Business And Economy Archive

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MadeEvil wrote:

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My problem with the ecomonics is that people are turning over huge profit margins

Just seems wierd to me when someone mines something at 1 cpu and sells it for 30 cpu thats a 3000% profit..

Does that seem off to you?

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That 30 cpu price is rare indeed. Thats what a very high quality material with demand from WS/AS might fetch well after it spawned. If you are just static mining you really won't see a lot of high quality materials, its mostly grind junk that typically only fetches 1-3 cpu nowadays.

So to get the high end materials on any consistent basis you have to be actively moving harvesters. Thats a fair amount of work and effort:

If you are dynamic mining then you are spending skill points on artisan so you can do your own surveying, you're tracking what new resources are available, you have educated yourself on which resources are in demand and which are not, you are putting in the time to do the surveying, you are having to visit your harvesters to put maintenance in them and check the hoppers, you may have a shop setup and vendors which also take skill points, you've gotto put in time to network and advertise your business, etc.

The time involvedall ads up. Its agood amount of work to do it right. Ifdone right, it can be a pretty lucrative business but it does take effort and its not like printing money. If it were that easy than everyone would be doing it.

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Phaelyn wrote:

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BleuDestiny wrote:

Meats and Hides:

As a Doc crafter, I'm held hostage to an economic monopoly of the hunters. If I want meat to craft buffs with, as many professions need meat and hides, I have to pay outrageous prices to hunters to obtain the meat, upwards of 200cpu or more. This is nuts. When is a monopoly good for an economy? Like my fellow crafters who also rely on meats and hides, I have to pass those costs on to the customers. People complain of the high price of buffs, comp armor, etc., well look no further than yourselves or your fellow hunter who charges obscene prices for the meats and hides. They're collecting $1 million from me for every 5,000 units of meat, which for the average spawn is about one buff session of hunting. Nice return eh?

Perhaps on your server it is different - However as an observer of the forums, etc - You can't blame the sellers -You blame the BUYERS. Much as I know you'd like to deny it, it's your competitiveness that has caused this problem. how, you may ask? Doc A posts on Forums he is buying a good spawn at 50cpu. People start selling to him at 50cpu, and ignore their normal contractee, or guild doc they have been supplying. So far, not bad, right? but, Doc B, seeing that he is losing the meat, ups it to 60cpu so HE can get the meat. Add in Doc C who bumps it to 75cpu - The hunter did not dictate these prices.. The Docs themselves did. If you don't get the same spawn your competitor gets, you lose business, so their ecision to up the ante makes you do the same. I suggest instead of playing the Outbid game with each other - Get together and develop an agreement - Set a CAP on all future purchases. Establish amongst yourselves what the meat is TRULY worth at each level, and instead of out bidding each other, offer the same price across the board. In turn, hunters who used to wait for the highest bidder will develop a relationship with a particular Doctor, and begin to harvest for them exclusively. THIS leads to a perfect symbiotic relationship, and settles the economy.

Solution: Create a ranch player city structure as an alternative to reliance on hunters, as an alternative, not to replace hunters, that also helps the architect and the BE earn a living. The architect crafts, experiments, and sells the structure, including quality aspects that lead to greater output of meat and hide, the BE is required to sample the DNA of the spawn to feed into the structure, and the crafter has a ready source of meat as a secondary channel to balance out the monopoly of the hunters. Like a harvester, when the meat or hide spawn dies, so does the output of the ranch.

Benefits of a new Ranch structure:

• Hunters must compete for meat and hide business, prices fall Hunters don't set these prices, YOU do. Don't compete against your fellow docs, cooperate and settle the system yourself.


• Hunters and crafters don't have to stop and hunt for two weeks during a spawn on some planets that are really mind-numbing and unenjoyable!!! Pharples rather than Banthas. Choose what and when its worth hunting vs. ranching, or both.They chose the hunt as part of their character - If it's that bad, they won't do it.


• Prices come down for all related items down the chain from having cheaper sources of meats and hides; price of buffs, of getting buffed, of food, of armor...Prices come down when you make the pricing structure for purchases. Again, it's all of you competing that made this an issue.


