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melwe 7/14/08 3:09:03 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 1/09/07 |
So let's see here, I had a brief private conversation with guild member last nite on why I complain about the economy so much. Not going to go into details since it was done in tells, and I'm not sure if he wants me to make it too public. But I'll tell you my side of the story.
[u][i][b]Basics to an economy:[/b][/i][/u] Basic supply and demand will determine the costs of an item. If there are 100 items up for sale and only 10% is needed, the costs will be very low for that said item. If there are 100 items up for sale and there is a need of 150%, the costs will be very high for that said item.
[b][i][u]Economy of a MMO:[/u][/i][/b] The economies of a MMO type game can be derived from a many different things.:
1. [b]Professions[/b], and the ability for said professions to be leveled or certain skills of a profession being limited to fewer people than the general public. What do I mean here? Well if all crafted items can be learned at the trainer, than anyone with that profession can learn to make the same item. Since this is a MMO, generally someone will know someone who can make that item for them if they provide the mats. Since anyone and everyone can get mats in Age of Conan (see #2), this will diminish the need for people selling their crafted items.
2. [b]Gathering[/b] is usually a way for people to make money early in any MMO as it requires a lot of time to get mats together for crafting purposes. When the whole population of a realm is able to gather all items on a regular basis, the market is flooded with certain resources driving down the costs.
3. [b]Loot[/b] is usually the best way for people to make some quick cash in any MMO. Age of Conan has tiered itself in a way where you have:
- Common - White Gear
- Uncommon - Green Gear
- Rare - Blue Gear
- Epic - Purple Gear
Now. Let's think about the logic here, white gear will be the most common you would see and blue/purple the least. Now go to the trader, what do you see when you get a blue? Cool, this should be worth something, someone will be willing to pay 25 s for it... wrong; 3 Copper!!! So bring it to a personal note, I get a level 50 epic drop yesterday. I'm so excited, a rare drop!!! Go to the trader, there are 20 of them up for sale, with the lowest price 50 s and the highest 3 g.
[b][i][u]Risk vs Reward:[/u][/i][/b] There was a great article written about Risk v Reward on mmorpg.com last week that I found very telling. You can read it yourself: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/15/feature/2027 : and discover that gear is usually tiered on this basis. For higher risk you get a higher reward. Right now, since I have no clue as to what end game will bring, I notice it is mostly based on hard work in Age of Conan that gets you reward. This is great! I’m all for it. But worth a mention in this post here.
[b][i][u]How can this be corrected:[/u][/i][/b] I now understand the game a lot better than I have when I bought the game on May 30th and I am now level 50. Of course I don’t understand every aspect, but what I see and have experienced there are ways for this to be improved. Well I have several suggestions regarding the 3 items I listed above:
1. [b]Professions[/b] I know will have some tweaks made to how people learn skills to make other items. What I ask is that this drop rate be something that not everyone can walk into ‘x’ instance and get the drop every other time they are in the event. This will in turn limit certain craftable items, allowing them to be sold at a higher rate, and in turn generate some real income.
2. [b]Gathering[/b] in my opinion is broken. I understand the concept that you need to have a whole guild go out and gather to get your city up and running. Hence the reason why guild cities are built in heavily populated resource zones. What I don’t like is the fact that I can zone into my guild city go out and harvest all the nodes which are more than likely 100%. I then can turn around and put it on the trader. Why do I not like this? Well for one, those resources are there for the guild use. It is my firm belief that any resource farmed in your guild city instance should be only allowed to be deposited in the guild bank or used for craftable items. Allow everyone in that guild to be able to gather every resource in the guild city instance.
Now here is my kicker. People outside of their guild city should not be allowed to gather every resource. They should only have 1 (or 2 max) gathering skill. They should think about which one they should pick for their profession. You quickly think I’m joking, stating ‘how could this be? We require silver/copper/leather for armor smithing!’
Easily, it creates economy!!! It creates need! It creates a demand for what is needed to be supplied and in turn starts to have items cost more than 1 tin.
3. [b]Loot[/b] drop rates really need to be adjusted. I should not be able to go onto the trader and see 20-50 of the same blue item, I should see maybe 3-4. Epics should be even less. Greens are dropping more than tombstones at this point and everyone who is anyone should be wearing at least all blues with maybe 1-2 green items at 50. The loot blues and epics should be slightly better than quest rewards, hence having their drop rate a lot less, which in turn creates demand for that item and drives the price up from 3 copper.
Well, that’s about it. Agree or disagree, that’s why I’m posting. If I didn’t want to create discussion I wouldn’t of posted. Have fun and see you in game. |
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mooni_q8 8/22/08 3:07:39 AM
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Novice Member
Joined: 8/20/08 |
This is an amazing post you have put it all. well done!. I do agree with everything you say including to restrict the gathering profession to only 2 that will create a demand and supply. In addition due to the lack of items in the game, same drops or crafted items are flouded in the market. Wish you all the best |
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S1GNAL 8/24/08 9:50:22 PM
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Hard Core Member
Joined: 1/01/07
If anything is assumed to be other than bullshit, theres something wrong with the perspective. |
Have to say it was a good post. However there are something you dont seem to get. Farming resources takes time. And time = money. The time you farm resources should have about the same value of income as what you get when you farm same level range mobs. So farming high level resources, should be about the same rate of income as farming high level mobs drops like silver/items. If this is not the case, why would you farm resources to make money, if the mobs will make you better money? Now, if killing mobs would make you better money than farming resources, then less people would farm resources, and the price will go up to a point where farming resources would be a better option. Then it would go back and forth like that. The biggest fail of economic in AoC must be all the exploits for duping gems and exploit farming high level elite mobs in raid. Many people got away with this, and got lots of characters, maby even accounts where they split the golds on. In my guild almost everyone thought it was ok to exploit, and I could really see why, there are no consequence for doing it. I left the guild, just cos of it. Its so corrupt if you just knew man, if you just knew..
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MuggyD 9/04/08 11:43:34 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 9/04/08 |
The economy is non existant. I levelled up form 50-60 with no quests to do just grinding mobs and there was no value in looting kills. I couldn't sell resources for enough to make it worth while gathering them other than for guild needs. It was hardly worthwhile selling drops, due to the timne it takes to sell and the amount of competition. All those problems and the trader interface was just awful as well.
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YellowGrem 11/11/08 9:03:11 AM
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Novice Member
Joined: 11/08/08 |
Very good post indeed. |
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| ~The Yellow Gremlin~ |
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