoK ultrarare or having Raid Equipment or a ultrasolid group, putting much time into an ultraboring part of the game and wasting much precious time. So think about such suggestions - like the usual complains here in the forum which lead only to the nerf and changes which will cost this game the players who support it to a good degree and thanks for the fish.
Afaik, HA's will gain their accessibility back with next patch, making older progression easier again. I haven't heard anything abut EoK being made harder recently? nor heard anything about DBG selling raid-tanks? Back on topic: I mainly raid and group and rarely molo/solo, and I also have a hard time keeping up with the platsinks in this game. There is (almost)no plat in raiding, and in groups I only get 1/6 of the plat a boxer/molo'er/solo'er would get(in average). Upgrading raidgear will at least cost me 480k(velazul -> scaleborn ->Tier2), not to mention swapping type3 augs. Clearly, in order to afford this I will have to farm plat alone, as grouping is low income. If I farm in zones beyond RoF, I will need a merc to keep me alive. Increasing the merc cost will just extend my farm-time, and lets be honest: Farming plat alone is not the most entertaining thing Everquest can offer. I vote no, for increasing the merc-cost.
All semi-modern zones. I have over 600 diamonds and 500 blue diamonds in my bags right now that have dropped over the past while. (I can't recall when I last cleaned them out - but it's probably measured in months not weeks)
Part of the issue is RoS was released with no merchant loot on purpose. It has since been added, but the perception lingers. This expansion was released with some very significant plat sinks and no way for people to offset those sinks through normal play within it. Something I think was very short sighted.
I checked one of my around 150 toons at random... 13 blues and 8 regulars. So I do have a few. Along with 10 emeralds and 7 sapphires
If the price of mercs goes up. Then the prices in the bazaar will go up. The price of the items in game that a player needs to maintain a character increases the price they sell things for. If they don't need in game money for tradeskills, spells, etc... Then they won't need the extra cash and will sell items for cheaper. If the cost goes up, then it will increase what one needs. If you want mercs to be less viable for groups, then you have to give a bigger incentive to not have a merchant in group. An example would be give more experience to mercless groups. They already do this, but the xp bonus for having few players is not enough to notice or care about. Another trick would be to increase named spawn rate for full groups with all members present. Increasing merchandise cost would only have a detrimental effect and not help your cause.
