Cash Drain Ideas

[pennifuin]

Ok I have decided to make this thread because of high fail rates and Trik's prices. I'm sure if we offer alternatives for draining cash out of the Eternal Lands Economy, the fail rates and prices can be adjusted accordingly.

 

Please feel free to voice ideas and discuss, please NO flaming:)

 

I dont know if it has been suggested already, or if it is happening anyway, but a toll for taking the ferry or whatever to the new continent would be an affective way of getting people's money with no return whatsoever to the players. If fairly priced, you shouldnt get any complaints, as people are keen to see the new continent etc etc.

 

Another idea is implimenting mini-games, of sorts. One idea i have run past Learner already and he seems interested, i noticed the ants were getting rather well trained. They could be hired out by guilds to run battle scenarios.

 

Also along the lines of transport, why not run a *cart* service? You pay the cart driver and you are transported to the cart stop you choose, the further you go, the more you pay. This would be handy for places such as Grahms and Morcraven Marsh. It would be just like taking a boat ride, but instead of clicking the flag, you talk to an NPC and you are transported to your desired location

 

Anyway, just a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing.

[Earl]

How about the addition of a lubricant item to put on and take off plate class armours, this lubricant would of course be buyable only. This way the tax targets the long term players and takes money from the top end of the economy, rather than the hefty book prices that take money from the new players.

 

The problem I see with this is that the plates are fairly unpopular for training purposes as they are expensive to replace. To counter this maybe the plate armours can become more common and let some superior new item become the new best and brightest.

 

Just imagine if every time someone suited up for battle and suited down again 800gc would leave the game.

[behindthemask08]

Earl -

He has some good ideas, but i agree that money doesn't need to leave the player economy(anyway sort of useless becuz players will just harvest more lilacs to make up for the little bit taken out). Next time don't be so patronizing.

[ttlanhil]

how about a more skilled item repairer, who demands more money for his skill? a lot of people would pay more for a far better chance to get items fixed

[behindthemask08]

but if he charges too much, players will have "throw-away swords". use em till the degrade then throw em away and buy a new one. With tit longs only costing 1k, thats not bad deal. Taking money out of the economy is a bad idea, just stabalize prices.

[Kedan]

money needs to come out of the econmy as well as going in at about the same rate so there is always the same amount of gold, in rlly life this doesn't happen and it cause inflation, the problem is with the MMORPG inflation is not possible so it just means people get more money and buy more things with it, you need to have a certain amount of players with hardly any money, a certain amount with a bit of money, and some with lots of money, this would make he ecomney balenced, but you also need a way fr peoples money to come out of th encomy as well as back it if you dont have a way of inflation

[LaNora]

ok im pretty poor in-game (i think so anyways) but i think the idea of paying a ferry toll to the new continent is pretty cool

[behindthemask08]

I think the real problem is there is no supply and demand system for the NPCs no matter how many lilacs you sell the flower shop, they will always buy more at 0.5 gc each. Not that this should be changed....

[Kedan]

maybe, but then again if that droped below 0.5 hoe would peoplle make there money? there problem is the devoplers are trying to restrict the money coming into the game atm when they should be thinking of ways of getting it out

[trollson]

What about taxes and citizenship?

 

Taking up citizenship of a town would be required for a character to trade there (make items etc). There could be more rights as well. However, it would impose a tax, say 10% of any gc you put into storage (not pc though, the very rich get around taxation...).

 

As a bonus, the taxes paid could become xps in Citizenship (cf. skills, contributes to overall level). Higher level may give more rights and standing in the community.

 

Only allow one (or some small number) of Citizenships to be held by a character. Abandon citizenship loses all accrued xps. Maybe treat townsfolk as another type of Guild even (guild wars become city state wars).

[Daxon]

Earl -

He has some good ideas, but i agree that money doesn't need to leave the player economy(anyway sort of useless becuz players will just harvest more lilacs to make up for the little bit taken out). Next time don't be so patronizing.

172020[/snapback]

 

And that's what they need to target next -- lowering the ridiculously high selling prices for flowers.

[behindthemask08]

from what ur saying there is only a single advantage to being a citizen of a city - get xps(i think u mean exp). If i had 10k, i would not pay 1000gc to get a little exp. and if needed, just go trade outside of city walls.

If cash needs to be taken out of the game, what if those players who complain about too much money buy all the ingreds for FEs and sell em for 1 gc each. then Shut up and quit whining. Repeat.

