Bug: Cash Value for Vendor Trash Borked

[Naiya]

The cash value for vendor trash is currently completely borked. It is more profitable to drop (as in destry so you can free up space) armor, than it is to drop some forms of vendor trash

For example:

Ragged tuft of fur - 40c for 5 of them (seems about right)
Broken Predator Eye (looted of some rat dudes in Khal) 3s 20c EACH
Broken Eye - 3s 20c EACH
Predator Eye - 6s 40c EACH
Oreaglas' Sash (armor dropped of mob by same name. One item off his loot table - he also drops a necklace) 0c - yes - zero
Shredded predator fang - 1s 20c EACH
Brown Pelt - 2s 40c EACH
Course Elemental Earth Residue - 12s (stack of 5)

there are more but I failed to keep a detailed list of everything I sold (I will do so from this point on) these values are EASILY double that of their previous value.

I'm all for throwing us a bone but I think the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. A crafter who is grinding WO's and is a level above me has HALF my cash value. That seems a little out of balance to me. Did someone increase adventuring cash rather than Diplomacy cash rewards?

At level 12 I have over a GP in value and it took my cleric 21 levels to see that same value

[Danalyn]

From what I've heard this increase is supposed to be for all spheres. If diplo and crafting cash loot has not increased then i'm sure someone will notice it and fix it.

[Naiya]

that's cool - if everything is coming up - then it's not so bad - but one sphere out of wack like this is enough for me to go

[Arctic_Slicer]

Well I don't think there really needs to be a lot more money made off of loot so this change kind of bothers me. Then again after the dupe bugs the economy on some servers became way inflated and such a change might be necessary to actually be able to afford anything out of the exchange. Honestly though, I think they should be working on ways to try and get more money out of the economy, not more in it. Anyway that's my thoughts on vendor trash value changes.

[Florinda]

At level 50, I'm seeing rare vendor trash go for close to 1g *each* (94s 40c, to be exact). More common vendor trash is selling for 25s-35s or thereabouts.

One change I find amusing (but really needs to be fixed) is in the crafting sphere. I can go harvest up a stack of limestone slabs, turn them into limestone bricks with a few coppers worth of utilities and the vendor offers me:

Over 1g for the stack.

I believe pyrite fasteners have the same price per stack, so T4 smiths can make out like bandits too.

Is this intentional? Coming from an EQ1 background, I've appreciated that I can make a modest income doing WOs and really appreciated not losing my shirt to make real recipes, but I could get filthy stinking rich by just spending time harvesting limestone and making bricks. That ain't right.

[Naiya]

Originally Posted by Arctic_Slicer

Well I don't think there really needs to be a lot more money made off of loot so this change kind of bothers me. Then again after the dupe bugs the economy on some servers became way inflated and such a change might be necessary to actually be able to afford anything out of the exchange. Honestly though, I think they should be working on ways to try and get more money out of the economy, not more in it. Anyway that's my thoughts on vendor trash value changes.

QFE

I think this is the sentiment I have as well (with a healthy dose of what Flo has said as well.) I've not seen the increase in Diplo but to be fair I've only completed a quest or two since I logged in and lost 40 points of diplo due to a KI.

Once the diplo thing is fixed I'll spend a few hours testing that to see if it has gone up as much as these others have. If it has then it's "as intended™" and I guess we are looking at the new standard..

Boy, will this make for some awesome old timer stories *channels the Four Yorkshiremen*

[Ysharros]

I haven't seen an increase in the value of crafting vendor trash, but will check again.

Increasing the value of sellable stuff across the board might just be preparatory to an increase in prices generally - a devaluation of Telonian coin, in other words. It may well be easier to do that than to track down the duped coin and other ill-gotten gains and take them out of the game; just reduce how much said exploited coin is actually worth. Not perfect, but perhaps more practical.

[Florinda]

Hard to say. Prices are already ludicrous on Live -- one person on the Sony forums reported that lvl 20 gear goes for 15g and lvl 30-35 gear goes for 75g, another reporting that no one would ever sell a stack of bricks to a vendor for 1-2g when they can get 7-10g per stack from players, and smiths are getting 15g per stack for pyrite fasteners.

It's shocking to me that prices are inflating to this degree so early after launch, but I think there's a likelihood that if the average joe has more coin, prices will go up even more.

*wonders how long it will take for the economy to recover once -- if -- the dupe bugs are fixed*

[Naiya]

See my big concern is the potential "Rise of the Botters" this is why L2 was never any fun for me. the insane value of the dropped loot made botters insane and they were incredibly rich.

Granted, I've no idea if this is how things will work in VG, but I'm of the habit of putting forward the worse case scenario just to make sure someone doesn't go "OMG! They *DO* that?" yes... yes they do...

I understand the concerns of the plate wearers out there who say "But it's so fraggin' expensive for us to repair our gear!" and I agree, something should be done. I just disagree the current implementation is the best.

Someone on the live boards suggested that the increase in cash loot be given for completing a quest. I *like* that idea. You get a chunk of XP for completing a quest why not make the coin reward just as tempting

As of this build I go 90c for completing a quest that had be going out and collecting 10 Vulshar(sp?) belts. These are < 5% drop belts on 3 dot creatures. This is INSANE (not to mention insulting). Is the quest repeatable? Absolutely. But WHY WOULD I WANT TO? There is no incentive to do it.

I can get better XP and better rewards by doing other stuff. If I were to get a chunk of change on this quest, I might celebrate working my faction down to -20K.

Gold farmers/sellers/botters will go for the easy rewards. The current system on test *rewards* them and does nothing to stabilize an already inflated marketplace.

The players (you know - those of us who play for fun) will continue to suffer in this environment. If you throw us a bone by making it worth our while to complete quests (both monetary and xp wise) it will make many people happy. The regular players will see the benefit (smaller carrots more often™) and the botters/gold sellers/farmers will find it a bit more challenging to get free flowing cash - questing takes a lot of work. More than some may be willing to put in.

Is the above solution perfect? Nope. Not even close. But I feel it's a step in the right direction

[Mardy]

It'll be a sad day if this goes live. Trash loot selling for more on the vendor means it'll be easier for botters, macroers, 24/7 gold farmers, etc.. to get money to sell to players. The idea of giving players more money reward from quests is probably a better solution than this. Make sure you do this for 1-time quests not those repeatable missives, and you got it made.

The prices of items on the market are slowly going down. Giving the game another dose of money will simply make those prices go up again. I hope people don't think that prices on the market will stay the way they are now after they put this patch in. I agree with a poster above, the game needs more money sink, not more money.

I also think some adventurers are simply ticked off and upset because they can't get their house built or ships made. Giving them more money isn't going to make crafters want to sell those things even more, it'd actually make money worth less so crafters still wouldn't sell those items often. I just hope this isn't a knee jerk reaction to try and fix the market. I agree, give adventurers more money, but give it to them via quests or at least the named loot. Not trash vendor loot. My opinion.