• Raises enjoyment for everyone regarding meat and hide acquisition No, it takes away an aspect of the game.. Interdependance on each other, and the purpose for gathering in the first place.


• Lowers the uber $$$ earnings for hunters, improves the overall economy overall, and brings down the prices of loot and auction items cause there's not so many billionaire hunters out there jacking up the auctions Again, all of YOU have caused the prices you pay to skyrocket. If you were paying 10cpu for meat, and a hunter came to you and said "Pay 100cpu or I won't sell" You wouldn'tpay it, and look for the next hunter who WOULD sell at 10cpu.Instead, you all started bidding wars that is burying YOUR profits and your profession.


• Creates new roles for architects and BE's. While giving YOU an unfair advantage vs other professions that need resources. What next, a machine that draws Aluminum from Endor down to Dantooine, so that you don't have to move a harvester?

Message Edited by BleuDestiny on 01-21-2005 09:29 AM

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That's a very intellectual approach to hold the buyers responsible for having a price war, but the same could be said too for the hunters who are the first stage of this outa control food change and who refuse to accept their regular offer of 100cpu and chase the next one who's offering 200cpu.

But anyway that's all beside the point. Back to reality. This is an internet game where nobody knows anyone in real life (mostly), and where people hide behind the viel of anonymity and say things and do things that are less than respective, lacking accountability, and often say and do things that they would never, properly so, do in real life to a person standing in front of them. And you're suggesting that we're going to respect each other as buyers and hold hands on refraining from a price war? Get real. I've tried to hold on to my pricing at a reasonable level. Guess what happens? I get no offers. Reality check on your intellectual approach, lets look for some real solutions to effect a better gaming experience. The above would be a big step in improved economics, and better balance supply and demand, better balance alternative supply channels (where currently there are none.)

And to the chap who mentioned having a cap on the ranch structures... when the meat spawn dies for hunters, I suggested that the meat production stops in the ranch structure, same as when a spawn of ore dies for a harvester, the harvester stops, so the structure is absolutely tied to the availability of the spawn in rotation.

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Ledao wrote:

Two points regarding this:

1. Why is 200 cpu "outrageous"? At 200 cpu, the avian meat cost on a health pack is 5600 credits. Given that the pack can be sold for 15-25k, there's quite a bit of room to turn a profit... In fact, buffpacks have by far the highest profit margin in the Doc product line. Further, I really doubt that the increased meat costs over the past year-plus have actually been passed on to the consumer -- they've been compensated for by cheaper and more readily available extractable resources, as well as increased competition, and prices on the whole have gone down (even as quality has risen).

2. The price of avian meat is dictated entirely by the demand -- what Docs will pay for it. The only impact the scouts and rangers have on the price is in their willingness or lack thereof to spend time hunting. Demand isn't determined arbitrarily though: the higher the price, the more people will be out there harvesting, and the greater the general supply of that meat will be, so the price threshold is determined by the quality of the spawn and the scarcity of meat at the time. Of course, how many people will be harvesting avian meat in a given week also has to do with what Chef, BE, and Armorsmith creature resources are available that week, and what they're all paying.

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Hehe you're running circles in the logic...

Why is $1,000,000 payment for one buff session of hunting outrageous? That should be clear given that its now stated more clearly.

And then because we just paid $1 million to the hunter, we raise the prices on the buffs... I know cause i keep raising the prices everytime the meat prices go up, and so the peeps pay more for the buffs, the chart keeps trending ever upwards as meat prices rise. So your next question is actually the egg before the chicken. Meat and hide prices are not based on what the docs, chefs and smiths offer for it, they're paying what they have to, to get the goods delivered to them instead of to someone else, but then as I've said, they have to turn around and charge more to their endusers... so while the hunter sits there with $1 million and climbing for a couple hours work, everyone down the chain pays for the inflation. And that's not a perfect economy, that's not real life economics. We're in an imperfect game environment with imbalances to sources of cash (loot payouts), there's no federal reserve balancing money supplies here.

There's only two solutions here thatI can see...

