Darwin2M

Problem: Cost of ings more than what you can sell finished product for. Rare items not rare. Hoarding of certain items. Answer: Free market economy. Alternative solution: US government - where government steps in and sets prices and subsidizes production of certain items (NPCs). Taxation based upon assessed value of net worth. What we have in EL is not a free market economy, so perhaps we should look at other economies and take cues from them as to how to "balance" the economy. While I'm sure it will be wildly popular, I don't want credit for the idea: Solution: Taxation Each EL month, you pay a tax. Let's say the tax is 2% (just for grins... I know, I know - it should be much higher, but let's assume 2% for now). If you have 50 items in storage, 1 will disappear. If you only have 1 item in storage, there is a 2% chance it will disappear (so on average, you lose one every 4 EL years). And, of course, 2% of gc. (Hyperbags could easily be taxed as well, unless you want to invoke Swiss bank accounts - but I don't think anyone's found a land called Switzerland on either c1 or c2, so for now, hyperbags could be taxed as well. Maybe some day when we can build cities someone could build a Switzerland.) This addresses all problems. Stop and think about it for a minute - every problem and concern that has been raised is solved with one simple, easy solution. It is fair, as everyone (PKer, Harv'er, Alch'er, Manu'er, etc.) is affected equally and it encourages the economy (everyone needs to buy more stuff each month to replace the 2% they lost). Taxes can't be skirted with alts or hyperbags. And everyone lived happily ever after. *Please, no gifts. Just free st00f plx.*

I had hoped to stay under 40 a/d until I met Dman - dude, you corrupted me. EL is a far crueler and deadlier place now because of you. I kill everything that crosses my path now - animal, monster, enemy, ally, guildy - they all feel the pain of my gloves! Or are you just soliciting unsuspecting newbs to go to pk area to increase your PKI score?!!

Yes, Absolutely, had there been a poll, I would've voted NO!

Please, dear Ent, NO! I appreciate when I go to the local grocery that the bots at the store don't all greet me. There are bots occasionally that try to engage me in an unsolicited way - where possible I find the battery compartment and disable the damn things. I suppose since there is a command to disable getting bot spam in channels, as long as that is extended to local spam then we would at least have a way around such annoying drivel. I like talking with other PLAYERS. The fewer interactions with NPCs I have to have, the better.

MM - I like the way you think. In response, I would say that there are some smart players that are way too smart not to make stupid players pay (pun intended) for their stupidity. Why do rostos cost 19-20K now when they were 16K before the now infamous vacation? There was a market shortage during the vacation (perceived or real doesn't matter). Note that the price responded to the availability of the item. I saw rosto prices well above 20K towards the end of the infamous vacation. After the shop opened again, the price of the rosto came down some (again, the perception, real or otherwise, that the supply had gone back up). It didn't go back as low as it had however. If Ent wanted the price to go back down to 16K, he'd have a simple way of making it happen - increase the rate of finding the stone from a rare harvest event. Pretty soon you'd find the market flooded with rostos. And when you found a rosto for every 1000 iron ore harvested, my prediction is that the price would go down. (As a way to prove his point, I would humbly suggest to Ent that my rare harvest event rate be increased and I will then flood the market and drive the price down - thus proving Ent's point... my getting rich in the process would be a necessary side effect which I am willing to bear.) As Cruella points out, the price is just where the buyer and seller meet on an agreement for the exchange. Players make a judgement about how plentiful or rare the item is and barter with each other (or sell to NPC). You have it in your power to pay more for items than what the market is currently selling for. If you want to pay more than 26K for a Ti shield, no one will stop you. In fact, many would cheer you on.

