Take gold coin out of game to fix rampant inflation

[Bugglesx]

The rampant inflation is extremely annoying. In my view it is not just caused by excess coins in the game, but the greed of peeps in the TO. In fact it is easy to manipulate trade prices by buying all the stock of an item and then selling for a much higher price - how often have you sold an item and then seen it offered for a higher price by the person who bought it off you?

The current set up of a players setting the asking price in the TO leaves open the possibility to just keep asking more and more for items. I have played several games that have the equivalent of a trade office, but none of them have just had player set prices.



My suggestion would be to change the TO to put a limit on the max amount you can charge for an item, either by having 1) a default seller (ie from the game), 2) a set price for items or 3) a range of prices depending on how many of that item is for sale.

1) there is a default shop keeper that sells & buys items at a set price ie sell copper @21 coins per K and buys copper @20 coins per K. Players can then add their own trades, at any price, but obviously they will only sell items if they are lower than the shop keeper.

2) there is just the shop keeper that sells & buys items at a set price ie sells copper @21 coins per K and buys copper @20 coins per K.

3) items are available in the TO, but also the amount available is shown....the more of an item in the TO the lower the price ie if there is 50K saltpetre available to buy then the price would be 500coins per K, but if only 2K is available then the price would be 650 coins per K. The same would apply to selling; you would get a higher price if there isn't much of a resource available for sale.


Option 3 is my preference as it would allow for higher prices for buying & selling at times when items are in demand like during an event where a certain resource is required

[Astraldimension]

The rampant inflation is extremely annoying. In my view it is not just caused by excess coins in the game, but the greed of peeps in the TO. In fact it is easy to manipulate trade prices by buying all the stock of an item and then selling for a much higher price - how often have you sold an item and then seen it offered for a higher price by the person who bought it off you?

The current set up of a players setting the asking price in the TO leaves open the possibility to just keep asking more and more for items. I have played several games that have the equivalent of a trade office, but none of them have just had player set prices.



My suggestion would be to change the TO to put a limit on the max amount you can charge for an item, either by having 1) a default seller (ie from the game), 2) a set price for items or 3) a range of prices depending on how many of that item is for sale.

1) there is a default shop keeper that sells & buys items at a set price ie sell copper @21 coins per K and buys copper @20 coins per K. Players can then add their own trades, at any price, but obviously they will only sell items if they are lower than the shop keeper.

2) there is just the shop keeper that sells & buys items at a set price ie sells copper @21 coins per K and buys copper @20 coins per K.

3) items are available in the TO, but also the amount available is shown....the more of an item in the TO the lower the price ie if there is 50K saltpetre available to buy then the price would be 500coins per K, but if only 2K is available then the price would be 650 coins per K. The same would apply to selling; you would get a higher price if there isn't much of a resource available for sale.


Option 3 is my preference as it would allow for higher prices for buying & selling at times when items are in demand like during an event where a certain resource is required

-1

It is annoying being greedy while everything nice being more and more expensive, its in the game.

[Bluesavanah]

The rampant inflation is extremely annoying. In my view it is not just caused by excess coins in the game, but the greed of peeps in the TO. In fact it is easy to manipulate trade prices by buying all the stock of an item and then selling for a much higher price - how often have you sold an item and then seen it offered for a higher price by the person who bought it off you?

The current set up of a players setting the asking price in the TO leaves open the possibility to just keep asking more and more for items. I have played several games that have the equivalent of a trade office, but none of them have just had player set prices.



My suggestion would be to change the TO to put a limit on the max amount you can charge for an item, either by having 1) a default seller (ie from the game), 2) a set price for items or 3) a range of prices depending on how many of that item is for sale.

1) there is a default shop keeper that sells & buys items at a set price ie sell copper @21 coins per K and buys copper @20 coins per K. Players can then add their own trades, at any price, but obviously they will only sell items if they are lower than the shop keeper.

2) there is just the shop keeper that sells & buys items at a set price ie sells copper @21 coins per K and buys copper @20 coins per K.

3) items are available in the TO, but also the amount available is shown....the more of an item in the TO the lower the price ie if there is 50K saltpetre available to buy then the price would be 500coins per K, but if only 2K is available then the price would be 650 coins per K. The same would apply to selling; you would get a higher price if there isn't much of a resource available for sale.


Option 3 is my preference as it would allow for higher prices for buying & selling at times when items are in demand like during an event where a certain resource is required

What your describing here is a single player game.

[Brayarg]

I would hate to see free trade removed from the game, runescape tried that little chestnut a few years back, didn't pan out very well for them.

[Ozzymandeus]

If people want to afford the high prices of the items they wish to buy, they need to get as much value for their goods as they can. That isn't greed... just a basic principle of economics and trade... you charge what the market will bear. When the market is full of people who can, effectively, manufacture currency out of thin air, with no regulatory body limiting the total amount in circulation then, of course, inflation is going to be rampant.

