Aion's Economy

[Mordechai]

Looking at most other threads i always see people complaining about the potential "grind". But what im somewhat worried about is the level of difficulty for making money in this game.

Grind wise i can put up with alot, find myself a good clan/friends i can entertain myself for hours having fun with them or just doing quests and such. But in every MMO ive played i always have a hard time keeping cash on hand for new weapons/armor potions whatever.

I mainly come from Lineage2 where so many people ebay online money for that game aisnt even funny. But not I, Ive played the game for nearly 2 years now without ebaying or anything and for those of you who play it aswell, Ive never even touched A grade.

So im wondering what your thoughts are of this subject. What level of difficutly are your expectations for making money in this game?

[Night_Stalker]

Yeah FFXI was very similar to Lineage 2 in that regard. Everybody was a that was rich bought their money online. I never did so, and as a result I had to farm for about 5-6 hours every 5-8 levels to afford my next new set of equipment.

I don't mind farming for an hour or two every now and then, but I shouldn't have to spend my entire day hoping I get lucky with drops so that I can afford some armor that will become obsolete in a few levels.

Just thinking about farming silk and beehive chips in FFXI makes me sick

[Ecronyte]

Yeah I come from L2 as well. People defended that games economy tooth and nail. Saying that with some effort and patiece you could earn money on the market. Which was true. But the whole thing was supported by farmers and inflated by Ebayers. So any money you could make was probably dirty money anyway.

If you tried to earn money in L2 without buying low and selling high. Just farming mobs, quests, and maybe manor system. You would be one very broke individual.

You could probably manage B grade, but A is such a huge jump. And all A crafts are 60%, so it adds an extra layer of pain to those who can't afford to craft multiple times.

[[PhiberOpticks]]

You know what would be a good idea? Although it would probably be overcome with some repetition. Perhaps a world bank that would have GMs monitor all large money transactions. And on top of that, they could charge a tax based on the amount. Although gold farmers are very tenacious and could probably work harder, but it would drive up the cost of gold-buying, and thus decrease the amount of gold-buying that would occur.

I think collecting money should be slightly easier than FFXI. Make the loot worth a modest amount of money.

[illmeltxwithyou]

i got something that would fix it , just have it so you can buy everything in a store kind of like sword of the new world

[Midgarsormr]

I'd like this game's economy to be a mixture of WoW and FFXI. In WoW, a 10 year old can be insanely rich. This makes the game so easy that you don't feel special for affording something that costs 1000g when just about everyone else can get it like you (hope i'm explaining this right). In FFXI it was -too- hard but when you had money people would dazzle in amazement from your armor lol. I guess it has to be right in the middle.

[[PhiberOpticks]]

In WoW, a 10 year old can be insanely rich. This makes the game so easy that you don't feel special for affording something that costs 1000g when just about everyone else can get it like you (hope i'm explaining this right).

But then you alienate the hardcore audience.

[teldath]

i think they are going in the right direction with this. I think most armor will be binding, this takes out most forms of gold buying right off the bat. hopefully they will still have things that require a decent money investment- (mounts, enchants, i heard about a soulshot system)

this should attract both hardcore and casual players

[Mordechai]

what do you mean by binding? ive never heard of such a thing could you please elaborate. and i hope they get it right because i would like it to be hard to some degree so that when i see someone with rare armor i would think to myself, "man i wish i was that guy"

[[PhiberOpticks]]

what do you mean by binding? ive never heard of such a thing could you please elaborate. and i hope they get it right because i would like it to be hard to some degree so that when i see someone with rare armor i would think to myself, "man i wish i was that guy"

Binding means that when someone equips an item, only that person can ever where it.

[Midgarsormr]

I.E Soulbound in WoW, Rare/ex in FFXI

[Niteo]

I don't believe there gonna make the game super hard for one to get money... games like that are usally the games that people buy gold on more cause there sick of grinding for 7 hour to buy one peice of there next lvl armour.. I would be more happy with a mid range system when it comes to gold and items... But like every game your never gonna stop gold farmers inless you can figure out a way so that people can not give other char money inless they are getting a item in return.. though there are many way people can over come this.. I like the idea that if you have to pay over a certaint amount you have to pay it through a sort of bank which take 10% tax of off it......

[Knite]

OK, here are my likes, dislikes, and general thoughts about MMo economies. Better put those readin' glasses on cause this is going to be a rant.

Things that I feel have worked:

Star Wars Galaxies: In the beginning, players made pretty much everything. There were very very very few decent loot drops and the world rejoiced in the thought that to get a good weapon you had to have a player make it for you.

