Jump Starting The Economy

General
1

So there is a lot of conversation around the economy and if it is broken, why it is good, why it is bad, why we need it, etc. Many people think the answer is just to increase footfall, others have different views. No matter the overall view each person has, it is a mechanic in the game that can provide some satisfaction.

Currently there are clearly some challenges around it and I know the developers are looking into ways to adjust the economy game mechanic so that it works better and provides more enjoyment for everyone.

We all don’t want a more grindy game or lose the ability you make everything. So I was hoping we could start a thread of answering two specific question with each person maybe giving 1-3 suggestions of ideas. I’d really love to see some of the suggestions on these two questions whether you are a shop owner or some that just buys. I am sure everyone has a few constructive ideas on things we can do to make the shopping experience better…

Questions:

A) What additional things could be added to the game and / or changed to make you want to go to a shop and BUY stuff from them.

(example: personally I feel some type of shop listing in game asset I can make to show me all the “active” shops, location, and what they are selling (not the cost) and buying would help me go explore and generate footfall and give good shopping experience while not creating some god awful auction house like Eve Online/WOW where people compete at 1 credit higher/lower)

B) What additional things could be added to the game and / or changed to make you want to go to a shop and SELL stuff to them.

(example: personally I hate running around trying to sell stuff but not having coin or know who is buying stuff. So my shop directory machine would help because otherwise I just don’t go and keep adding to my storage horde of bones wishing I could use it as a block to build a house of bones.)

6 Likes
2

A) I would spend more willingly if there was another way to earn coin that is more reliable than footfall and request baskets

B) I would sell to request baskets more frequently if it were easier to find stores with coin in their baskets. A couple ideas for this:

  1. Create a new Places tab for saving locations of shop stands and request baskets, with the details card showing how much stock/coin is in the stand/basket
  2. Show in the Current Beacon details card the total amount of coin in request baskets within that beacon. So when I walk into a store I can quickly tell if I can make any money there or not.
5 Likes
3

Visibility. And more coin to play with.

I agree on the directory idea or something similar showing whats in stock at people’s shop but not the price. I think its a fair compromise between pro auction house and those against it.

Second i need more ways to generate coin. I havent bought a single thing for like 3 weeks outside of paying for same world warps for 100c and i still only have ~50k coin. So instead i just farm everything i need and some extras for next time

6 Likes
4

Well, there became a surplus of materials and a shortage of coin and people, so everything dropped in price hard and no longer felt worth acquiring to buy or sell. Newcomers became scarce so low end items lost even more value. The forging changes made it possible for newer players to get into forging MUCH easier, but 100% did not change the fact that lower tier tools are not very useful once you start using titanium and gems. I mean, that’s just how any game is.

But as a result there’s not a large demand for most items, and even for the items in demand it no longer felt profitable even if everything scaled down in price, because you’re likely getting less of one thing for the same item(s), while the time to get them stayed the same.

I completely understand that price drops would happen as economy stabilised and that these things would happen in general, but I did not anticipate the personal feeling of less value of time, thus it began to feel as a waste of time.

I don’t think increasing how much money was in the game would change that now, but I felt it could have made a difference about a month ago

1 Like
5

Some kind of info network ( maybe you need to craft stuff to use it And it gets better whit higher crafts) That would tell you who’s got what for sale /wanted , price and were there at

Maybe it’s a bit much
But it sucks running store to store
Never remembering who had what at what price

Just an idea

2 Likes
6

A) I have no problem buying stuff from shops, it’s just somewhat difficult for me to earn coin without resorting to exploiting the talented citizen Feat :grimacing:. I just wish there was some better way to generate coin without relying on trade. Then again i’m too anxious to interact with others in game so it’s mostly on my part that i’m not able to be efficient or enjoy this game 100%.

B) Nothing really, the only problem i have are some shopowners being cheap with their coin :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:. to see a forged hammer at 20k, but finding shops willing to buy fiber leaves for 5c each makes it feel not worth it to run around the world getting desert swords. I’d rather keep it for myself and be patient with my iron tools. Finding a reliable shop that buys raw materials for a reasonable price is difficult when most of the request baskets are already emptied out.