1) provide players an alternative to the gridlock of payola to the hunters via an alternative source of meat and hide production, like the ranch structure which engages the viability of at least 3 professions, and helps keep the meat and hide prices in check. Nobody's going to pay a hunter 200cpu when A) its outrageous and gets passed on to the middle and end users in an evergrowing dangerous trendline, and B) when there's cheaper alternatives that balance out the demands of the hunters. If I'm a crafter who needs meat and hide, I can either produce my own meat and hide with a ranch structure, or i can CHOOSE to save myself the valued time and convenience to pay the hunter a fair price for their effort. Prices are reasonable.... all down the line.

2)find other ways to seriously drain the millions and billions of surplus dollars from the game, so people can't afford to pay for expensive food, armor, and buffs, and drive the effect back to the meat purchases who can't be afforded, back to the initial source of supplies. That's a long and painful process, rather unrealistic, and I think the above option #1 is preferrable, while SOE continues to swipe away at this bigger issue in #2.

Message Edited by BleuDestiny on 01-21-2005 02:21 PM

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PetaByte32 wrote:

Sounds a bit like someone saying "Dont blame us, blame the resource sellers."

Well I, as a ranger, sold avian meat for 150CPU but not because that is what I would accept and nothing less. Its because that is what was offered to me first.

I come in from hunting with a load of dath avian meat and a doctor is at the SO offering me 150CPU before I even get the dust off my boots. What do you think I am gonna do? Say "Oh no that is too much money to give me, how about 5CPU?"

This is a "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" arguement. Crafters will point at the miners and hunters. Hunters and miners point at the crafters. But truly which side started raising prices first?

On my server it was the doctors. It started with a lokian wild wheat spawn that so good the Docs started offering (not accepting, they offered it out right) over 50CPU for it. Then a nice avian meat spawned that they did the samething with. I still remember the two docs that went into a little price war raising their offer higher and higher to get the meat from the scouts and rangers. What was really funny is if they had not gotten into the price we would have sold it for far less. But I wont refuse that kind of money.

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There's only two solutions here thatI can see...

1) provide players an alternative to the gridlock of payola to the hunters via an alternative source of meat and hide production, like the ranch structure which engages the viability of at least 3 professions, and helps keep the meat and hide prices in check. Nobody's going to pay a hunter 200cpu when A) its outrageous and gets passed on to the middle and end users in an evergrowing dangerous trendline, and B) when there's cheaper alternatives that balance out the demands of the hunters. If I'm a crafter who needs meat and hide, I can either produce my own meat and hide with a ranch structure, or i can CHOOSE to save myself the valued time and convenience to pay the hunter a FAIRprice for their effort; fair given an imperfect game economy where fair = reasonable to the game impacts. If given a choice to harvest my meat and hide from ranches at about 2-4 cpu? versus pay a hunter who's saying "pay me 200cpu or i'm going to the next buyer," I'm probablly going to go ranch the stuff myself right? But if the hunters keep running into buyers who say, "sorry i'll only go 20cpu cause i can ranch it for 10% of that cost, that's the price I'm willing to pay to recognize your effort and my convenience," then those hunters are going to fall in line... Prices are reasonable.... all down the line.

That's the problem with this game in an unrealistic game economy, there needs to be alternatives or options to availability of desired goods. Anytime there's a bottleneck to something people want, there's going to be people getting uber rich, and people being starved and bewildered. There's needs to be balance and options, or SOE can spend the next 2,000 years trying to perfect the game economy, and is that what they want to spend their time doing? Better than people have options so they can self-police the economy with options, ie. if you get unreasonable in pricing, people can move around you through other means, other options.

2)find other ways to seriously drain the millions and billions of surplus dollars from the game, so people can't afford to pay for expensive food, armor, and buffs, and drive the effect back to the meat purchases who can't be afforded, back to the initial source of supplies. That's a long and painful process, rather unrealistic, and I think the above option #1 is preferrable, while SOE continues to swipe away at this bigger issue in #2.

