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Should devs limit the exchange a bit more?
pweistheworst
Member Posts: 986 Arc User
The Exchange is part of the game that is essential to a healthy F2P environment and in-game economy. However, rapid inflation and rapid deflation of item values is really hurting the exchange. (Making it harder to find some items at fair prices AND devaluing other items.)
Specifically, when one player floods the Exchange with a massive number of a single item priced way above or way below the current market value, all those items at a new price tier usually move others to price those items at a similar inflated or deflated price as well.
Posting a few of the same items at a much higher or lower price doesn't have a big impact, but posting 20 of the same items that dramatically swing the price does.
Would it be a good idea for the devs to add a stricter limit to the number of items you can list within the same category?
For example, you can only put up to three ships for sale on the exchange at any given time or only three keys for sale at any given time?
I know some people who are active on the exchange would HATE this idea, but I'm curious if the benefits outweigh the negatives ... or if there is some terrible consequence that I'm not considering.
Specifically, when one player floods the Exchange with a massive number of a single item priced way above or way below the current market value, all those items at a new price tier usually move others to price those items at a similar inflated or deflated price as well.
Posting a few of the same items at a much higher or lower price doesn't have a big impact, but posting 20 of the same items that dramatically swing the price does.
Would it be a good idea for the devs to add a stricter limit to the number of items you can list within the same category?
For example, you can only put up to three ships for sale on the exchange at any given time or only three keys for sale at any given time?
I know some people who are active on the exchange would HATE this idea, but I'm curious if the benefits outweigh the negatives ... or if there is some terrible consequence that I'm not considering.
In the immortal words of Captain Sisko: "It may not be what you believe, but that doesn't make it wrong."
Don't believe the lies in this forum. I am NOT an ARC user. I play STO on Steam or not at all.
Don't believe the lies in this forum. I am NOT an ARC user. I play STO on Steam or not at all.
Post edited by pweistheworst on
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Comments
Can you list examples?
This is your 2nd thread about the exchange (in the past 24 hours), I believe you have a backstory about something happening to you on the exchange?
No. Just no. This is how every single mmo economy is. Can't change that.
I'm suffering to find a D'kora that's NOT priced at 200~250m. So much so that I've resorted to using lockboxes. Harsh reality, maaaan.
No. Restricting access to the Exchange will not end well for anyone involved. The Exchange is one of the few things players themselves have full influence over. And in doing that it is open to the playerbase greatly influencing the value and demand of such items.
In some cases items will be over or undervalued. But the great thing about that is, if its too expensive very few people will purchase those items at that price. If the item is too low of a value the items will be bought at a bargain and possibly find their way onto the exchange at a higher price. But most items on the exchange will be listed at a reasonable value.
Restricting access to selling your items will force people to either fill their inventory/bank with items they have no intention of using or keeping or selling the items for a greater undervalued price to a Vendor. Atleast by placing it on the Exchange its open to be either sold or sit there until the Seller decides to lower the price.
The Exchange is as the Exchange does.
I guess if devs did get involved in the Exchange it would only open up the floodgates to the potential for other problems.
(Oh, and the only "back story" for why I have two different posts that complain about different Exchange issues is simple: I went to buy a ship that has more than doubled in price since last summer ... then I started trying to sell items in order to start earning enough to buy that ship only to discover prices on those items I'm trying to sell have now been dramatically devalued ... making it even more difficult to buy the thing I want to buy. No secrete conspiracy, just me venting my frustrations over not being able to buy or sell the way I used to on the Exchange.)
Don't believe the lies in this forum. I am NOT an ARC user. I play STO on Steam or not at all.
I think they should remove it. For the same reasons they removed other things in the game. It confuses new players too easily.
As the exchange is like a flea market, players selling to other players, limiting it in any way would likely lead to players just either "locking down" on their items, or only selling through trade. Once lockbox ships become even rarer, I would expect the prices to potentially be even higher. Worry about mega-rich conspiracies to work the exchange would then become fact. EC-rich players (of which I am most certainly not), already HAVE the EC, they already have the JHAS boxes and D'Koras, etc. Mess with the exchange, and instead of some semblance of competition, there will be players naming their own price in zone, and exchange will be land of Mk XI green phaser relays.
FWIW, I would expect Exchange pricing to go into chaos for a bit when S9.5 hits. With the changes to EC values of loot coming down the pipe, and the changes to crafting, and changes to Aegis sets, and changes to WHAT will be available (or no longer available) out of the crafting system, I would think we're in for more than the usual "new season" price madness, in both directions. It may be a good time to watch it closely for whatever you are looking for - maybe you'll get a deal. Or maybe you won't. Unfortunately, it's how flea markets work.
