test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
A drastic plan for AD and the economy
rhoriangelus
Member Posts: 703 Arc User
This is purely hypothetical. Please, no criticisms along the lines of "This is stupid, I hate it". I'd appreciate if you'd explain WHY you hate it or think it won't work.
2. Refine ALL raw AD currently in the game, regardless of the cap
3. Remove all AD currently in the economy, turn it into gold at a rate of 1 AD = ? Gold
4. Lower/remove the amount of gold made in Leadership, make invocation give gold instead of RAD
5. Make the auction house and all current AD sinks (transmutation, feat respec, stronghold coffer, so on) use gold instead of AD.
This system relies on switching to gold for the main currency, but keeping Astral Diamonds as a 'premium' currency. Gold is used for most day-to-day things, and all of the AD currently in the system is turned into gold to accommodate this.
However, Astral Diamonds will not be removed from the game completely, this is where Phase 2 comes in.
7. Return daily quests and hourly events for raw AD, make it possible to hit the cap doing things like Skirmishes, Dungeons, PVP.
8. Keep AD as a currency ONLY for Wondrous Bazaar, and for exchanging for Zen
9. Allow players to exchange AD for ? Gold, but not vice-versa
10. Lock Zen at a price of 500 AD per Zen, which goes into a buyable pool of Zen
In this system, the Wondrous Bazaar items would remain unbound, allowing people to sell them for Gold on the auction house. AD could still be used to either buy Gold OR Zen, and Zen could be exchanged for AD at any time, without there having to be some available. Zen, however, will only be purchasable if there's Zen in the buyable pool, if there's not, it works like a zen backlog would.
This system would accomplish several things:
AD, and by extension, Zen, will no longer be transferable between people/accounts. This means gold farmers will have much more work to do. It'd be naive to assume they can be stopped entirely, but this would significantly hamper their efforts. Since Zen doesn't depreciate in value, people will be more willing to buy Zen legitimately to transfer into AD, rather than risking buying AD off of goldsellers.
There are already some significant gold sinks in the game (removing enchantments, buying potions and kits, so on) and switching over the AD sinks to gold would make it easier to sink gold out of the economy. All current AD in the game would be turned into gold, but the people who had a lot of AD saved up will still get some value out of all that AD, since the auction house will ALSO be using Gold.
Wondrous bazaar items will be bought with AD only, and should remain UNBOUND, but can only be traded or sold on the AH for Gold. This gives people a reason to buy things from the Wondrous Bazaar, AND gives people a reason to buy them off the AH. At 50K AD, getting Mount Training II would only take 9 days, which is attainable to the average person.
Maybe award some RAD for a certain number of daily quests at a certain threshold of difficulty that you do? Maybe they could be randomized each day, so you have to do something different each day?
Phase 1
1. Lock the AH to clear it, and clear out the Zen exchange by cancelling all listings and withdrawing them2. Refine ALL raw AD currently in the game, regardless of the cap
3. Remove all AD currently in the economy, turn it into gold at a rate of 1 AD = ? Gold
4. Lower/remove the amount of gold made in Leadership, make invocation give gold instead of RAD
5. Make the auction house and all current AD sinks (transmutation, feat respec, stronghold coffer, so on) use gold instead of AD.
This system relies on switching to gold for the main currency, but keeping Astral Diamonds as a 'premium' currency. Gold is used for most day-to-day things, and all of the AD currently in the system is turned into gold to accommodate this.
However, Astral Diamonds will not be removed from the game completely, this is where Phase 2 comes in.
Phase 2
6. Raise the Daily RAD refinement cap to 50K7. Return daily quests and hourly events for raw AD, make it possible to hit the cap doing things like Skirmishes, Dungeons, PVP.