So what went wrong?:

More and more loot weapons and armors started making appearances. And not very rare ones, either. If you kill this mob, you WILL GET one of 4 of these items. Items that could not be matched by player crafters. What else went wrong? Publish 10 and Jedi. Not only did the abundance of Jedi in the world affect weaponsmiths, but armorsmiths also. Jedi crafted their own weapons and could only wear (automatically issued) robes. But the main thing that killed the SWG economy were Krayt Dragon Pearls. These pearls could be used to replace crystals in a lightsaber for an uncomparable addition to its damage and speed. Krayt Dragons, supposed to be among the mightiest beasts in the Star Wars lore, were fodder to a single commando. Throw in a credit dupe or two and you've got people spending hundreds of millions of credits on a "status" item such as the Nightsister bracer, which offered no armor protection and was just for looks.

What I feel could work for Aion:

The toughest issues with a MMO economy are of course the re-sellers and also the limited "out" flow of money. Most MMOs make you pay the system for repairs, housing upkeep, taxes, etc but there really isnt any other way to kill the constant in flow of money into the game.

So heres a scenario that may or may not work- just a thought.

A crafter wants to make a robe for a wizard. For this particular piece, he needs fine pelts, ivory for the buttons, and some leather. The crafter pays an adventurer for these items. The crafter then assembles the piece and sells it in their shop. When it sells, they are taxed a percentage of the profit and the player buying is taxed for the purchase.

Auction house sales should have a fee based on the asking price- non refundable. When the item sells, there is a tax on top of its inital cost to the purchaser and a final sale value to the seller.

Now as for money income into the world and I hope, hope, hope devs are reading this because I CANT stress this enough: When I kill a rat, it SHOULD NOT drop money for me. Animals, mushrooms, plant things, fish, ham sandwiches, and otherwise non-intelligent non-humanoid things have no business with money, therefore it should not be part of their loot table. Likewise, killing a mosquito should never give me a chestplate or a pair of underwear. I think Lineage was the worst at this... You got money for EVERYTHING in that game. It just makes no sense.

Humanoid NPCs such as soldiers, Balur, whatever should definitely have the opportunity to drop money and items. Now this doesn't mean your run of the mill critters are worthless on the loot table. Pelts, teeth, tails, claws- anything plausible can be loot and can be then sold to players for crafting. There should not be an NPC who buys crap. Nor should they buy it by the ton with unlimited funds. If you have the luxury of creating your world and the items in it, make every item useful. There should never be an item in the game whose only purpose is to be sold to a junk NPC. It would be like a player grinding the same critters who drop the same crap loot for 3 hours, then taking a jar of 300 eyeballs to an NPC and them saying, "Wow, that's really great. I'll take them all!"

Make the crafting system more demanding on resources! If a rat drops 1 pelt, make a robe cost 500, 1000, 1500 pelts! Demand doesn't always mean the price has to be high. If there are no NPCs to buy your random junk by the barrel full, you are forced to delete it or sell it to players. Well, if you want money you will sell it to players. Within a few days there will be a "going price" for them and people will be accustomed to that. People will make relationships with hunters who will bring them pelts every day and that will brighten the community.

To sum this very long rant up, there absolutely has to be an outflow to counter the unlimited inflow of money. If the US government decided to mint 500 billion extra dollars to get out of some of its debt, our economy would crumble. Junk NPCs are unrealistic. No one would buy 90% of that crap and by the looks of your straw house and burlap sack wearing children, Mr. Vendor, you can't afford to pay me 3 gold for petrified bull droppings. Junk in a created environment is just bad planning. Have your loot have a purpose and you will see a more involved community.

I hope that anyone who read all this can still see straight and I hope I got my point across to people, even if its not agreed with. Post your thoughts, rebuttles, etc and lets have a happy discussion. =)

[[PhiberOpticks]]

Basically, you think there should be a functioning treasury system in the game to manage the circulation of money. I think NPCs should be able to buy our junk. But the game should track how much money is collected from these sorts of transactions, then have taxes. There could be taxes on items, bank transactions, trades, and stuff like that. It makes for a more believably functional society.

[Knite]

well, I dont exactly mean there needs to be only a certain amount of money in the world at a time, but if 20 million coins are looted a day and only 20,000 are collected in tax/fees, you're going to have a ruined economy very quick. I think as long as there are appropriate fees and the money isnt as easy to come by as selling 4000 worthless items to a supposedly poor NPC, it will be a step in the right direction.