Who says you should pay uber pricing for pearls, crates, buffs, armor, just make a reasonable effort. If you go out and pound on a dragon, at the cost of life, wear and tear, food, weapons, armor, then by goodness, give the lad a pearl if they succeed in killing it. "I'm low on pearls, lets get prepped and go kill some."All good, have the dragons be there, have them drop the loot,it was earned right? They didn't go out and kill pharples after all did they? Don't compound it with rare drops, rare spawns, andbugs.Availability based upon reasonable effort, and options are what are going to make this gamebalanced and fun. In this gaming economy, rare = imbalance = out of control pricing. Availability is key, options are key. It's the only way we'll get balance in the game economy.

Message Edited by BleuDestiny on 01-21-2005 02:42 PM

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BleuDestiny wrote:

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Ledao wrote:

Two points regarding this:

1. Why is 200 cpu "outrageous"? At 200 cpu, the avian meat cost on a health pack is 5600 credits. Given that the pack can be sold for 15-25k, there's quite a bit of room to turn a profit... In fact, buffpacks have by far the highest profit margin in the Doc product line. Further, I really doubt that the increased meat costs over the past year-plus have actually been passed on to the consumer -- they've been compensated for by cheaper and more readily available extractable resources, as well as increased competition, and prices on the whole have gone down (even as quality has risen).

2. The price of avian meat is dictated entirely by the demand -- what Docs will pay for it. The only impact the scouts and rangers have on the price is in their willingness or lack thereof to spend time hunting. Demand isn't determined arbitrarily though: the higher the price, the more people will be out there harvesting, and the greater the general supply of that meat will be, so the price threshold is determined by the quality of the spawn and the scarcity of meat at the time. Of course, how many people will be harvesting avian meat in a given week also has to do with what Chef, BE, and Armorsmith creature resources are available that week, and what they're all paying.

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Hehe you're running circles in the logic...

Why is $1,000,000 payment for one buff session of hunting outrageous? That should be clear given that its now stated more clearly.

Stated more clearly where? As far as I can tell, no one on that side of the argument has offered anything other than "oh, woe is me, 200 cpu is too expensive", with no data tosupport their claims. As long as it is possible for someone to approach 1m per buff session by running missions, harvest payouts with have to match or exceed that figure.

In fact, I currently value my hunters' time at about $250k/hr (and base harvest payouts on that figure, with appropriate variance for different harvest amounts and creature difficulty), down a bit from where it was a couple months ago due to the end of competition from solo groups. And, of course, an economic system is full of give-and-take -- a circle is a much better metaphor than a line.

And then because we just paid $1 million to the hunter, we raise the prices on the buffs... I know cause i keep raising the prices everytime the meat prices go up, and so the peeps pay more for the buffs, the chart keeps trending ever upwards as meat prices rise. So your next question is actually the egg before the chicken. Meat and hide prices are not based on what the docs, chefs and smiths offer for it, they're paying what they have to, to get the goods delivered to them instead of to someone else, but then as I've said, they have to turn around and charge more to their endusers... so while the hunter sits there with $1 million and climbing for a couple hours work, everyone down the chain pays for the inflation. And that's not a perfect economy, that's not real life economics. We're in an imperfect game environment with imbalances to sources of cash (loot payouts), there's no federal reserve balancing money supplies here.

I've been selling buffpacks for roughly a year. When I started out, Avian meat was in the 50-75 cpu range. I saw it peak at upwards of 400 cpu (in shift!), and have now watched it steadily decline until leveling off (on my server) in the 100-200 cpu range.

In that time, though my avian (and herbivore) costs have gone up, my pack prices have dropped significantly, as have the average pack prices on my server. Similarly, the average cost of a set of buffs has remained relatively constant -- dropping perhaps from 12k a year ago to 10k now.

In fact, I think the assertion you make, that crafters "have to turn around and charge more to their end users" to offset increased creature resource costs, is nearly indefensible. The price difference on my vendor, just as one example, between packs made with 200 cpu meat and 150 cpu meat (a difference of 1100-1400 credits per pack) is typically 7 or 8k per pack. That difference has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of the meat, though that certainly provides a convenient excuse...

What you're missing is that prices aren't set in a vacuum on either level here: the crafters don't arbitrarily decide what to pay for meats (and the scouts and rangers don't arbitrarily decide what to sell them for), and similarly, crafters don't arbitrarily set prices on their vendors -- profit margins are often more likely to vary than prices. So, in the final tally, just as the meat price is set by the server-wide crafter demand in relation to the available supply, so too are finished goods prices set by the server-wide user demand in relation to the available supply.

