Business And Economy Archive

• Taking away high demand forsuch itemsitems - This will mean that drops such as premium crystals, Experimentation Tapes etc etc would drop more often. I dont mean that you can simply loot these items of meatlumps, but increasing the drop rate will work well.


• Lowering the dependance of these items

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Bumpity wrote:

prices will remain what they are because people will pay what they are. The amunt of money in existence has a smaller effect on prices than you think. The great depression did not remove a single dollar form the US economy the amount of money was exactly the same as before, and after.

Things cost what they cost because you the customer will pay that. Very simple, theplayers have been convinced that things cost more when they are better ( a suit of 20% base composite costs the exact same to make as a 70% suit). How can this be you ask?

A bit simplistic, but true - It DOES cost the same to make both types of ARMOR.

Since i am MAS i will use what i do as example.

simple harvesting my own resources costs the same amount when its OQ 3 steel or its OQ 997 steel.yet you seem to think it costs more to harvest the higher OQ steel. ( i never got this one at all )

Well, I have never met anyone who thinks mining costs differ from OQ - barring that - As an Armorsmith, you can get away with MUCH smaller amounts of resources. Prrofessions such as Architect and Shipwright take far more resources - In most cases, we are forced to buy resources. In some cases, we need specific resources or specific stats that are high in several areas to make a good product. If I am buying from a Miner at even just 2cpu - Instead of the cost of MY harvesting at .6cpu, I am paying 2 - an increase of 1.4cpu. Take into account that a Master level ship takes quite a bit of resources - 150k @.6 = 90000 credits, but 150k at 2cpu = 300000 credits. You can get by with harvesting on your own - I can't.

my factories cost so much an hour no more no less. the factory doesnt care if its a awesome piece of composite or the crappiest bone armor. But again the BELIEF is there that to make high end composite this costs more. taking longer isnt a issue because if my factory made nothing at all this cost would be the same.(static cost that is always present, the quality of anything made has no bearing on this cost, but it should be included in an items price)

You are only taking base Maintenance into account however. Remember, you must also supply energy. if you are able to harvest your own, great - you've already paid the Maintenance on your harvester. But if as above, and I must get my power elsewhere - say again, 2cpu - your 50k of power costs you nothing but Maintenance on your harvester, but MINE costs 100k - This again adds cost to my products.

my time ? varible but since you believe that my time in game is somehow worth more to you than your timeand your willing to pay huge credits for me to log on and make armor im gonna ask for it. ( now this is just insane isnt it? grinding out a crafting profession usually takes less time than a combat profession (except tk) if you grind crafting with the same power you grind combat. i did MAS in 4 days with only 6 BER 10 harvestors ... )

And again, you are using a profession with low resource use as a standard. Shipwright to Master takes @ 6 MILLION units of various resources to get to Master... Impossible to "power" grind unless you are very rich already, and quite impossible to do fast if you harvest your own using only harvesters you can supply. As far as time goes - yes, my time, even in game IS worth something to me - although I place MY time at a low price so I can have good prices - i would NEVER tell anyone "Hey, you charged 500 credits more than you should" because they felt their time was worth 500 creds more than mine.

special ingredients for crafted items, well since i cant fight a bit i have no choice but to buy these from you the combat guy. You ask millions of creds for these things yet expect me to use them and lose money? Again this is a belief that an item has a value that it does not have. ( i under stand they are hard to get and require expert planning and fighting to aquire but so does making the armor for you with the items so again as long as people believe these are worth million's thats what they will cost, and so will the items made from them)

IF items are rare, they should be treated as such. As you say in your next line, if you don't believe the special item is worth the price - Don't buy it. However, by not buying it, you limit yourself to one type of goods, and you pass along busineess to the next AS who has no qualms at paying, and passing on the cost in their goods.

anyway ... want to lower prices? then stop believing that something is worth more than it actually is. Dont buy it.

The only problem with your logic is that you believe that the buyer should set the prices exclusively. Buyers CAN shop around and find the best price - And that is why there are many crafters in game -to stimulate a mock economy. Maybe your armor is priced at 100k for either 20 base or 70 base - but be honest, which are your customers going to buy? The 70 every time. Which means after a while, you will stop making 20 base armor. Point is, by placing an utterly arbitrary difference in pricing for your goods, you are giving your customers a true choice. 50k for 20 base, or 100k for 70 base - the customer can now choose a lower price for their safety, or a higher. Goods NEED to be priced differently to keep consumers shopping - after all, if EVERY Artisan was forced to sell a Swoop at 20k, eventually only the player who was lucky to get the best shop space convenient to everyone would be making sales, and every other crafter would drop the profession.

flame away every crafter in the world is gonna hit me for this one im sure.

No, I can't see a reason to Flame you - I just don't think you've taken a lot of needed information into account.

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fgetce wrote:

The Imperial Empire needs to be taxing people!

Every 90 days (quarterly taxes), the Empire taxes you!

It is based on your current holdings.

You have9999 credits or less whether in the bank or on you or in any combination, you are left alone. If you wish to have uber cash than the Empire will tax you. They take a base fee, plus a percentage.

10000 = 100 + percentage

10000 = 1000 + percentage

100000 = 10000 + percentage

etc...

