Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
Xeru drops Book of Custom Title that already gives you access to a customed title. THis book can be bought to players or won at casino.
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
Sian wrote:Xeru drops Book of Custom Title that already gives you access to a customed title. THis book can be bought to players or won at casino.
true but the HoH symbols were dropping and from events but still ended up on a vendor.
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
I really liked the idea that was mentioned before of making more food available. AFAIK...besides that one quest in the forest there is no real stat food/drink in game. Seems like an opportunity for a great plat sink. Sure, it won't suck billions of of existing accounts but anything is better than nothing and it's a far less intrusive way to remove plat than say.....having to pay cash to get into a zone or try a named or buy armor. It also has the potential to remove FAR more cash than it too.
If the foods could be made to last for a shorter duration the higher the stats go it would be great.
The current largest plat sink for new players is armor sets. But it completely fails at it's purpose. Since armor is a necessity, people will farm that cash specifically. Yes, it removes plat from the game but mostly it's only the plat brought into the economy for that specific purpose. It's more detrimental than beneficial especially since the players new into the tiers will likely find such 'plat-gating' as....the opposite of fun.
Food/drink, potions, illusions that last through zoning but have a duration of 3 hours or something, short term buffs, tradeskill mats, and no stat or low stat augs most of which were mentioned in this thread or others are really the only viable plat sinks that are not likely to seem intrusive. Can even sell the 35AC seb augs which I am pretty sure would suck up a lot of plat from those who have no desire to farm Seb again and again. I know it was said earlier that they did not want to have a reward type system but any alternative will not exactly give anyone a good feeling. As was also mentioned, some low(ish) rare items can be made available for platinum...at absurdly high prices of course. 80,000 for coth orb for example...maybe also with some kind of tier restriction. Must be T3 flagged to buy T2 loot or whatever. The price should be high enough so that new players won't feel that farming cash for it is easier than farming the item itself. Or it will defeat the purpose.
There are a large number of ways in which plat can be removed from the economy that can create a more fun, interesting, and enjoyable experience for all. The current platsinks...for the most part do not fit that bill.
EDIT:
The 2.0's wiped out my bank account.
I'm flagged for T4 but...can't afford the armor so....I guess I have to farm cash to feed a plat sink.
I don't think that most players naturally come across the kind of cash needed for the armor sets through natural progression. It forces people to farm cash....but when the main goal is to remove plat from the economy....it does indeed boggle the mind.
Another idea...another edit:
Inspired from a different server I played on ages ago.
There is a way to keep buffs after you die, not sure how difficult it would be to code though.
You can put a new NPC in the Forest and Guildhalls. He'll 'soul bind' your buffs for a fee of...let's say 500p per character per use. It does not change the duration of the buffs, it will just keep them on you if you go splat. Can remove cash from the game and can increase the enjoyment of the players by avoiding the hassle of rebuffing after death.
If the foods could be made to last for a shorter duration the higher the stats go it would be great.
The current largest plat sink for new players is armor sets. But it completely fails at it's purpose. Since armor is a necessity, people will farm that cash specifically. Yes, it removes plat from the game but mostly it's only the plat brought into the economy for that specific purpose. It's more detrimental than beneficial especially since the players new into the tiers will likely find such 'plat-gating' as....the opposite of fun.
Food/drink, potions, illusions that last through zoning but have a duration of 3 hours or something, short term buffs, tradeskill mats, and no stat or low stat augs most of which were mentioned in this thread or others are really the only viable plat sinks that are not likely to seem intrusive. Can even sell the 35AC seb augs which I am pretty sure would suck up a lot of plat from those who have no desire to farm Seb again and again. I know it was said earlier that they did not want to have a reward type system but any alternative will not exactly give anyone a good feeling. As was also mentioned, some low(ish) rare items can be made available for platinum...at absurdly high prices of course. 80,000 for coth orb for example...maybe also with some kind of tier restriction. Must be T3 flagged to buy T2 loot or whatever. The price should be high enough so that new players won't feel that farming cash for it is easier than farming the item itself. Or it will defeat the purpose.
There are a large number of ways in which plat can be removed from the economy that can create a more fun, interesting, and enjoyable experience for all. The current platsinks...for the most part do not fit that bill.
EDIT:
The 2.0's wiped out my bank account.
I'm flagged for T4 but...can't afford the armor so....I guess I have to farm cash to feed a plat sink.
I don't think that most players naturally come across the kind of cash needed for the armor sets through natural progression. It forces people to farm cash....but when the main goal is to remove plat from the economy....it does indeed boggle the mind.
Another idea...another edit:
Inspired from a different server I played on ages ago.
There is a way to keep buffs after you die, not sure how difficult it would be to code though.