8. Keep AD as a currency ONLY for Wondrous Bazaar, and for exchanging for Zen
9. Allow players to exchange AD for ? Gold, but not vice-versa
10. Lock Zen at a price of 500 AD per Zen, which goes into a buyable pool of Zen
In this system, the Wondrous Bazaar items would remain unbound, allowing people to sell them for Gold on the auction house. AD could still be used to either buy Gold OR Zen, and Zen could be exchanged for AD at any time, without there having to be some available. Zen, however, will only be purchasable if there's Zen in the buyable pool, if there's not, it works like a zen backlog would.
This system would accomplish several things:
AD, and by extension, Zen, will no longer be transferable between people/accounts. This means gold farmers will have much more work to do. It'd be naive to assume they can be stopped entirely, but this would significantly hamper their efforts. Since Zen doesn't depreciate in value, people will be more willing to buy Zen legitimately to transfer into AD, rather than risking buying AD off of goldsellers.
There are already some significant gold sinks in the game (removing enchantments, buying potions and kits, so on) and switching over the AD sinks to gold would make it easier to sink gold out of the economy. All current AD in the game would be turned into gold, but the people who had a lot of AD saved up will still get some value out of all that AD, since the auction house will ALSO be using Gold.
Wondrous bazaar items will be bought with AD only, and should remain UNBOUND, but can only be traded or sold on the AH for Gold. This gives people a reason to buy things from the Wondrous Bazaar, AND gives people a reason to buy them off the AH. At 50K AD, getting Mount Training II would only take 9 days, which is attainable to the average person.
HOWEVER:
I realize this system leaves people who play solo in the dust, which is something I absolutely do not want to happen. However, I'm not sure what can be done solo that can't easily be botted. If anyone has any suggestions for this, feel free to let me know, I'll add it into the plan if it seems like it would work.Maybe award some RAD for a certain number of daily quests at a certain threshold of difficulty that you do? Maybe they could be randomized each day, so you have to do something different each day?
0
Comments
They are a lying bunch of you know what when they point to bot to change things in game. If they cared about bots they would hire 3-4 gms and get rid of 50% of them overnight.
They couldve found a better way to limit AD creation (first ten players on account could do professions) or something and it wouldve been a better alternative to what they did.
I was already finding it hard in current mod, considering how much AD we could make in previous mods.
That being said: it seems much better than what was already done and crazy enough to maybe (just maybe) work somehow for majority of players.
Overall it's also better than back to square one solution which many 2,5year players posted. If I were to spend another 2,5 year to get to point I am in right now - I would need to reconsider playing anymore (yep, even I a last of my long buddy list who remained in game)
I hope someone with more time at hand and proper knowledge will give you a helping hand with your solution project and put it through possible mathematical prediction. Personally I'm exhausted by situation and already busy with a 'real work' on mass equations -_-
WELCOME TO MY ART CORNER!
"I choose You Jymaru!" ~for there are times when more than words need to do the talk
Making AH work on gold would change what again? After the initial turmoil and another mass leaving we'd have the same situation, only worse...
I really don't get what you'd like to achieve with this.
There are some details like rising refining cap (what for if without leadership you would hardly ever reach 24k?) or locking zen price, but the main problem is, even if the game would survive this change, nothing would be improved.
Current AD would be switched to Gold - which the AH would be used for. Anyone selling high-end enchants, or lockbox drops? Gold. Which anyone with AD would have plenty of. Keeping their wealth in items and Zen would mean they need gold, and so would have to sell off some of their zen and items to get it.
You also ignored the fact that along with the raising of the cap, more opportunities for AD would be added. Hourly events would be back, along with daily quests. I specifically said to make it possible to reach the 50K AD cap, in fact.
There is your basic flaw in the system, why would it matter? People could still cheat and get gold, just like they did with AD.
My discussion is relevant, THEY will not institute a system, that in the end they cannot control and make money off from. I once posted THE same exact request after a exploit almost two years ago and was told it was just a flame troll post (though I was just as serious as you are). That was to remove ALL items and ALL ad in game back to reset zero and those who paid zen could have the same value back from the company. Those who cheated and/or bot from 3rd party wouldn't get a dime back. Seemed like a simple and workable solution to me at the time.