They take 7% if you are neutral, 5% if you are Imperial. Rebels tax their own, but only tax 5% as well. For a Criminal faction(hint hint), they have to pay a protection fee to avoid trouble with the crime lords of 5%.

While the idea is good - you've made the same type of mistake that every government in the world makes. You are stating a tax that severely penalizes a character for being succesful. For instance - Neutral - you penalize THEM for not declaring Faction - However, by inclusion, if they are NOT rebel and they live IN the Empire - they are defacto imperial citizens -Which should entitle them to the same 5% rate.

But, the big problem is the % PLUS a flat rate.. Using your system

10000 - 100 - 5% (500) = 6% actual.(Imp, Reb and Hutt) or 7% (700) = 8% actual (Neutral)

Right there, you've placed a higher tax burden on Neutrals, and made the tax more confusing than it needs to be. You've also placed a MAJOR drain on the more succesful characters.. again, using your system (and extending it a bit)

10000 - 100 - 5% (500) = 6% = 9400 after taxes. Not a major hit. BUT

1000000 - 100000 - 5% (50000) = 15% = 850000 post tax. Quitea chunk. Unless of course you Typo'd, and meantthat 1000000 -10000, in which case the 6% still applies, and then it's 940000 post tax.

Either way, all you are proposing HERE means that eventually through taxation, everyone will have the same amount of money, period. That is not stimulating or limiting an economy, it's destroying one and creating a Communist type economy in it's place.

Plus, if your rebel you cannot store credits in the Imperial banking system but must use a "certified" rebel bank (meaning only banks in the cities Moenia, Anchorhead, Doabo Guerfel, etc.). This will give some meaning to being Imperial or rebel.

This is a very good idea. However, can't be done - Why, you ask? You instantly make it impossible for an Imperial to sell to a Rebel, and vice versa, since their different currencies wouldn't be able to be transferred back and forth. Or it COULD be done through instituting a currency exchange rate, which would be variable. But with factional money, it would be nearly impossible for a Imperial to buy Rebel goods with the current faction system - simply because by extension, Imperial credits are automatically set to Overt and vice versa

I notice also that you missed a 3rd opportunity here - Neutral banks. Places where people could convert either of the Factional currencies to Neutral (and spendable anywhere) currency.

Also alternate tax on starports, shuttle ports. They should fluctuate. One day it may be 115 credits to go one way from Mos Eisley to Bestine and the next day it costs a whopping 460 credits for a one way trip. This would also help to eliminate the fly by night artisans to help establish consistent item quantities.

How would a tax like that dictate item quantities? It would not eliminate fly by night artisans - it would outright REMOVE massive amounts of crafters from the game totally. If they can't make credits, there is no point to playing the profession.

The starport tax has merits - BUT.. to use the rest of your extensions, you create a travel nightmare. Imperials could no longer fly into Rebel held cities, and vice versa, Rebels couldn't fly into Imperial holdings. Why? Because they have seperate banks which wouldn't accept the faction currency of the opposing sides.

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fgetce wrote:

The Imperial Empire needs to be taxing people!

Every 90 days (quarterly taxes), the Empire taxes you!

...

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Scorpy_LF wrote:

In my opinion Development can't do much of anything to impact the ecconomy. With the solo mission nerf, yes that has had an influence on new credits comming into the game. But there are still a lot of veteran players with lots of credits to burn. Until some of that is thinned out, inflation will still be an issue.

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• 0-20k Credit Account - No Tax (I mean, this is pretty much the poverty line )


• 20-100k - 5%


• 100k-500k - 10%


• 500k-1 million - 15%


• 1m-10m - 25%


• 10m-50m - 30%


• 50m+ 40%

Now, I know nobody wants to part with their credits, and there would be such an outcry if anything like this was even hinted at by Devs. However, everyone would lose some of their credits, and while the rich would be hit harder, they would still remain wealthy and elite, but the scaling of the tax would bring some of the inflation down as the extra credits in the system would be gone.

Please keep in mind this is just an example of how the percentages should go. A much closer analysis of average player's bank accounts as well as the large ones will likely cause shifting in the brackets or the percentages. Hopefully you can get some kind of idea at what I am going for.

Now before you one-star me because I propose to empty your bank account, I urge you to look at the current new mission payouts (12k Klikniks seem to be my best solo mission without access to an AT-ST) and keep in mind the current costs of brandy, composite armor, weapons as well as the rate at which they decay while trying to earn credits.

Sincerly,
Toront Naumko

Message Edited by Toront on 01-18-2005 07:34 PM

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Cafa wrote:

So, should the people that doing nothing get welfare? Sheesh

Fivo Asia

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It's a proposal for a one time thing, targeted most at the high end bank accounts, because that's where the credits that cause the most inflation happen. High-End crafters that can buy resources at crazy prices, then charge crazy prices for their items, and the credit grinders that can afford to pay any price and continue to do so.

People doing nothing shouldn't get taxed because they don't have anything to do with the credit grinding causing the inflation. Giving them money would only cause more problems.

I know it may seem odd to apply real-world economic concepts to a game economy.....but they are proven strategies to solving these types of problems.

Toront