Solution for fixing the economy!

[Energizeric]

As many of you know, I used to play PL. So I was looking at the PL forum and noticed they did an update to address the long annoying issue of the Forgotten weapons, and their solution was brilliant. So it made me think of a solution to the current issue plaguing the AL economy.

The problem goes like this:

1) Tons of crate pinks have flooded the market due to so many players opening locked crates.

2) Because of the large surplus of these items, prices have dropped on most of them to under 200 gold, making them worthless.

3) Because crate pinks have become worthless, the only items of any value you can get from locked crates are the super rare mythic and arcane items. As the odds of getting a mythic or arcane item are small, this discourages many from wanting to open locked crates.

4) Because stats of these crate pinks in most cases are better than epic items, epic items have no value at all and cannot even be sold.

5) Because stats of some crate pinks are almost as good as some elite pinks, the prices of the elite pinks have fallen as well.



So here is my proposed solution:

1) All crate pinks that have ever existed will be changed to have a liquidation value of 3000 gold.

2) This will result in many players liquidating these items to get the 3000 gold. This will happen until we reach a point where these items become rare enough that they are worth at least 3000 gold each.

3) Elite pinks will rise in price accordingly.

4) Epic items will fill the price void between 100 gold and 3000 gold.

5) This will give an influx of gold into the economy, which I think many of us agree has been needed.

6) This will cause more interest in opening locked crates since the crate pinks will now have some value and not be worthless.

7) This will boost the value of locked crates, and will encourage crate farming.


Since the "worst" item you are supposed to get from a locked crate is 2000 gold, shouldn't getting a pink item be at a minimum worth more than that? This solution will make sure that is the case, while boosting the entire economy in the process.

[KingMartin]

I agree that many crates are waiting in stash to be either opened or sold. Currently there is not a big motivation for either of these.

Perhaps I did not get the idea fully, and so I have two questions:

1) Would not one arcane weekend with increased chances help to get more crates popped?

2) Why should I liquidate for 3k if I can sell for 9-10k very easily?

[matanofx]

Im not one to think 5-6 steps ahead, however i think your idea is genius.

[Uzii]

Last season the solution was adding gold and plat in those crates so the amount of legendaries decrases and they get their value.
Now we have again the same problem here. I guess tons of crates r getting opened daily that those pinks just flooded the market.
And no much interest in legendaries bc also price of the mythics si decreasing.

I dont think this solution will solve anything. Ppl will open so many crates that those pinks will be even more common. But now they will not sell in the cs just liquidated. Even more crates opened. But i think its good for the company so

But i doubt it will solve anything in the economy.

[Energizeric]

2) Why should I liquidate for 3k if I can sell for 9-10k very easily?

Who can you sell crate pinks to for 9-10k? I'm talking about the Dimensional and Devourer items. Have a look in the auction, they sell for 150-200 gold each.

[KingMartin]

Uzii, so in your theory, the less worth the loot from crates is, the more will be opened?

Strange, the current situation has exactly opposite impact on my will to spend RL money for crates popping.

[KingMartin]

Who can you sell crate pinks to for 9-10k? I'm talking about the Dimensional and Devourer items. Have a look in the auction, they sell for 150-200 gold each.

Oh sorry, my bad - I thought you wanted to liquidate CRATES for 3k. Yes, now your idea makes full sense. Sorry, still sleepy :)

[Uzii]

Uzii, so in your theory, the less worth the loot from crates is, the more will be opened?

Strange, the current situation has exactly opposite impact on my will to spend RL money for crates popping.

No.

I think the amounts of crates will still be high that is opened in a day bc fo arcane eggs if for not anything else. But if u can liguidate the legendaries for 3k it will encourage u more to open those crates right? Some ppl still opened even when they get only gold there, so its same.
And will not solve the current problems as it didnt with the last solution. Bc we ended up with the same results, means a lots of legendaries that no one is buying.

[Alrisaia]

once again energizer you provide an insightful and well thought out solution that addresses multiple issues on many levels.

well done mate.

[Soundlesskill]

Wouldn't all the 1k crate openers gain tons of money just by liqudating for 3k gold?