You need to add a way for them to generate money from your program, it cant just benefit us, thats clear and simple.
I think this system would actually make them money, because Zen or AD would not be buyable with Gold, which is the only thing botters would be able to bot. If you wanted AD, you'd have to either put the work in for it, or sell Zen. Since Goldfarmers can't sell AD directly, they can't offer more AD per dollar spent.
Conversely, if you want zen without paying for it, you'll have to put in the time for it. This would limit people to only 100 zen per day, and only if people are actually selling it. Locking the price at 500 AD means zen won't depreciate in value, meaning people will be more likely to buy it and sell it.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
However, ALL MMOs usually lock the best gear behind hard group content, and I think it should remain that way. If you want to play a game 100% solo, maybe MMOs aren't your kind of game.
1)Make the auction house and all current AD sinks (transmutation, feat respec, stronghold coffer, so on) use gold instead of AD.
Keep AD as a currency ONLY for Wondrous Bazaar, and for exchanging for Zen
Wondrous bazaar is the biggest AD sink there is along with AH.
2)They can track AD transactions between botter and buyer since it goes through AH but there is no system for gold because you can just hand it to over someone else with trade window so botters will start trading gold instead of AD and even I might think of buying gold since there is no chance being caught.You can chase stolen items but not gold since it has no indicator on the database to define it
3)This system also make AH completely worthless I can just sell my Transcendent enchantment from trade window so no more 10% cut from AH(no more AD sink)
4)People are opening lockboxes with Zen and sell it from AH(10% cut again) and buy more or less(according to income) lockboxes so no more opening lockboxes with your earnings from AH.By the way have you seen any orange mount(140% but even 110% doesnt exist) on Zen store.Because Cryptic loves its lockbox system
5)There is AD limit for one character in the game and you cant hoard that much from that.And guess what people do when they exceed that limit.Yes they buy Zen so there will be no more hoarding gold with ZEN so what do you expect those people do?You cant buy GMOPs since even they lost value
I will add more as soon as I can think of
All that grinding we do in endgame... add AD to the quest rewards... 500 here, 1500 there, whatever.
Add AD to SH quests and heroics. I'm certain that guilds are usually pretty good about policing for bots. Granted this doesn't help solo players, but they are free to join a guild if they'd like, and there are numerous "guilds for solo players" out there.
Add AD to leveling quests and wrappers.. from level 4 and up. Doesn't have to be a lot, but something.
So as an example:
I log in and take "Sharandar Support" from the Master of Coin. She gives whatever for XP, coins and shards. Add 200 RAD to the list.
I travel to Sharandar and take Arcane Reservoir, which awards the usual stuff, plus another 2,000 RA (weekly lair quest). I also take Feydark Crystals, which awards the usual stuff plus 500 RAD (tertiary quest). I then travel to whatever gate suits me and take the three available quests, all for the usual rewards plus 1,000 RAD (regular quest). However, I'm feeling adventurous and want to take on Celadaine for the usual rewards plus another 1,500 RAD (lair quest).
Total RAD for this trip to Sharandar: 2,000+500+3000+1500= 7,000 RAD. Return to the Master of Coin and get your extra 200 RAD. 7,200 RAD. This, times 4 (for each of the campaign areas) = 28,800 RAD.
Raise the RAD refining cap to 30k.
No need to cap each of the campaign areas, since players can take a finite number of quests, so there would be a very predictable income for players.
Another example:
In Elemental Evil, same breakdown, but perhaps slightly less RAD per quest... Put RAD in the wrapper (150, as an example), less RAD for the "Challenge" and "Tome of Air" quests (250 RAD per), usual quests would net you 500 RAD each, lairs would net 1,000 RAD each. Cap this RAD at 4,800 RAD (or whatever PvP is capped at), since people can just continuously grind these areas.