[Daxon]

from what ur saying there is only a single advantage to being a citizen of a city - get xps(i think u mean exp). If i had 10k, i would not pay 1000gc to get a little exp. and if needed, just go trade outside of city walls.

If cash needs to be taken out of the game, what if those players who complain about too much money buy all the ingreds for FEs and sell em for 1 gc each. then Shut up and quit whining. Repeat.

172110[/snapback]

 

Then prices would be easy to keep up with. ()

 

I think the better idea here is to get prices lowered with a lower money supply than having everything inflated through the roof, behindthemask. I'd rather be buying FEs for 1gc each than 15gc each when they are worth the same (on different monetary scales). In this game, it's deflation and that deflation is costing certain skills some serious pain (looked at the crafters lately?)

[kl4Uz]

In a real world economy the national bank tries to controll the circulation of money, to prevent inflation and deflation. Since there is unlimited money input atm, we need ways to get at least as much money out of the game, as money gets in. Otherwise prices will never be stable.

 

Of course the input of items needs to be controlled aswell, I don't think that the drop and break rates are equal atm. Otherwise we wouldn't see a heavy breakdown of bp cloak prizes for examples.

[Zep]

Ill honestly never understand why people complain about some getting rich, There will always be a dynamic of some rich some poor. If i played EL for a year, Id expect to have a decent ammount of cash. Afterall, you work hard for it, So be it.

Im wondering at what point its made impossible to make money? How about this, Just remove gc completely, And trade the NPC's for raw items =) Think that will make the difference? No rich no poor, No money lol.

[behindthemask08]

if you don't have gold coins you don't have a common currency . How many HEs should he give me for 20 iron bars? I agree with you, whats ppls problem with getting rich? the money is unlimited, everyone can be rich - and at no penalty to others.

[Kedan]

no because the game will still be flooded with items, the problem is deflation. if you dont know what that is its when things loss value over time, this could be for a number of reason and the many reasons for EL is because people already have a billion of that iteam so they have no need in buying more, so new players who start and make that item cant sell it, where as 6 months before it was selling for 100k. So they best way to deal with this is to take money out of the game, this way people cant buy as many items in one go(ok thinking about this the problem isn't about the money at all its about the items themselfs, there needs to ways to take out items not money)

[trollson]

from what ur saying there is only a single advantage to being a citizen of a city - get xps(i think u mean exp). If i had 10k, i would not pay 1000gc to get a little exp. and if needed, just go trade outside of city walls.

172110[/snapback]

 

If the concept of citizenship is included in the game, then you can start to build interesting societies, with characters in actual roles.

 

Roles could be aquired by election (by peers) or appointment (from above). Citizens could elect a town council (or equivalent), who could elect a major. A powerful major could usurp full control and declare themself lord/earl/jarl.

 

These positions would have to have some in-game power. Councillors could manage to local economy, Majors do the same more efficiently. A Sherrif would control the local millitia (NPC forces payed for by the city), adding his/her skills to their effectiveness. Concerntrate too much power in one place though and you could get a tyrrant who is hard to depose...

 

I did start to write a suggestion about all this, but it was turning into a thesis, and would be a nontrivial change to the game anyway.

 

However, it would offer more opportunity to role-players, and more goals to aim for than are present in the game at the moment.

 

It would require a more developed, dynamic economy: A town has so many peasants and townsfolk (NPCs), who can be trained to work in different jobs (by the council/major). Giving a local production which fills the town stores (and draws on them also). Surplus is traded to the wider community -- supply and demand pricing. Successful towns grow, badly managed ones decline. Militia guard agains monsters (and other towns with expansionist ideas...).

 

...etc etc etc. You get the idea?

[Hap_Loder]

In a real society, medieval or modern, those who become wealthy tend to spend their wealth on the trappings of the rich. They build great palaces, throw banquets, and use their wealth to demonstrate status. As a result you often end up with people who have great amounts of property but who still are in need of money to support their lifestyle.

 

At present there are very few such opportunities to do this in the game.

 

One way to do this would be to allow wealthy players to purchase noble titles.

 

One would first become a squire, which represents the desire to become a knight. Then, perhaps after completing a quest, one could become a full Knight of the realm, and be knighted by Lord Luxin. This would cause a green "Sir" or "Dame" to appear before the character's name, or perhaps a special symbol denoting knighthood.

