Everiine2011-09-17 00:51:57
QUOTE (Hiriako @ Sep 16 2011, 08:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I think that's really the core issue right now: Not enough on the market. I've never seen a market so barren. Why aren't people selling them is the question that comes to mind.
You could argue a lack of gold sinks. You could argue any of a number of things, but I think that's the key of what we need to examine and figure out right now. If we can address the shortage, we can address the market.
Used to be that if you needed that many credits, someone would sell 'em...
You could argue a lack of gold sinks. You could argue any of a number of things, but I think that's the key of what we need to examine and figure out right now. If we can address the shortage, we can address the market.
Used to be that if you needed that many credits, someone would sell 'em...
I think the necessity of over-priced over-powerful artifacts to survive in combat is a significant contributor to the lack of available credits.
Xenthos2011-09-17 01:12:56
QUOTE (Everiine @ Sep 16 2011, 08:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I think the necessity of over-priced over-powerful artifacts to survive in combat is a significant contributor to the lack of available credits.
See, I feel like the bulk of those come from actual purchases or things other than the credit market, whereas the credit market funds more 'moderate' goals (a skillset, smaller artifacts, trade artifacts and the like).
It's not like the game hasn't had most of the high priced artifacts for a very long time, even before the current market slump.
I'd say it's just more that far fewer people are buying credits to sell them, for whatever reason. It could be too much gold (no need to buy for selling), it could be too little RL money, or it could be that promotions are sucking up all the money that would be spent on credits-- or even a mix of all of them.
I would not say that demand itself has changed drastically, just supply.
Unknown2011-09-17 01:37:03
I feel the need to repeat the quote from the guy who established IRE's dual currency system:
Lusternia has a shitton of desirable things to be purchased with credits. It has more skills needing transing than any other IRE game. It has a massive list of artifacts. Credits are very very very valuable.
Now, let us compare the desirability of things that can be purchased with gold? Manses. Aetherships. Clans. Cartels.
Most of us with gold already have all we want or need of those. You only need enough manse rooms to hold your db artis. Aetherships are becoming steadily less appealing due to a progressive and ongoing series of nerfs to atherspace, though aetherrevolts were a positive attempt to encourage purchase that sadly had limited effect. You only really need clans for the purpose of creating a cartel.
It's a simple reality that the value of gold is miniscule in comparison to the value of the credit. It's frankly no surprise the market has skyrocketed.
The demand for credits has stayed the same, however over time, as people finish getting all of these one shot, relatively cheap, gold-value goods, they no longer need the gold that much. The current market situation is a direct result of an unchanged high demand for credits, but a drastic devaluation, and corresponding drop in the demand for gold.
So long as the relative value of the two remains at parity, the market will stay healthy. Let the two become imbalanced and the game, both paying and non-paying players, will suffer for it.
Edit: Just for anecdote's sake - I picked up several hundred credits early this month. And bought a clan. Do you know how many credits I sold? As far as I recall, I sold none. The credits are worth so much more than gold in terms of what they can do to benefit my character, selling any of them would be the height of foolishness. And gold is just as easy to obtain as it always has been. The smarter choice was just to take the day or two needed to bash up the gold.
QUOTE
"* Make sure that there are very desirable things to be bought with both currencies. This system only works when people ultimately want to have some of both currencies. Keep an eye on the exchange rate. If it tilts too far one way or another you probably need to do some work on beefing up the value of currency that’s dropped. (The prevailing exchange rates are kind of fun to watch actually. For instance, when one of IRE’s text MUDs – Achaea – put in user-owned ships recently they priced ships in gold. Overnight the exchange rate changed somewhat dramatically as the value of gold went up substantially.) "
"* Let the market set the exchange rate. The non-paying users will always feel that credits cost too much gold. If you need to nudge the rate one way or another, put in something valuable priced in the lagging currency, as above. Never just mandate an exchange rate to make the nonpaying users temporarily happy as to do so is to effectively take ‘money’ out of the pocket of paying users (who are, on a 1:1 basis significantly more valuable than non-paying users on average). It can be hard, because you will have far more users interested in making credits cheaper to purchase than the other way around (most of your users won’t be spending much, at least in a game environment), and this will manifest itself in forum posts, emailed complaints, and so on. Be strong and trust in the proverbial invisible hand here. "
"* Let the market set the exchange rate. The non-paying users will always feel that credits cost too much gold. If you need to nudge the rate one way or another, put in something valuable priced in the lagging currency, as above. Never just mandate an exchange rate to make the nonpaying users temporarily happy as to do so is to effectively take ‘money’ out of the pocket of paying users (who are, on a 1:1 basis significantly more valuable than non-paying users on average). It can be hard, because you will have far more users interested in making credits cheaper to purchase than the other way around (most of your users won’t be spending much, at least in a game environment), and this will manifest itself in forum posts, emailed complaints, and so on. Be strong and trust in the proverbial invisible hand here. "
Lusternia has a shitton of desirable things to be purchased with credits. It has more skills needing transing than any other IRE game. It has a massive list of artifacts. Credits are very very very valuable.
Now, let us compare the desirability of things that can be purchased with gold? Manses. Aetherships. Clans. Cartels.
Most of us with gold already have all we want or need of those. You only need enough manse rooms to hold your db artis. Aetherships are becoming steadily less appealing due to a progressive and ongoing series of nerfs to atherspace, though aetherrevolts were a positive attempt to encourage purchase that sadly had limited effect. You only really need clans for the purpose of creating a cartel.
It's a simple reality that the value of gold is miniscule in comparison to the value of the credit. It's frankly no surprise the market has skyrocketed.
