"Player driven economy" Tradeable golden crowns sold in the addon store.

If your gear costs 20k-30k per piece for the expensive stuff to make, or even more with enchanting and mastercrafts taken into consideration, I personally think it's safe to say that the price people would be willing to pay to make sure that their gear can be fixed would be equivalent, or just under the cost of armor. And that cost is going to be whatever the most expensive piece of gear is, otherwise people would just craft the most expensive piece over and over and over. I spent 150k on 7 crowns yesterday and was quite happy with paying that so I don't have to deal with gear downtime and resource gathering.

 

Currently, NPC's will buy Obsidian Crowns for 2500 gold.

When players attempt to jack up the price of Obsidian Crowns in-game for 20-25k (as they are right now) that will drive players to BUY THEM from the store. Which in effect will drive the price of coins down in the in-game player market. Eventually a price will be reached somewhere between what the NPC will pay for it (2500 gold) and what players are selling it for. If the devs need to they can raise this price to help undercut the in-game market.

The bottom line is, if you have crafted gear that you make (which has nothing to do with Obsidian Crowns) you can either get gold to buy crowns in game or sell the directly for crowns yourself without EVER buying them from the add-on store.

The player economy is completely in tact, for those that understand it.

 

The drop rate of these coins should be achievable for most of us.. and that will likely be tweaked to keep us all happy.. and keep money in the Dev's pockets.. players = cash to the devs, drive us away, and their obsidian coins will become useless. I am sure the devs do not intend us all to be running around with npc armour (I'll be picking up a set, you bet ). For the record, I will not be purchasing any of these on the add-on store, and plan to only use them as drops or purchased/traded from others. I am not a big connoisseur of the add-on store, so they would not be missing my business, nor is that meant as any sort of threat/ultimatum.

 

Give it time... It'll probably happen.

 

I do understand that they need money,

I 100% get where you're coming from, but the thing is this splits players into 2 tiers now. Those who grind and play, and those who purchase and play and have an advantage over everybody else. You just stated exactly what will hurt the economy and hurt people's playing experience, and that is, driving people to the addon store to be viable. It's inevitable that people will be driven to purchase crowns, because really NOBODY likes to grind for hours and hours and hours, but when you do, you've achieved something and you feel accomplished. To see somebody else come along and spend real money and have more than what I do instantly with all the work I put in is disheartening to say the least. I've picked up 3 crowns in all my farming since the beginning of the release and I've put in far too much time when I looked at my steam hours count. Someone spends 85$ and they can instantly have more money than I've made this whole release, be set with week long buffs for months if they wanted, and there is ZERO downtime for those players. It's just a constant xp grind. The vendor price for gold crowns is laughable. Spend 20 minutes in any zone really and you've made that 2500. It's worth far more than 2500. I could vendor my suped up long bow for 175 gold, but it doesn't mean its worth 175 gold.

Edit: All this being said, I completely understand that they need funding, and I understand they need to come up with a way to do it, but I strongly disagree with going down this path. Once we start down this path, it's hard to turn from it, and it's just a downhill battle until the game dies. (That's been my experience in any game I've played that added an option to purchase things that gave benefits that would make one player superior to another.

 

What about the people that can't do that though? What about people like me that might be able to do that over many months but DO NOT feel a sense of accomplishment from it?

I never played EQ or WOW for a reason. Because treadmills are for chumps. I'm here to roleplay and pvp and my pvp is really meant to be very meaningful and not an arena sport. So for me the mix of Time played and Money spent is perfect because it allows me to find the right balance. I'm not made out of money, I'm not a rich person. Honestly, I don't even intend to use any of the potions though, I'll be saving my crowns for stuff I actually care about.

I understand that. But there has to be a balance. Not only for the sake of funding the game (remember all the time people play doesn't pay for anything) but so that people with jobs and families and responsibilities are able to compete as much as you can. Do you think they feel satisfied coming home from work, taking care of their kids, and getting a few hours a week to play only to get wtfowned by some guy that spent his whole life grinding out mobs? The answer is no, they don't. So it goes both ways.

Yes, I agree that the exchange rate and the drop rate are not correct. I also think that what you can buy with crowns is not that big of a deal at the moment. But then I'm not really trying to have a monopoly on the best crafted items. I think what has to happen is that the devs will need to balance out the economy over the next two months before the final wipe and we'll have a much better idea of how easy it is to obtain a crown in-game or out. I believe the laws of supply and demand will curve much of what you're seeing right now. I think by the end of the month you'll see the gold prices drop a ton.