Sometimes I come into shops feeling like I deserve a better amount of coin for all the time I spent farming for materials. I remember when i was mining on a tier 3 world for the first time and got around 200 copper and 100 iron I felt accomplished thinking that could dish me a good 5k coins. So it sort of upset me to find that most request baskets only want them for about 3-4c each for iron, and about 2c for copper :frowning:

This is coming from a player that hasn’t reached 50 yet or has fully experienced how this game should be played by the way. I’m still learning the ropes!

5 Likes
7

I’m gonna be honest, I’ve pretty much played this game so far dirt poor and would be too scared, even with a sudden coin increase, to start freely spending.

Right now the only thing I spend coins on are coils. And occasionally hard to find gleam if it’s decently priced.
If my pocket change magically starts to increase, I’d prob buy augmented weapons. Never used a single one yet. (So shiny! One day… One day…)

But, yeah, those are prob the only three things I’d freely buy if I had coins.
As for selling, well, I have a shop, with some extras of things I didn’t need, and some atlases I personally mapped, but aside from a stack of refined gleam, nothing sells. I’m not surprised or upset, bc I’m sure they have the same mindset I do–i’d rather farm it myself. Save my coins, just spend a few hours or a day farming something, and I have more than that shop offered with 0 spent on my part.

I dunno, I actually like auction houses. Reminds me of my EBay snipping days. Could be one for each planet. But i don’t know how that would even be implemented fairly.

I think an idea that gets tossed around in random threads is something like a recycle bin for unwanted items. Each item has a base coin stat, maybe an average of previous selling prices, and that stack of rock I don’t want and nobody buys can be thrown in there and I just made coins. magic hands

Eliminates shops from having a lot of easily farmable items rarely anyone buys so they can focus on more specialized items. Might see less “buy my junk!” shops, so the ones that are up have a higher chance of customers and sales.

And… if someone wants that stack of rocks I threw in the recycle bin, maybe it can also act as a sort of mega thrift store so it can still be bought by someone who doesn’t feel like smashing rocks to bits.
I suppose that can act as the not-quite-auction house, except the item is already sold and it’s more like shopping at Wal-Mart.

I realize this probably didn’t help answer your questions, but I’m just not that much into the merchant business to begin with. On either end. =/

5 Likes
8

I buy things, usually have between 10 and 20k in my request baskets. Pay 10c for fibrous leaves and 20c for inky. That’s the price they have because that’s what I feel my time is worth when I gather them. Reactive lamella, 50c. Hope cores, 2k. Bark? 80c. I also buy raw starberries for 2c and edible lamella for 2c. But I get lots of those without trying so it’s less valuable to me. I but wood trunks and peaty soil for 2c each. And a few other things. All prices based on how much effort I have to put in to get them myself.

On the flip side I sell forged tools, and normal tools. 35c for copper tools, 55c for iron. 750c for titanium and 1k for topaz tools. My forged items vary depending on complexity of item. 250c for a copper block changing chisel, 750c for iron world regen bombs, 2k for titanium healing bombs. 1800c for long range bonus durability titanium slingbow. 7.4k for a t6 hammer. Up to 8.4k if I put durability on it as well. Someone can come to my shop easily make enough coins from my basket to buy several items in my shop. And I refill any time I see them empty and play often daily.

The economy is humming along at the moment. But shopping in this game takes alot of work, and that’s the drawback in alot of ways. It’s sort of a hassle to have to spend an hour or more selling or buying your items. Just ends up not worth it alot. And sometimes people want to sell you things at a price that isn’t sustainable. Like gems for over 150c. I mean most of them are firmly under 100c atm. Emerald and amethyst being the outliers. Critter trophies are still silly valuable. But you don’t need them in large quantities so it balances fine.

(edit for fat fingers)

3 Likes
9

I think the game mechanics provide a solid base for players to work with.

To answer A and B I believe dedicated long term players will provide a stable economy and known places to go to for selling and buying.

10

We’re all the same character who can do all the same things which means we all need the same things. There’s really no incentive to trade away my goods cuz I’m just screwing over one of my alts or making more shopping work for them later. I’ll buy these things for a price no higher than the effort that’s required to collect them (which for most items isn’t much). If sellers don’t like those prices their stores can rot–I’ll go farm it myself.