The demand for credits has stayed the same, however over time, as people finish getting all of these one shot, relatively cheap, gold-value goods, they no longer need the gold that much. The current market situation is a direct result of an unchanged high demand for credits, but a drastic devaluation, and corresponding drop in the demand for gold.
So long as the relative value of the two remains at parity, the market will stay healthy. Let the two become imbalanced and the game, both paying and non-paying players, will suffer for it.
Edit: Just for anecdote's sake - I picked up several hundred credits early this month. And bought a clan. Do you know how many credits I sold? As far as I recall, I sold none. The credits are worth so much more than gold in terms of what they can do to benefit my character, selling any of them would be the height of foolishness. And gold is just as easy to obtain as it always has been. The smarter choice was just to take the day or two needed to bash up the gold.
Hiriako2011-09-17 02:11:11
Credits are very much worthwhile in Lusternia. I'm not going to repeat what was just posted, but I basically agree with it.
As far as the necessity of artifacts, I do echo that most of those have been around since day 1. Aside from the current warrior rune issue, what would be said is absolutely necessary?
Soap - useful. A definite boon if you have it.
Gem of Cloaking - Great for not getting jumped.
Spectacles of...I forget the name - Utility. Potent, but utility.
I'd have to really scour the artifact list to see what's most needed, but...I see plenty.
You know what might not be a bad idea?
Dingbat salesman. 25-30k gold for dingbats, which are otherwise in limited quantity, to significantly increase the value of gold. Plus it'd pull some off the market. At the same time, this would only be until people get everything they need. But I'd love to use gold to buy non-decaying vials, for one.
And as for people getting everything they need...there are always alts.
I'd have to glance at the dingbat artifact list to see whether that'd be feasible or not.
As far as the necessity of artifacts, I do echo that most of those have been around since day 1. Aside from the current warrior rune issue, what would be said is absolutely necessary?
Soap - useful. A definite boon if you have it.
Gem of Cloaking - Great for not getting jumped.
Spectacles of...I forget the name - Utility. Potent, but utility.
I'd have to really scour the artifact list to see what's most needed, but...I see plenty.
You know what might not be a bad idea?
Dingbat salesman. 25-30k gold for dingbats, which are otherwise in limited quantity, to significantly increase the value of gold. Plus it'd pull some off the market. At the same time, this would only be until people get everything they need. But I'd love to use gold to buy non-decaying vials, for one.
And as for people getting everything they need...there are always alts.
I'd have to glance at the dingbat artifact list to see whether that'd be feasible or not.
Silvanus2011-09-17 04:56:32
QUOTE (Hiriako @ Sep 16 2011, 09:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Credits are very much worthwhile in Lusternia. I'm not going to repeat what was just posted, but I basically agree with it.
As far as the necessity of artifacts, I do echo that most of those have been around since day 1. Aside from the current warrior rune issue, what would be said is absolutely necessary?
Soap - useful. A definite boon if you have it.
Gem of Cloaking - Great for not getting jumped.
Spectacles of...I forget the name - Utility. Potent, but utility.
I'd have to really scour the artifact list to see what's most needed, but...I see plenty.
You know what might not be a bad idea?
Dingbat salesman. 25-30k gold for dingbats, which are otherwise in limited quantity, to significantly increase the value of gold. Plus it'd pull some off the market. At the same time, this would only be until people get everything they need. But I'd love to use gold to buy non-decaying vials, for one.
And as for people getting everything they need...there are always alts.
I'd have to glance at the dingbat artifact list to see whether that'd be feasible or not.
As far as the necessity of artifacts, I do echo that most of those have been around since day 1. Aside from the current warrior rune issue, what would be said is absolutely necessary?
Soap - useful. A definite boon if you have it.
Gem of Cloaking - Great for not getting jumped.
Spectacles of...I forget the name - Utility. Potent, but utility.
I'd have to really scour the artifact list to see what's most needed, but...I see plenty.
You know what might not be a bad idea?
Dingbat salesman. 25-30k gold for dingbats, which are otherwise in limited quantity, to significantly increase the value of gold. Plus it'd pull some off the market. At the same time, this would only be until people get everything they need. But I'd love to use gold to buy non-decaying vials, for one.
And as for people getting everything they need...there are always alts.
I'd have to glance at the dingbat artifact list to see whether that'd be feasible or not.
Clairvoyance, very useful.
Dingbats have very useful items as well, pig nose, mystery map, pogo stick, surfboard, aethermanse free comms. That'd be a good idea, but I think IRE has tried avoiding credit/dingbat IG provider outside of the playerbase, probably because they don't want to set the market and let it fluctuate.
Hiriako2011-09-17 05:07:07
QUOTE (Silvanus @ Sep 17 2011, 12:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Clairvoyance, very useful.
Dingbats have very useful items as well, pig nose, mystery map, pogo stick, surfboard, aethermanse free comms. That'd be a good idea, but I think IRE has tried avoiding credit/dingbat IG provider outside of the playerbase, probably because they don't want to set the market and let it fluctuate.
Dingbats have very useful items as well, pig nose, mystery map, pogo stick, surfboard, aethermanse free comms. That'd be a good idea, but I think IRE has tried avoiding credit/dingbat IG provider outside of the playerbase, probably because they don't want to set the market and let it fluctuate.
I'm pretty sure they do try to avoid that. I understand not wanting an NPC that sells credits. That is, after all, IRE's method of financing itself. I don't have any problem with that. Dingbats at a high gold cost though... Ah well, likely wont happen!