Is it safe to say, that if Entropy wanted all of us to have cheap high end armor, he'd bias the game in that direction. Similarly, if Entropy wanted all the manufacturers to make money on the items they manu, he'd bias the game in that direction. Ent controls the rate of binding stones, EFEs, EMEs, and other "rare" items entering the game. Thus, Ent controls the price of these items. Conclusion: he has control over the cost to make these items. Ent controls the rate that items break, degrade or are otherwise removed from the game. Thus, Ent controls the demand for many of the items. Conclusion: he has control over the demand (and thus price) of these items. Granted, his control isn't instantaneous and he relies on a statistical model that averages out to his intended purposes over time. As an example, when he wanted the price of EFEs to go up, he dropped the rate of making EFEs by chance to zero for a while. If he wanted the price of EFEs to go down, he'd just up the rate of making EFEs by chance and get more in game. We're all just mice running around the mazes that Ent has made. Why do we run around the maze... because we call it a game and have fun running around the maze. How do you get to high level manu? That's one maze you get to figure out the path to. How do you get high level items? That's another maze you get to figure out the path on. How do you get lots of GC? That's another maze you get to figure out. The maze may not be to your liking... unlike rats in a lab, however, you have a choice in whether or not to run the maze (assuming you're smarter than a rat... perhaps not always a good assumption). Ent's challenge is to figure out how to keep the maze interesting to us rats. Don't blame the other rats for the maze... they're just running it too. p.s. Not meaning to imply anything bad about the game or its maker or players - I'm one of the rats who enjoys the mazes that have been set up - keep up the good work.

What is interesting about the economy is that Ent controls it. The rate of EFEs, break rates, etc... all of these are set by him. If he wants the number of things (high level) to go down, he either decreases the rate of EFEs entering the game by decreasing the chance of making and/or increasing cost at shop. Those items that can be obtained easily are cheap and the cost of rarer items goes up. Just see what has happened with costs of EFEs in last 6 months. Thus, he manipulates the resources to drive the number of items in game up or down. What I find more interesting is the choice to go from a "transparent" economy (where Ent announced changes and specified what they would be... for instance, "changed EFE rate from 1/10K to 2/10K") to a secret economy. We no longer know if changes have been made and can only guess. After a while of collecting data, one can make a pretty good guess. Perhaps this, along with astro and other changes, was done primarily to keep the game more interesting by making it less easily predictable. After all, predictable gets boring. As for players charging less than cost of ingredients - I couldn't care less. Its likely a result of most people being more interested (and proud of) their achievements in getting to a higher level. If they want to sell for a profit, they can not accept a lower price. The fact that they accept a lower price says there is something else that is "profitable" or has more value in their eyes.

I'd like FR cape. Will contact you tonight when I'm on and hope to find you. Darwin

This is an auction for everything as a single lot? Or its 56 different auctions for each individual item?

When you have harvested 10K ore during "daytime" and 10K ore during "nighttime" and can show a statistically significant difference, get back to us. Until then, you're sample size is just too small. So, yeah - for now, until proven otherwise - chalk it up to luck. And don't complain - increased harvesting events means there is a greater chance (in a given time) to have a good harvest event like picking up a special stone. Your odds per harvest event remain the same, but you get to "spin the wheel" more often. Perhaps this was actually a boast post (and not a rant)?!

Truly and evil perk. Just sit at VoTD sto and wait for people to come out of KF - boom! It'll be great for getting rid of rostos from high level fighters and thus more bricks for Ent. I like the idea of being able to PK high level fighters in non-PK maps where they can't attack me. This just keeps getting more and more fun as I think about all the possibilities. I, for one, won't be taking the perk. Too costly to die much the way I play. I also like to be AFK a lot, not a good perk for my style of play.

You enter PK area, you should expect to be killed - bring rosto or else don't bring anything you can't afford to lose. However, if you enter PK area with someone under a pre-arranged agreement (PvP, FF) and they break agreement, then post to outlaw as warning. While you are fighting/training/etc., others attack to kill is fine (as long as not from same guild as opponent if pre-arranged agreement). Personally - I don't trust anyone (except my guildies and allies) - so I always expect to be attacked. I'm pleasantly surprised (many times) when others don't attack but are friendly and try to return favor. I'm not a PKer - just my thoughts.

Could someone describe what was done? Some of us were not able to be at the little test. Those unable to attend would still love to know the tactics and outcome... just for informative purposes, of course.

Took a quick look through forum but couldn't find anything about this. Talked with Usl about it in-game and was recommended I post. I was in VOTD abandoned temple. [165,33] Shooting Female Orcs (approximately [169,31]) over the low wall that is inside the temple. When I shot one across the wall, it was close enough that it tried to initiate combat. However, couldn't fight over the wall. But I got locked into combat where I couldn't fight hand-to-hand. I couldn't shoot again because it thought I was already fighting something. Last message when shooting was: z_end: 1.350000, distance: 2.828427, perturbation: -0.088654, perturbation int: 677

200K bid received ingame