[Alrisaia]

Wouldn't all the 1k crate openers gain tons of money just by liqudating for 3k gold?

don't they already by finding millions worth of mythic and arcane items?
also the 10 crate opener might feel a little better about it and thus would perhaps decide to open his ten crates more often?

[Rare]

This again. The economy will be broken until the underlying problem is fixed. And no, inflation is not going to fix it. But if it can increase the flux of platinum, give it a shot.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

[Jetzzz]

Smart people will open crates at twinks lv which offer good price

[Alrisaia]

Smart people will open crates at twinks lv which offer good price

Which is the cause of people not being able to farm twink gear and sell it for a decent profit.

Again – we see time and time again the root cause of the majority of the economic problems in AL are related to the Pink gear that comes from crates.

[Jetzzz]

The main problem is how to make "rich people" to buy items from "poor people". So in the end the "poor people" will have decent items. Thats why i dont agree with the new bael & krunch system. Of course u guys can said, u can farm malison, flap jack, etc. But thats become another problem, because now they more concentrated on that location the price of malison egg etc is droping fast. Why droping fast ? Almost everyone have it already, and too many player farm on that map because they cant farm in elite shuyal

[j3peaz]

Could decrease price to open crates and adjust odds of pinks and/or mythics/arcanes slightly as well as increase price of liquidation. Would encourage more openings while not saturating economy as much and not hurting openers platy pocket.

[falmear]

The main problem is how to make "rich people" to buy items from "poor people". So in the end the "poor people" will have decent items. Thats why i dont agree with the new bael & krunch system. Of course u guys can said, u can farm malison, flap jack, etc. But thats become another problem, because now they more concentrated on that location the price of malison egg etc is droping fast. Why droping fast ? Almost everyone have it already, and too many player farm on that map because they cant farm in elite shuyal

The reason eggs like kettle, wrathjaw, snaggletooth and malison have dropped in price because these areas are not scaled. And its so easy to farm these maps now that anyone can farm them. So the more people who farm them, the more eggs there are. The more eggs there are the price drops. You can thank people who don't want these areas to scale because this is the end result.

As for crate pinks, these are fine suggestions but I don't think these will have any impact on elite pinks. Because I don't think elite pinks compete with crate pinks. The stats on most crate pinks are very bad. And of any the crate pinks that do have decent stats, will sell for more such as some weapons. I also disagree with points #4 & #5, since epic rings and amulets are better then what are in crates and sell for way more. What is driving down prices on elite pinks is the over supply of mythics. People are saving their gold to buy mythics and as more of these items come into the market, mythic prices go down and pushing down elite pinks. And this is why some lvl 36 pink rings/amulets fetch a lot of money because they are perceived to be better then mythics.

[Valkiryas]

Maybe if the crates increase their value the pinks worth more.

I mind in a half hour with lepechaun and elixir I can drop 7 - 8 crates ( Obviously their value fall) ( Istn a legendary Chest, I now more like a " Common Chest")

Anyway, Maybe if make more ( A lot more ) rare the drop of crates, their value could be higher.

Just an idea.

Edit: My english isnt the best but I try .... :)

[Lisa Huber]

whats the main reason why people opened that big amount of lockeds?
yes! they want an arcane or at last mythic item!
The drop rate of these items were hardly decreased so its hard to get any worthy item now.
I opened more than 500 lockeds this season and i just got 1 mythic item...thats a good deal for STS huh?
If i get my Arcene Staff ill never open any of these crates this season...so they wont let it happen....
Just all stop buying crates, then they have to do a Crate-Weekend with higher Droprates :)

[Energizeric]

Very few of you seem to understand how economics works. You seem to think they can double the drop rate of an item, and people looting it will still be able to sell it for the same price. It doesn't work that way. More value will never come out of locked crates no matter what they do with drop rates.

If they multiply the odds of getting an arcane egg by 10 times, then arcane eggs will sell for 100k, and people will no longer consider those a desirable item to get in locked and will complain they don't get an arcane weapon. And if they multiply the odds of all mythic and arcane items by 10 times, then all those prices will fall and people will no longer open locked crates at all since nothing good will come in them.

