Discussing the Book Prices

[Dizzee]

9 months on and I'm buying books at 500gc ea... 600gc if they are "expensive" and I'm thinking I coud get for cheaper!

Ill do another search see if there is a newer thread on this subject.

 

edit:....

there isn't a newer thread and Roja never did edit his post!

I'm gunna guess that a resolution wasn't found.

 

Here's my thought, reduce the number of books dropped by monsters gradually over a period and don't tell anyone it's happening, until a balance is formed... this way a balance is formed and ppl hoarding books can do so and view it as an investment.

 

A controversial method might be to remove excess amounts of books from players, players might complain, but anyone smart enough to hoard them should also understand the need not to make insta millionaires.

 

or change all npc book prices, as right now they are ripping off newbs and are a bit of a joke really.

 

 

(no hurry for this... I still have plenty of books to get yet)

Edited April 19, 2006 by Dizzee

[sMooMs]

Axe Construction 30,000

Iron Axe Construction 35,000

Steel Axe Construction 40,000

Titanium Axe Construction 55,000

 

Axe Construction is the cheapest one here, and on market and such it always been the most expensive one.

 

From cheap

Iron axe

Steel axe

Tit axe

General axe

To expensive

Edited April 19, 2006 by sMooMs

[flinto]

Well when I started out (5 months ago) I didn't realise that books were dropped by monsters and that they could be bought cheaply from players. As a result I paid full price for my books (about 90% of them). It was a challenge as a newb to collect the money (I especially remember the gem books). I would have to plan how I was going to do it (what esses to make etc) - I rarely harvested for money once I discovered alc.

 

I would say for two months I made esses/manufactured/crafted and bought and read books. It kept me poor with every gold coin going on the next book.

 

Do we need to change the book prices - only if we want to make it easier for the next batch of new people. Personally I think they should stay as they are as it was a challenge, but then again if I was just setting out I would say make them cheaper.

 

Do I think the price of the mineral books up then no.

Do I think we should raise the price of the fighting books - then yes they were too easy to get (no challenge)

By the time I had the harvest lvl and nexus for tit mining I was beginning to make lots of HE and Magic ess as well as bars so getting the money for the book at that point was not too hard

I did find the armour/weapons books expensive to get and almost all items need books to get started so getting the knowledge was a drawback to starting manu'ing. This coupled with the fact that the items fail a lot manufacturing was a very costly (like crafting) skill to start.

 

So in general I think my conclusion is that tweak the prices and remove the drops and this will make the game more challenging at the earlier stages.

 

An alternative is to remove the nexus requirements (the makers have to read and have nexus whereas fighters just need nexus) and make the books more expensive and have books of knowledge on using the different weapons/armours/etc - maybe also have fighting schools where you pay for lessons and get the skills to wield things properly. That way we could learn different fighting styles which have different crit chances based on opponents weapon/styles etc. I fence and when I started sabre after learning the foil it was a completely different technique that was required. If you wield a weapon you dont have the knowledge for you should be penalised with an att/def negative bonus

[Cycloonx]

I like the book prices as they are now, they are high but it's a good way to keep the game intresting, buying a book is a real pain, but it's cool when you're done reading.

 

In the past when I started I had more books to read in my storage than books I had read already, I think that's not right. I wanted to start crafting and bought all ring books on 1 day for very low amount of gc, and guild mates gave me lots of free books from drops since they had so many.

 

This was a year ago when the prices for books were really low. So my opinion, the prices in your post are cool but let the book drops dissappear from monsters (or make them very very rare so it gets exciting to find one). Although all axe books prices should be dropped with 10 or 15k imo since axes need high nexus, and they are rarely used, so 120k+ for 4 books isn't worth since it will never pay off. Also sapphire mining should be dropped since it is used in water essences, water essences are low level essences so you will only be able to make them when you are already a high lvl player. Or remove the sapphires from water essences.

 

Cycloonx

Edited April 19, 2006 by Cycloonx

[Dent]

short of doing a full wipe of everything on every player, and making everyone start over, there's no real way to destroy the sense that there is a divide between the older and newer players.

 

If we have to do that any point down the road, I don't think we're ready.

 

Very true, and since the game is still growing and developing, it is necessary to have players of all levels and abilities.

[sbarstow]

My opinion:

All new books being introduced into the game should be purchasable only from an NPC. Currently noone buys books from NPC's because you can save 90% by buying from other players, this makes the rich players get richer and doesn't get any money out of the game.

