DDO Economy - Gold

[shores11]

I think the hyper-inflation of items all based on platinum was a big mistake IN MY OPINION for DDO. I am not entirely sure why they moved off of gold in the first place. If equipment and other items were still valued on a gold economy platinum would be a much more valued asset to gain.

For the most part (at least through D&D 3.5) D&D pen & paper was based on a gold economy. This also lends value to silver a bit more as well for some items. Instead of talking about increasing the platinum CAP revert the DDO economy and goods to be based on gold.

[Zavier]

If memory serves me well, it was a self inflicted wound by Turbine. Something to do with an early Crystal Cove event and an easily gotten item which could then be sold for an mistakenly inflated gold price at a vendor. Good bye gold economy.

Someone with a better can probably hone in on the exact details.

[droid327]

I don't really understand what you're saying...plat and gold and silver are all the same thing

Are you asking for the removal of Astral Shards as an alternative currency? Are you asking for them to reduce prices at NPC vendors?

Neither of those would actually help. The reason we have a hyper inflated plat system is because it's too easy to get plat and there's no way to spend enough to take it back out of the economy. If you want to restore plat value we need more plat sinks. They just added one, though - ED respec costs - and everyone is whining hard about it...so it's not going to be an easy task

[GoldyGopher]

I think the hyper-inflation of items all based on platinum was a big mistake IN MY OPINION for DDO. I am not entirely sure why they moved off of gold in the first place. If equipment and other items were still valued on a gold economy platinum would be a much more valued asset to gain.

For the most part (at least through D&D 3.5) D&D pen & paper was based on a gold economy. This also lends value to silver a bit more as well for some items. Instead of talking about increasing the platinum CAP revert the DDO economy and goods to be based on gold.


The hyper-inflation of all items is not because the economy morphed from a gold standard to a platinum standard, rather it morphed from a platinum standard from a gold standard due to vast amounts of gold that players amassed without having anything to do with it creating the hyper inflation. As well as some in-game issues that were left unchecked.

Part of the problem is DDO does not have enough systems which result in pulling money from the economy, sometimes [often] referred to as Entropy or Economic Entropy when referring to an MMOs in game economy. The systems the development team have tried historically have only affected a small sub-group of players disproportionately. This is very different than many other MMOs which have much higher levels of economic entropy pulling as much as 75% of the earned gold out of the system. There are negative aspects of such a high level of Entropy in a games economy, I am not going to get into those negative aspects including the rise of Gold Sellers and Bots

Examples of Economic Entropy in DDO include the use of ingredients in spells, equipment repair, auction house fees, reduction of platinum earned via crafting vs. selling equipment, resetting enhancements or Epic Destinies, and so forth.
The original buffs found on our Guild Ships where they had to be rented was the largest form of Entropy but it disproportionately hit Guild leaders and a few members rather than across the board.

To me it is bothersome that the Development Team has worked to further reduce the amount of Entropy as a clear side effect by minimizing the need for spell ingredients, equipment repair, and so forth. To me the first step is to maximize the small steps that can be taken to pull excess platinum out of the economy.

[Enderoc]

I think the hyper-inflation of items all based on platinum was a big mistake IN MY OPINION for DDO. I am not entirely sure why they moved off of gold in the first place. If equipment and other items were still valued on a gold economy platinum would be a much more valued asset to gain.

For the most part (at least through D&D 3.5) D&D pen & paper was based on a gold economy. This also lends value to silver a bit more as well for some items. Instead of talking about increasing the platinum CAP revert the DDO economy and goods to be based on gold.
Ebberon is a realm of advanced magic and technology as far as D&D is concerned. Platinum is the result of hyper inflation from heavy industrialization.

[jskinner937]

If memory serves me well, it was a self inflicted wound by Turbine. Something to do with an early Crystal Cove event and an easily gotten item which could then be sold for an mistakenly inflated gold price at a vendor. Good bye gold economy.

Someone with a better can probably hone in on the exact details.

Wand of knock. You couldmake them very cheap and sell them to vendor for huge profit. It was even before AH lol. I think it was actually called Greater Dosing Rod. Only cost 100 gold doubloons to make and sold to vendor with haggle hat for over 12k plat. I think they still are in the event AFAIK.

[droid327]

Examples of Economic Entropy in DDO include the use of ingredients in spells, equipment repair, auction house fees, reduction of platinum earned via crafting vs. selling equipment, resetting enhancements or Epic Destinies, and so forth.
The original buffs found on our Guild Ships where they had to be rented was the largest form of Entropy but it disproportionately hit Guild leaders and a few members rather than across the board.

To me it is bothersome that the Development Team has worked to further reduce the amount of Entropy as a clear side effect by minimizing the need for spell ingredients, equipment repair, and so forth. To me the first step is to maximize the small steps that can be taken to pull excess platinum out of the economy.

The best plat sinks are voluntary...costs associated with basic gameplay are a "play tax" and, aside from being frustrating, can create a situation in a healthy economy where it becomes "not worth it" to play certain content.

I'd rather see plat-based vendors selling goods and services that enhance play, for a non trivial cost. Start with all the Store items that no one ever actually spends DP on...elixirs and other rare consumables, etc. Then add in things like new augments, rare scrolls, maybe some of the stuff from silver rolls. Add in feat reset without needing a dragon shard. Then you could make some new consumable boosts that could be enticing for epic/cap use. Treasure elixirs (+5%/1 hr?) or xp stones (gold roll tier) would be a huge plat sink. Consumables are usually the best way to go since they don't create ongoing balance issues

[fatherpirate]

This ship has long sailed

Plat/gold is the currency of new players,
the fewer new players you have, the more inflation.

shards are the currency of high end players.

As long as there are more endgame players than new players, you
will have hyper inflation with gold/plat. To well established
endgame players gold/plat is a junk currency

[GoldyGopher]

This ship has long sailed

Plat/gold is the currency of new players,
the fewer new players you have, the more inflation.

shards are the currency of high end players.

As long as there are more endgame players than new players, you
will have hyper inflation with gold/plat. To well established
endgame players gold/plat is a junk currency

"If you find yourself in a hole, the first step is to stop digging." Will Rogers
"The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging." Warren Buffet

As long as the development team keeps enabling high end players to keep digging the economy will continue to be out of whack.

[Certon]

There are way more than two currencies in this game, though they are untradeable. Heart seeds are used to buy things, as are tokens of the Twelve. Sure, they're not part of the global economy, but they are still important currencies. There are/were others as well.

[droid327]

There are way more than two currencies in this game, though they are untradeable. Heart seeds are used to buy things, as are tokens of the Twelve. Sure, they're not part of the global economy, but they are still important currencies. There are/were others as well.

Currency in an economic sense is a fungible medium of exchange, which doesn't really describe things like heart seeds or various crafting mats or turn-in collectables

The last thing we want is to devolve into a D2 style barter system - that's the sign of an utterly failed economy, when the only things of value are those with intrinsic value