Items that would jump start the economy for me are items which let players express themselves and then sell their creativity. One idea is blueprints so you can sell pre-built creations. Another is bundles so you can sell DIY kits or job bundles.

Imagine you could go to a store that specializes in road sections and then buy 40 pre-built road sections for your city. Or a store which specializes in lighting so you can find the perfect ceiling light for your house. Or a store owner who took the time to put together a “topaz mining build” by selling bundles with a hammer, strength brew, full atlas, and topaz to load into it. That sort of stuff is worth more than the sum of its material parts. The machine recipes are not.

7 Likes
11

A + B: item-for-item trade options

This forged hammer is worth 400 fibrous leaves or similar

7 Likes
12

  1. As for real life; if i dont know where my next pay cheque is coming from i aint spending money. A reliable way of earning coin (yes, I’d be willing to do a predictable amount of work for a fixed amount of coin) would see me spending it more freely.

  2. As a shop owner, i only need things when people buy my products, so see 1. On that note though, what people are willing to pay dictates what I’m willing to pay to buy stuff. My persisting pies sell at a price that justifies 70c for purple yams, so that’s what i buy at. They are easy to gather though, so i usually just do that as its more reliable. Same with teach pies and sweet beans at 23 each.

If stock doesnt sell, my buy price drops untill i dont get any in my baskets, then i remove my baskets to avoid being seen as an exploiter when the case is in fact low demand.

I hate farming orbs, so i regularly buy them- they maintain a high price because their products are in demand at prices that justify that. I try to keep my margins constant, so demand drives both prices favourably.

Back to 1, “if i had predictable income i’d spend” seems a common answer here. If people spent, I’d put coin in baskets. We dont need a cash injection, we could do with a few more methods of coin generation. (NB the actual amount generated is irrelevant, that just affects the price of items. The presence of any coin methods would stimulate buying)

8 Likes
13

A couple posts mentioned a directory? Here is an excellent start to one. We just need more people to know about this and add their own shops to it. Shops that’ll be up for longer than one beacon fuel reload.

https://boundlessskill.com/shops-shop-catalog

14

That works to an extent. But something in game that updates relatively frequently would help a lot more

3 Likes
15

Very true.

For those looking for request baskets:

Gyosha mall does have quite a few request baskets in it and doesn’t take too terribly long to burn through there. Might save some planet hopping trips for some?

1 Like
16

A - They need a way for all players to have an equal chance with the same level of effort to earn coin. Footfall is not it as it rewards location over effort (except for portals which have to be maintained). If this needs to be letting the Sanctum guy give out tasks for coin or just act as a buyer for low level goods, I think something has to be done. This being said, many of the people I play with are only going to occasionally shop for goods. It is such a hassle to find someone selling what you want and then have to search a number of stores to see if the price is fair. So I end up spending time traveling over 40 planets to find what I want to buy and get nothing, while even the stores that do not have what I want get footfall? I find this to be really demotivating so I just do not go to stores at all.

B - It is really the same thing. It is such a hassle to find someone buying what you might want to sell and having coin in the request basket and offering a fair price, that it is not worth the effort. Unless I have a way to see who is buying what and for what price and where they are located, I will probably continue to not go out looking for someone to buy and generating income through footfall for all the stores I have to visit even if they are not buying.

I think the size of the universe is working against the current model. We only had 12 planets in the last universe and we have 4 times that many now. Stores are spread out everywhere. I really think we need a centralized in-game information source on stores. Until that happens, I will probably continue to arrange hand trades for anything I do not want to make or get for myself.

5 Likes
17

I tried having my shop on that site. I found it annoying having to update it every couple days.

18

I can definitely understand that. Especially if your store is huge.

19

I think economy can change with the guild update. But that depends on the ppl. You can run run guilds like a company. Hire ppl to gather, shareholding and stuff like that.
Biggest problem is active players, just face it there arent many. And those who are active are spread around far.

1 Like
20

Entering my shop, I have a sign that immediately tells you the last time I refilled the baskets. You can see it from the portal, so you don’t even need to walk in to be able to tell if it’s worth the time entering.

2 Likes