There's only two solutions here thatI can see...

1) provide players an alternative to the gridlock of payola to the hunters via an alternative source of meat and hide production, like the ranch structure which engages the viability of at least 3 professions, and helps keep the meat and hide prices in check. Nobody's going to pay a hunter 200cpu when A) its outrageous and gets passed on to the middle and end users in an evergrowing dangerous trendline, and B) when there's cheaper alternatives that balance out the demands of the hunters. If I'm a crafter who needs meat and hide, I can either produce my own meat and hide with a ranch structure, or i can CHOOSE to save myself the valued time and convenience to pay the hunter a fair price for their effort. Prices are reasonable.... all down the line.

Again, this is totally baseless. Meat and hide prices *are* in check -- they fit perfectly within the economy as a whole. They are often on the high end in terms of credits per hour (but not by much...), but they're also less fun, and with less upside than other methods of in-game work.

If someone can go run missions and make 250k per hour (and yes, even since the solo group changes, this isn't hard to do...), then why shouldn't they be able to make the same amount of money (or a bit more) by hunting?

As I said in the post that you quoted, nothing about 200 cpu for meat is "outrageous".

2)find other ways to seriously drain the millions and billions of surplus dollars from the game, so people can't afford to pay for expensive food, armor, and buffs, and drive the effect back to the meat purchases who can't be afforded, back to the initial source of supplies. That's a long and painful process, rather unrealistic, and I think the above option #1 is preferrable, while SOE continues to swipe away at this bigger issue in #2.

Message Edited by BleuDestiny on 01-21-2005 02:21 PM

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BleuDestiny wrote:

If you're happy with it, I'm happy with it, and yet players go around trying to find ways to get from one planet to another cause they're broke, while others who are fortunate enough to lock into this loot and meat uber existance (one feeds the other), live in relative immunity from the constraints of a game society. If you can step back and rationalize $1 million in a brief hunt session as being a reasonable proportional economic environment, then more power to you. I think it stinks up the game personally and there should be more socio-economic balance brought to it, so that players share in a common opportunity and game environment. Why do hunters get $1 million when other professions get $1 hundreds and thousands? Why is that so elite? Game's out of balance, mate.

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I can't really tell what your argument is, but if you're saying there should be more group content, I can't agree with you more, however that's for a different forum.

You're thinking dollars and that a million is such a large number that it's mind boggling how can I ever hope to get a million dollars, there must be some great effort for it. Now think Yen, where you can spend a million yen on a really nice dinner. Please answer my question using your numbers. What's the difference between a hunter earning $1 million when other professions get $100k or hunters receiving $100k when other professions receive $10k?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

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BleuDestiny wrote:

If you're happy with it, I'm happy with it, and yet players go around trying to find ways to get from one planet to another cause they're broke, while others who are fortunate enough to lock into this loot and meat uber existance (one feeds the other), live in relative immunity from the constraints of a game society. If you can step back and rationalize $1 million in a brief hunt session as being a reasonable proportional economic environment, then more power to you. I think it stinks up the game personally and there should be more socio-economic balance brought to it, so that players share in a common opportunity and game environment. Why do hunters get $1 million when other professions get $1 hundreds and thousands? Why is that so elite? Game's out of balance, mate.

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Here's the thing: this imbalance that you continue to assert does not exist.

The hunters aren't making 10 times more money in a given length of time than the mission grinders, because if they were, EVERYONE would be out hunting, and supply would very quickly exceed demand, and the price would drop (and I've seen that happen -- I and the other big doc on my server offered 85 cpu for Lokian herb. We both got 2+ million units, and the price of herb hasn't seen the high side of 40 cpu since.).

A hunter might very well get a million credits worth of meat in a buff session -- if he or she is hunting efficiently for the entirety of that buff session. But that's not at all out of reach for mission grinders or even looters (in fact, I'd say a million creds per buff session would be quite low for a looter who knows what they're doing).

I don't know if I can put it in simpler terms... At any rate, not only does the imbalance of which you speak not exist, but I suspect that the very nature of a free economy makes it impossible for it to exist for more than a very short time.

