revi

Isn't the use of rare items a design decision so that the item can't be produced in unlimited quantities? If not, why have rare items used in mixing?

The amount currently in the divers storages isn't all that relevant in the long run (as they will get used up soon enough). What is important is the rate of production, and alternatives. At the moment, the chance for EEE is higher than that for EME (but those chances can be changed between updates); I have no idea about the use of EE and ME (which would influence the amounts made of those), except that I use (and thus make) more ME than EE (crafting, esp. for Barnes). On the other hand, EME can be produced with an enrichment stone, EEE can't.

So two lenny-likes in the continent, one of which is potentially a lot stronger than lenny, or not interesting at all to kill (LDP, Blue dragon, nasparliu, ...) As formulated, no. It would require restrictions, which OP could have thought of by spending 5 min between getting the idea and hitting the keyboard...

Why announce it, if it spawns that often? And should it spawn that often, or is it like a normal mob spawn with a very long respawn time? Unlike bags, monsters do not have a limited life time, so if you just spawn one every 2h in a PK map, you could end up with a lot of them running around

Also, there's the golden star mace, which has the brod effect, and is a lot cheaper than the branch of destruction. So, getting rid of brod would mean getting rid of golden star mace as well. And the latter one is both a drop, and used in a quest.

I decided against suggesting single use meters, as there can be a lot of maps to test. Which means that the required number of meters could take up a good chunk of emu.

It is because the drops are partly based on luck that you talk about an average (it's called statistics). But, averages are based on large numbers of events, you won't get less half of the time (and more the other half). And this is serious advice (and not just for Starkie): if you don't understand why you can talk about averages regarding drops, get a good text on probability theory. A lot of things in real life are based on the same principles ...

I don't agree with your idea that VotD is the most crowded storage in game (I'd say TD or NC) Apart from that, flowers are only useful in combination with other ingredients, so that's not too much of a reason to keep IP "newbie only". And the problem with players harvesting 24/7 is not the amount of flowers harvested (think about how to harvest 24/7...). I can see a problem with the number of alts some players use: if all of those start harvesting on IP, the flowers will be inaccessible (that's where a harvester spends most of his time, not at storage).

As I think one of the main problems in game is the excessive influx of gc, I don't think just increasing the minimum drops while keeping the same average drop is good. You state that the the aim is to increase participation in instances. More instances would mean even more gc coming into the game, exactly the opposite of what I think is needed. As for your numbers: according to wiki, MB drops 10-130k, so average 70k. And you want a guaranteed 50k minimum. That sounds like way too much, the 11k you mentioned as a "meh" drop seems reasonable: after those 2 h instance, you don't have only the MB drop, you also have the other drops. And, 11k is a low end drop, you should also get the 129k as often. But the high end gold drops are never mentioned... So if you want to change to a guaranteed minimum, I suggest the maximum is lowered so that the average drops by half the amount of the minimum guaranteed drop (so for MB: increase the minimum to 40k would imply lowering the average to 55k, so a maximum drop of 70k). If radu wants to keep the same value for the drops, item dropss can be increased.

I can see why you don't want to switch to single-use items (too many maps), but an alternative could be to leave the break chance as is, but have the recipe provide several meters per set of ingredients. That would allow a lower price per meter, and less of a barrier for use. Even with a break chance of 1:30 you'll have one break on first use regularly. As for no one buying: severa bots still buy them, but way under ingredient cost. I did make a few once, and sold to a bot. Next time I looked, they were for sale at twice the buying price... I won't do that again any time soon... I don't mind selling below cost, if it's used and results reported (a bit like contributing to GIWS). If it's for a quick 100% profit for buyer, I'm out.

A few more details would be nice (game, forum, char/account name)...

Such a server exists already since a while, and it doesn't have a large player base either. (Sorry, can't name it here, but going there you should recognise things). And no, a new server would not solve the toon trading or the economy, just delay it for a while (until there are chars of sufficient levels for those that don't want to build their own).

Tried looking in the "expiration" threads? or (*gasp*) use the search function of the forums?

To clarify, no (other) "Criss" characters were active after those threads (i.e. 2009). So would it be possible that you miss-spelled the name?

We talked in game. I'll try and figure out a bit more about what happened to "Criss".