11AUG12 - MAJOR RELEASE (Trade)

I fail to see where imposing a penalty for changing the price of an item makes it MORE likely that people will change the price of an item.  That is completely illogical.

Rill wrote: Again, I'm not questioning the tax, I'm questioning the fact that the tax is imposed in such a way as to inhibit pricing flexibility.  The argument that it makes people smarter about the prices they post does not make sense, since an intelligent merchant adjusts prices according to supply and demand.  This actually forces people to act dumber, not smarter.

I don't get how to explain this to you Rill. Guess I'll try to give an example on how it worked on the other game. Big player had 10,000 of this item so he set it at 500 gold per item. Well with the tax he had to pay 250,000 gold tax, but would get 5,000,000 gold from the sale. Well he is unlikely to change the price because it would hurt his profit. This allowed the new players sell 10 of that item for 150 gold. Undercutting the big player but the vets that needed more of the item would normally just buy off the vet or eat up all the smaller offers until they got the amount that is needed.

Making it so people never really needed to adjust prices. Though there were price wars on some items where the community won. People where trying to undercut other people which made prices of abundant items almost worthless. At that point most people just left the price over market value or took it off until markets stabilized again.

This new set-up is also amazing for the people that want to be traders. This will help them understand the market and help them control the market if they wished. If all these people are selling hides for 50gold each and someone puts up 100,000 hides for 500 gold, this market will get people to stop selling for 50gold and start trying to sell closer to the 500. Still undercutting the 500 but allowing that player to adjust the market prices. Which allowed the trader to make vast sums of gold by predicting the market and changing it to his need.

True this helps new players more then vets but it also helps take the market to a whole new level. You will see people trying all sorts of new things and the tax wont be something you need to worry about once you can influence the faction standing. On another note you will see people buy from the higher price goods more often then the lower price just so they can get more of what they need faster. (much easier to just buy bulk then saving money buying up all the little ones.)

Rill wrote: I am not happy about the non-refundable taxes on sell orders (along with no penalties for canceling buy orders).  This means that sellers of goods have substantially less flexibility than do buyers.  I can say personally it's going to make me a lot more reluctant to put up sell orders, since I have no desire to lose money based on market fluctuations.

Rill wrote: Every game needs a gold sink? Why?  And assuming there is a rationale, what makes this a good or effective one?

Rill wrote: Every game needs a gold sink? Why?  And assuming there is a rationale, what makes this a good or effective one?

Everyone likes to have the lowest orders on the market (which is not needed with this new system). I've played many games with this system and I have enjoyed it alot. It makes buying/selling off the market great and really improves the game. It takes millions of gold off the market and helps stabilize the economy.

You will come to love the system Rill, it is really a good one.

And yes this system will take millions of gold out of the game, I say at least 50-100m a month.

I am truly impressed that the developers are able and have went to this market system. It will improve the game and turn this game around. As long as they don't start getting greedy with the prestige.