Thoughts to stimulate the economy

I don't agree with your perception of what's going on. You are talking like your opinion is the absolute truth. It is an opinion. Portalarium devs have only 2 hands. Many things they will get to to. All this doom and gloom on a game in development. *Sighs*

 

There is actually some basic ways they can not only make the economy viable, they can make the game significantly better.
Randbo posted the basis of something me and him were talking about, and anything along those lines would pretty much do it.
But *shrug* id find it pretty hard to belive the guys up stairs dont have a plan for the economy.
Think they just dont like sharing riht now lol

 

I have to agree with @Mac2

Some people always stating you can be self sufficient and often with that statement comes a second one.
There's nothing to do but grind.

1. i missed to get all recipes when they can be explored
2. to be self sufficient it takes a many hours of playtime, I spend around 500 and feel like beginning mid level
3. For people who just grind and have many hours a day doing "serious" business it seems to be true,
but the casual players especially in the beginning have tons of content and aren't self sufficient, not even once in the position to upkeep their costs.
I love it to be not easy!

Some people need to see through a casual players eyes and seem to forget that playing 5+ hours a day and grind isn't "normal".
Those who achieve endgame fast can use their time for testing, finding bugs, help other players, start events and should not expect the endgame content is polished or even in the game.
If people tend to rush through games content just to max out they needn't wonder if they ran out of content in an early access alpha, beta phase of a game!

They have already announced that selling things to NPC Vendors will become profitable.

 

That's why I'm not playing much, I'm waiting until everything gets sorted

 

I even cannot play much
Single patent, 9h Job, 2 dogs, SotA

 

The 5% chance on the last comes in somewhere around 60 skill level I believe. But to do all 10, 5 enchant and 5 masterwork at skill level 100, you have a .13% chance of succeeding at making a shield.

To be sure that you just got a generic shield with that level of MW and Enchants you better budget 14,566,275. 14 Million Gold. If you see it on a vendor for 20,000 or even 100,000 snap it up!

To make it with all the things you like is going to be way more, I don't even know how to calculate that.

 

At grandmaster mw or enchanting, I only have a 14% chance on the 4th, 45% chance on the third, 83% chance on the second, 95% chance on the first. To be able to get the 5th is probably 130 in the skill, if not more. It might be about 8 mil to get to 120, might be looking at about 24 mil to get to 130. How long do you think it will take someone to get 24 mil producer? And to have that in all enchanting and masterwork skills so x4 probably 100 mil. Most people get to gm, them move on to a new skill. The first people who focus their efforts into getting to 130 in one of those skills, is going to be very rare and sought after for work.

Yes, to get all the things I want is going to be TONS of work. So, is everyone going to put forth that kind of effort to be self sufficient? I already know players who do not even bother with crafting or gathering. They know it takes a lot of time, and that takes away from adventure exp time. I am just trying to point out that everyone will not be self sufficient.

 

Yes, a ridiculous scenario is hard. Does anyone NEED that level of specific gear? No. The fact is most people can be like me, and spend a couple weeks crafting a full set of armor and weapons, and be able to maintain them without ever buying anything. That is what 99% of the players are going to do. No need to waste 100s of thousands of coins to get that specific armor that gets you a 1% better chance to hit, that will wear out in a couple weeks.

 

Hmmm, wonder why players keep coming to me to make gear for them when they can make it themselves? Could it be that many players can't make everything? More then half my guild cannot make the gear they need, I know some high level players that cannot make the gear they need. So, if I ask 100 players, 99 of them should be able to make their own gear you say? I call BS on that. Lets go into owls head and start asking players if they can craft everything they use, before we give some statistic based on your assumption.

 

The economy bears out what I am saying. There is very little trading going on. If there is anything someone cannot craft for themselves, I guarantee they can craft it given a couple hours of effort(with the exception of the super specialized ridiculous scenario you provided).

 

Why do I buy a car in real life?

1. My car broke down.
2. I need/want a car.
3. I can't make my own car.
4. I have money to buy a car.

Generally all of these things must be true for me to buy a car and the economy to benefit.
If one or two of these aren't true, I don't buy a car and the economy suffers.

What do we have in SOTA?

1. Most stuff doesn't break. (A chair last till servers shut down)
2. Most things aren't wanted/needed. (No level cap means I can add skills indefinitely and complete game with crappy gear)
3. I can make most things myself. (Again no level cap)
4. I don't have the gold to buy it.

Possible solutions? (Take it easy on me please as I'm trying to help. )

1. Make everything decay like gear does.
2. Crafted gear should make more of a difference so I want to buy it.
3. Encourage specialization so I can't make it myself and need to buy from my neighbor. (A level cap maybe)
4. We all need more gold to buy stuff. (See below)*

* Complicated economic stuff. To do this the richest in-game must be addressed. The game must introduce ways for the top gold earners to destroy their to get it out of the economy so the developers can ease the gold squeeze while keeping inflation down. If big gold earning adventurers buy high end gear from dedicated crafters that in turn buy fuels from NPC's, then gold is destoyed. But it's not happening enough. And the other methods aren't sufficient. Real estate taxes only target land owners, and only some of them at that. Fuels only target crafters. Recipes only target new crafters. Deed raffles are temporary and optional. And NPC consumables mostly stink.

Just some half-baked thoughts.

 

Im in agreement that everyone crafting everything and high levels not making a difference is a big factor. They are about to make steps this next quarter to make specializing more benificial (somone with 150 leather armor masterwork makes better armor that gm leather masterworker) since it takes a ton of dedication and time to get that far.

