The increase in esteem prices isn't even due to the supply of esteem. In fact, I'm betting there's even more esteem these days than before. The increase is due to the credit market inflation - influencers did a hivemind voodoo thing and pegged their prices with credits. Which, being an influencer, I am not totally against ;)

Well, I haven't been influencing since I hit level 80, but I always sold my esteem for between 6-8k; the same level I was willing to buy it for. I'm not sure when influencers decided that esteem is worth a credit; it most certainly is not, especially with the massive costs of credits anymore.

I've always found 10k to be a fair price for esteem. Feels comparable to the income I'd get if I spent the influencing time hunting instead.

The increase in esteem prices isn't even due to the supply of esteem. In fact, I'm betting there's even more esteem these days than before. The increase is due to the credit market inflation - influencers did a hivemind voodoo thing and pegged their prices with credits. Which, being an influencer, I am not totally against ;)

I've got nothing to add to this conversation that's not already being said, but I just wanted to note that the phrase "hivemind voodoo thing" made me giggle a little.

I didn't know cities had esteem stockpiles. What are they for? o.O

Defiling/erecting shrines, mostly. For worldgames on Astral in most cases.

o Essence bonuses are now calculated in an additive, rather than
multiplicative, manner.

Can someone explain this please?

Let's say you have a 10% tattoo, a 10% something else, and a 15% something else.

Additive means that the total bonus is 10 + 10 + 15 == 35% bonus. 10,000 essence offerings becomes 13,500.

Multiplicative would be 10,000 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.15 == 13,915 total.

How many essence boosts are there? From the top of my mind:

Tattoos
Figurine
God-realm (assuming it works like a percentage boost in that fashion)
Cult-power (forgot the name)
???

And the newly released to the general public divine marks, but that would only boost the influencing of divine realm mobs.

Both credit and esteem prices went up because gold became easier to obtain. However the effort to get the gold to buy either is still less then before. I am somewhat bemused however none of the tradeskill items followed suit.

That's because they exist in abundance; if I were to double the cost of my reflls, I'd sell none at all.

Yep. The economy is very bare bones here, there generally aren't good supply/demand relations. If you up your cost /shrug, I can either do without or go somewhere else, because there is no real cost to doing so, and no real incentive at the bottom for most trades to raise costs all around.

Enyalida:

Yep. The economy is very bare bones here, there generally aren't good supply/demand relations. If you up your cost /shrug, I can either do without or go somewhere else, because there is no real cost to doing so, and no real incentive at the bottom for most trades to raise costs all around.

Well to be honest the only profession I expected to raise their prices because gold is easier to get is herbalist. Since their tradeskill is time intensive and time is worth a lot more now that at current prices the tradeskill isn't really worth it (except for the limited people who get the sparkleberry). It is one of the reasons I switched to alchemist, takes almost no time, people tip incredibly well and I can still hunt for gold.

Anisu:

Well to be honest the only profession I expected to raise their prices because gold is easier to get is herbalist. Since their tradeskill is time intensive and time is worth a lot more now that at current prices the tradeskill isn't really worth it (except for the limited people who get the sparkleberry). It is one of the reasons I switched to alchemist, takes almost no time, people tip incredibly well and I can still hunt for gold.

Isn't really worth it? Are you kidding? I'm an herbalist who doesn't even try very hard to sell my herbs, and I make plenty of gold from it.

Truda:

Isn't really worth it? Are you kidding? I'm an herbalist who doesn't even try very hard to sell my herbs, and I make plenty of gold from it.

need to compare it to the gold you could be making. Every minute you harvest/plant, is a minute you are not hunting.

Trading herbs/influencing should NOT be comparable to hunting; there is significantly less risk involved.

foolofsound:

Trading herbs/influencing should NOT be comparable to hunting; there is significantly less risk involved.

It's a bit apples-and-oranges.

However, from an economic standpoint, Anisu has made a fair point - both activities generate gold, so it DOES become a question of opportunity cost. That time spent picking herbs could be spent hunting - trade skills are obviously there for making gold and product. Of course, hunting also produces XP, which picking herbs does not, so in that regard it's a subjective matter of how you value xp versus gold. Of course, if you're producing 1000 gold an hour picking herbs, but could be producing 10,000 gold an hour bashing or influencing, plus whatever XP you make, economic theory dictates the price of herbs should and will rise. Of course, when we introduce trade it becomes a question of proper use of time and who can do which better via specialization of trade and therefore has the comparative advantage and who has the absolute advantage, and so forth.

Unfortunately, the small size of Lusternia and business skills of players makes economic theory a bit more difficult to apply properly. It's difficult to account for the person who works not at the margin, but well within - cutting into profits because they do not properly value their time. Unfortunately such suppliers affect the price others can expect, which will drive them to alternate activities (because the opportunity cost of producing has gotten too high to be economically sound).

What it ultimately means is the non-sparkleberry herbs will only be picked by people who cannot hunt nor influence, or would rather pick herbs than hunt and influence, and do not care about price - often, the latter is the reason prices remain low.