 

I really hope you're right. This is one of those circumstances where I wouldn't be happy if I was right, and there are lots of people that are in the same boat as me. =/

 

If they over sell Obsidian Crowns in the add-on store, then they will be on every vendor for super cheap prices. People might use them for potions, but then they're gone. So sure, some people can afford to pay $85 for every 100 Crowns, I suppose some might even spend an unlimited amount of money for that. But all that does (when they sell them or use them) is lower the overall value of them. It's a market that will crash unless the devs manage it well.

Either way, I really don't think you have to worry about it so long as there are no combat modifiers, direct sale of resources, or they stop letting people obtain crowns in-game. I think people that want a robust player economy should be telling the devs all the cool equipment and weapons they want to be able to craft in-game.

Then we need to see the regional economy and the astrological effects start to impact crafting. I'm really excited about the whole thing. I know there's going to be a lot of extremes that happen over the next few months, but I'm very confident that it will all work itself out. Hang in there.

 

@BDF, Well, I hope the model isn't instead of making the game less grindy, lets keep it grindy, but then allow people pay not to grind...

 

Yeah, I get it.

I think the model is, TIME = MONEY. That's something that exists regardless of what Portalarium does, btw. They're just monetizing it and attempting to balance it out more in the process.

 

I agree these crowns should be removed from the store. Come on devs lets not stir up the PTW crowd PLEASE!!

 

That's the model for every MTX game ever created, @redfish

 

MTX game?

 

I understand the need to make a profit however I would have liked/preferred and thought it best for the long-term health of the game if the Obsidian Crowns that are bought with real money to have a value of 0 in game - that way the benefits are still there without the economic ramifications, which are numerous. That way players can't simply buy gold (and in essence buy everything).

As is, what stops a rich player from single-handedly selling 1.3 million gold worth of Obsidian Crowns (only $1000) dollars. What would this do to the economy? Would the 20,000 gold I accumulate be able to buy the resources/armor I need when this guy is buying them all up for 3x the going rate? Would I rather have Prosperity tools or 250,000 gold? Would I rather have my Lord pledge or 2.1 million gold? Couldn't a player just buy a ton of Crowns at final wipe and then buy every lot deed available before anyone else could save up enough gold to do so? So many questions.........

I'm just not sure with the choices of...
1.) Sell the Crowns and allow them to be sold for in-game gold
2.) Sell the Crowns and not allow them to be sold for in-game gold
...that you would pick the former...

How is option #1 better???

 

I agree. Currently, i have no problem selling these to earn capital for the game's development. . but after Final Wipe. .I hope this gets shut down. This to me is the equivalent of the Workers Compensation potions that were sold on Archeage's cash shop. You could swipe the Visa, then sell the pots for gold in game. . .and the people that did that always ended up having the best gear, and subsequently were impossible to kill in PVP. Let's not go down that road after final wipe . . it was the secondary reason why I quit playing Archeage. The first was Trion. If we stay on this road after final wipe. I will sell my account and quit SOTA. I will not compete with someone's Visa.

 

Looks to me like the golden crowns are basically going to be a form of premium currency like you get in many free to play games. Not a fan but whatever.

 

I get it, and this was part of the rationale for putting lot deeds on add-on. I don't think its the whole rationale.

But, whether its worth paying money for time depends on how fun the game is. So, for instance, I was allowed to instantly be top level in Ultima V, I would refuse it, since then I'm essentially paying to not have fun. So, the whole argument that people would pay for time suggests a lack of confidence in how fun a game is.

For instance, you said this --

If I pay to win a fight, that's just boring. It doesn't say much for the quality of the gameplay, which must be even more boring than paying to win a fight.

 

I for one definitely hope this is a test and it flops before the final wipe.

 

I don't think people are going to be in a position to pay to win a fight. Unless they pay a group of people to follow them around as bodyguards.

Combat is not very sophisticated though, it hasn't been since the beginning. I've been saying it since the beginning. There's still fun to be had though. I intend to have fun. Right now I can't see where Obsidian Crowns will be much of a factor in that. Unless there's an experience/skill gain potion. I hope there is, I hate grinding.

 

So if people can't pay to win a fight, then how can they pay to match someone who has spent time in the game grinding? Not sure the point of your original time vs. money analogy if you don't believe its possible.