If devs slapped this restriction on characters, people would sell on alts
If devs slapped this on accounts, people would create alt seller accounts
What you should be asking us give the devs to keep the dilithium sinks and chaser ships coming
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
I don't see a issue here... If someone post a large block of items at a higher price, their not going to sell until all the lower priced items are sold first.
Now if someone post 20 items at a lower price (provided its readily available enough to post 20 items) and the market can't absorb 20 lower priced items, doesn't this mean that supply exceeds demand and the price deserves to go lower? The Exchange is a free market, and its not as if you're guaranteed a high profit on posted items... And if you're a consumer, whats wrong with lower prices???
so because you want a ship thats expensive everybodys got to pay more then the going rate for your items to make it possible....sounds fair.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
It is extremely difficult to bring the Exchange prices down on wanted items. If you post something for 3 million where the going rate is 10 million the billionaires will simply purchase yours for 3 million and then re-list them for 10 million. There is so much ECs in the system now that they can afford to have a billion diversified into the Exchange and not even miss it. I personally have 1.7 billion EC. I could easily put 1 billion into the Exchange and still have over 700 million for myself.
Right now Fleet and Lockbox-associated items are the only EC sink in the game. There is nothing else to spend EC on. You spend it in the Exchange or it simply accumulates - as Dilithium is Cryptic's gaming currency. Without major sinks, or a major reduction in drops, every single day people just add billions more ECs to the game economy. Inflation is going to be a never-ending problem in the game - with newer players falling farther and farther behind with each passing day.
The game needs EC sinks, and it needs them now. And as much as I hate to say it one of those sinks is probably needs to be an Exchange fee for listing items.
For making ECs, the majority of my income come from Item Drops from STFs (e.g. Starbase 24) Blues and Purple items get posted on the Exchange, usually within the 3 lowest prices posted, as I want the rapid turn-over of Exchange slots to post more items..
However, most of my income comes from turning in 'Vendor Fodder'. At the end of SB 24, and looking at all the discarded and abandoned item drops left on the field of battle, this represents a enormous amount of ECs that are not being claimed...
We'll soon have ultra-rares from crafting, those didn't have a search filter last I checked. Sort by descending and ascending price per unit still seem to be reversed.
So hey, listen, if you feel the need to get rid of some of that EC, like say a few hundred mil...I'll be here
Lolnuts are Commodities. I do second the need for better categorization though.
For example, i i'm searching for a green duty officer with teamwork and efficient and resolve or stubborn that is also a security officer or an armory officer or an assault officer, that costs no more than 56000 EC.
Currently i can do that with about 15 or more search requests (if i'm lucky) and face the search-lockout period at least once.
If i could specify what i was searching for, either with a long manual search command (like in a browser) or with more detailed filter options, the amount of searches could be cut down to a single one.
The benefit? I get my result faster and more reliably, without being hassled by a lockout-period caused by too many search requests and the server has to handle fewer (albeit slightly more complex) requests and doesn't have to send me a list of thousands of items when i only search for a small fraction.
I really can't understand why there is no more detailed search. The benefits are significant.
Agreed - this would be a positive change. Search in exchange has always been a joke as far as I can tell, and since DOFFs will now be more important than ever with crafting, searching for needed traits would be good.
To add to it - I'd like to be able to search for multiple items specified, from lowest to highest price, instead of having to run multiple searches. I realize there I may be asking for too much.
Also - kit modules. Still having no category on there months later makes S9 seem...half working.
I agree, the exchange is fine as it is, just the search and filter features needs a serious upgrade.
A max limit can help prevent price gouging, but it really is not up to Cryptic to set a price limit to protect against very expensive items being listed on the Exchange. It's basic supply and demand. If an item is priced too high then players will likely not ever buy that item which means it will likely never be sold unless the person who listed it lowers the price. When people think the item is listed at a fair price, then it will be bought by someone.
Setting a minimum allowable price can make the Exchange in efficient. If I want to undercut someone else's price so that I can make a quick sale, then it is my right to do so. I get quick ECs and someone get's a very good deal, even if that person re-lists the same item at a higher price. I have from time to time sold things on the Exchange pretty cheap because I really do not need the item and to also give other players (hopefully those who don't have much ECs) an opportunity to get pretty good gear for a very good price.
That aside, new filter options and fixing already avaiable once would be appreciated.