In the previous post I made , I spoke about the things that we would like to have added to this year's winterfest but before we get that, I'd like to point out a few issues that may or may not have been referenced on this forum that have been overlooked and implore that these issues be looked into and that hopefully some of the suggestions that will be made by myself and others who might post on this thread will be seriously considered because while by now all of us know that DL is headed in a different direction with the updates and events that we've gotten this year but for everything to progress and be balanced these issues need to be addressed once and for all. I'd like to also add as a disclaimer that this post isn't to bash or spread hate toward certain people but rather to reveal the current state of things so cinco and the developers are aware of it and take needed action to resolve and take counter measures to prevent some of the stuff that'll be spoken about in this thread so that said , lets delve into it and I'd like to start by mentioning the first issue which is :


Inflation and the scourge of autofarming bots : This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been actively playing this year that prices have gone crazy and now most items that were being sold at relatively reasonable prices as at February are all of a sudden out of reach to the average player and a few examples of items that have gone up in price suddenly are:
Helix {used to cost max gold - 1.5b} -> {present price : 2.3 - 2.5b}
Firestar {used to cost 280m - 350m} -> { present price : 800 - 900m}
Ravagers { used to cost 300m} -> { present price : 700m}
Undead Antlers { used to cost 100-150m} -> { present price : 400-500m}
These are a few prime examples of items that used to be sold for decent prices based on their rarity but nowadays the prices have jumped so much that it's ridiculous and this is due to 2 factors , one of which is certain individuals who have decided to ruin the value of gold by using bots to abuse the gold maps in the university hills , constantly farming 24/7 with an almost perfect gl sets and since they're making close to half a billion on a weekly basis and of course merchants are aware of this , so the prices are being jacked up and now it's gotten to what it is presently coupled with the fact that a lot of hoarding of a few of these items including the ones mentioned above is going on big time so the extra artificial scarcity created doesn't particularly help matters either and as a result of these activities taking place the general public suffers as a result because since gold doesn't have much value as a result of this activity and most vanity items aren't even considered for addition when buying these things , you have people paying 2.5b in pure gold for items like helix (3 transfers) which of course from past experiences in 2018 resulted in a lot of people either almost getting scammed doing these trades or most times getting scammed and things are well on course to return to the way they were after the inflation which happened in the aftermath of the second gold event back in 2018 or probably even worse this time.

I have a few suggestions which could be used to curb the effect of this present mess that's become of the market and they include :

Getting Rid of the university Maps: At first , the bringing back of the old school maps seemed like a good idea but the constant abuse of the gold maps ( class crown and homecoming) by the same set of individuals have proved otherwise and while I enjoy farming those maps I think it's best to do away with those maps for the well being and balance of things moving forward because most of these individuals perpetrating this autofarm bot scandal have been banned multiple times but they've shown no signs of relenting as has been shown by the present state of things and instead of those maps , we could have a new extension open world type map that's probably gonna have an entry from somewhere in old town with high gold payouts and some mini dungeon sort of similar to black cat that will lead back to the main map once the dungeon is completed but with excellent gold payout . That way , since it's open world and multiplayer anyone botting can be easily spotted and reported so they're gotten rid of because I don't remember anyone using bots to farm and abuse gold maps when everyone farmed in old town so I think it would be best if the gold maps are gotten rid of ( not necessarily being removed but the payout rates should be toned all the way down since those maps were mainly for the lore and achievements and should serve only that purpose at this point ) and then a new extension open world map that's old town esque be used to replace it.

Making the old event items tradeable as well as providing more gold drains : I've spoken about this time and time again and others have also called for all the old event items from 2018 to be made tradeable as a way to drag the outrageous prices back to normalcy as well as making people have more options to add in big trades besides using just gold and while some people who want to collect them can get them for a nominal fee as there's people who'll gladly sell since they don't use most of those things anymore and for the most part they're just sitting in their inventories collecting dust and while there's the argument that some people paid platinum for the trade friendly versions of those event rewards , I'd like to point out that first off, the amount of people who paid platinum for those items are basically a drop in the bucket and also most of them got banned with those items so that leaves us with 99.9% of people holding character bound versions and maybe one or two people holding the trade friendly versions and setting ridiculous prices because of course no one else besides them have ownership of those things so it would be probably best to make the character bound versions of old event items tradeable ( events from 2018 to be precise) to balance the prices and add diversity to the economy.
As for gold drains , I'd suggest that more gold drains be added because at present , the only gold drain we have is the forge and apparently it isn't enough to keep the gold balance because there's more people making gold than the number of people burning it away in the forge so probably more NPC's should be added to take away gold and keep the balance that we so badly need .
These are just a few things that need urgent attention and need to be fixed so that while more changes are being made to take the game in a new direction , the transition can be smooth and not be hampered ... If there's anything that anyone thinks needs to be addressed as well, please feel free to comment about it and hope that the devs see this and take the needed action to make the playing experience enjoyable for everyone
peace.