of bots, and the doom of the economy

[kdpadua]

In the last few months, a surge of guild controlled bots has been taking over the EL market. Offering easy-to-buy and easy-to-sell products, a question arises: are they one of the reasons for the excessive lowering of prices at the market, or are they just floating with the main stream?

[scarr]

Hmm they buy stuff for cheap and sell for alot cash so i dont think they ruinn the market..

[Daxon]

Somebody (won't name who but they know who they are) said that one man can ruin an economy. However, that has been proven wrong time and time again.

 

Bots are no different. Even if one bot bought all items for half price and sold at half that price, they'd still be unable to keep up with the high costs on market and would eventually go bankrupt. It's just not possible for one person to ruin an economy, unless, however, there is outside interference..

[Kami]

I'll grant you that they buy cheap but I can't agree that they sell for very high.

 

Right now, Salt Buys/Sells pretty cheap.

Quartermaster sells VERY cheap but buys/sells in bulk.

Nera's kind of expensive but then again, she also has a lot of really rare items. Everything else, she sells at market value.

 

I can't say they're hurting the economy as much as real players but knowing they are always avalible kind of loosens the Market quite a bit.

[Specter]

Elmarket (the bot) has most likely helped stablize the econemy some and Im sure if you had some problem iwth the bots prices its owner would listen. Oh and theres not 5 digit decimal prices either

[Rend]

Its easy to sell lower if you have bot because you dont have to spend time in the market channel chasing down customers. You dont have to go to Nordcarn storage to sell your wares then head back to Portland. You just make your goods drop them off, then back to making more goods. More of your time is spent making goods, thus a lower profit margin is acceptable.

 

I think that store bots should have to pay some kind of in game maintenance fee or something. I mean realisitcally if you owned a store you would have to pay your employees and deal with other store related expenses.

 

At the same time, bots alone are not the sole cause of falling prices.

[swisstest]

they pay cash for those bots sir is that maintenance fee enough?

[Rend]

There is no requirement that you have to pay real money to have a store bot. If you provide your own store bot code you can do it yourself, without paying as long as the bot is declared.

 

Furthermore, u missed my point when I said IN GAME (ie EL money, not USD) maintance fee.

[Astrocreep]

In the last few months, a surge of guild controlled bots has been taking over the EL market.  Offering easy-to-buy and easy-to-sell products, a question arises: are they one of the reasons for the excessive lowering of prices at the market, or are they just floating with the main stream?

I woulnd't blame the bots for economy problems..

 

bots are good for selling stuff with high prices, no matter what you make it sell.. it will be most likely sold within couple days even if the price is considerably higher than what it would be at market.

 

some bots do sell items with prices that are hard to beat, especially MadameYes and her jewellery.. but if the owners can afford selling that stuff so cheap, and the bot is not cleared out of her stock within 5 minutes i guess the rings just aren't worth more than that now, even though you could make more money faster by selling the ingredients instead of making a ring.

[Chryzopraz]

I think that bots help stabilize the Economy.

Often you can't sell/buy something because there is no one currently who needs that. But bots are always present.

 

Regards

 

Chryzopraz

[Derin]

Bots are player driven.

Bots do not manufacture items themselves.

 

So bots are not a problem in the market, when it comes to buying and selling.

However, they do tend to spam the market with a slew of offers.

 

Therefore it would be better if the bots;

1. Advertize less often

2. Suggest that a PM will show the list of bot-goods sold

[The_Pale_Elf]

There is no requirement that you have to pay real money to have a store bot. If you provide your own store bot code you can do it yourself, without paying as long as the bot is declared.

 

Furthermore, u missed my point when I said IN GAME (ie EL money, not USD) maintance fee.

Actually, I believe the rules state that you have to pay a minimum of $20 usd to own a bot that trades with other players and makes gc income from it for you. You ALSO have to declare the bot, I believe. If this were not the case, then I wouldn't have paid for ELMarket.

 

Btw, plug for ELMarket as well as a description: ELMarket is a bot designed with the intention of augmenting the market, as opposed to taking advantage of it. She buys and resells items based on a fair market price. Because of this, I do not 'stock' ELMarket, she is stocked by the players who sell to her, and unloaded by players who buy from her. Eventually I want to get in contact with all bot owners and work together to make bots good for the economy.

 

Btw, charging $20 usd and THEN adding a gc charge is a bad idea, imo. The bots are very much a part of the economy that everyone thinks they're destroying.

[Nidan]

bots arent destroying the economy, in fact, what is destroying economy? It's all just a question of supply and demand. Nowadays a lot of people train on ogres and up, that means there are more capes in the game. Since these items are all newly created by the game, there will be more and more capes in play. It's only logical that the prices drop then. The only way prices will go up again is to make the items more rare, or break more often. This way there will be more capes going out of the game then in.

 

The solution is: all stop leveling ;P and the prices will be stable.

[Warbladez]

they do pm u example "[Neku]: Selling efe pm me"

"salt: Hello, Neku i currently buy efe for" 5thousand something gold etc

[Arnieman]

IMO, the bot is essentially a non-freethinking representation of their owner. So, if a bot has prices that hurt the economy, it's not because the bot is trying to ruin the economy, it's the owner who must bear blame (whether the problem is intentional or not).

[Mireille]

In the last few months, a surge of guild controlled bots has been taking over the EL market. Offering easy-to-buy and easy-to-sell products, a question arises: are they one of the reasons for the excessive lowering of prices at the market, or are they just floating with the main stream?

Bots are made to earn. Still, some have reasonable prices.

[ChangeYourName]

no bots are not the problem with the economy. the problem is i can do anything i want and i never have to buy anything (except cheap wine).....i can make pots i can make health essences i can kill ogres and get tit chains, serps, books, and capes. i can play this whole game and never spend a single gold coin on anything besides wine for pots (and books but i not counting those since they are a one time buy). the thing is i can make and do anything free and the only reason i would buy anything is because i was feeling lazy that day. and if someone wants to sell essences or anything for more then a few gold i can just make them myself. so the "destroying" of the economy is not bots..........it is that we do not have specialized classes. this is one of the things that makes the game fun though.......so the economy is never going to be good.

[Mireille]

*Completely agrees with ChangeYourName*

[Alsrir]

Yeah, there are too many exploits to leveling quickly, like sitting in CC and having a friend run you flowers & food, you can easily get quick levels that way, fighting is simple click, get hurt, restore/ use potion. Possibly if you boost the leveling back to were it used to be, such as serps level 68, or damn even higher than that. Make only cyclops and higher drop serps & capes/ uber rare books like serp. I dunno, many people will disagree that it will ruin the game making it hard to level, well doh