Why are Crowns Tradeable?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Brian4, Sep 12, 2018.

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  1. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

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    No at the moment i am not implying anything, i am just trying to to follow your reasoning.
    When you say COTO merchants you are talking about player owned vendors selling COTOs for gold, correct?
     
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  2. Woodchuck

    Woodchuck Avatar

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    Aye. Everyone knows what i’m talking about. They’re pretty much ubiquitous in the game:
    • Phil’s COTO mechants
    • Tatania’s COTO merchants
     
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  3. Lazlo

    Lazlo Avatar

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    Those vendors don't just sell. They are exchanges. A lot of their COTOs are coming from other players.
     
  4. Woodchuck

    Woodchuck Avatar

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    Okay. So my understanding is that COTO drops from mobs is rare.

    Are you implying that the amount of daily COTO turnover in the game is due to lots of COTOs being farmed by players in the game? And therefore, facilitating this huge COTO exchange in the game?

    Do COTOs drop often? How many COTOs can someone farm in 1 hour?
     
  5. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

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    I honestly don't deal in Cotos. So i am not privy to the best merchants for them in game. So, thanks for the info.

    Non the less i can come up with a couple of points that might explain why there are so many cotos in game.
    But again, non the less, i would say that this is another question for an economy deep dive if one should come up.

    That being said, here we go:

    1.) In the dark age of this game there where a ton of "buy x cotos and get y cotos as bonus" kind of sales
    2.) In the dark age of this game there where another ton of "buy x store creds and get y% on top" kind o0f sales
    3.) at some points in the not so far past a lof of players exchanged their SC for cotos because they expected to be transfred to the travian support and SC wouldn't transfer. So a lot of them changed them into Cotos. The transfer never happened in the end but i am quite sure a lot of ppl changed their SC to cotos before that info came out
    4.) I am pretty sure buying Cotos is in the top 3 sales during a stream as the 5$ minimum purchase. If you don't need to them you are going to sell them for gold
    5.) there are cotos as reward in the subscription. And that means same as 4.)
     
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  6. Steevodeevo

    Steevodeevo Avatar

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    note This has overlapped a bit with the discussions as I typed it.

    Surely COTOs are a very good thing?

    - Every coto 'burned' as its beautifully described above, or more specifically turned into IGG and the purchased coto used to buy cosmetics is revenue for PORT, about a $1.
    - Once you have your house and a few cosmetics, buying coto's online is very a discretionary practice and offers little concrete value in game.
    - linked to the point above, there isn't a lot you can usefully buy with cotos in-game other than to trade them with players for igg with which there is a great deal that can be done.
    - this creates an in game market of coto sales to 'burn' for igg for players who buy online and a market for cotos for players who can't afford or won't buy cotos online on principle, so that they can buy their houses and cosmetics.
    - buying from players has to be cheaper than buying from npc coto vendors for them to sell, so is vfm. This is also why big coto traders seem to have an endless supply, as they buy and sell cotos)
    - even if you buy loads of cotos online and trade huge amounts of cotos for igg to buy the best in-game weaps and armour on the market, the competitive benefits are marginal, especially if character development is low or neglected.

    I'm sure I haven;t covered every aspect of the revenue generation and gold sink aspects, but it's wins all round isn't it?
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2018
  7. kaeshiva

    kaeshiva Avatar

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    COTOs do not drop often. I actually have kept every COTO I have ever had drop, since persistence. I have over 7000 hours played doing a mix of activities (fighting, mining, crafting, deco, party, etc.)

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    I think there's like 3 on the floor too until I find where I'm gonna start putting em next.

    That's in over two years, playing pretty much every day. And I've got I dunno, 50? 60? Someone can count them if they want. So less than 1 a week, at any rate.


    As for why they're tradeable, I think its the core of the economy, so you can buy nice things with or without cash, as your budget dictates. Its a way to make premium items accessible to active players who perhaps don't have the same financial meals. It all comes back round to Portalarium getting paid even if there's many steps between that and the final use of the COTO.
     
  8. Selene

    Selene Avatar

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    People with pledges (especially high level ones) ended up with a ton of COTOs from their pledges. They are also found in bundles and the new optional monthly subscription. When store credit was ended (and the remainder in poeple's accounts changed to COTOs) it created another big surge in the total amount of COTOs in the world. There are just A LOT of them that people have. I know I have over 300, and I've never purchased COTOs outright from the store. I just have them from pledges, sale bonuses, subscriptions, and etc.
     
  9. Steevodeevo

    Steevodeevo Avatar

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    Hi mate :) forgive me if I misunderstand, but Im thinking there's a detail missing here....