Most of you started playing this game recently, but some of you were around at the beginning of the year when they first introduced locked crates. You may remember that for the first month locked crates were out, there were no such thing as mythic or arcane items yet. Back then, the attraction of locked crates was that you were guaranteed to get a pink item in each crate. People opened them by the dozens to loot these wonderful pink legendary items. How many of you now would open crates if all that was offered were pink items? Do you want the same thing that happened with crate pinks to happen with mythic and arcane items?

[Taejo]

Out of thank yous but thank you. Hopefully STG tries this. I've seen it work in other games - even for just a short period of time (6-12 months).

[mapenjay]

leprechaun kills

[Wutzgood]

leprechaun kills

That amulet has made me a fortune in eggs and locked.

[Limitational]

Support. At least the 3k liquidation part. If im gonna spend money for 2k constantly and the occasional 200 gold pink. least let me liquidate for 3k..

[Carapace]

Thanks for this insightful post. We are working on steps to preserve the rarity of items moving forward and hopefully bring their value back in the process. Recent changes like adding other loot options to the Gladiator Arena among other relevant changes should help in this regard, but solving the problem can only truly be accomplished moving into future content.

[Shadow217]

Haha good luck after this weekend the game is going to be flooded with legend items :p

[Energizeric]

Just to explain to everyone where I got this idea, there was an update made in PL which solved a long time complaint that had been going on for about a year. Last summer (2012) there was a new dungeon introduced during what was called the "Forgotten Event". This dungeon was then removed after a week when the event ended.

During that week, when you ran the dungeon, very occasionally there was a boss who spawned there, much in the way bael & krunch used to spawn in AL. When you killed the boss, he always (100% of the time) dropped what were known as "forgotten weapons". A sword for bear warriors, a bow for bird archers, and a staff for mages. These weapons came in both legendary and epic varieties and scaled to the level of the player who looted them.

The problem is that the stats on these weapons were way OP, especially the bows, and especially at twink levels. The problem caused a situation in twink pvp where if you didn't have a forgotten weapon, you had no chance at all. We are talking bows that tripled your damage compared to any other weapon available. So people complained. Then people who had these weapons complained that they paid hundreds of thousands for them, and said if STG was to nerf their weapons, they would quit the game. It was a constant debate in the forums.

So this past month, STG released an update which finally addressed this issue, and appears to have made all parties happy. How did they do that you may ask? Very simple....

1) They nerfed the stats of all these weapons big time so now they were no longer the best weapons at any level.

2) They made the liquidation prices for these weapons very high -- we are talking hundreds of thousands of gold per weapon.

So the end result is that players who complained about the weapons being OP and ruining PvP are now satisfied. And players who owned those weapons and would have complained about a nerf are not complaining because they are able to liquidate the weapons for more than they paid for them. Some players who had collections of these forgotten weapons are now very rich. And as a result of the liquidations, these weapons are slowly being eliminated from the game. So in the end, they will become collectors items only.

This whole idea made me think that a similar idea could be used here in AL to address the issue of crate pinks.

[Energizeric]

Haha good luck after this weekend the game is going to be flooded with legend items :p

All they need to do is make the liquidation price a few thousand gold for each of the crate pinks and there will be no more flood. People will just liquidate their excess supply, and the problem will take care of itself.

[Shadow217]

Hopefully or the problem will only get worse :)

[Frohnatur]

Thanks for this insightful post. We are working on steps to preserve the rarity of items moving forward and hopefully bring their value back in the process. Recent changes like adding other loot options to the Gladiator Arena among other relevant changes should help in this regard, but solving the problem can only truly be accomplished moving into future content.#

If you dont change the mechanics of the loot system itself, and how opening crates in masses (what sts want) is flooding the market with worthless pink, just moving into forward content is a gamble at last. The same thing may happen in the future.

I think Energizerics idea is really worth a try.

Thanks to both of you.

Here is my two cent what I think might solve some of the issues: eliminate white and green loot without replacement. Make purple loot rarer. It just angers people when they loot white, green or purple wich are worthless. Lessen the drop rate of pink loot in crates, instead give out more often (and more substantial ammounts of) gold. And raise the arcane drop rate slighly, but significant. It makes no sense to spread the gap between rich and poor so much that a few guys control more money that the rest 99%. It still would be pretty rare stuff if you even double the drop rate. I have no idea why it would make sense for people in AL to possess that amount of money, other than control markets an getting an achiev that almost nobody else is able to get. And while we're at it: eliminate that 100 mil gold achiev. It's offensive. Replace it with Won-pvp-games-achiev and Killed-5000-Elite-bosses (of course only those count wich are end cap at your level, brackenridge-bosses count for 1-6, ydra for 6-11 and so on.

