Another Idea to Reduce Inflation

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Keffin, Sep 20, 2022.

  1. Keffin Member

    If you are really done, finished gone, why are lingering around saying nothing will work, the sky is falling. Try to be part of the solution instead of a doomsayer.
  2. Dude Well-Known Member

    Sometimes the truth hurts. None of the ideas I've seen do any sort of cost/benefit analysis. They are all only good. Most focus on the upside of how new players would be able to more easily integrate into the game, while ignoring the much more daunting tasks these mythical new players would have to face in order to be competitive. None of them look at the cost of people leaving the game or people who would never be able to even start. Your idea would eliminate the most likely pool of new players (decorators), while simultaneously punishing people who like to solo, people who like to decorate, and tradeskillers. All of that while having a negligible impact on the economy. Like I said, it's a bad idea.
    Tkia likes this.
  3. Keffin Member

    How would it eliminate or prevent them, if they have a weekly quest available to them to do what focuses on what they like doing most?
  4. Dude Well-Known Member

    Oh that's right, I forgot to add in that many of these ideas require coding in some new thing that the dev team doesn't have any time for. Accept that the economy is what it is and move on.
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  5. Keffin Member

    Thanks for your contribution to the solution you have been most helpful lol
  6. Gharyn Well-Known Member

    Agree with this 100%. The wealthy people in here that have tens to hundreds of billions of plat will never be affected by any kind of plat sink, and they are the ones who drive the inflation.

    There is no solution that would not affect most players in a negative way and drive more people from the game.

    That being said, it's not hard to build up a few million plat in your bank account which is more than enough to cover all your basic needs. If you want the expensive stuff you'll have to work for it. It's part of the game.
    Rosyposy, Twyla and Dude like this.
  7. gambitak Well-Known Member

    Yes, it does hurt us bottom players. But implicitly telling us to "suck it up buttercup" isn't a good strategy to attract and keep new people. Also telling us to not talk about the problem isn't a good way to go, either. I'm a frustrated customer. These forums are the OFFICIAL way to talk about in-game problems, issues, suggestions, stories, fun times, et al.

    As I've leveled, I've absolutely needed more powerful spells. And, due to RNG, they drop so infrequently, that I've found myself gimped and unable to do even green or aggro gray areas. So, I was told that I might find some good upgrades in the bazaar. And, sure enough I did. But, and here's the big one, those same people who are phenomenally wealthy are charging buttloads for these RNG-dropped spells/combat arts scrolls, shinies, et al. that make it unaffordable for people like me.

    I don't like the crafting system, so I don't craft. That leaves either RNG or purchasing. Both are extremely problematic for those who start off with pretty much nothing.

    As I see it, there are several options:

    1. Keep playing and hope that the RNG gods grant me the sufficient spells/combat arts eventually;
    2. Say, "Forget this!" and blow this popsicle stand, as it were, and let you wealthy people enjoy your wealth and game;
    3. Attempt to engage the community to come up with some ideas, if nothing else; and/or
    4. Spend a ton of RL cash to get into the wealthy area, and then buy the massive upgrades I need to enjoy the game in its entirety.

    Nobody buys a dinner to be told by the restaurant not to eat their favorite part, without paying more for it, even if their favorite part is sitting right in front of them. As a paying customer, I'm frustrated. As a business owner, I understand that customers who voice their frustrations are an opportunity to address their concerns. It's the customers who are frustrated and walk away without communicating that I wish I could reach, so I'm glad to engage in a dialogue when the ones who buy my products are willing to do so. I figure, rather than me taking Option 2 from above, that I'd attempt to see what can be done, if anything.
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  8. Prayos Well-Known Member

    Disclaimer: This is my own personal experience as a developer and may not actually reflect DB dev mentality at all.

    The problem is that even if the devs WANTED to do something about it, they may NOT be able to do so. As was stated above, it's about time. It's about return on investment. Devs themselves, while some may have a small amount of influence, do not make the decisions on what to work on and what to implement. Most things like this issue, or fixing tech debt, or anything else like that aren't really seen as a good ROI of the dev's time. Not when they could be working on the next big thing (which is just a few months away if they keep the pattern).

