Why do NPC's pay so much for Ectoplasmic Residue?

Ectoplasm (from the Greek ektos, meaning "outside", and plasma, meaning "something formed or molded") is a term coined by Charles Richet to denote a substance or spiritual energy "exteriorized" by physical mediums. Ectoplasm is said to be associated with the formation of spirits. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ectoplasm_(paranormal)

Some NPC's will pay 30 gold for something that seemingly can't be used in crafting recipes or as a spell component. So why are they paying so much for this?

Will Avatars one day be able to animate undead using this as a component? Is there a dark secret around this item that we have yet to uncover? Will there ever be a reason NOT to sell this to NPC's?

 

It is/was part of a bounty quest from Owl's Head. You used to have to talk to the captain of the guard first.. now he just 'authorizes' merchants to pay you more for it. I'm sure it will eventually have a purpose.

 

Animal Hides, Ectoplasmic Residue, Silver Ore, and Mystic Graff Gems used to be worth more at certain merchants, but somewhere around build 270, it was normalized so all merchants gave the higher amount.

 

They pay what the Quest that used to be out there gave for them.

Why do you feel it is too much?

I cannot wait till some form of real economy if out there and all this speculation ends and people start PAYING for items that the big 3 set - OHH the whining then will be EPIC.

 

The real reason is that Ectoplasmic Residue is an aphrodisiac and NPC's are like duocorns ....... twice as horny as normal.

 

I'm not really saying it's too much. I'm saying that it doesn't make much sense. The item can't be used by players. It can't be used in crafting or in casting spells. So why do the NPC's need it? It's inconsistent with the world we live in. If you go to an NPC vendor and pay 20 gold you can get a reagent or crafting or spell casting. But for some reason the NPC's are giving 30 gold that players can do anything with?

Sure maybe it's an oversight from past testing mechanics. Or maybe there's more behind this.

 

If I remember correctly when it was just Lord Enmar that took the ectoplasmic residue, he gave us 60g each for them. I don't know why he wanted it, but I liked it better when I could give it to him for more gold, lol.

 

I am pretty sure in the quest, Lord Enmar was concerned about the amount of undead in the world and was offering a bounty for proof of their destruction.

 

Incentive to go out and push back the undead that are menacing the world?

 

Yes, but perhaps not the most well defined story? (yet)

I've always had a problem with NPC's that have unlimited gold for THINGS like rat pelts. You have to ask yourself, what's Enmar do with all the Ectoplasmic Residue? My first thought is that he's creating this own undead.

And great, he's paying for it. Why are other NPC's paying for it?

 

Undead are bad for business.

 

lol

 

I seem to remember Digit also used to pay 60 gold for it. I think you're right. There has to be an insidious plot involved.

 

It started out, at first, with the reward system of Lord Enmar, in Owl's Head. He started it as a way to keep the undead population under control. It was necessary to keep false claims down so the rewards were only handed out to those that provided proof by bringing in the ectoplasm as the dead undead were the only way you could obtain these items. As a side benefit, it also provided an income to a section of society that was fairly well armed and could potentially be considered dangerous if left with idle time on their hands. Now, they could make a living and contribute to the economy.

Lord Enmar's system worked so well that word reached Adoris. It was decided that Digit(unofficially) would also give it a trial run. This also succeeded but it was determined that to make this a system that could be sustained the reward needed to be equalized and lowered so as not to raise the taxes on the already overburdened citizens. Thus, we have the current going rates.

 

Actual answer: we had to remove that type of quest in a hurry from the game because it was the cause of an exploit (people could edit items in memory and the quest system, which was outside of the inventory manager which watches for such foolishness, merrilly let it happen). Since it was an emergency exploit fix, and we didn't want to punish people overly for removing that type of quest from the game, we instead jacked the general resale price of those quest items up so every NPC would buy them for close to what you would get for doing the quest turn-in. (We can now do such quests using the inventory manager, btw)

Lore answer: Ectoplasm is literally the raw stuff of mana interacting with souls, and mages pay a VERY high price for such things. You don't really want to know why.

Lum answer: BECAUSE A WIZARD DID IT. ROCKS FALL EVERYONE DIES