But maybe Energizerics much more simple idea would already be enough. Thatswhy the idea might be so brilliant.

[Jetzzz]

Eliminate white and green loot ???
That means reroll = 100% pink items -_-
One of the reason the pink price (also from arena) are droping is simply because "they" cant afford to buy it. For example in the beginning of new expansion i can sell plate of will for 800-900k eventhough there are 5-6 of this item in auction. But now its only sell at 300-400k eventhough there are only 2-3 stock of this item in auction. Why this happen ? Because now the buyer of this item move from "average player" to "poor player". Thats why i think the most important thing to do is to fix the problem from the bottom, which is to increase the buying power of "poor player". And i think the current event that increase crates price help it a litte bit

[Veluthe]

Great idea to help economy.

I do find it kinda funny though how just recently bael/krunch was debated cause of poor economy. Sts changed and now theres a new debate this one bout crates. I guess my point is players are never gonna be fully satisfied and the economy may never fix completely.

And for me right now farming crates is best source of income. I have no problem selling for10-11k. But if this idea of yours helps and crates go more ill be even happier!

[Taejo]

Great idea to help economy.

I do find it kinda funny though how just recently bael/krunch was debated cause of poor economy. Sts changed and now theres a new debate this one bout crates. I guess my point is players are never gonna be fully satisfied and the economy may never fix completely.

And for me right now farming crates is best source of income. I have no problem selling for10-11k. But if this idea of yours helps and crates go more ill be even happier!

You're right, there's many issues with the economy. We can only fight one at a time though.

[Morholt]

I like it, and I don't like it.
It'll shortly raise locked prices, but they'll slowly decrease as more people farm more for them and continuously under price each other in auction. Just like when gold & platinum was added to the crates: prices went up a bit because they had a better return chance...but then they went rock bottom again.

What will result from this "solution" is when they sink back down in value again, the opener is still getting 3k per liquidated item. That may become nearly the same price as the crate itself costs from the start (they were 10k just before this new mythic event). So the gap between the rich & the poor is going to further increase, as plat buyers will be able to open a crate at essentially only the cost of the platinum--perhaps driving up the sales of platinum (good for sts, but bad for the game's economy). With so many "free openings," the number of mythics & arcanes will increase, drastically decreasing their worth.

I think a minimum listing price of 3k would be a more appropriate action.
The reason the liquidation price thing worked with Forgotten gear is because there was a finite number of them--it was only a weekend's worth of chanced farming. Crate pinks, though...there seems to be an endless number of them.

[Energizeric]

I think the price of the crates would just be higher. You forget that the middle of last season crates dropped to around 6k per crate. Only when they added the gold and plat rewards did it go back up to 10k+ where it has stayed every since.

[Zanpakuto]

By that regards, STS should have liquidation prices of arcane weapons of a minimum amount too!

[Energizeric]

Whatever that minimum amount would be, you can surely sell it for a way higher price. This is only a solution if you want to get rid of items from the game. i.e. there are too many of them, or they are too OP and you can't nerf them or else the owners will be upset. So instead you make a high liquidation price and people liquidate them.

Arcane weapons don't have that problem. They sell for many millions of gold. Yes they are OP, but they are also rare so they should be OP. OP weapons only become a problem if they are common, because then all items start to lose their value.

[Alfai]

As many of you know, I used to play PL. So I was looking at the PL forum and noticed they did an update to address the long annoying issue of the Forgotten weapons, and their solution was brilliant. So it made me think of a solution to the current issue plaguing the AL economy.

The problem goes like this:

1) Tons of crate pinks have flooded the market due to so many players opening locked crates.

2) Because of the large surplus of these items, prices have dropped on most of them to under 200 gold, making them worthless.

3) Because crate pinks have become worthless, the only items of any value you can get from locked crates are the super rare mythic and arcane items. As the odds of getting a mythic or arcane item are small, this discourages many from wanting to open locked crates.

