Middle man

[Register]

STS should make a "gold cap" token. You can exchange gold cap with a vendor for this token and anytime it can be redeemed for gold cap again. It would be easier than doing the coding to increase the gold cap on each player and would be a quick n easy fix to the problem.

Less scams, less worry about putting up collateral = less headaches for STS as well!

That also means Evolt hunzzzzzz and all the other merchants can store even more gold on their characters! Yes!


Mark, I'll keep that in mind, but I can't even make 1mil so don't expect me to ever make a big trade

[Energizeric]

That's not a bad idea, but maybe some other form of currency that's worth more. Just like we have dollars and cents, maybe a new currency that is worth 1m gold each, then you could exchange at a vendor. That would certainly make trades a lot easier.

[kiitz]

That also means Evolt hunzzzzzz and all the other merchants can store even more gold on their characters! Yes!


Mark, I'll keep that in mind, but I can't even make 1mil so don't expect me to ever make a big trade

The gold token would be a good idea. Having a relatively low gold cap (for some) is not going to stop hunzzz or other uber rich from stock piling more gold. They'll happily buy more characters or start more accounts to stash it all away.

This actually reminds of how things are in China. The highest denomination currency there is 100RMB, which is equivalent to about $15-17 dollars. This is fine for the majority of folks there, but I go for business and the super rich there literally carry around 2 inch thick stacks of cash. An expensive dinner for like 5-10 people can cost 10 thousand RMB and I have personally witnessed these ballers pull out 20 grand RMB in cash from their pockets to pay.

I've noticed more of them finally using credit cards for transactions, but having a relatively low value for the highest denomination currency (100RMB) never stopped them from amassing huge fortunes and carrying around huge stacks in their pockets. It just made it more inconvenient.

[Fusionstrike]

Making another kind of currency doesn't really make any sense for a virtual world. We have larger denominations in real life because it's cumbersome to carry lots of physical objects around. But in PL it's just as easy to carry one coin as a million.

The real issue here is: why is there a gold cap at all? The absolutely simplest solution would be for STS to simply remove the limit altogether, so people can directly sell and trade using as much money as they want. That's certainly much easier than creating a "gold cap token system" or some other such convoluted idea. The heart of the issue is that STS created the gold cap for a reason. So you really shouldn't expect them to do anything at all to help circumvent a limit they put in place on purpose.

I suspect, though I've never seen a dev say so, that the gold cap exists to help keep inflation down. If the most anything can be sold for (or at least sold for safely) is 10M, then there is a natural limit on how much gold is useful. If there is no limit, then there's literally nothing to keep prices from growing without bound on extremely rare items. Yes, people work around the current limits today to sell above the cap, but it is inherently risky. And not being able to list items in CS for more than the cap holds down those prices, which keeps a lid on the trade economy.

As it stands today, there is a practical limit on how much gold is useful. Sure, some players collect gold just to have it, but the practical value once a player has (let's say) 5x gold cap is negligible. That is, someone having 50M has basically the same buying power and purchasing opportunities open to him as someone with 500M, because both have vastly so much more than the actual price for anything they want to buy. However, if you remove the gold cap or create systems to make it easier to work around the cap, that suddenly puts all that "extra" gold the 500M player has back into play again, which would naturally lead to a price explosion for new/rare/valuable items. So be careful what you wish for, because the law of unintended consequences is always hungry for more victims.

[kiitz]

Making another kind of currency doesn't really make any sense for a virtual world. We have larger denominations in real life because it's cumbersome to carry lots of physical objects around. But in PL it's just as easy to carry one coin as a million.

The real issue here is: why is there a gold cap at all? The absolutely simplest solution would be for STS to simply remove the limit altogether, so people can directly sell and trade using as much money as they want. That's certainly much easier than creating a "gold cap token system" or some other such convoluted idea. The heart of the issue is that STS created the gold cap for a reason. So you really shouldn't expect them to do anything at all to help circumvent a limit they put in place on purpose.