Incidentally, I very much doubt BB has any desire to curb the inflation of prices, particularly in regards to items such as watermills, silos, improved storehouses, etc.

Higher prices for those kinds of items in game mean an increased likelihood that (newer) players will be inclined to purchase them immediately with gems instead of making the effort to raise amounts of coin required in trade.

[FishSmell]

I think it would be a good idea to put things that use gold coins (or gold bars) in production. Military units would have been a good choice. Or "luxury" articles like ornamentalsmith or crossbows, damascene swords, etc. instead of increasing the coal input. Could have been a resource needed for the pvp weapons/units. Or BB could implement entirely new building types. And there could be a conversion tool in the prov house to convert coins into omni refills perhaps (for the granite pit).

Buildings aren't a good choice because those don't take coins out of the circulation, just replace them with something of equal worth.

ETA: another thing could be to introduce upkeep costs to buildings. This could also take care of the inordinate amounts of marble and hwp that higher levels can produce without them having anywhere much to go. They wouldn't need to be high, especially for basic building types on levels 1 and 2, there'd be nothing, but they'd get higher the more advanced and higher level the building is. But no switching over to granite and ewp after level 4; that'd defeat the purpose.

[BAAAHHHHHJJJAAA]

No, on so many levels

No.

They simply need to introduce stuff you can buy with gold coins for high level players.

Yup, it is a very easy fix but BB can't be bothered to come up with anything.


So many players whine about the coin thing but these are always those poor players that want the cheapest lootpsot and the the most for thier items.

Remember if you want to buy an expensive item in the game (such as for example a Witch Tower) which is 40k on my server, if you take gold out of the game the value of gold goes up, and therefore the price of the Witch tower comes down.

No it will not, the Price of a WT will increase as players who have one and want only coin will have the power, therefore you will be seeing a WT go for 100k+.

[Sharpielein]

Your suggestion isn't new except in the details ...
I remember when the mere idea that there is even something called "inflation" was shred to pieces by the community:

http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/t...coin-inflation!

Ah well, I guess that an Improved Silo costing 85000 coins as opposed to 15000 last year isn't inflation anyways

[EctoRune]

I think the best way to drain off gold would be to go the proven way of large MMO-economies. Add large gold sinks. Preferably vanity or convenience items that don't significantly improve the economy of the people buying them.

Ideas:
Extra building slots at 50k/100k/150k/200k. This would put millions of gc out of the economy very quickly
Extra adventure slot. Allowing high level players to start more than one adventure at a time. Extra server load should be considered before implementing something like this.
Avatar changes. Let me buy a santa hat for my dude. Or let me braid his beard. Whatever- I'd pay good gold for a chance to stand out a bit on the friends list.
Alternate Building skins. Like the "old school" temporary buffs that were added with the anniversary but permanent. The problem with all the current decorations is that they take up space that could be used for production. So if I want to put something nice on my island, I'm not just paying for the decoration. I'm also keeping around a permanent drain on my economy. That runs counter to the purpose of the game (at least the purpose for me), and this is part of the reason why my island looks so industrial. If instead, you introduced alternate skins for buildings to allow us to pick what our islands look like, that'd let us customize our islands without reducing productivity. At a couple thousand gold per building this could quickly drain great amounts of gold from the economy. This would also be advantageous in that it would be a continuous gold sink. Every new building is a possibility for some gold spent.

Start out with the Mayor's house, since that's the most prominent building. Give is 5 different ones to choose from. Then expand, starting with the most common and most prominent (big) buildings. Also let us pay for custom roads. Maybe with streetlamps. Do a holiday theme with coloured lights all over.

Include skins for the settlers themselves. Let me pay 10k gc to outfit them with blue shirts. Another 20k gets them each a hat. 50k and my generals could be riding huge cats.

In short, introduce entirely useless (but not actively detrimental) vanity items at high prices. I know for a fact I'd be susceptible to this, and I suspect I'm on the less interested in decorations end of the spectrum. The obvious downside of these suggestions is that they would require work from BB. And rather than bringing in the gem purchases they'd improve the game as a whole, which doesn't help BB/Ubi's bottom line. So it'll never happpen. Ah well, a man can dream.

[Kenolein]

Besides Granite and especially Titanium, I find there is surprisingly little inflation. Tools, marble, and gems are worth more, but not that much considering how long the games been out. I think some of the higher prices, especially for tools and marble, help new players as they can mass produce those with little investment and make the gold needed for upgrades which hasn't changed much. With the changes to weapons, failed blocks and high end adventures cost more to recover from, but that doesn't affect newer players as much either. Price priorities change, bread and brew are down, weapons will be going up. Iron went nuts after Halloween but is back close to where it was before.