Coin Sink: Consumables

[Machaeon]

Something I've seen is that older players (and those who just play an ungodly amount of time) tend to have more coin than they know what to do with. After you purchase all the forms out there, upgrade your vault to the max, and purchase a plot there's not a heck of a lot to do with your coin.

Something that could be done is implement an NPC that sells consumable items that you can get nowhere else. Having the items consumable will keep players looking for coin who would otherwise have no use for it. Making the items unique to the vendor will prevent this from devaluing the items that players produce. Obviously nothing should be overpowered and they should have level restrictions on use.

You could have the NPC sell some food items that have unique effects or existing foods that haven't seen the light of day in years because the formulas are obsolete (this would of course exclude seasonal foods as they already have their own vendors). Maybe some crush/slash/pierce converters that would be consumed on use could be sold where the duration and potency of the effect would scale with tier. Perhaps some deity-related items that give a relevant buff for a short amount of time.

Other than that, not really sure what to suggest as an example. So... thoughts?

[Calyndrell]

Good idea, no great idea.. although the big question is what to make the cash sink..

Dunno how viable this is.. but something that would say increase max stacks on a char for an hour by maybe 10? not really too overpowered certainly not game breaking but kinda handy. I would strongly lean towards things to make crafting faster/easier
something like the gummy maggot would also be a sound idea (but i don't wanna effect confectioners too much)
Perhaps an alacrity buff that lasts 5 mins lowers hp 1 so it doesn't effect hunting because no one in their right mind will use it where theres a threat.

[meepsa]

I'm pretty sure Amon once mentioned wanting to turn the Baubles/Trinkets/etc that give blessings into vendor items to create a moneysink, if you ask me that could be a really good one as some of the blessings are quite good!

[Calyndrell]

I'm pretty sure Amon once mentioned wanting to turn the Baubles/Trinkets/etc that give blessings into vendor items to create a moneysink, if you ask me that could be a really good one as some of the blessings are quite good!

that could work too.. i just get cagey about things that give an advantage in combat... but as this is random well thats different

[Essra]

Well you balance around stuff like that. It's not as though elixers are an uncommon thing in these games!

Frankly, this is the type of thing that should have been implemented on release. There's no reason not to have a gold sink of some sort. This is the only game I've ever seen that doesn't even have a SORT OF functioning economy. xD.
I guess it works out because everyone just does stuff for free, but hey.

And this wouldn't fix that. But it would be a big step toward alleviating a rather substantial issue.

[Berdagauret]

Machie, if you've got excess coin, I'd be happy to act as a coin-sink for you (or, for anyone else)

Seriously, though, this sounds like a great idea!

Tondar/Berda

[Terao]

This won't help as money sink. How many potions or whatever you need to buy? 100, 200, 300..? Spending some gold for it, who cares.

There is no easy way to get a economy going as vet players got everything they need off, most of them are able to craft anything they need on their own. As a starter it takes some time, but will come to a point where you got everythig, too, there is nothing real to buy. So after a phase at beginning the bank account will grow, and grow, and grow...

Old Nadja for buying tech resources for coin was in some way a money sink, and it needs not only one merchant to get the money down, that would need a whole lot of merchants and consigners selling useful things that players can't craft. And that's something the game isn't designed for. That most crafts are done for free is the problem, there is no economy, and to get it started, would need new ideas and new game mechanics.

[Calyndrell]

This won't help as money sink. How many potions or whatever you need to buy? 100, 200, 300..? Spending some gold for it, who cares.

There is no easy way to get a economy going as vet players got everything they need off, most of them are able to craft anything they need on their own. As a starter it takes some time, but will come to a point where you got everythig, too, there is nothing real to buy. So after a phase at beginning the bank account will grow, and grow, and grow...

Old Nadja for buying tech resources for coin was in some way a money sink, and it needs not only one merchant to get the money down, that would need a whole lot of merchants and consigners selling useful things that players can't craft. And that's something the game isn't designed for. That most crafts are done for free is the problem, there is no economy, and to get it started, would need new ideas and new game mechanics.

The most depressing thing about this post is the truth.. *sigh* still be nice to get something to burn up a little gold.

[Machaeon]

This won't help as money sink. How many potions or whatever you need to buy? 100, 200, 300..? Spending some gold for it, who cares.

There is no easy way to get a economy going as vet players got everything they need off, most of them are able to craft anything they need on their own. As a starter it takes some time, but will come to a point where you got everythig, too, there is nothing real to buy. So after a phase at beginning the bank account will grow, and grow, and grow...

Old Nadja for buying tech resources for coin was in some way a money sink, and it needs not only one merchant to get the money down, that would need a whole lot of merchants and consigners selling useful things that players can't craft. And that's something the game isn't designed for. That most crafts are done for free is the problem, there is no economy, and to get it started, would need new ideas and new game mechanics.

What I'm suggesting is certainly not a 'magic bullet' fix for the in-game economy. Really the only thing that I would hope to see from implementing this is that coin that wasn't being used AT ALL would now have at least one use for the entirety of the conceivable future. The basis of my idea for this is to balance out how easy it is to get coin versus how easy it is to find something to buy with it. If you have everything you need already, you're not going to buy anything. Adding in consumables that you can buy for coin (that you can get nowhere else) would certainly ensure that even people who have everything prior to this change would still want some of the things that the NPC sells so they do have somewhere to spend their coin.

I've got no real ideas for kick-starting a player economy, and I doubt there will ever be an easy solution. But it would be a baby step in the right direction- which I would have to say is better than no change at all.

