Anonymous Mammal
July 14th, 2006, 03:04 PM
Yes:
Items that once sold for 100k+ now sell for less than 25k. Items with 3dmg affects would sell for 200k, now you're lucky if you can get 50k for one of them. Items with +5s in leveling stats (con, int, wis, luck) rarely make selling them worth the effort.
No:
Items pop with more and greater affects now. The market for these items has shifted. There is a demand for items of +5 in damage, hitroll, damage absorbtion, saves vs spell, strength and dexterity to an extent and a very small market for magic resistance. Items with combinations of these affects are greatly sought after, especially if they have multiples of these affects in high quantities. (One such item would be the on body item Solaron had: 5dmg 5str.)
The "yes" catagory allows newbies to get the leveling eq they need in order to obtain nice gains when they level. It also allows the "poor" players to obtain some items at a reasonably low price that they can afford. Although these items may not create a great set, it still allows them to exp and get the levels.
The "no" catagory, on the other hand, fuels the "rich get richer and strong get stronger" scenario. Those who can afford such items will end up with them and those who can spend the hours randoming will also end up with them.
From this you can gather that there are other problems contributing to equipment inflation.
Firstly, gold has almost no value. It is easy to obtain in certain areas. In some cases you don't even have to kill anything to get the gold, you just open a chest, and a few minutes later, it'll be back there again. The economy of areas on TFC is non-existant. Stock equipment is easy to gather and sell in certain places limited only by the amount of gold the shop keeper has to offer. (Shortly after reboots you can almost always find the figurine of a breathtaking woman in the wizard's shop in Midgaard.) There are arch mobs that pop with 1k or more gold and some of them are easy to kill because they are small. Other than a simple ring or blank spheres, there's really nothing of value to spend the gold on unless you're buying a high-end item from a merchant player (such as Hiro) or over auction.
Secondly, the pop rate of "nice" randoms has increased greatly over the years. This can be contributed to code tweaks and the sheer number of players that farm areas in search of randoms. It's not the number of randoms that pop but the values of the affects on the randoms that is the problem. I can remember a time when finding a moderate magic non-metal item was super-rare. Now, they're pretty common, to say the least. Randoming has gone from pickup up weak magic and up to picking up potent magic and up. Many people won't bother identifying an item if it's not at least potent magic.
Thirdly, the stock piles of equipment, on both mortals and immortals. I know that immortals now have a suggested item limit, but like it says, it's just a suggestion. Immortals are not fined for going over this limit and they do not lose any items if they do. Storage characters can hold quite a few pieces of equipment. They can wear as much as possible, carry ten and store ten on Mish. It's not difficult to keep Mish happy by logging in once in a while and paying the storage fees.
In order to combat the equipment inflation problem, these three other problems need to be addressed as well.
Items that once sold for 100k+ now sell for less than 25k. Items with 3dmg affects would sell for 200k, now you're lucky if you can get 50k for one of them. Items with +5s in leveling stats (con, int, wis, luck) rarely make selling them worth the effort.
No:
Items pop with more and greater affects now. The market for these items has shifted. There is a demand for items of +5 in damage, hitroll, damage absorbtion, saves vs spell, strength and dexterity to an extent and a very small market for magic resistance. Items with combinations of these affects are greatly sought after, especially if they have multiples of these affects in high quantities. (One such item would be the on body item Solaron had: 5dmg 5str.)
The "yes" catagory allows newbies to get the leveling eq they need in order to obtain nice gains when they level. It also allows the "poor" players to obtain some items at a reasonably low price that they can afford. Although these items may not create a great set, it still allows them to exp and get the levels.
The "no" catagory, on the other hand, fuels the "rich get richer and strong get stronger" scenario. Those who can afford such items will end up with them and those who can spend the hours randoming will also end up with them.
From this you can gather that there are other problems contributing to equipment inflation.
Firstly, gold has almost no value. It is easy to obtain in certain areas. In some cases you don't even have to kill anything to get the gold, you just open a chest, and a few minutes later, it'll be back there again. The economy of areas on TFC is non-existant. Stock equipment is easy to gather and sell in certain places limited only by the amount of gold the shop keeper has to offer. (Shortly after reboots you can almost always find the figurine of a breathtaking woman in the wizard's shop in Midgaard.) There are arch mobs that pop with 1k or more gold and some of them are easy to kill because they are small. Other than a simple ring or blank spheres, there's really nothing of value to spend the gold on unless you're buying a high-end item from a merchant player (such as Hiro) or over auction.
Secondly, the pop rate of "nice" randoms has increased greatly over the years. This can be contributed to code tweaks and the sheer number of players that farm areas in search of randoms. It's not the number of randoms that pop but the values of the affects on the randoms that is the problem. I can remember a time when finding a moderate magic non-metal item was super-rare. Now, they're pretty common, to say the least. Randoming has gone from pickup up weak magic and up to picking up potent magic and up. Many people won't bother identifying an item if it's not at least potent magic.
Thirdly, the stock piles of equipment, on both mortals and immortals. I know that immortals now have a suggested item limit, but like it says, it's just a suggestion. Immortals are not fined for going over this limit and they do not lose any items if they do. Storage characters can hold quite a few pieces of equipment. They can wear as much as possible, carry ten and store ten on Mish. It's not difficult to keep Mish happy by logging in once in a while and paying the storage fees.
In order to combat the equipment inflation problem, these three other problems need to be addressed as well.