Iron vs. Gold (once again but necessary !)

[Valorius Rageway]

If someone is willing to sell their steel for less than 3k, then they should get the better business. That's how economy works.
They might be trading at a loss, but that's their problem.

The essence of free market capitalism in a nutshell. Kudos to you sir!

If merchants try to collude to arbitrailly raise prices for a huge profit- which has been done in game- a younger, hungrier crafter is going to come along and put you ALL out of business.

Charge 10k for a steel stock and 100k for a crafted dagger if you like- you will have a dusty display case full of unsold merchandise because someone that hustles their own ore is going to drive a stake through your heart by selling his daggers for 10k a pop(and still make a very nice profit on each).

All crafted daggers of an equal xxx/xxx are identical, so having your name on them makes them worth exactly ZERO tria more than one from a new on the scene go-getter. What's more, as more and more crafted weapons flood the market, the value of these trinkets is going to be depressed even further still. Especially when the warriors and citizens of the realm run out of other skills to train and begin to take up crafting because it's about all they still havn't done.

And to a "True RPer" it's irrelevant anyway, as you need exactly ZERO money or training or any economy at all to type in a chat box for six hours at a time.

[Valorius Rageway]

1 gold ore(240 tria) costs almost the same as a farmer's monthly wage (250 tria) and still they are very easy to find around.

Why did you think there were no farmers around?

Because no one actually eats in the PS universe to survive.

[Garon]

It's interesting to see how much control the devs have over the economy simply by regulating the value of gold.

It's because Gold is the biggest influx of raw trias into the economy from nothing.  No gold, no trias flowing in at an insane rate a day.  It's easily and reliably gained, and makes trias from nothing.  Since there isn't something exactly like it from a different source (farming, cooking, etc. will change this, but right now it's just gold--weapon drops true, but they aren't consistent and many are sold between players, never going into an NPC's hands), it's the one of a kind major influx of cash.  And you know how some Government regulation of economies is done?  By putting less new money into circulation (among other things, like changing the interest rate and the like).  Regulating the value of gold puts less new money into circulation, and putting less money into circulation regulates the economy.  The opposite is also true.

(Also, Gold is NECESSARY by far to keep the economy stable, but right now I think it's starting the economy towards inflation instead of balance--money goes out from training, which is a huge money sink in this game, but more money, afaik, comes in through gold mining so that we are rich while having maxed stats )

[lordraleigh]

If someone is willing to sell their steel for less than 3k, then they should get the better business. That's how economy works.
They might be trading at a loss, but that's their problem.

The essence of free market capitalism in a nutshell. Kudos to you sir!

If merchants try to collude to arbitrailly raise prices for a huge profit- which has been done in game- a younger, hungrier crafter is going to come along and put you ALL out of business.

Charge 10k for a steel stock and 100k for a crafted dagger if you like- you will have a dusty display case full of unsold merchandise because someone that hustles their own ore is going to drive a stake through your heart by selling his daggers for 10k a pop(and still make a very nice profit on each).

All crafted daggers of an equal xxx/xxx are identical, so having your name on them makes them worth exactly ZERO tria more than one from a new on the scene go-getter. What's more, as more and more crafted weapons flood the market, the value of these trinkets is going to be depressed even further still. Especially when the warriors and citizens of the realm run out of other skills to train and begin to take up crafting because it's about all they still havn't done.

And to a "True RPer" it's irrelevant anyway, as you need exactly ZERO money or training or any economy at all to type in a chat box for six hours at a time.

Unless all the different commercial organizations and individual merchants form a Cartel 

[Beliy]

Unless all the different commercial organizations and individual merchants form a Cartel 

Interesting point that was brought up, somewhat,  in-game yesterday by some who wished to discuss setting a standardized price for the sale of steel and weapons. It seems, though, some of the "younger, hungrier" citizens of Yliakum are reluctant to entertain such ideas, because, as they stated very passionately in-game, "collusion is illegal in my country." So, it seems that so long as there are those who want nothing to do with anything that smacks of a cartel, no-matter their reason, the idea is unlikely to work.

[Fozzharn]

I don't really want to enter this thread ... but I found something that I think is quite important for this discussion.

I quoted it from Talad - Thread: Natural Resoruces (iron,coal,gold, etc...)  at  July 29, 2006, 03:52:34 AM:

...
and also we removed platinum from the game. That material is not currently used for crafting, but just used as a money making machine, so we prefer to avoid it until the economy is more stable.
...

find the complete thread here: http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=24778.msg274211#msg274211


As I said ... I think who is talking about the use of gold should carefully read Talads words about Platinum then.