So who else finds it hilariously ironic that credit prices are rising after about 2 months of the gold drop nerf, which was supposed to make the prices fall?

My main is sitting on about half a million gold right now, and I'm not willing to spend it while credits are high. At the same time, I don't really care to amass more wealth that I'm still going to be unwilling to spend.

The nerf didn't even touch the ABSURD amount of money that orgs are sitting on; all that gold is still in the economy, and very little is leaving it.

It's a good thing that newbies still have a way to accumulate... oh wait

I honestly don't feel like the overall amount of gold entering the game has dropped - it's just concentrated in different ways now. The consequence of making gold build up so much on mobs that are infrequently hunted is that this rewards the people who can/will access these mobs far more than anyone else. And in many cases, this really is an access issue more than a problem with wanting to bash them. The people who have already spent the most for transport items/etc. are the ones most likely to find them.

I bash less than I did in the past, but on good days I make -way- more gold than I ever have before.

My new record is ~265K gold in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Lusternia seems to have some of the worst bashing I've found in any other IRE, and with that, the worst gold. I've never been able to bash solo with any real success since my char left Newton. Most decent bashing areas are off plane. All the Ethereal bashing stays bashed out. I think people camp them, to be honest. Gold is very hard to come by in this mud unless you have a demigod taking you hunting. It's actually why I just don't bash hardly. No bashing in a mud = nothing to do but sit around. It's hard to earn gold for supplies, etc.

Oh wow, really? I've always found Lusternia the easiest to bash for supplies, by far. In the other IRE's, I've found myself with no real way of income except bashing vermin for ages, longing for expensive equipment and wishing I could scrape up enough gold to cover my curative costs on bashing.

EDIT: Not to mention that the rule in Lusty is that corpses can be turned in for (nice) profits, things that can't be turned in are exceptions. That's not the same in the other IRE's. In addition, quest starts are generally far more clear in Lusternia, so more gold there. And equipment is way cheaper, usually covered by the free 6k gold from collegium.

I'd question the "equipment is cheaper" what with the double-comms change a few years back

Equipment also lasts for a long time, and honestly, how much equipment do most characters use? Outside of warrior and to a lesser extent, monk, none of the other archetypes need invest that much in order to successfully bash.

I have been making 15/20 credits a day -easily- heh. You guys need to get out more.

Revan:

I'd question the "equipment is cheaper" what with the double-comms change a few years back

Well. Equipment for everyone but warriors. You should be able to quickly buy robes as any other class, and only have to do this again AGES later.

Equipment includes not only weapons and armor, but a good supply of curatives (which is huge).

I always made a ton of gold by selling esteem I got through influencing.

Curatives are NOT expensive. You can easily fully outfit yourself with the things for less than you Collegium income.

ForgotOldForumName:

Equipment includes not only weapons and armor, but a good supply of curatives (which is huge).

PORTAL ENTER WYRDEN

Cheapest shop ever. ;)

ForgotOldForumName:

Equipment includes not only weapons and armor, but a good supply of curatives (which is huge).

Compared to say... Aetolia, where each vial will cost you upwards of 400 gold, Lusternians don't sell vials in shops, opting instead to give them out to free to anyone who asks.Also, one thing that really offsets... all costs is that unlike any of the other games, we give you 6000 gold (and xp) in the collegium, straight out of the portals. In addition to that, newton caverns has the best gold pay out of any of the IRE novice areas I've played in (all of them), with possible the exception for Imperian's poacher area, the Khandava novice area.

To be successful bashing as a novice, you need about these cures. Gold costs assuming free vials (safe assumption):
3x Health : -360 gold (Aethershop Llae)
3x Mana or Bromides as appropriate : -370 gold (Aethershop LBE)
1-2x Mending : -500 gold (Aethershop Starhaven) This is a high price, I bet you could find better.
20-30 pennyroyal :-160 to 240 gold (Aethershop Treant) May be able to shave off 1gp
Subtotal :-1390 to -1470 gold
Collegium : +6000 gold
Total: :+4530 gold!

You actually come out ahead! Keep in mind that unless you plan to be participating in combat, you need not get the vast majority of cures for quite a while!

Another measure I find useful to look at is how suggested vermin hunting is. Afaik, vermin give out the same or approximately the same amount of gold (~5-7 gold each) across all IRE's. This means that if vermin hunting is a strongly recommended way for novices to get gold, that particular IRE has less alternate methods of getting good starter gold than one where vermin is less strongly recommended. Though this is anecdotal, I'd note that in Lusty I've never seen it suggested, while in the other IRE's, it's suggested as the primary method of gathering gold!

After novicehood, there are plenty of great gold bashing places on prime. I'd note that Ethereal is actually a fairly bad plane for bashing with only a single area that is prime ganking territory! Try the asylum on prime, and the moors, and the rocs (if you are lucky with Cheonbi), and the naga pits, and the hifirae hills, and verasavir valley, and manticores (?), and Spectre Island (try to not piss off mag with this one), and Shallach, and Quinotaurs (Getting a bit higher tier, but not much), and Balach, and when stronger try the undervault areas. Unlike bashing areas in other IREs, it's pretty notable if there is no gold profit to be made from an area, as bashing creatures that don't drop gold are very uncommon. Ones that both drop gold and can't be turned in are even more uncommon! Only one comes to mind atm, scorpions in the scorpion caverns. They are great xp for how terribly easy they are though! I know that on a good day, you can net several thousand on a run of the Moors alone!

Even with the changes to gold drops in Lusty, it's on this IRE that gold flows into the player base the most, at least for the lower tiers (Which is where most of my experience with other IRE's is).

Alternatively, spend ~450 gold on bromides and just influence your way up.

point is that credit prices are still way too high, going -up- and the gold rate is down.. this is not a good sign :P

Quinotaurs (Getting a bit higher tier, but not much)

Don't underestimate these guys. They are awesome xp. (xp/h)

It's probably more of a supply problem right now...that is, people aren't paying the real-world cash for credits as they used to. Or, perhaps like me, the elite memberships are more cost-effective than the isolated purchases. Older players tend to have less disposable income if they have families, and the economy is not as good nowadays.

One other phenomenon that could influence this--people are loathe to reduce their prices--comic book collectors for instance are rare to reduce the cost of books once they are inflated even if supply outweighs demand or if demand diminishes. That makes people very reluctant to reduce their credit prices.

Having played other IRE games and being used to spending less than 10k gold per credit. No thanks. Never touching the credit market. Gold nerf isn't the solution on it's own. The game also needs more gold sinks for players to spend their money.