 

I think that if you make all the new books purchasable at NPC's then it will be a money sink and get rid of some of this money and hopefully somewhat restore our economy.

[Terena]

Personally I think the NPC prices should be lowered, and the monster drops be made less frequent. As it is, there are so many players, and so many of them fighters, that any books dropped by monsters can be easily bought on the market channel for 500-1000gc. Very few people buy from the NPC anymore. If there wasn't such a huge difference between the NPC and marketplace prices then more people might buy from the NPC. I think this can be accomplished by making the book drops a bit rarer, so the price goes up on the market channel, and lowering the NPC price so there's less of a difference.

[Ghrae]

We must be careful to make sure we don't become over zealous in our wish to help balance the book issue.

 

Fighters, like all skills, need a source of income. If we keep taking from them, there isn't much to supply their needs (armor, weapons when PKing, etc). And if fighters don't have money, how much armor will manufacturers be selling?

 

Remember balance... we don't necessarily need to strip the fighters of books... just find a balance to not over saturate the market with the drops.

[sbarstow]

I think monster dropped books should be abolished completely and the prices should remain the same, get some of the money out of the game...

 

*EDIT* HAHA, Ghrae and I posted at the same time, I think that if we get rid of the books, they will still have a source of income from the cloaks, armor, and other miscellaneous monster drops. Like I said above, no one buys from NPCs anymore because you can buy cheaper in the Market Channel...make it so you NEED to buy some things from the NPCs is what I want to see.

Edited April 19, 2006 by sbarstow

[Terena]

Don't forget sbarstow, some of the most expensive books can still only be bought from NPCs: Chim & fluffy summoning, iron plate construction, sapphire mining etc. Those take quite a lot of gold out of circulation. I don't think we should take books from fighters, just make them more rare. I make my own essences and potions so its easy enough for me to train, but people who are only fighters need some sort of income. Being able to buy a book cheaper than the NPC should be something that you're lucky to get, rather than guaranteed as it is at the moment - I was able to buy most monster drops at prices between 500-2000gc.

 

As for the locations of booksellers, I think they are fine as they are. Yes, its a nuisance that you need to fork out for a monster magnetism cloak to get mining books, but considering some of the best mining spots have monsters, its a wise investment anyway.

[Dent]

Give it some time, see how it works. Nothing with as many factors as an economy works by micromanagement.

 

If, after a few weeks, there are still problems, and either people can not get books or there are too many, then revisit the issue.

 

My bet is that people will adapt just fine to the system, and the higher prices will make them focus on a different goal then grinding out another level.

[solorni]

I think NPC's should not sell certain mid-to-high level books at all, and book drops made more rare. It would increase the player interaction and the reward for fighters. Smaller supply = greater demand = higher prices = harder to increase knowledge = value of higher lvl items goes up. (Lower vl books should be sold at an NPC for the sake of newbies and people trying a new skill out)

 

I also think that monster drops of manuable items should be decreased. Why buy a leather torso from a manufacturer if you can get one from a garg at a faster rate than they break? (That's been my experience.) I say Let the mosters drop money, non-manufacturable items such as books, cloaks, gold coins, mercury, etc. Make the fighters buy all other items from other specialtists. The value of the mauable items will go up when the fighters need more of them, which will make everyone happy. And the fighters will make enough money through selling thier drops. They will not be able to hoard books because they will need to sell them to buy what they need.

[Thordin]

NPC prices of books seems fairly accurate to me. Hell, I invested over 100kgc (crystal mining/processing/embedding was real pain ) and I do not regret one coin.

[anthropologist]

They will not be able to hoard books because they will need to sell them to buy what they need.

 

We don't really hoard books by choice, they are really hard to sell. About the only books that are guaranteed sellers are the Dwarf/Elf/Human fighting bunch. I have an ever growing collection of potion of summoning books.

 

 

Decreasing the drops on manufacturable items is something which would be nice to see. Titanium Longswords in particular drop heavily.

 

An increase in the range of books drops might help, include some of the ones which need to be purchased surrently (metal/silver mining for example). this way we would not end up with great big lungbucketfulls of a few particular books.

 

A viable exit for the books other than other players would be nice. The book buying npc gives a decent price on axe books, but other good books are basically valueless there. If fighters had a good dumping spot I would whole heartedly agree to incresed rarity of book drops.