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BleuDestiny wrote:

That's a very intellectual approach to hold the buyers responsible for having a price war, but the same could be said too for the hunters who are the first stage of this outa control food change and who refuse to accept their regular offer of 100cpu and chase the next one who's offering 200cpu.

But anyway that's all beside the point. Back to reality. This is an internet game where nobody knows anyone in real life (mostly), and where people hide behind the viel of anonymity and say things and do things that are less than respective, lacking accountability, and often say and do things that they would never, properly so, do in real life to a person standing in front of them. And you're suggesting that we're going to respect each other as buyers and hold hands on refraining from a price war? Get real. I've tried to hold on to my pricing at a reasonable level. Guess what happens? I get no offers. Reality check on your intellectual approach, lets look for some real solutions to effect a better gaming experience. The above would be a big step in improved economics, and better balance supply and demand, better balance alternative supply channels (where currently there are none.)

Creating a structure that would be capable of reproducing a spawn from ANY planet at ANY give time (although linked to actualy spawn roatation) would NOT improve economics, it would serve to destroy it. It eliminates the need for anyone to become a hunter - Take the bare minimum to harvest a resource sample, bingo, you make as muh as you want in your ranch. In one fell swoop, you take away the balance totally - You unhinge the spawn process by having what is SUPPOSED to be a rare spawn to utter normality. You eliminate the need for an entire class of player in the game, essentially killing the class.

I was being extremely facetious in my first post, for all who wondered. I know very well that nobody will set agreements as I laid out - However, the assumption being laid was that the sellers were out of control, and this is not the case. the BUYERS are out of control, seeking to corner an essentially unlimited market. IF there were a system where server wide, only 10 million of a certain resource could be gathered, and then the spawn vanished - THEN it would be feasibly possible to corner a market on any good. My point was then, and is now - If you want to get prices on teh resources you buy DOWN, do NOT continue to outbid your opposition. This merely creates the illusion to the ENTIRE market that Avian meat is WORTH 400cpu, when it really is worth 50cpu max.

And to the chap who mentioned having a cap on the ranch structures... when the meat spawn dies for hunters, I suggested that the meat production stops in the ranch structure, same as when a spawn of ore dies for a harvester, the harvester stops, so the structure is absolutely tied to the availability of the spawn in rotation.

If you were to make this sctructure - and again it would be one of the worst ideas ever, as instantly you'd have resource miners yelling for THEIR version of it - You'd need to put severe limitations on it. It would need to be capped at the same rate as a single hunter - IE, if a master can gather X number of units in a day, that is the only amount the structure could gather as well. NOT the amount 10 or even 1000 hunters could gather. Secondly, it would HAVE to be limited to gathering a resource on the planet it spawns on - No ability to gather Dathomir meat on Tatooine. It would have to be a community crafting project - Spread around teh components that need to be made to a variety of crafters - If we are going to add content such as this, spread the wealth. it's potential benefits to spreading wealth are far reaching however. I envision you could spread the needs to run the ranch across quite a few professions:

A) Architect: would make the schematics for these. As a ranch is very large in scope, it would be very resource intensive, so benefits flow down to the resource harvesters.

B) Hunter/gatherer: Would need to gather X amount of the meat in order for the system to be used. He takes it to a

B) Bio Engineer: Who would convert those meat samples into a DNA profile that could be put into a schematic that a

C) Doctor: would input into an analyzer to insure the DNA sample is viable, and free of virus (make the process have a small % potential of making the meat lose stats across the board if tainted).who would then need to give the final result to a:

D) Artisan/Merchant: What, you believe anyone should be able to use this machine? It would need to be tied to a profession that is in the business of mass producing goods. Giving the ability to everyone diminishes the uniqueness of the idea.

Or we could use common sense when we are trying to corner a market that can't be cornered. If everyonebids it up to 500cpu, and you must raise your sales price - so be it. But if you were to have an agreement that when a pirce reaches X amount of creds, let that stay market price (Unless an ULTRA good stat item - then all bets are off). Barring that guys - if someome offers 200 cpu -match the price in your offers, don't exceed it. Competition is a wonderful thing, but use some common sense. If you know your buff packs will only sell for 20k, don't drive prices on your needed resources up so far that you need to charge 30k.

