Haenir
Dalayan Master
Not sure how possible all this is, mostly just a rough sketch of some thoughts I had along the lines of things I would do to make the game more economically interesting.
Step 1: Make most gear dropped from mobs No Drop.
Step 5: Add more alternate currencies and things to purchase with them: New Ikild Coins, Refuge Tokens, etc.
Step 6: Reduce cash drops overall -- probably by having mobs that drop cash be only those which would logically carry cash.
Step 7: Add NPCs which "buy" TS materials dynamically (e.g., depending on how many players are bringing in a certain type of material the price goes up or down) -- they would pay in plat or alternate currencies -- and which will then "sell" those same materials dynamically to players.
Step 8: Profit?
Step 1: Make most gear dropped from mobs No Drop.
Basically I think the BoE system and artificial prices floors on items do all sorts of weird and undesirable things. Changing gear drops to No Drop would:
Step 2: Make all trash drops from mobs be either TS materials, quest items, or provide in-game lore.- Eliminate the Vah (or other quest) mob vs. cash mob problem (though maybe this is a feature to add competition?).
- Encourage active participation in gear acquisition (additional incentive to group since it would be harder to get gear w/o grouping -- con of course is this becomes a problem w/ low population).
- Prevent mudflation (e.g., I remember being super disappointed about a quest reward because the BoE gear I bought essentially made the quest reward pointless).
Basically there are hundreds of items that serve to (1) add some flavor to loot, and (2) provide cash value to mobs w/o adding a ton of coin weight (obselete 2.0 problem). You could go super practical and replace this loot w/ pure cash drops now that coin weighs nothing. But I'd much rather see the items mobs drop actually have a purpose beyond straight plat from a vendor. Examples:
Step 3: Add more dynamic plat sinks to the game (hell even use the ones in game more -- like the lottery system).- Overgrowth plants and other plant mobs should drop items relevant to alchemy. I mean lore-wise isn't the Circle Brothers Company in the Overgrowth specifically for alchemical research (at least on the surface)?
- Tradeskill feedstocks like these.
- Things like "Torn page from an adventurer's journal" which provide a diary-like entry that describes some Dalayan lore, zone progression (e.g., after slaughtering all the vulfwere in Warpstone I heard about the fallen city of Kaladim...), strategy/mechanics hints (e.g., the monk travelling with me showed me how he could steal the lifeforce of his foes...), etc.
Plat accumulation is a problem, which is sort of fixed by having charms, unfortunately the fact that charms are the most powerful items in game results in encouraging plat generation as well as creating a (mostly in peoples heads) huge gap between new and veteran players.
Step 4: Replace buyable charms with a progressive charm quest.- The warehouse/guild storage idea
- Consumables -- more variety in effects from charge-based clickies, ideally made with tradeskills -- e.g., a single charge heavenstorm clicky from jewelcrafting, single charge illusion masks from tailoring, more variety of port potions, etc.
- Regular use of lottery
- Arming/supplying the seekers (maybe to trigger war events?)
Here's a scenario I've been running into lately: I log on, nothing much going with guild, so I've got a choice of whether to pick up some folk from /ooc for group shenanigans or solo/duo farm towards my eternal/supreme fund. From an exp perspective solo farming or an on-tier group will net the best xp/hour. From a plat perspective duo farming or an on-tier group filled with boxes will net the best plat/hour. The folk that are lfg are more likely than not lower-tiered, so more realistically my choices are to grouping on lower reward content or farming alone. I hate farming, so more often than not I'll make the group.
I don't think this is an uncommon scenario -- and it kills me that the rational choice if you're interested in character progression is often to not group. And I think this is a direct consequence of having such a large permanent piece of gear as the main plat sink in the game.
Assuming steps 1, 3, and 6 are implemented, changing charms from a buyable item to a progressive quest reward becomes quite attractive. What would that quest look like?
I don't think this is an uncommon scenario -- and it kills me that the rational choice if you're interested in character progression is often to not group. And I think this is a direct consequence of having such a large permanent piece of gear as the main plat sink in the game.
Assuming steps 1, 3, and 6 are implemented, changing charms from a buyable item to a progressive quest reward becomes quite attractive. What would that quest look like?
- I'd make the first charm expable, given in the dream, and generalist: Charm of the Learner
- Second charm I'd tie in to the MQ -- from Seeker Tresaria to reward gaining trust of seekers, would also be expable but have caster/melee/priest/hybrid versions: Charm of the Seeker
- Third charm (requires groupage) I would tie in to players Heartlands faction, also expable and archetypically varied: Charm of the Council / Charm of the Crown / Charm of the Blackscale
- Fourth charm (first charm that requires raiding) I would tie in to deities -- specifically a Divine Light lore exposition quest which can be done regardless of deity pledge, also expable and archetypically varied: Charm of Elael / Charm of Dalaya
- Fifth charm I would tie in to Ikisith and the war against Kaezul with certain REDACTED lore tie ins, also expable and archetypically varied: Charm of the Betrayer / Charm of the Void
- Sixth charm would be....? One of the nice things about this idea is that as new content is added further continuations can added as desired.
Step 5: Add more alternate currencies and things to purchase with them: New Ikild Coins, Refuge Tokens, etc.
Would like to see currencies for kaezul's empire, elael orcs, and the Ikisith rebels (maybe heartlands factions too?). Things to purchase might be: an armor set (from kaezul's empire), opus (from orcs), tomes (from rebels).
Step 6: Reduce cash drops overall -- probably by having mobs that drop cash be only those which would logically carry cash.
Step 7: Add NPCs which "buy" TS materials dynamically (e.g., depending on how many players are bringing in a certain type of material the price goes up or down) -- they would pay in plat or alternate currencies -- and which will then "sell" those same materials dynamically to players.
Step 8: Profit?
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