Rincewind wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:09 pm
Uncommon Gear can still be sold. ~ NPCs do not sell it it anymore.
This way I could even make more profit with my artisan and will have customers who are OK with getting "only the second best stuff" (meaning not perfect quality)."
I think this would be the best solution. Currently people only want perfect (some make do with excellent) quality gear, and if they are in such desperate need that they need gear of any quality as long as it suits their level, they will just as well not "bother" with roleplay and just buy it from a vendor instead, unless they are very low on coin and need a cheaper price.
However if crafters can not sell their more lousy products, same for people going treasure hunting, too much of it will end up piling up because of the odds of making good quality gear being too low, and the market value would drop.
Though I would argue that as long as it can still be sold, just not bought, even setting the limit to level 50 items and not 90, could improve the situation.
Maybe the NPC merchants that buy these higher level goods, but do not sell them, just suddenly had a huge demand from overseas offering much better prices for any gear above level 50, so they buy it cheap and sell it off overseas.
Though another point on the master crafter items not being in demand is that you can relatively easily get level 100 perfect or excellent quality gear from treasure maps, and that is often cheaper/easier to get than the crafted version due to a combination of how rare pure elements are and how many times you have to make the same item when at a level 100 craft in order to get a perfect/excellent result, resulting in many very good or below quality pieces of gear that no one but vendors want to buy, and who's vendor prices are so low that if you want to make back the coin lost on all those expensive elements, you either have to sell for a really high price (which you can not due to certain people with stockpiled gear in the game right now making it dirt cheap to get your hands on) or grind out the elements yourself (spend hours powergaming a gathering craft in chances of the right element dropping).
So I think there are far too many problems with how things work to make the in game market function properly (right now it's basically people having all their needs met by a few people who spend a lot more time powergaming than others and thus making their wares far cheaper and more varied than any other character), but that making it so that NPCs can only buy and not sell higher level gear is imo definitely in the right direction, while making it so that NPCs can not buy higher level gear is not.
In an attempt to be more constructive about the problems I see, even if the solutions I come up with may not be too feasible:
1.
Problem:
Getting gear from NPC merchants
Solution:
Have NPCs buy everything, but only sell things at level 50 or below. I'd also suggest that in the case of food wares, the best +2 +2 stat items are only available from players. RP reason mentioned above.
What would hopefully be achieved:
Roleplay interaction between players will be required to obtain gear above level 50, or food that gives +2+2 stats.
2.
Problem:
Treasure hunting to get your master gear.
Solution:
Make master gear from treasure hunts rarer, and only allow it to have excellent quality or below, leaving the perfect gear for crafters to make.
Exceptions:
Drow gear and anything else that crafters can not make should be possible to obtain in perfect quality from treasure hunts.
What would hopefully be achieved:
More demand for master gear from players, rather than people treasure hunting to get theirs.
3. Now this is the major problem I see.
Problem:
People stockpiling
Solution:
Make items, even when in the depot, have an expiry date.Think of it as a more long-term repair system, that runs even when you are offline.
The exception being magical gems, pure elements and items with custom description, or any other especially rare item. Though items with custom descriptions would need another system, like having it be "broken" upon expiry date so that you wont lose it but have to pay for a repair, or else everyone would just get a custom description on all their gear to avoid the expiry date).
Examples of expiry dates:
Armor, jewelry, clothes and weapons - 1 IG year (4 IRL months)
Food and potions - 3 IG months (1 IRL month)
Resources - 9 IG months (3 IRL months)
What I would hope to achieve with that:
A more dynamic marketplace, with room for more people of all occupations.
Gatherers would gather upon demand, rather than stockpiling a lot for selling whenever anyone who needs it comes along. People who want to grind in the mines all day could still do that, but they would be forced to either sell the raw material within 3 months (or whatever the decided time frame would be) or make it into equipment to sell.
Cooks and alchemists would need to get their resources from herbalists and farmers, as they won't have insane stockpiles of everything needed anymore, and won't be able to stockpile food and potions for sale either. They would have to plan ahead, just like in real life, how much they expect to sell, or take orders and make wares on demand. However, ideally, they would not even get the chance to stockpile either as with an expiry on food and potions, people won't have endless stockpiles of it anymore like they do these days, making cooks and alchemists more needed even in times of less activity.
Crafters that make gear would also be on a more equal ground. No smith could craft a hundred sets of armor to keep in case anyone needs it. People would be best served to craft an item on demand so that the expiry date is fresh, and so they do not waste their resources and time only to have to vendor the item when no one wants it because it's too close to expiry.
All in all consumers and crafters would require more interactions and more often, rather than just stockpiling everything. Food would rot, potions would go bad, ingots corrode, armor would become beyond repair and swords would break in half. Consumers would have to regularly stock up on food, potions and semi-regularly have to replace their gear. Repairing is rather often right now, but it is not as crucial to the market as it would be if the consumers had to replace their gear completely at some point.
This way you would still get people stockpiling gold, elements, and other rare things, but at least people would not have depots full of everything anymore and thus preventing the economy to coming to a complete low and standstill like it pretty much is these days in the game.