    COTOs pour into the game all the time from online and offline purchases by players. Very few drop, this is not how they get in game, it is these purchases made from Port. In game coto sellers buy and sell them and assist with the 'burning' of cotos, converting them to igg which are needed for meaningful in game commerce. Every time a coto is sold for gold and then used to buy a house, cosmetics, costumes, or other non essential stuff it gets burned allowing Port to sell more.
     
  10. Nelzie

    Nelzie Avatar

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    Who knows? Maybe they have other vendors spread out with COTOs as an option to sell to, for less Gold, like 3k a pop and people sell them COTOs for quick cash, they then toss them up for what I've seen as the going rate of 3500 gold (I don't know what they buy or sell COTOs for, myself.)

    Maybe they are both heavy grinders and generally have shed loads of IGG that they leverage to purchase large quantities of COTOs at some discount, maybe they are wealthy people who do enjoy lavishing COTOs onto less financially fortunate players because... they really want to see this game continue for decades.

    I mean... I'm no Millionaire yet.. but, if I won the Lottery to the tune of multiple millions, I would certainly toss many, many tens of thousands into this game, not for my personal benefit, but to ensure that others could enjoy this game as well. Heck, if I had enough of THAT kind of scratch, I'd probably reach out to RG directly and offer a several million dollar infusion for some kind of return.
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2018
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  11. Steevodeevo

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    Which (the glut) brings down the coto traders in game prices, win win.
     
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  12. Lazlo

    Lazlo Avatar

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    All I'm saying is that the COTOs on those vendors are coming from lots of players and not just the owner of the particular vendor. I would imagine that most of them are probably originally purchased from port, but by lots of different people, so not really anything strange about it afaik.
     
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  13. CatweazleX

    CatweazleX Avatar

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    COTOS are bought from Port. and brought to the game by the RMT guys. The earned gold is sold to other players for $. I think they will earn some $ this way.
    However each COTO (except the few dropped ones) need to be bought from Port. If you buy one COTO or another one and you get it for igg later, does not make a difference. Port. has gotten the money for this COTO.

    For taxes COTOS are exchanged at fixed rate of 3500 gold. As long people pay more than 3500 gold per COTO as long COTOs are moving from subscription (or any other source) to the COTOs sellers. Of course they re-sell the COTOs for a little more as they have bought them.

    Also i have seen empty COTO vendors, also Phil has times the COTO vendor is sold out.

    It is a good thing that COTOs are tradeable. When everything is buy able for COTOs from the Add-On store in game it would be even better.
     
  14. Woodchuck

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    Thanks all for your input!

    Howeverz, my woodchuck nose is very good and still smells somethings fishies with this whole COTOs thing.

    Given the current way the SotA COTO market is operating, and if one plays long enough it will not take long for one to realize the cheapest way to get COTOs is not to buy from Portalarium — but to buy in-game gold in the RMT market, and then use this to purchase COTOs from the player COTO vendors.

    So, given this “transaction workflow” the only way for Portalarium to see any of the RMT monies being transacted is if they themselves are the sellers of in-game gold for real money.

    Is this not a reasonable hypothesis?

    And therefore my last question is: who among you are Portalarium employees playing this game as agents to stoke and manipulate the market?

    Thank You very much and good day!

    [​IMG]

    Edit: The Ends!
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2018
  15. DavidDC

    DavidDC Programmer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Those are people like boo de lada that buy coto without knowing they are cheaper in game or just want to get some gold without paying a player directly then sell them to those vendor. You can easily know how much coto titania sell in a month by visiting her website shroudoftheavatar.net and check her profile. Sorry but this is accusation for something you dont know/understand. Or maybe you just want their secret to making some profit ;)
     
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  16. Woodchuck

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    see my final “accusation” :)

    Edit: That is why i said if you play this game long enough, you will eventually realize buying COTOs directly from Portalarium is not the best way (if you are seeking to get COTOs inexpensively).
     
  17. Mylady ‘Gin Gin Darlin

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    A bit off topic here, but just wanted to say how much I love your use of Coto to decorate like you have.
     
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  18. Steevodeevo

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    Same :) wish i'd thought of that!
     
  19. Nelzie

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    There will be a point where if everyone just bought COTOs... the prices of COTOs for IGG would rise drastically so much that people would just start buying them direct from Port.

    I mean... if the market for COTOs goes up THAT much... I might just sell the 9 that I receive per month for IGG and then use that to pay for rent AND still end up having a pile of IGG left over. Somehow, I doubt the market is going to become THAT over saturated.
     
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  20. Brian4

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    LOL Devilcut you don't understand my post. I DID buy from Portalarium now I know there is no reason too. I also do not play the game for any profit what so ever I play it because it is just that a game. And I feel Portalarium needs more ways of making money and not making items for people to make money on

    I reread this i thought you were talking to me instead it was woodchuck i appoloigize
     
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