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Phaelyn, I disagree emphatically with your response to BleuDestiny. If high prices for meats and hides is a problem for doctors, colluding to fix prices is not a solution.

Not only is setting a maximum price bad economics, it won't work in SWG.

1. The hunter did not dictate these prices.. The Docs themselves did. ... Establish amongst yourselves what the meat is TRULY worth at each level

No. In a free market economy (which SWG demonstrably is), prices --which areindicators of the perceivedvalue of a resource--aren't dictated by either the buyer or the seller. A priceisdecided when an individual buyer and an individual sellerfreely negotiatearesource's valuethat theyboth consider to be reasonablyaccurate. If prices for meats/hides are high, it's not because any one person or group dictated that "prices will be high"; it's because that's the price that most buyers have been willing to pay and most sellers have been willing to accept.

Assuming there's sufficient money in the economy, the only real question is availability of resources. If a desirable resource is scarce, then the price goes up to whatever buyers are able to pay; if a desirable resource is plentiful, then the price will drop to whatever sellers consider an adequate compensation for their time and effort.

No collusion to set prices is necessary or desirable.

2. Get together and develop an agreement - Set a CAP on all future purchases.... instead of out bidding each other, offer the same price across the board. In turn, hunters who used to wait for the highest bidder will develop a relationship with a particular Doctor, and begin to harvest for them exclusively. THIS leads to a perfect symbiotic relationship, and settles the economy.

Absolutely not. In thefirst place, you'd never be able to get every buyer to agree on a price-- there will always be independent purchasers. SWG is not the real world. In the real world, there is a national government which by force of law can punish anyone who buys goods at aprice that's "too high." No such entity or codeexists in SWG. If a bunch of doctors say, "the price for 1000 units of Avian Meat is now fixed at 10 credits," any doctor can pay 5000 credits and there's nothing anyplayer can do about it. (Any attempt by players to "punish" an independent contractor would be considered griefing/harrassment.)

In thesecond place, thisfreedom for buyers and sellersto negotiate pricesbetween themselvesis a Good Thing.Once you start letting buyers set prices (instead of expecting buyers and sellers tonegotiate pricesbased on what they both agree isactual value), there's no limit to how far below the fair market value prices will be set. If you can set the priceat 100 credits, why not90? Or 50? Or 3?Eventually it stops being worth a hunter's time to obtain and sell that resource. Buyers wind up being worse off, not better off, because once people stop offering that resource, it's no longer there to be purchased at any price.

This is why price controlsnever settle an economy -- they destroy an economy.

I won't presume to guess why you suggested this approach, but speaking generally, most people seem to go for price controls because they're impatient. They aren't willing to wait for prices to correct themselves in a free market; they feel they have to hurry up and stick their hand on the scales to impose "economic justice" or whatever the trendy word for it is today.

No such tampering is needed. So, meat/hide prices are "too high" (according to doctors) right now? Well, what happensas players starttorealize that they can get "high" prices for meats and hides by hunting? They become hunters! And as more people gohunting, more meats and hides become available; as the availablesupply increases, the price falls. At the same time, if not enough hunters show up, doctors will drop out of the market, which leaves the existing supply of meats and hides to be divided between the remaining doctors... and once again, the price drops as demand falls.

All that's necessary for this kind of"problem" to go away is time, patience, and information. Let players know that meat/hide prices are high,give them time to hunt, andthen watch prices fall as doctors (temporarily) leave the market andmoremeats and hidesenter the market. Problem solved, and it doesn't require heavy-handed economic "fixes" that actually do more harm than good.

(Note that it doesn't require adding a new "ranch" feature to SWG, either. Let players know they can score big cash from selling meats and hides and you don't need some special new feature to provide those resources -- your players will take care of that for you.)

In summary, letSWG's freemarket economic systemdo whatfree marketsdo best: support the ability of buyers and sellers tonegotiate fairprices based on theagreed-upon value of the goods to be exchanged. Ultimately, this is what works best for every participant in an economy.

OK, rant over.

--Flatfingers