Ways to Remove High-end Items from the Game (To Curb Item Inflation)

- Require them in crafting.

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Something along these lines. It could be something else. Someone suggested having uniques create Gems.

Maybe Gems could be used for some other craft that ultimately removes them from the economy.

I know it's hard to believe, but if enough people play the game, eventually items will saturate the market. This item saturation will cause the prices of top-tier items to deflate. Overtime, they will be worthless.

So, unless there is a way to reset the economy, or remove these items, this will be a problem.

Let's look at it this way, though - gear is a way of improving your character, with naturally diminishing returns for any given difficulty of enemy. The better the item, the less likely you are to find one that improves you even more (unless you seek out harder monsters).

Now, consider crafting - assuming that what it creates isn't another "high-end item". Either it can improve your character infinitely (assuming a steady supply of reagents), or it cannot.
In the first case, eventually you will have worthless monsters, which I think is worse than worthless items.
In the second case, you have exactly the same issue as you had before - saturation.

As for resetting the economy, well, I'm pretty sure the timed leagues will go a fair ways towards satisfying those looking for that kind of challenge.

I'm talking about the parent league which won't be reset.

Also, I believe that monster will be balanced around player-power, so I don't see this as an issue. But I think I may have thought of a way to deflate the economy and keep it continually renewing itself.

The Self-Renewing Item-Economy.

This is about how to create a self-renewal effect on the economy, so that items do not overly inflate and cause prices to drop en masse. I feel that this system works well with the Currency system as currencies will be the cause of the renewal effect.

* All numbers are purely arbitrary, what really happens should be up to GGG, if they don't like this idea then it won't happen. I think I ought to put it out there though, maybe a better idea will come to light because of this.

Currently all items (That I know of) are broken up into these groups -

- White Text Gear.

- Magic Gear.

- Rare Gear.

- Unique Gear.

- Currency.

- Gems.

What we want to reduce mainly are the Rare, Unique, and Gem items from the game. (Possibly magic items I'll stick with the first three though.)

- A way to Remove Rare / Unique Gear in a Fun / Fair Fashion -

- The First NPC the Jeweler -

- Drop an item called a "Stone Gem" (Or something) that acts as a base gem with no enhancements. Stone Gems will be white or blue in Text. (Or whatever)

- Create Jeweler NPC's that require the "Stone Gem" item.

- Instead the player will need to give the NPC a "Stone Gem" and their Rare / Unique item.

- The Jeweler will randomly create a Gem that is already leveled up. (Based on the level of the gear the higher the level gear the higher the level Gem, these do not correlate exactly though)

- The player can give the Jeweler up to 5 Unique / Rare items. Their item levels will average together and spit-out a Gem that is an appropriate level for the "offerings."

- The Second NPC The Diviner -

- Create Diviner NPC's that will "Divine" materials from Rare / Unique items.

- Materials is just a buzz-word because the player will not receive these materials.

- The player offers up to 5 (or more) Rare or Unique items.

- The NPC crafts Currency items for the player based on the level of the "offerings" and their scarcity.

- Currency items are self-sinking so there is no need to continue here.

- Back to the Jeweler NPC -

- The jeweler can also "craft currency" if you give him Gems.

- The higher the level Gem the higher the Currency item.

- Possibly allow more then one Gem as an "offering." Thus more Gems = More currency.

This system will flush items out of the economy while at the same time be fun for the player to use. It adds an extra lottery effect while at the same time deflating the economy.

This system could be tweaked / changed / enhanced by anyone who thinks there are good additions / subtractions that could be made to it.

To that end, because currency items are their own sinks, all that will happen is the continual deflation of high-end items while high-end players will be able to perfect their characters constantly.

Well i think that the fact that there is technically no top tier loot. Meaning you could play for a long time and never find something as good as a lucky guy that got a magical with awesome stats and awesome gem slot locations. To me this is encouraging as i would rather have that then some top tier loot that kinda is like of ya you have the best armor so don't bother looking for anymore.

I'm just trying to figure out a healthy way to deflate the economy.

It doesn't matter what the drop-rates are, gear will get found, and over time it will only pile-up.

This might be a perfect way to reduce the high-end gear from the game.

In a game where rare items reign supreme (I get the impression that PoE will fall into this category) this actually isn't much of a problem. Diablo II is has been out for around a decade and people still don't have perfect characters, especially in classic where the best items are rare and not uniques/runewords.

Will the value of moderately good high level items decrease over time? Certainly. I suspect that players who have issues with this will stick to the timed leagues, much like some Diablo II players exclusively stick to ladder.

I think there is a fundamental flaw in Silver's suggestion. If you have a top-tier item, why in the world would you use it for crafting? It's already top-tier so you can't really get anything better, right?

Although I do not think top-tier item saturation will be much of an issue, there are things that could be done about it if it does become problematic. One such solution would be to simply to add a bit more content. Throw in some new and better item types and the gear that was previously top-tier is no longer the best.

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Wisdom wrote:

I think there is a fundamental flaw in Silver's suggestion. If you have a top-tier item, why in the world would you use it for crafting? It's already top-tier so you can't really get anything better, right?.

Well, the main point is that "Extra" top tier gear will get removed from the economy. So players will end up with only their set of top tier gear.

You're right that top-tier doesn't get any higher then that. However, as gear accumulates "top-tier gear" will begin to inflate and thus be too easy to obtain. A system such as the one I mentioned, or some other system could be used to remove this gear.

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Wisdom wrote:

Although I do not think top-tier item saturation will be much of an issue, there are things that could be done about it if it does become problematic. One such solution would be to simply to add a bit more content. Throw in some new and better item types and the gear that was previously top-tier is no longer the best.

Creating new item types will only shift the focus of the already inflated gear. You will have inflated "top-tier gear" plus new gear that will, again, eventually inflate.

So, while there may be a better suggestion to deflate gear out of the economy, this is the only one I could think of.

I don't think GGG needs to remove high-end items. They give the fun in the economy.

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permaximum wrote:

I don't think GGG needs to remove high-end items. They give the fun in the economy.

agree, and there are always people who put all in his/her stash