Also i hear tell the gathering skills are getting a similar treatment. I love that ffa skill approach but i dont think i wouldve minded a skillcap of somekind on crafting skills

 

In a couple hours, they can get the ability to make 3 enchant 3 masterwork gear LMAO, are you kidding me. Please show me how to farm 2.4 mil producer exp, and all the mats needed for that in a couple hours. The economy bears the mark of, its hard to make coin, buy regs pay taxes and still have enough left over to buy gear. As I said, start asking people if they can craft their own gear, seriously just ask people. You will find its a lot less then 99 out of 100 can.

 

ahhh aye.. the casual player geteth the shaft yet again... however.... on the other hand.. the exploiters will get the "nod wink pass"

 

That level of enchantment is a waste of time and resources. The benefit of the enchantment is not worth a fraction of the time it takes to gather what is necessary to make it. The only part you are right is, is the very real, very boring grind of getting the mats necessary to make the items. Everyone I know in our guild makes their own gear. It is so frickin easy (caveat of gathering mats)

 

If 3/3 is a waste, what does everyone in you guild use 1/1?? I guess if you consider 1/1 gear satisfactory, you probably do have many in you guild that can make their own garbage. So the extra 45 stats point I get on my gear is not worth it? Makes my stun rate a lot higher, make the damage of my earth and hp a lot higher makes the damage of my fire, death water and sun a lot higher and increases my focus a lot and my crit rate. Come fight me and I will show you how useless my gear is . I use o pot of preservation and have my preservation skills at 80, have not coto a piece of gear ever since I got the skills to 80 and use the o pot. I still have the carapacian piece A guildy gave to me in week one of persistence, still have not cotoed it. Want to come to talk to some of my guildmates and ask them how many can make their own gear?

 

Personally I think the best way to stimulate the economy is more players, more players will come when the game is done. But I also think these things can help too (more fun = more players):

1) I agree, lets have equipment wear out faster.
2) Let increase the total variety of NPC opponents (lots of cool monsters) LOTS!
3) How about really fun town sieges? Perhaps monsters actually IN town and they have to be fought off by all the players before town life restores to normal
4) I like the idea of a some type of restrictions on crafting so one player cant possibly master EVERY skill. (there would be many ways to do this)
5) How about some unpredictable events in zones, for eg, lets have a really tough 4 scull monster show up in a 2 scull zone on RARE occasions.
6) More secret doors, secret puzzles , traps, including really cool thieving skills

 

I'd like to understand more about regional economies and how they're supposed to work. I just can't conceptualize what a regional economy might look like once everything is ready... From Central Brittany, the only areas that require any sort of player skill to get to are Drachvald and South Paladis. Even then, the effort only exists if the player doesn't use a Teleport/Recall Scroll and instead chooses to navigate a Control Point.

I still think that divorcing single player and friends modes from the multiplayer economy would create conditions where players might warm up to the idea of cooperation through trade... but no one ever seems to like that idea, so I'm stuck not understanding what a regional economy is supposed to be.

Everyone can harvest, gather, and craft unlimited amounts of anything/everything practically on demand with the online modes as they are. Homes and decorations don't decay or break... so really the only consumables are armor, weps, and foods - and foods presently only work in non-combat mode. I don't think wearables decay or break unless you go into combat mode either - so, there's that to consider as well.

 

I would say charity is a great way to stimulate the economy especially with new players. This is a big focus in my guild Organized Chaos. We mentor new players help them get into starter gear and get them well equipped with the knowledge of how to play the game for free. They in turn enjoy their experience of the game and then feel empower to adventure and are able to then turn around and buy higher end gear or pursuit crafting to make gear. The top 1% will never consume as much as the 99%. The biggest problem with any economy is people that hoard wealth. If we make massive amounts of gold and high end gear and then sit alone in our many houses and do nothing the economy will reflect the lack of movement of money and the economy will stagnate. While I can not force the rest of you to live by my socialist views I certainly can live them personally through charity. I set out each day to give back to the people around me. I set aside time to work with new players helping them grind experience faster so they can enjoy more content in the game and answer any questions they might have. I then spend time clearing higher end content to collect high value resources and gold and then pass those on to crafters within my alliance to turn into items to help new players. There are quite a few little things players can do to stimulate the player economy such as buying player grown reagents instead of buying them from a NPC vendor. There have been many mentions of making the game cost more such as making gear wear out faster or other modes of adding costs to playing. This is not a good solution as it disproportionately targets the poorer players/casual players. This will have no effect on the 1% as they can either buy the gear at any gold price or make it as they can easily get the needed resources. This will however make quite a bit of the game more tedious and out of reach for the majority of players while only slightly benefiting if at all crafters. Sure it will cause the 1% to have to buy their gear more often but the majority of players will simply decide not to buy the higher gear at all or settle for much lower gear which would decrease the economic activity. If you increase the cost of gold needed for basic playing any more players will not want to join the game. It will make an already tedious start of the game into a nightmare for many new players. If you don't understand that the gold cost is already high for many new/casual players please go read the forums more or talk to new players. Please stop basing your views on the stimulating the economy based on high level end game players/content. That is not the majority and is terrible for new players/casual player/average player. There is no justification for a server reset of any kind. It will not make the game better in any way and likely would do the opposite. Players have used the mechanics in the game to level. This has helped the devs figure out what needs to be adjusted and in many cases they have done so. If it was a true exploit the players have been banned. There is not some huge massive disproportionate level of 60+ gm players. It's a very small number of players and for the most part they are very nice people which I have had the pleasure of traveling with. They have spent thousands of hours in the game playing. It's not like the game just magically instantly GMed them. They are also for the most part happy to share their experiences and best practices if you ask them. The average play will never be able to keep up with players that spend thousands of hours in the game and they should not be expected to but the average player should be able to enjoy the content of the game with out the price of entry in the game being raised any higher.