 

Royal orders of knighthood could be added. In the UK there are many orders of Knighthood, with differing levels of prestige, and there are generally three ranks within each order.

 

Then comes the rank of Baron, which could be a generic title not related to any particular place in Seridia.

 

Then there are Earls/Counts and Countesses. Above them are Marquesses and Marchionesses, and above those are Dukes and Duchesses. I also like the Idea of a Dwarven title of Thane rather than Count. These titles would be tied to a specific place on the map and only one person could hold any given title.

 

Here's a list of possible titles:

 

Earl of the Evergreen Woods

Earl of the Kamara Desert

Earl of the Desert Tropics

Count of Matajin

Earl of Mortos Valley

Count of Fort Caladak

Count of Fort Hallgan

Count of Ywartstav

Count of Omlinor

Earl of Styks Swamp

Count of Fort Baarg

Count of Fort Mardyn

Count of Fort Garisn

Count of Carmien

Earl of Roanof Island

Count of Orvimon

Count of Lakeside

Count of Grahm's Villiage

Earl of the Forest of the Fall (Elf only)

Earl of Northern Woods

Earl of Elavro Mountains

Count of Orasul Curvelor

Earl of Orasul Wood

 

Marquess of Morcraven

Marquess of Corren

Marquess of Kilaran Field

Marquess of South Kilaran

Marquess of Naralik

Marquess of Tirnwood (Elf only)

Thane of Mynadar (Dwarf only)

Thane of Nordcarn (Dwarf only)

Marquess of Isla Prima

Marquess of Tirnym

 

Duke of Tahraji - (requires high-level a/d)

Duke of Desert Pines - (requires high-level manufacturing or alchemy)

Duke of Portland - (requires high-level crafting)

Duke of Tarsengaard - (requires high-level magic)

Duke of Grubani - (requires high-level summoning)

 

Lord Luxin - Grand Duke of Whitestone

 

Not sure if we would want to go as far as Princes and Kings since Lord Luxin (or perhaps another NPC) still needs to be the ultimate noble authority.

 

Becoming a Duke would require a huge amount of cash, perhaps 500k. Becoming a Marquess would be less, perhaps 160k, while an Earl or Count would need 50k. Barons would need 20k, and you'd need 5k to become a knight. You'd also need to pass through one title level to move to the next, and possibly fulfill some difficult quests while you're at it.

 

Being a noble should have certain perks... like certain map areas become noble-only. Also nobles might have special abilities in their territory, like some limited mod powers.

 

What do you think?

 

Hap_Loder

[Cilestiel]

Hey, i think it is a good idea, because some people in the game are stupidlly ritch, and need to pay, i think it should depend on the persons richness, like between 0 and 1k nothing to pay, and 1-2k 50gc, 2-3k 100gc etc... what do u think?

[kl4Uz]

it doesn't make sense, anyone can make money if she wants to. It doesn't mean you are a good player or anything...

[crannog]

it doesn't make sense, anyone can make money if she wants to. It doesn't mean you are a good player or anything...

 

Yes, but in order to get ALOT of money, it takes time - add to that the requirement for a difficult quest, and high(ish) levels before you can take the quest - means that only the good players get the titles

[pennifuin]

to earlier comments, this is not a thread about people being richer than us, its about trying to bring order to the EL economy without it impacting on skills.

 

the suggestion about buying titles is a good idea, you could possible bring in titles relating to skills, once you hit a cetain level in a skill you can pay to take a test to attain the title. These titles would appear when an eye icon is used on you.

 

Titles would be for example *Master Crafter* etc.

[ttlanhil]

One idea for cash drain, though it's more than that... the guild leader position. currently takes I think 30K gc and a skill at 40. well, that was fine long ago, but now too many people can easily afford it.

how about ramping this up to 100k and 50 skill?

and have all current guilds pay the gap, perhaps? giving them time to earn it if need be.

 

having to rent the #gm would also be a cash sink, but it'd be kinda cruel.

 

as to master skillperson, I currently use that to denote those on the top50 lists, probably having it available to top50 or top10 or something would work

[kl4Uz]

I think the requirement for guilds is already high enough. We don't need to keep the number of guilds small, I can't see a reason for that. And I heavily doubt more money will be drained from the game by setting a higher prize for guilds, since less new guilds would be created. Much less new guilds, so the cash flow would decrease in this case.