    Put even more simply, companies want devs to work on things that are going to bring in money. "Fixing the economy", while seen as a good thing in the players eyes, isn't one of those things. So it's priority is almost nil.
  9. Keffin Member

    I completely understand what you are saying and can relate to being a cog in the machine of something and not having a lot of control on the priority of resources.
    The way I see the MMO genre, is they are like communities, and people will travel to communities that are better than the ones they left. If hyperinflation is a staple of the MMO genre, the one that can fix that problem may pull other players from other games or communities. This would be a good ROI.
  10. Zacknafen New Member

    i still think the best way would be to turn krono Heirloom and get those out of the economy its the Krono business that build lot of player`s and ruined the economy ,the Krono was intended to allow non-credit card user to be able to use game currency to pay for their game not the inverse..
    Twyla likes this.
  11. Dude Well-Known Member

    Kronos don't generate plat. They do, however, generate income for the company, so not likely to ever see any change in them.
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  12. Avirodar Well-Known Member

    Krono was introduced so that SOE could get in on the profits from gold/plat selling, and simultaneously make 3rd party gold/plat selling sites effectively redundant. It was not introduced so the folks without credit cards could play. That was just a side bonus for a small handful of folks.

    Krono was always intended to be a fully tradable and resalable commodity, it even declared such on the announcement slide.
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  13. gambitak Well-Known Member

    I remember when SOE was trying to come up with a way to deal with the 3rd party sites that sold plat and accounts. I wonder how far or close to the reality of the game economy is to what they had planned.
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  14. Avirodar Well-Known Member


    I do not believe SOE had any plan for EQ2's economy. They just wanted to cash in on the demand for buying in-game coin using real world money. It worked.
    Dude likes this.
  15. Sweety D Well-Known Member

    I don't have the answer to fixing the economy, after all, I am one of the players with ungodly amounts of Plat. However, things may be slowly improving. I have 18 years of wealth saved up and I have sold some Krono and here is what I have seen:

    As we know the broker is now limited to 50m plat transactions, and while that has resulted in pushing Krono sales to the chat, it has also GREATLY lowered the price of Krono. On the Maj Dul server, Krono went from 2-3 BILLION (on the broker) to around 250 million (sold in chat). To back up this claim, I sold 2 krono 5 minutes ago. That a major difference. I suspect in time that price will continue to drop. The trickle down effect takes time, but it does give me hope. For the sake of the game, but to my own detriment, I hope the prices go down more.

    As for the OP's idea about making guild halls and high end homes rent higher, I don't think this will help. You could charge me 1 million plat for my home every month, I would pay it without batting an eye. All this would do is hurt new players that have less money. It would also push out players that can't afford (or choose not) to buy Krono.
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  16. Avirodar Well-Known Member


    It all depends on how you measure improvement.

    Before the 50 million broker limit, a Krono seller was able to spread their Krono listings across multiple servers with relative ease. These listings would remain active at prices the seller dictates. Checking/maintaining these listings was a relatively low maintenance procedure. It is no surprise that Krono prices were high, as this system gave a distinct advantage to the (re)sellers.

    After the 50 million broker limit was put in place, attempting to sell a Krono for over 50 million requires manually hawking the item on public chat channels, hoping to find someone who is paying attention and interested. These conditions obliterate the size of the available market audience for the sale of a commodity, and greatly increases the effort required to sell Krono. It's no surprise the Krono prices have dropped.

    The 50 million broker cap was a win for reducing Krono prices for potential buyers. But what about everything else? All of the plat is still in the game. The effect of all the plat in circulation still exists. Based on this, I would make the case that for people who ONLY care about being able to buy Krono for less plat, it is a win. For everyone else, it is SSDD.

