Merchant Archive

Don't get me wrong..there are some serious bugs here in this game, but I'm starting to see some patterns some of whats going on.

Player Cities: Obviously, player cites are going to be a source of trouble for the developers when they are implemented, so why wasn't this set up from the beginning? I'm thinking that someone decided that we didn't know where to put them (true), didn't have the money to maintain them (also true), and that a build-up of 'suburbs' around the cities would push player cities off into the wilderness, which it has. All this accomplished without moving entire cities..self-solving problem.

Mounts: See PLAYER CITIES

Some ravings about the economy: People are asking 'where are the money sinks'? I think the answer is clearly in the Insurance and Cloning functions, functions up till now which have been disabled. By adjusting these costs the Devs were supposed to be able to control the flow of money in and out of the economy. I think when this is finally re-instated money is going to flow out of the money like someone flushed. Artisans will have an opportunity to recoup some of their losses vs. the fighter classes. This will even affect weaponscrafters as Baz natch money leaks out of the economy and people start watching their wallets.

Add to this equation the costs that will be associated with player cities, and you will see the effect of taxation even on large guilds with big warchests already stocked up.

How do these two points go together? By setting us up to believe these are 'bugs' SoE has an opportunity to post-facto adjust the dynamics of the game while still releasing on time. Looking carefully, opportunities to 'exploit' could be in fact ways that the game designers have to inject cash into the economy and jumpstart the artisan cycle. Some (but not all) of these could be ways of putting artificial 'brakes' on some parts of the economy..while the influxes of cash oil others.

(my god I was tired when I wrote this last night..I don't know what i was getting at..)

I really am not into the whole Conspiracy Theory idea. If anything, the various bugs affecting how moneyis created and destroyedare doing almost irreparable damage to the economy.

The prices on the best items have been driven really high due to the sheer ease of obtaining money. 10-20k for a gun, for example, is nothing when people can make that in an hour or less. What is going to happen when they pull the rug out though, and nerf the rate at which money is created? I've heard that mission payouts were cut to 1/3rd on the Test Center with the latest update.

There are enough rich people out there to keep the prices of items high. The poor people though, without a stockpile of money, are going to find it almost impossible to afford the equipment they need.

Certainly at some point things will settle, but in the meantime it's going to be like the Great Depression. I really doubt the Devs gated the economy like this on purpose.

Some good points. Among the many reasons I'm still subscribed: I'm willing to see what happens when the game is fully "turned on". Nevertheless, I also think there have been some active missteps in the last month that concern me a lot and that won't just go away.

Player Cities: Obviously, player cites are going to be a source of trouble for the developers when they are implemented, so why wasn't this set up from the beginning?

It was rushed out the door by the suits before it was ready for release. Player cities and transport were two of the items that got pushed back to after release to make the deadline -- and even then they weren't really close to ready for release. Not to mention space stuff which was on the original feature list, but which was put off for a paid expansion.

Yes, player cities and mounts were postponed because they ran out of time, and had a deadline to meet.

As far as the 'conspiracy' idea, I have to disagree. I've watched these guys work for very close to a year now, and I highly doubt it's intentional.

The bugs are there because they're incompetent, under-staffed, or probably both. Not that it matters much, they're still raking in the dough.

The bugs are there because they're incompetent, under-staffed, or probably both. Not that it matters much, they're still raking in the dough.

You forgot overly ambitious.

And buying Oracle was supposed to relieve them of the burden of designing their own database and has instead turned into a nightmare.