You can put a new NPC in the Forest and Guildhalls. He'll 'soul bind' your buffs for a fee of...let's say 500p per character per use. It does not change the duration of the buffs, it will just keep them on you if you go splat. Can remove cash from the game and can increase the enjoyment of the players by avoiding the hassle of rebuffing after death.
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
The t6 armour quests can be seen as a positive economy outlet because farming cash through platinum and gems is not the only way to generate income for a player; whilst cash sinks are a requirement, it doesn't mean they cannot be mandatory, because cash input can be gained via item sales. We didn't farm cash for the vast majority of our ancient armour (and we had a large number of characters to gear up) and made most of the required cash through selling attuned gear and progression tokens.
That is positive for the server economy, so the t6 quests are not detrimental. The mandatory cash sinks simply disappear after t6.
Non mandatory cash sinks are indeed more fun than the opposite, but both are valuable ways to build an.economy. The former tends to be much less effective than the latter at actually burning coin whilst remaining balanced, though. We spent hundreds of thousands on t6 armour and epic quests and access to instances and so on. We have spent zero on things like the guild hall coh click. The rest of our outgoing cash has been spent on bazaar spells (which are, in a way, more detrimental to end game economy, aa they provide a large influx of cash only to high end players, who have no outlet).
So I definitely agree, there can be a big benefit to improving non mandatory cash sinks. The food and drink idea is excellent. There are lots of possibilities there, too.
That is positive for the server economy, so the t6 quests are not detrimental. The mandatory cash sinks simply disappear after t6.
Non mandatory cash sinks are indeed more fun than the opposite, but both are valuable ways to build an.economy. The former tends to be much less effective than the latter at actually burning coin whilst remaining balanced, though. We spent hundreds of thousands on t6 armour and epic quests and access to instances and so on. We have spent zero on things like the guild hall coh click. The rest of our outgoing cash has been spent on bazaar spells (which are, in a way, more detrimental to end game economy, aa they provide a large influx of cash only to high end players, who have no outlet).
So I definitely agree, there can be a big benefit to improving non mandatory cash sinks. The food and drink idea is excellent. There are lots of possibilities there, too.
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
I'm pretty sure I had enough PP from general gem drops by the time I hit t6 to pay for that final mandatory sink. I don't think I've ever set up a bazaar trader on this server, sadly. I don't box 6+ toons though, so purchasing large numbers of those tokens for t6 armor was never an issue. I can see it being expensive for people who box a group or more, but that's the price you pay for boxing so many imho 
Then again I did all my AA'ing in LDoN so I always had plenty of plat on hand. I had always wished there were more plat sinks so that platinum became more of a commodity and prices on higher end gear would lower.
I do like your idea on non-mandatory plat sinks though. The buff-saving thing sounds fishy coding wise, but I'd love to see illusion pots that last while zoning. High stat/low duration foods would also be awesome, maybe some heroics? 80k for a coth orb is pretty darn low, especially considering the ghall clicky sells from vendor for 160? Coth orb would likely fetch at least twice that, unless it had a long CD like 1/hour. More TS mats is very welcome idea. Air infused spring water please!
Keep in mind that platinum is not very difficult to come by. Average per normal LDoN clear is 5kpp. Most t5+ non-donored players can clear one in 10 minutes and be on to the next one. That's 20 minutes give or take worth of farming for a token for a piece of T6 armor. Not that horrible. 30 minutes for a Powerful Temper for 2.0. Etc.
Drop the HoH symbols another 2-3k and you'll see platinum start to empty out of those banks that hold many millions of platinum. It will take a while, but as those players and their guildmates decide to make more alts they'll opt for the quick way out and buy their T8 points rather than spend a month slaughtering easy trash in a laggy zone. Less platinum in the hands of the big boys = increased value of platinum serverwide as they sell off attuneable items they don't need in order to pay for the t8+ stuffs they do need.
The issue isn't that there are too many plat sinks and that they are too big, it's that there are zero plat sinks after t6. Period. There's nothing to spend platinum on to make it useful at all. Unless the GMs have something devious planned for VT....
Then again I did all my AA'ing in LDoN so I always had plenty of plat on hand. I had always wished there were more plat sinks so that platinum became more of a commodity and prices on higher end gear would lower.
I do like your idea on non-mandatory plat sinks though. The buff-saving thing sounds fishy coding wise, but I'd love to see illusion pots that last while zoning. High stat/low duration foods would also be awesome, maybe some heroics? 80k for a coth orb is pretty darn low, especially considering the ghall clicky sells from vendor for 160? Coth orb would likely fetch at least twice that, unless it had a long CD like 1/hour. More TS mats is very welcome idea. Air infused spring water please!