    Maybe it is time for a new currency in Norrath. A currency where every single coin has a unique ID. DPG could automate regular checks for any duplicate IDs, and instantly freeze trading on accounts holding duped coins. Existing Plat hoards would become irrelevant, making prior dupes irrelevant. Cheaters would easily be detected and dealt with, making any future duping have no lasting effect on the economy. If you are genuinely worried about new players and those who are less well-off, I am sure you would put your full support behind something like that.
    Twyla likes this.
  17. Bobbun New Member

    Gambitak: As a fellow "bottom player", I hope you won't mind if I share my perspective. I recognize that different players have different experiences, but based on the other thread in this forum that you started ("Inflation, a way to perhaps get..."), it seems likely that you're not playing near the top of the game, and hence your experience shouldn't be that different from mine, save that your expectations are different.

    For the record, my main character is a 99 fury, 100 tailor, which is about as far as I can go since I have yet to purchase an expansion pack. I started and stopped playing previously before the first xpac was released, and was around level 40 when I returned, with no more than a couple of plat to my name. I have never had more than 2000p on all characters combined. I have used the loyalty merchant for plat three times (1500p total).

    I have never "needed" more than apprentice, since I'm sticking to solo content. Unlike you, I do craft (have nine crafters, one of each class), so upgrading to journeyman is trivial. I seldom do it, though. I do target spells that I think are more useful when I visit knowledge/upgrade. After level 90, my stats inflated significantly, and at 99 I can absolutely wreck yellow-con solo content with apprentice spells. I make no claims about how effective I would be vs. group content, because I'm playing the game as a solo game. Presumably not all that effective, but by comparison if it's just you and your girlfriend playing then you don't constitute a full group and probably shouldn't be trying to.

    Crafting helps some. Mostly at levels that are a multiple of ten or just one or two levels above. Most of my gear does not come from crafting, though. It comes from questing. Alternatively, just a couple of runs through agnostic dungeons (I wouldn't repeat them ad nauseum as some do... what a boring way to play!) will give a nice boost at those levels. I did get a massive boost at level 98, as phantom leather gear is exceptionally good compared to what came before.

    Or just reset your expectations. You define what you want out of the game. Not Daybreak, not your guildies, not your groupmates. Make sure your experience is compatible with the gameplay expectation you're hoping for. If there's some sort of fundamental mismatch, then you absolutely should move on to something else.

    Here's the real problem with the inflated state of the game, as demonstrated by me: I have no incentive to get involved with other players. The original Everquest was hugely successful because it encouraged social behavior, and people brought their friends, their co-workers, etc., to participate. The platinum chase is something I won't bother with, and to the extent it's necessary at the top end of the game it represents a barrier that I refuse to surmount. For me this is a non-participatory game. And it will finally die if it continues that way indefinitely for every new and returning player who comes along.
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  18. Celestia Well-Known Member

    I see we’re still making threads about a discussion that has been had to death. But hey, if we’re going to keep beating this corpse, I will say it:

    Making guild halls more expensive is one thing, but prestige houses having rent on top of buying them for real money is ridiculously stupid. I don’t know if everyone would leave because they don’t decorate, but the game would suffer.

    Someone a while back said putting plat requirements into getting celestial abilities, mount training, merc training, etc would be a great idea for them to help the system go down, and I agree. But the problem there is Daybreak loses more potential income.

    In the end, it’s probably not ever going to go away or be completely fixed, so I don’t see the point in still making new threads about it, BUT to each their own.
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  19. Avirodar Well-Known Member

    I agree. It would be so nice if EQ2 had some form of in-game economy management and planning. It never has. If it did, these threads and posts would not keep popping up, a win for all involved.

    I also am inclined to agree that prestige or store purchased player housing should not be subject to inflation upkeep adjustments, if they had no upkeep costs thus far. Anything that had upkeep is fair game.
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  20. Celestia Well-Known Member

    I just wish that they would merge all the different in game economy stuff into one sub category or something. It’s getting to where people are bringing this subject up every week or so and it’s driving me nuts now.