4) Because stats of these crate pinks in most cases are better than epic items, epic items have no value at all and cannot even be sold.

5) Because stats of some crate pinks are almost as good as some elite pinks, the prices of the elite pinks have fallen as well.



So here is my proposed solution:

1) All crate pinks that have ever existed will be changed to have a liquidation value of 3000 gold.

2) This will result in many players liquidating these items to get the 3000 gold. This will happen until we reach a point where these items become rare enough that they are worth at least 3000 gold each.

3) Elite pinks will rise in price accordingly.

4) Epic items will fill the price void between 100 gold and 3000 gold.

5) This will give an influx of gold into the economy, which I think many of us agree has been needed.

6) This will cause more interest in opening locked crates since the crate pinks will now have some value and not be worthless.

7) This will boost the value of locked crates, and will encourage crate farming.


Since the "worst" item you are supposed to get from a locked crate is 2000 gold, shouldn't getting a pink item be at a minimum worth more than that? This solution will make sure that is the case, while boosting the entire economy in the process.

Brilliant.something needs to be done swiftly as the economy problem is worsen since prev mhytic event.

[CallMeOops]

All they need to do is make the liquidation price a few thousand gold for each of the crate pinks and there will be no more flood. People will just liquidate their excess supply, and the problem will take care of itself.

Agreed :) Hopefully STS take notice of this thread atleast

[Morholt]

New idea for fixing the economy: Love should buy up & liquidate all crate pinks on the market for a week. lol

But fun idea that gives me. Businesses can strategicly buy, sell, and issue shares of stock to raise company value. Governments can change the value of money based on issuing & destroying it; and it can sell bonds when needed.
Maybe on a random day, once every month, sts just goes and buys & destroys every crate pink in auction (2,000 gold or lower ones). My only fear it'd put a bit of gold into the economy...although many of you argue there isn't enough.

It's just might be crazy enough to work!

[Energizeric]

New idea for fixing the economy: Love should buy up & liquidate all crate pinks on the market for a week. lol

But fun idea that gives me. Businesses can strategicly buy, sell, and issue shares of stock to raise company value. Governments can change the value of money based on issuing & destroying it; and it can sell bonds when needed.
Maybe on a random day, once every month, sts just goes and buys & destroys every crate pink in auction (2,000 gold or lower ones). My only fear it'd put a bit of gold into the economy...although many of you argue there isn't enough.

It's just might be crazy enough to work!

Sounds like how the United States Federal Reserve solves our economic problems (or tries to, it never works).

[Jetzzz]

New idea for fixing the economy: Love should buy up & liquidate all crate pinks on the market for a week. lol

But fun idea that gives me. Businesses can strategicly buy, sell, and issue shares of stock to raise company value. Governments can change the value of money based on issuing & destroying it; and it can sell bonds when needed.
Maybe on a random day, once every month, sts just goes and buys & destroys every crate pink in auction (2,000 gold or lower ones). My only fear it'd put a bit of gold into the economy...although many of you argue there isn't enough.

It's just might be crazy enough to work!

"Project Lotus"
If u know what i mean. Hahaha

[Alfai]

Assuming the longevity to this game i bid a swift action to be taken to fix the current ecpnomy problem considering players (not just plat spenders) who contributed their hours.if the approach end up being difficult its still ok imo.new players will get to understand its mechanic and work their ways and putting more effort to get what they want.let the valuable items retain its value and the opportunity cost of goods can be converted into something that make it worth the time.

Lets not forget al technical issue such as server lag (which is not experienced by only me) that has robbed good opportunities and players time.fpr example lagging and die just right before boss death.missing drops from intense battle is nothing new.with this into account players wont end up being desperate to rake inflation due to desperation,yet taking their time to keep up w the economy demands whilst enjoying the good returns out of their involvement.

I feel this has a strong link despite it being seen like a 2 different topics.

And this idea by energezic seems the only immediate solution to fix this matter.

[bhutkeyur]

those crate items have 200 price because its status sucks. which warrior gonna wear pink with dex n int?
so why not remove all crap item from games and make all sensible item for all classes.
find root cause for problem meh.