Keep in mind that platinum is not very difficult to come by. Average per normal LDoN clear is 5kpp. Most t5+ non-donored players can clear one in 10 minutes and be on to the next one. That's 20 minutes give or take worth of farming for a token for a piece of T6 armor. Not that horrible. 30 minutes for a Powerful Temper for 2.0. Etc.
Drop the HoH symbols another 2-3k and you'll see platinum start to empty out of those banks that hold many millions of platinum. It will take a while, but as those players and their guildmates decide to make more alts they'll opt for the quick way out and buy their T8 points rather than spend a month slaughtering easy trash in a laggy zone. Less platinum in the hands of the big boys = increased value of platinum serverwide as they sell off attuneable items they don't need in order to pay for the t8+ stuffs they do need.
The issue isn't that there are too many plat sinks and that they are too big, it's that there are zero plat sinks after t6. Period. There's nothing to spend platinum on to make it useful at all. Unless the GMs have something devious planned for VT....
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
Spiked wrote:
The issue isn't that there are too many plat sinks and that they are too big, it's that there are zero plat sinks after t6. Period. There's nothing to spend platinum on to make it useful at all. Unless the GMs have something devious planned for VT....
What, like a toll booth as you zone in, selling tickets at 500pp each, allowing you to kill 5 trash mobs and one mini boss mob per ticket, only?
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
change the trash mobs by a bunch of gnomes and I buy tickets during the whole year 
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
Sian wrote:change the trash mobs by a bunch of gnomes and I buy tickets during the whole year
-signed gnomes
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
Ydiss wrote:Spiked wrote:
The issue isn't that there are too many plat sinks and that they are too big, it's that there are zero plat sinks after t6. Period. There's nothing to spend platinum on to make it useful at all. Unless the GMs have something devious planned for VT....
What, like a toll booth as you zone in, selling tickets at 500pp each, allowing you to kill 5 trash mobs and one mini boss mob per ticket, only?
Make it truly evil. Reverse bazaar code. Once you zone in it starts a timer, and every 30 minutes it checks that toon for platinum. If it has 500pp, the plat gets taken away and you continue on your merry way. If you don't, your debuff from not having cleared dsk3 gets knocked up a tier every 30 minutes until you get the plat/zone out. Note: the price for gnomes is 1k.
Boxers wouldn't have to worry, just have one toon with the plat and /split 6000 every hour. Problem solved!
Re: Are people finding platinum to have low appeal?
You really need useful items to be consumable for a thriving economy. UO did this with actual item decay - items would degrade in effectiveness and condition with use and when repaired, never quite returned to their original condition. So your super crossbow of vanquishing only came out for special fights.. you'd never waste a shot on a bunny! And eventually it would degrade to the point where even after repairs it wasn't as good as a well made crossbow.
Implementing item decay is something I toyed with on my test emu but it's not something you can realistically do with an established server.. so perhaps something like this:
Add a field to the items table that stores some evaluation of an item's worth (e.g. hp/mana). At intervals charge a maintenance fee representing the 'repair' of gear. If a bank account empties, a player has x days to top up on plat before items have a chance to go *poof*. Guilded players could draw from their guild bank, giving it a purpose besides an item store. Perhaps include some controls to manage longer term inactivity because I don't want to lose my gear
For example, charge based on time played over the interval.
Then add some tradeable consumables at the mid-upper tiers which are attractive to players in the lower tiers, i.e. good enough to influence the outcomes of challenging encounters. Examples: 20% damage increase potions, high value heal-over-time potions, etc. You guys are pretty creative with your effects. The net result is that high end players can sell them to lower tier players and you're not using plat to shift gear down tiers.
There's a flipside of accelerated progression for lower tiered players but you can just undo some of the re-balancing done over the years
Implementing item decay is something I toyed with on my test emu but it's not something you can realistically do with an established server.. so perhaps something like this:
Add a field to the items table that stores some evaluation of an item's worth (e.g. hp/mana). At intervals charge a maintenance fee representing the 'repair' of gear. If a bank account empties, a player has x days to top up on plat before items have a chance to go *poof*. Guilded players could draw from their guild bank, giving it a purpose besides an item store. Perhaps include some controls to manage longer term inactivity because I don't want to lose my gear
For example, charge based on time played over the interval.Then add some tradeable consumables at the mid-upper tiers which are attractive to players in the lower tiers, i.e. good enough to influence the outcomes of challenging encounters. Examples: 20% damage increase potions, high value heal-over-time potions, etc. You guys are pretty creative with your effects. The net result is that high end players can sell them to lower tier players and you're not using plat to shift gear down tiers.
There's a flipside of accelerated progression for lower tiered players but you can just undo some of the re-balancing done over the years
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