the auction house strikes again!

[IAmDesolator3]

Once again someone posted a pale lavender ioun stone (new version obviously) in the AH on Orien and within about an hour it was bid up to 2.1 mil. Am I complaining about the cost? NO! I'm complaining that they got to it first! As soon as I saw the bid I said "Aww come on, I was gonna do that!"

Now technically I could have been the first one cuz I caught it listed at 100k but I only have 1.86 mil and nobody wanted to buy my ring of the ancestors or spell storing fast enough or lend me about 300k

So is this what the AH has come down to? You gotta just save up 2.1 mil and sit on it and then try and race everyone else to getting the first bid in and then you auto win? Cuz I've been to a lot of auctions IRL and they don't work like that lol. Although, having some cap on an item IRL and the first to raise their hand and run up to the payment table wins would be entertaining cuz you know someone would tackle or trip someone else rofl.

Now, as a programmer and reader of the turbine site, I know that everything is in copper in the code and 2.1 mil plat in copper just happens to be right under the limit for a certain sort of a small integer data type. Unsigned 4 byte int if I'm not mistaken. Well, according to my calculations and estimations, if every single financial transaction on the entire server is handled in copper behind the scenes and were stored in a slightly larger integer data type, it would take at most a couple extra megabytes of ram and database space on the servers. So...why is it still capped like that? I say store it as a larger int and let us bid whatever we want!

Btw what's the limit for person to person trade? Cuz I guess the only way I'm getting a lavender stone is by posting an offer on the forums. Who would settle for approx 1.5 mil after the 30% AH fee anyway?

[IAmDesolator3]

lol I just bought one person to person for 1.9 mil and turbine didn't get their over half mil plat removed from the game in AH fees. What a shame :P but I guess that's what they're trying to do is overinflate the economy by forcing big bids out of the AH.

[sirgog]

The 2.1m PP cap *really* needs to go from the AH. None of the top Epic Scrolls can be sold there at the moment, and the 30% that leaves the game really needs to leave, if we are ever going to reduce the inflation in the economy.

(edit to clarify: none of the top scrolls can be sold there because all of them are worth significantly over 2m PP - but having Torc/Greenblade/Spectral Gloves scrolls selling on the AH for 3-4m PP would remove a lot of plat from the economy, helping fix the inflation crisis in DDO)

[Ratnix]

The 2.1m PP cap *really* needs to go from the AH. None of the top Epic Scrolls can be sold there at the moment, and the 30% that leaves the game really needs to leave, if we are ever going to reduce the inflation in the economy.

You do realize that the money sink in the AH is there to Reduce the inflation.

The more money in circulation, the higher the inflation.

That is why games like this put in money sinks, to reduce the amount of cash in game, which in turn lowers prices as players don't have as much cash to spend.

[Mister_Peace]

You do realize that the money sink in the AH is there to Reduce the inflation.

The more money in circulation, the higher the inflation.

That is why games like this put in money sinks, to reduce the amount of cash in game, which in turn lowers prices as players don't have as much cash to spend.

It's a statement that could be taken one of two ways. Read it again.

[Ratnix]

It's a statement that could be taken one of two ways. Read it again.

Ah, yea, didn't catch that.

Problem being, the AH is the wrong way to have a money sink. If they are going to have one it needs to be unavoidable, and as long as you can trade with people they will avoid it.

I played one game where "guilds" had to pay a monthly tax. Don't know if it is that way here, but it worked there.
Guilds just charged members XXX amount each month. The amount charged was low enough that even casual players didn't have to spend more than 1 day getting cash but it still pulled out cash each month.

[sirgog]

Ah, yea, didn't catch that.

Problem being, the AH is the wrong way to have a money sink. If they are going to have one it needs to be unavoidable, and as long as you can trade with people they will avoid it.

I played one game where "guilds" had to pay a monthly tax. Don't know if it is that way here, but it worked there.
Guilds just charged members XXX amount each month. The amount charged was low enough that even casual players didn't have to spend more than 1 day getting cash but it still pulled out cash each month.

A crafting system that costs a lot of plat would be another option, or just having more expensive items sold by vendors (Yugoloth pots were a good start here, but aren't enough).

[Xeraphim]

So you want auctions to cap out at the current plat cap of 4.2 mil instead?

[Xeraphim]

having more expensive items sold by vendors (Yugoloth pots were a good start here, but aren't enough).

This idea seems fitting.

Perhaps it's time to put Major Mnemonics back on sale in a certain store, for absurd prices.

[nitronisto]

the other issue is ok we figure AH will take 30% of what ever the listed price is. so players to get around this will mark up things 130% so that way they still get the cut they want. i think that is also another factor in why prices go up on stuff a perfect example is large devil scales. AH price 400k plat starting. player to player price 250ish to 300k
so i do agree if they are goin to take the money out of the game as it should cause a over inflation sucks i saw it in wow and EQ both, they need to do it in other ways the AH system isint the way to go
but hey least we finally got a SEARCH!!!!

[sirgog]

So you want auctions to cap out at the current plat cap of 4.2 mil instead?

The plat cap really needs to go, when the most sought after Epic components trade for more than three full plat capped toons can hold.

On Khyber the epic Marilith Chain scroll trades for about 15 million plat (25-30 flawless red scales). Sought-after Chronoscope scrolls will probably settle above the plat cap too.

The Devs looked into adjusting the plat cap previously and put it into the 'too-hard, too-little-reward basket' a while back, but IMO it's worth another look - either that, or we need in-game vendors that give something endgame players want in exchange for bucketloads of plat.

Maybe a vendor that, for 50-100k PP a pop, will change one type of Shroud Large into another? It would wreck the economy in the short term, but be a good thing longterm.

[Unreliable]

plat is worthless.

The longer the game is out the more worthless it will be. I am guessing only about 10% of the plat that is introduced into the game (from vendoring items and from chests) is actually removed via in game systems (by buying stuff from a vendor, the AH ''cut'').

If you can get an item you really need with any amount of plat, you have already gotten the better end of the trade