This game has an elite rich and a very vast poor population (Currency system is broken)
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I dont see why tping is an issue, I have like 200 portal scrolls which I sometimes end up selling
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" I too hate the docks; it's layout is obnoxious. In my opinion the best farming areas are Ledge -> Fellshrine -> City of Sarn -> Catacombs. Alteration Orb Union Local #7
"Alts are 16:1 Chaos. You got that tough guy? |
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" I wish chests chests appeared more often. |
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Hi there
I've been playing since Open Beta started and doing alot of reading on these discussions before chiming in Here is my humble 2cents on the current state of the in-game economy and some realistic steps that could be taken to address it. For many this might be TL:DR, but I would ask that if at least the GGG peeps can read everything I have to say and consider my opinions. I have experienced many MMO economies and I think I have a good understanding of what makes them work and what makes them break and I love this game too much to see it be fouled up by a broken economy. The gap between the rich and the poor ===================================== It is normal for there to be some disparity. Time spent and smart trading will always bring greater rewards and I don't beleive that this needs to be wiped out, but it does need to be rebalanced. Right now there does seem to be an inner core of players who have benefited hugely, either from more favourable drop rates, or recipes in earlier iterations of the game, or from less punitive multi-boxing farm restrictions. I believe that there is also a rather bizarre shadow income generator where some of the top players who stream their gameplay receive gear and currency donations from their viewers. Now inherently I don't have a problem with any of this and I appluade their ingenuity, *but* these are the guys with access to all of the best drops and they are the ones setting the price in the marketplace because the perceived value they are placing on gear is being skewed by their vast wealth. This makes the barrier to entry for new players, even those who are fairly serious to start considering themselves even vaguely wealthy too high. I'm not saying the rich must be taxed, but somehow the bar needs to be lowered or income streams for the middle of the road player need to become less painful to pursue. Farming and Trading ======================= As an experienced MMOer I consider myself to be a pretty thrifty trader. I know how to flip currency and gear, how to find the farming hotspots and how to recognize which items are valuable and which aren't. I got stinking rich farming Ectos in Guildwars 1 after many others gave up, in WoW it was enchanting mats and flipping gear on the Auction house. Yet having played since Open beta started with 2 well levelled toons and one farming end game with very good IIR/IIQ gear that I am finding it insanely difficult to break into the even comfortably well off income bracket. Right now I would have to farm flatout and trade for weeks on end without spending any currency to even muster the opening bid on a Lionseye Glare, let alone the buyout prices A big part of the problem here is that there is no view of the bigger picture of what is happening in the marketplace. Last week I could flip 9gcp into an exalted easily. Last night I saw people trying to sell them for 11gcp + 2 chaos. I eventually ended up paying 8gcp and 1 Divine for 1 after an hour of spamming a lower price in trade chat. Now I don't mind the fact that there was an upward trend in the Exalted price - these things should fluctuate, but the fact that as a smart trader that I had no overview of the economic trends or ability to predict an outcome and potentially turn a profit is where the problem comes in. Currently in PoE the ability to trade effectively and watch market trends is simply zero and getting anyone to buy your stuff in the trade chat is about as efficient as trying to feed soup to a cat with a fork...in the dark. Crafting ========= Crafting is also so insanely random and expensive at the moment that it is not a viable source of income for anyone except the people on the good side of the wealth chasm. In any other game of this nature which I've played a smart crafter can grind his way up the food chain and generate an alternative revenue stream for himself buy making and selling items that are in demand by other players, or by selling them to the vendors. In PoE the economic barrier to entry in terms of the orbs used for crafting is insanely high. You need hundreds of fusing orbs to get 5L and 6L gear and exalted orbs are pretty much required to make something worth anything unless you get very lucky. This would be fine if there was an outlet for mid-tier 4L gear and cheaper rares as an economic stepping stone for the middle class, but literally no-one buys that stuff and the vendor return on these items is way below what it costs you to make it in the first place. Ok so these as I see it are the current problem areas now my suggestions of some possible measures which could be taken to address this: Don't mess heavily with drop rates ================================== Recognize the gravity of this issue and understand that right now PoE's economy is weak and it is vulnerable to collapse. You can do things to make it more robust, but do not for the love of Pete listen to forum pressure and make any drastic changes to drop rates. You could very easily push it over the edge like this. I do think though that the drop rate on uniques since the recent patch needs to be carefully revisited. Prior to that patch I barely saw the things - now the marketplace is so flooded with trashy devalued low level uniques you literally have to give them away just to get them out of your stash. Surely that can't be what you intended? Consider adding more recipes and orbs to improve crafting opportunities ======================================================================= an unexalted (devouring, desecrated?) orb that can be used to remove one 'specific' prefix or suffix from an item. This would allow you to clean up after a bad exalt without a completely borked item on your hands - it'll still cost you an exalt, but at least you can save the gear and try again - this would not be an economic gamebreaker. perhaps a very rare orb that allowed you to divine a specific attribute on a piece rather than the whole item (Orb of focus maybe) - it could be the new exalt in terms of currency value and add some more depth to the economy while also improving the crafting process. Add a cheap recipe for fusing orbs (like 2 of the same blues, or a 4-linked white), or reduce the vendor trade cost for them, even just cutting it from 4 jewelers to 3 would be a big relief for anyone trying to craft. Or load in some sort of luck factor in so that you gain a low % probablity to max link an item after every x number of orbs spent in a single session. You have to build a proper trade interface ========================================== You just have to. I need to put my stuff for trade in a space and walk away and play the game like I'm supposed to and later when I come back collect my profits from my trades. I need to be able to look at what other people have put up for trade and see what the pricing trends are. Why? Because some people like to undercut prices for quick cash out. Because some people like to bargain hunt. Most importantly. Because far too many unsuspecting people are getting absolutely ripped off because they have no reference point to check the current market value of their uber drop. Flipping gear for profit in a free and transparent trading space where everyone can see the prices is great and healthy economics. Dirty noob scalping in the dark which is happening a hellluva lot right now, is really really not and this is probably the most compelling arguement as to why you should make this your top development priority now - even if it means delaying Act 4. Strengthen your foundations before you build on another floor. Thanks for Listening and feel free to flame away - I have capped res :xD Peace Out Bob |
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" You have that wrong. Libertarians hate random. That's like saying libertarians would support a system where a lottery determines who's rich and who's poor. No libertarian would praise the fairness of that system. Libertarians believe in laissez-faire meritocracy. That is, the more capable and ingenuous workers will earn more money than the less industrious and less skilled. If the game of path of exile actually rewarded merit over fortune, then yes, libertarians would praise the fairness of the system regardless of how skewed the distribution of wealth was. |
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" So perhaps in truely merit based economy all MF gear should be removed and my drops would be caclulated according to the level of the area vs my own (am I stretching my capabilities) and my dps / kpm / bosses elite mobs drowned in xx time period. |
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Most people here are just unlucky as hell...
I found 5 Exalted and uncountable amounts of Gcp until now - playing about 3h/day. I think RNG just strikes and the only ones posting here are the ppl that have bad luck, since the others have no reason to complain. That's why it looks a certain way. peace out IGN: Darkrox (not my main, just for easy contact)
~ Yes i'm the Darkrox from Runes of Magic - World's #1 Guild Pravum 2009 - 2011 ~ |
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" You could just as easily have said 'the only people complaining about police brutality are the ones who found themselves on the wrong end of a baton charge' :p Your personal status as a victim or benefactor of the broken system doesn't automatically refute any discussion about it's possible need to be reformed. False logic is false. I don't believe that I've been especially lucky, or unlucky. I've had my share of GCP and Chaos drops and my mate I run with has had 2 exalted drops during our farming runs. I was quite clear in stating that I did not recommend radical changes to the drop rates. The more pressing issues are the uneconomically viable crafting system which is propped up by a creaking framework of perceived hierarchical Orb value and the lack of proper support structures to nurture a healthy and transparent player to player trade economy. |
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" If this is true (which it very well might be) it seems like just another reason why RNG is complete BS. The reliance on it to provide a hardcore experience which has been referred to in other threads just results in mind numbing unfairness and frustration from a completely arbitrary and unrewarding system. For the love of God I'd wish the Dev's would think this over again and address it already. From my experience too raising IIQ/IIR helps but you can still have hours where nothing significant drops for you other than a few completely useless Uniques which you cannot even sell for a stinking chaos each. Frick already! Will it really take droves of empty servers until the Dev's figure out players are more than frustrated at this point with the system???? I don't know if you have noticed but over the past several weeks you can go in and the trade screen barely moves so few people are selling or buying... towns are nearly empty.... these cannot be good indicators yet I don't see any concern being expressed or any reaching out by the Dev's to simply acknowledge... yes we have heard you... yes we have reconsidered and will fix the RNG crapshoot, replace useless volumes of crap gear with more meaningful orb and item drops. Also I know everyone keeps saying the game is only in Beta but at this rate... I'm not sure it will have a future beyond Beta.. which is sad because there are many great things about the game.. but they are so plagued by a few issues as to render the gaming experiencing very disappointing over the long haul. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
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