[Terao]

The past years they implemented a whole set of items and stuff that cost several gold. I just like to mention the master formulars for disks as a example, or the raised prices to get the Vault X. But this affects only newish players, the vets use to have so much gold that we don't need to care about.

There is a little economy, at least for potions, scrolls, food, dye kits. For a economy you need crafters, traders and customers. The amount of players is relative low compared to other MMOs, the amount of new players too. This results in the (relative) low demand on wares. More or less working economies of most modern MMOs is based on a huge amount of players, and a huge amount of new players combined with a set of ingame mechanics. I just like to mention auction houses and mail functions for sending wares and money most of these games use to have. It's already been stated a lot of times that implementing a mail system is nothing VI wants to do, it needs a lot of development resources and the benefit of a "Istaria Mail System" might be to low. But maybe a kind of a clever designed auction house is something VI should take a look at, it's a kind of a consigner... There might be other things to get it going, but just adding some useable items won't result in a mentionable money sink.

[anonimas]

They could allow many things (and I guess they wouldn't).
Example:1 Vault upgrade XI, XII..., available even for free players like me;
Example 2: paying customers entitled to have, say, 2 plots instead of one.
Well,since no one will listen to this - not having illusion of these gonna happen in the neariest millenium or two.

[meepsa]

They could allow many things (and I guess they wouldn't).
Example:1 Vault upgrade XI, XII..., available even for free players like me;
Example 2: paying customers entitled to have, say, 2 plots instead of one.
Well,since no one will listen to this - not having illusion of these gonna happen in the neariest millenium or two.

None of those would be money sinks as they're 1 time things.
hence the idea of buying usefull (not overpowered) consumables, preferably ones that'd stack with all other buffs. as those -would- be bought, or so I believe. I know I would if it means getting a little buff whilst fighting. or heck, even gathering.

A good point would be that these shouldn't be available to be crafted as well.

[Dacurly]

Well I just had an idea What about taking some of the smaller plots and make them rental plots. Be a way that FTP could have a plot, be a money sink and make it so plot owners could have more than one plot. The biggest benefit would be that a player would have to work to keep the rent paid.

[Korchak Strongbone]

Hmmm @ Dacurly.
Great idea I like the idea. We do have a lot of open land around. We could dedicate a small area to rentals? They would be smaller in size say 30x30 or 30x40? You could build apartments instead of houses, which would be small in capacity after all it's free right?

What about making the rental be bought with Novian Imperial Tokens? A token could be awarded when you applied to a community project every 100 units. It would take X amount of tokens to rent a rental property. The act of performing community service would allow a FTP player to rent a small plot and add an apartment or shop with no benefit? The RENT would become due each month and you would need to have accrued more Novian Imperial Tokens to keep it. If the RENT wasn't paid no Novians for structures would be given you would simply lose it and the plot would decon on Tuesday.

If anyone has anything to add or a different idea, let's hear it. Maybe we can come up with a new model to bring in more members. Sounds like a really good idea to me.

-Kor

[Machaeon]

I see one problem with this: getting one token per 100 units applied to a community project could make it difficult for people to even get tokens. There aren't always world projects to build and unfinished player plots aren't a guarantee of a decent 'job opening' either... there might just be high-tier stuff left to apply (which would exclude those who are just starting in their building classes) or just low-tier decorative stuff to apply materials to which is pretty useless for those at higher levels in building classes for getting xp. Furthermore how would the system keep track of every 100 units? Would it count all units for all materials? Would it only count one material at a time? Would it count by plot or structure or take into account every existing structure? If it needs to account for all materials applied anywhere I can see that being a nightmare to implement.

[Korchak Strongbone]

The number 100 was arbitrary I just threw it out there to start. What would you suggest for a solution to the problem?

I think it would be pretty easy to pay the Token. It would work just like when you throw coin on your plot to pay players as they apply. Those pay per Unit.

I do agree with your comment on there isn't always a community project so could this be opened to Town Marshals to carry construction items needed to gain these Novian Imperial Tokens?

I would like to see some solutions to the problem here not just complaints. I think Dac's idea is a very good one. It would be in my hopes that new people who come to the game might try this to get a rental and see how they like the ownership side of it on a temporary basis for their FTP account. If they liked it maybe they would buy in to own a real plot where the shops could give a benefit and the houses hold more than apartments and the sizes are bigger. Just a great way for them to get a taste with no out of pocket expenses. Keep them kids busy running stuff around :-)

-Kor

[Dacurly]

Well I was thinking more along the lines of using coin up in the game to get more money flow.

There is many ways it could be done, FTP players could rent plots (the smaller ones), paying buy the square meter, or paying per building or both. So if you just have a small plot with 1 small house you pay less than someone with same plot and 2 small houses, ect (this might be hard to code). Guild Areas would still have to be Guild members, but it could still be rentals.

It would have to be planed a bit. Like normal plots, the money goes the same as plots now, just at a lower price and monthly or weekly. Plot sub owners could rent an extra plot.

Could have the rental be tiered too, like Kion plots be lower rent than say Dralk Area plots. They could make it so you could buy them by getting a plot sub too. And of course if you didn't pay your rent you get a 1 month notice of eviction.

This would also help players that want to raise there building skills, you could rent a plot, do some buildings on it, then decon them for Novians and put it back on the market for rent.

Another benefit of doing this is if the player base grows the Devs could put plots that are rented up for sale and give eviction notices to the renter that they have so long to buy the plot or they will be evicted because the plot has been sold too a sub paying player. Like in the real world