Resource markets

[Asterix]

This is an idea to reduce the influence of the gold farmers on gc entering the game, while making their harvesting efforts somewhat useful for everyone else.

 

The problem:

At this point, flowers and ore can be harvested in infinite quantities with the only limitation being time to harvest them. These flowers can then be sold to flower shops, which accept an infinite amount with no price fluctuations. This creates a massive wealth generator, which the developers are attempting to fix. Right now, the farmers do not really contribute to the economy; all that effort, to simply trade a heap of gold to one player eventually with nothing going the other way- not in EL anyway.

Problem summary: massive wealth transfer to a few individuals using rl money. Creates inflation. Most individuals are not affected in a good or bad way though, except very long term.

 

The solutions proposed so far:

First came mini events to disrupt afk harvesting then came the limited resources idea. Unfortunately, these don’t actually solve the problem, because they limit real players as much as gold farmers. I used to play a different game, which had depletable resources and random events to try to stop the harvest bots but it failed; they were only ever a half step ahead of the script writers. Because resources were depletable, real players were struggling to get resources due to the competition! Eventually the developers gave up. They made it so you can’t transfer much wealth to another player. Which solved the problem as there was no way to trade real money for game money but it created a controlled price structure, nothing free market was left at all!

Effects summary:

Mini events- makes a boring skill even worse, and any skill dependant on it worse by association. Will slow down farmers but won’t stop them. Definitely won’t affect scripters. Will drive players to other skills from frustration.

Limited resources- guaranteed to make harvesting take longer and all skills take longer to level up. Sucks to be a new player! One good effect- it might fix the overproduction issue, so prices will creep back up to be more profitable for mixers. Some players might specialise in harvesting to take advantage of good prices. It won’t stop gold farming though. And it would need more experience for harvesting since it’s harder, and prices would rise since players are now competing for resources. Inflation ftl, no counter forces in sight.

 

My suggestion:

I believe this can be fixed by treating the gold farmers as a part of the economy, rather than something to exclude. Create a few markets; accessible through NPC’s. You have one for flowers, one for minerals, one for ores etc, accessed through the current flower shops etc. The prices are floating; they fluctuate according to how many resources are in the market, probably by extremely low intervals like 0.001gc for every 10,000 resource sold- but obviously each product would have a different rate. If a lot of harvesters sell a particular resource, its price gradually drops. Likewise it will go back up if a player buys a lot. Deals in the market can go to/from storage, so thousands can be traded at once. If a bunch of farmers flood the market, this has a mixed effect. Those that want to sell flowers will find the price has plummeted, so farmers are limited in how much they can sell. But this is a bonus to the mixers, who can now buy extremely cheap ingredients, and make better profits on alchemy and potions etc. Meanwhile, the real players can choose a different resource to harvest. Also the market will act as a gold sink as buy price will always be slightly higher than sell price.

 

Affects:

Harvesters can sell resources in one hit rather than muling to shops. Might have lower prices temporarily when there is oversupply but its very unlikely for all harvestables to be oversold.

Mixers (alch, craft, manu, eng, tailoring etc) can buy ingredients at good prices if they’re over-harvested. Can have an essence market to find the true value of their products also.

Consumers (A/D trainers, magic, summoning) will be affected by the mixers prices.

Overall Economy

*A true value can be obtained for every harvestable- free market ftw! This will cause price adjustments to mixed products in a controlled fashion. No more whinging about prices!

*Any harvesting bots will have a deflationary affect as they swamp the market to balance the inflationary affect of devaluing gc.

*Players can out-compete scripters rather than losing to them.

*Gold sink as well as gold introduction in one market!

*Ironically, the players that trade rl money for gc will probably buy resources in this market, if so then the cycle is complete.

 

Edit: players can still trade amongst themselves, then there is no gap between buy and sell price. Although the buy/sell gap for flowers would be only about .05gc anyway.

Edited May 14, 2009 by Asterix

[Silvatica]

Gold farmers don't really sell to NPC since it a bit of a bore to do several roundtrips to NPCs. Most gold farmers harvest items they can sell to other players. So this proposal will not work against gold farmers per se but rather against all players - just like mini-events.

Edited May 14, 2009 by Silvatica

[Asterix]

It works "for" players as much as "against", it's just a market! It counters the affect we currently have of selling flowers/titanium to NPC's to bring gc into the game with none leaving- which is inflationary. This avoids inflation and creates a free market environment. Currently, the flower shops fix the prices.

[daiske1]

I think a good idea for gold farmers is that the recommened lvl for harvesting dung (for example) is 100.

 

You need lvl 100 to harvest it. (probably bad idea)

 

but an idea.

[Affliction]

im pretty sure gold farmers are not spending their time on dung.. :X