What's driving prices?

[Tigs]

You ask why sulfur sells for 2gc each, when it is free to harvest.. Basically it's 1 gc for each emu the ore weighs.

 

That's important information. Do people use this as a general rule of thumb to bound prices? At the least, something costs 1GC per EMU? [/quote

 

Yes, for minerals/ores, this is the general rule of thumb.....silver/sulfur/coal around 2 gc ea, emeralds, gold 3gc ea. There are exceptions, of course to the "standard". Iron ore is 4 emu/3 gc ea usually, and titanium 1 emu/2 gc ea or so. I believer the significantly lowered prices of other (more processed) items in game dictate the difference in iron ore prices (used to be 3-4 gc some time ago). Health care/supplies cost in titanium is part of the reason for the price difference there; also high nexus to harvest, and lastly that NPC buys for 2.5 gc ea.

 

It used to be that there was a tiered economy. I saw these/similar prices for base harvest items. You could buy harvestables at these prices, make your items and sell at a (albeit very small) profit. Harvesters have not been willing to devalue their labor as much as other skills have, i guess....Now you cannot buy harvestables, practice only your chosen skill(s), and even break even with most items until after you are well past master level.

 

This is the issue as I have seen it develop over the last.....erm....year? year and a half? whatever

 

In Service

Tigs

[Mr.Mind]

Kalach, you can PM me if you really don't understand what is going on. I can answer most of your questions.

 

This could probably answer some of them - http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24738

Edited June 3, 2006 by Mr.Mind

[Kalach]

Kalach, you can PM me if you really don't understand what is going on. I can answer most of your questions.

 

This could probably answer some of them - http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24738

 

Read that, skimmed the thread linked from your "confessional". I want to try to sum up what I've learned from this thread, the ones that were posted. Again, my purpose is just to define exactly what is wrong. The fix is going to be long, at times painful, and complex. There are multiple things going wrong here, and fixing one is going to highlight another even more painfully.

 

#1 Base level and even second level components are relatively solid in their prices. The base class of prices (harvestables) is always going to be somewhat arbitrary, and a well-reasoned set of prices exists. Second tier component prices seem largely based on what it takes to make them.

 

#2 The main complaint is a lake of player interaction in the market. Because of this, using NPCs to bound the market by having them buy/sell at reasonable prices is suspect. If NPC's are bounding the market, then with the exception of transportation problems, there's little reason to sell to players.

 

#3 There is atleast a history of mass-creation of manufacturable items. This causes a flood of cheap items in the markert, ending in devaluation of the item.

 

#4 The history of mass-creation is now starting to generate a correction. Players are veering away from manufacturing to other avenues. "Manufacturing isn't profitable" is a regular statement. Experienced manufacturers no longer have a hill to climb (until the new items are released, soon) because they've (as Mr. Mind stated in one of his posts) "made it all."

 

#5 There are many items labelled as useless. Since a player that is interested enough can have a human nexus of 5 simply starting off, lower levels of manufacturables don't as much demand.

 

#6a Experience and GC gain are not balanced, across the board. Players have mentioned in fighting, they choose whether they make enough money to keep fighting, or whether they make enough experience. In order for players to make a significant gain in experience, they have to produce items in significant enough quantities that they sell for a disproportionate gain in GC.

 

#6b The major functions of the economy are available for limited investment. Flowers, sulfur, silver and FE take *very* little investment in skill and time to produce. This means that a player that is simply dabbling in the area (mining,essence creation) has as likely a profitability as the the player that wants to specialize in the area.

 

#6c Specialization is not rewarded highly enough to be encouraged. A player that wants to focus on mining, for instance, has little incentive to do so. Conversely, a player that wants to focus on fighting has little incentive to continue focus on fighting, rather than delving further into fighting. Correlates with 6a and 6b.

 

#6d Path is not mapped out (maybe) for character growth. In my playing, there doesn't seem to be a solid plan for character growth that aligns profitability in both experience and GC in any skill area. If mining is your goal, for instance, does it follow that after you have mined X flowers you have the PP for your organic nexus, the money for mining books (which, despite the fact that they are in naralik are easy to get your hands on) and gloves. After mining Y sulfur, you have the necessary skill, PP, and money for iron, etc... I believe the same goes for essences and manufacturing.

 

 

 

Well... I know, it was lengthy again, with a lot of information. Hopefully people will find it informative. I'm sure some people will question my conclusions. No problems, I'm sure I'm wrong here or there. I just beg you to be patient in showing me where I'm off track, so we can both learn, and eventually Ent can look at this, and perhaps have help in mapping out his economy changes to solve the problems.