Foundry!! A similar system could be implemented for finishing Foundry quests. I'm sure there would have to be a fairly complex formula put in place to deter exploiters and bots, so that people can't just run a bunch of 5 minute Foundries designed for RAD farming. I'm not the math guy... I'm just the idea guy.
Can this system still be exploited? Of course it can. Bots can invite themselves into open parties, as an example. It will be up to we, the players, to police that sort of thing. Put your party settings on "closed party". Problem solved. I'm sure there would be other "creative" ways to bot/exploit the system, but honestly, my brain just isn't wired that way.
The devs have stated that AD is our "reward" for playing. As the system sits right now, it's only "rewarding" us for running dungeons, skirmishes and PvP. The quandary now is: do I grind these things to get my daily RAD, or do I grind campaign areas to get the desperately-needed campaign treasures to feed the Mimic... nearly 300k Treasures of Tyranny takes a long, long time to grind out, and I'm honestly sick and tired of Harper Boward and demolishing barrows.
Adding RAD to these quests will make the grind a little more palatable for pretty much everyone.
"...I grab my wiener and charge!" - ironzerg79
The purpose of AD in this proposal is to buy marks of potency and anything else in the wondrous bazaar. Just like it is now.
World of Warcraft has trade able currency (player to player) and an auction house. The auction house still gets used, so no, it wouldn't be rendered worthless.
And I have no idea what you're talking about with the lockboxes. Can you word that so I can understand it more clearly?
Edit: I reread it and think I understand, you're suggesting that people will stop opening lockboxes because you won't get a chance to put your winnings into more lockboxes. They could remedy this by having lockboxes give a small chance of dropping a free key. Kind of like how scratch cards sometimes only award a free ticket.
From a purely D&D perspective, it is ludicrous that AD exist in the player economy, yet the NPC world runs on coins. Completely out of character.
I am a Rank 12 VIP and have not spent a single penny on VIP access. I have spent money here before and will continue to do so, but the $120 worth of VIP was obtained completely free. That would have been impossible without the AH as it stands.
Your proposal removes the pathway of Gold > AD > ZEN. That means that players who like to just log in and go kill some stuff cannot earn any ZEN by just grinding through mobs if they want. It invalidates part of a particular playstyle.
Right now I can turn any of the three main currencies into any of the other two. That is a great strength for this game that supports multiple playstyles. It needs to be preserved.
Champions Online Advanced Forum Search
Don't propose a complicated plan. With the leadership changes, it sure looks like they took the simplest approach possible -- like zeroing out a spreadsheet column for leadership rewards, making a 24-hour task worse than a 4-hour task. Then, published it. I have no faith that any complicated plan will be done all at once. You need to propose simple changes, something you could hand to an intern. Because that's all the bandwidth they seem to have.
The entire economy is based around AD and if you make AD worthless what are the people who have a lot of it going to do with it? Trade it for Zen? Oh, wait, nobody is trading Zen for AD because AD is worthless. Trade it for Gold? The market gets flooded with gold and becomes worthless.
Having trouble with multiple quotes on my tablet right now, but @instynctive, that'd be a reasonable way to reward raw AD for daily quests.
@silvergryph, this is a big reason why the economy is in a bad state right now. People can throw bots in an easy area, grind tons of drops, turn it into AD. Maybe this play style should be invalidated.
And thank you... it's not like my idea is brilliant or anything... it just seems logical.
"...I grab my wiener and charge!" - ironzerg79
RIP Real Tiamat, RIP Real Demogorgon RIP real Temple of the spider. Why remove non bis content to give to bis players ????
FORCING the majority of your player base to play 4 mod old dungeons and trial will have a bad result on player base
Changes are getting so bad i would rather prefer no new changes (RIP ICE FISHING in winter fest)
If there is more needed to combat botting, it is on the game designers to crack down on without punishing "honest" play.
Gold is the new AD / ZEN, all hail gold