I suspect, though I've never seen a dev say so, that the gold cap exists to help keep inflation down. If the most anything can be sold for (or at least sold for safely) is 10M, then there is a natural limit on how much gold is useful. If there is no limit, then there's literally nothing to keep prices from growing without bound on extremely rare items. Yes, people work around the current limits today to sell above the cap, but it is inherently risky. And not being able to list items in CS for more than the cap holds down those prices, which keeps a lid on the trade economy.

As it stands today, there is a practical limit on how much gold is useful. Sure, some players collect gold just to have it, but the practical value once a player has (let's say) 5x gold cap is negligible. That is, someone having 50M has basically the same buying power and purchasing opportunities open to him as someone with 500M, because both have vastly so much more than the actual price for anything they want to buy. However, if you remove the gold cap or create systems to make it easier to work around the cap, that suddenly puts all that "extra" gold the 500M player has back into play again, which would naturally lead to a price explosion for new/rare/valuable items. So be careful what you wish for, because the law of unintended consequences is always hungry for more victims.

This makes a TON of sense, and I didn't even think about it that way. I think removal of gold cap would further worsen the inflation problem because it introduces more liquid capital into the economy as you said. Great observation there.

However, I doubt STS put in the gold cap in order to prevent inflation. I do not think they care, otherwise they could introduce more gold sinks. I think the gold cap was set in place due to easier programming and set limits on the number of digits they need to keep free for the gold variables. They did not plan ahead for the wild inflation and 10M seemed like a high enough number to go with and fits on screen nicely.

An example is that they still sell a very small amount of gold for an extremely high platinum price. That was probably accurate when PL first came out. You have to balance the cost of buying gold out right vs. the cost of using the plat either on elixirs, or crafting recipes to make gold and currently the gold prices are way out of wack. Again, it leads me to believe that the inflation in PL just kind of happened and they were not "ready" for it.

I would still like to see some assistance with getting around gold cap issues, though complete removal of gold cap would most likely make extremely rare items skyrocket.

[Energizeric]

The gold cap does not help keep prices of items down, it just causes expensive items to disappear from the market. For example, it is pretty much impossible to buy a dragon item these days no matter how much gold you have. The gold cap did not keep the dragon prices down, it simply caused them to disappear from the market completely as nobody is willing to sell for gold cap.

[kiitz]

The gold cap does not help keep prices of items down, it just causes expensive items to disappear from the market. For example, it is pretty much impossible to buy a dragon item these days no matter how much gold you have. The gold cap did not keep the dragon prices down, it simply caused them to disappear from the market completely as nobody is willing to sell for gold cap.

Well, not necessarily "disappear" completely. It just moved into the "black market" or "grey market" sales like on forums and personal transactions, as opposed to going through the CS.

It's kind of like in some 3rd world country (N. Korea or something) where there is a shortage of food and or supplies. The government might put a price cap on these items and as a result there is barely any of it in the shops that have to adhere to the price caps. Its all sold on the unregulated black or grey market.

In our situation, the price cap is 10M.

[Sim Jing]

This is a great idea Mark! I would have done so myself, but people dont find me trustworthy, especially since im new and dubious in the forums! Good luck Mark!

[Livemau]

what if he scams
jk lwmark is totally trustworthy and he has a lot to lose if he gets caught scamming

[Chopper]

I doubt STS wants new players to be frustrated with excessively high priced items. The gap between rich and poor/new will be a negative for marketing the game.

If STS wants to lower prices, it only has to do one thing, increase the drop rates on the ridiculous items. Remember when people were selling Ocean Diamonds for $4-5M?

Maybe with the free Vampire Feast now dropping Dragon pieces, the prices will level down soon when people start selling more of them in CS from the higher farming rate.

[LwMark]

what if he scams
jk lwmark is totally trustworthy and he has a lot to lose if he gets caught scamming

I poorz , livemau plzzz gimme gold n pvp lessons pweeez

[Livemau]

I poorz , livemau plzzz gimme gold n pvp lessons pweeez

int bear is a personal fav and dont forget to buff after using all those skills gets em dead fast

[LwMark]

Okay , i ttry an learns can we has a pvpz match?!?!

[Shellkaz]

Offering my services as a middle man(woman) as well. I have plat crafted for many of my guild mates and never charged a single gold piece. And everyone has gotten their gear. I would hope that even though I'm not in AOA that I am considered trust worthy as well.