Suggested solution to the value of things in GW2

[Gray_Matter]

I was thinking a bit about what I think is a flaw in GW2. Gold has value up to a point and after that, it's only valuable for gems and legendaries. I am also disappointed in the value of exotics, low level mats and a few other things. I have had a couple of exotic drops of late and what should be a really cool thing turns out to be pretty meh as the exotics are worth 1.5g at best. Exotics are relatively cheap to craft and this is not in line with the other ways that you obtain them such as Karma or drops. It should feel epic to get an exotic drop. My suggestions are as follows:

1) Add a exotic glob that drops only from salvaging exotics with percent X chance. It should be needed in the crafting of exotics. So you can only craft an exotic if you have one of these. This glob could also be used to create a legendary precursor in the mystic forge. Something like 100/200 of them + x + y + z gives you a legendary precursor. It could start higher and drop a bit when the value of exotics increase. It might be possible to create these globs from other mats in the mystic forge or people could buy them with skill points/laurels. It's a way for people to save for legendary precursors.
2) Add lower level mats to exotic creation. A different one for different exotic types. So you might need 40 silver to create exotic X in addition to the orch and 40 platinum to create exotic Y. This would encourage people to get out into the world more because what they mine/etc there would have a bit more value. It would also increase the cost and value of exotics.
3) Add a "mount" to a vendor for 50g. This mount would act like the broom or tunneling device. So it's only usable in town clothes, gives a 50% speed boost, is not usable in WvW and breaks on any form of combat in the same way as the tunneling device. It's a gold sink but at the same time it gives a little bit of QOL.

This might help to create a middle zone for TP items instead of the millions of things that are less than 2g and the precursors at the top. It would also create some more gold sinks and give people some more reasons to buy gems to trade for gold.

Thoughts?

[Arrowstormen]

I was thinking a bit about what I think is a flaw in GW2. Gold has value up to a point and after that, it's only valuable for gems and legendaries. I am also disappointed in the value of exotics, low level mats and a few other things. I have had a couple of exotic drops of late and what should be a really cool thing turns out to be pretty meh as the exotics are worth 1.5g at best. Exotics are relatively cheap to craft and this is not in line with the other ways that you obtain them such as Karma or drops. It should feel epic to get an exotic drop. My suggestions are as follows:

1) Add a exotic glob that drops only from salvaging exotics with percent X chance. It should be needed in the crafting of exotics. So you can only craft an exotic if you have one of these. This glob could also be used to create a legendary precursor in the mystic forge. Something like 100/200 of them + x + y + z gives you a legendary precursor. It could start higher and drop a bit when the value of exotics increase. It might be possible to create these globs from other mats in the mystic forge or people could buy them with skill points/laurels. It's a way for people to save for legendary precursors.
2) Add lower level mats to exotic creation. A different one for different exotic types. So you might need 40 silver to create exotic X in addition to the orch and 40 platinum to create exotic Y. This would encourage people to get out into the world more because what they mine/etc there would have a bit more value. It would also increase the cost and value of exotics.
3) Add a "mount" to a vendor for 50g. This mount would act like the broom or tunneling device. So it's only usable in town clothes, gives a 50% speed boost, is not usable in WvW and breaks on any form of combat in the same way as the tunneling device. It's a gold sink but at the same time it gives a little bit of QOL.

This might help to create a middle zone for TP items instead of the millions of things that are less than 2g and the precursors at the top. It would also create some more gold sinks and give people some more reasons to buy gems to trade for gold.

Thoughts?

The flaw: Nobody needs exotics beyond two sets, one with MF and one with useful stats. Cosmetics is the only reason legendaries and other things have value.

[Rukh]

Just in general equipment is nearly worthless in the game and most of it only sells for what you can salvage it for.

[Gray_Matter]

The flaw: Nobody needs exotics beyond two sets, one with MF and one with useful stats. Cosmetics is the only reason legendaries and other things have value.

I am sure this type of thing would have done better in the beginning. What I am trying to do is artificially inflate the price of some things because, as you say, no one needs them. I can happily play GW2 for a year without needing to spend a single gold. Repair, portal and that's it. Gems are nice to buy the odd thing like the pick or a character slot. Exotics do sell. People salvage them for sigils, etc. There are also new players coming into the game. Orch still sells for quite a lot so there it is being used to craft exotics and other things. The only way to make gold more valuable is to create some sinks for it that people will actually want to buy.

---------- Post added 2013-05-10 at 02:34 PM ----------

Just in general equipment is nearly worthless in the game and most of it only sells for what you can salvage it for.

Rare weapons sell quite well as people put them in the forge to try and get a precursor. That's about the only thing I can think of.

[Zamalamin]

I was thinking a bit about what I think is a flaw in GW2. Gold has value up to a point and after that, it's only valuable for gems and legendaries. I am also disappointed in the value of exotics, low level mats and a few other things. I have had a couple of exotic drops of late and what should be a really cool thing turns out to be pretty meh as the exotics are worth 1.5g at best. Exotics are relatively cheap to craft and this is not in line with the other ways that you obtain them such as Karma or drops. It should feel epic to get an exotic drop. My suggestions are as follows:

1) Add a exotic glob that drops only from salvaging exotics with percent X chance. It should be needed in the crafting of exotics. So you can only craft an exotic if you have one of these. This glob could also be used to create a legendary precursor in the mystic forge. Something like 100/200 of them + x + y + z gives you a legendary precursor. It could start higher and drop a bit when the value of exotics increase. It might be possible to create these globs from other mats in the mystic forge or people could buy them with skill points/laurels. It's a way for people to save for legendary precursors.
2) Add lower level mats to exotic creation. A different one for different exotic types. So you might need 40 silver to create exotic X in addition to the orch and 40 platinum to create exotic Y. This would encourage people to get out into the world more because what they mine/etc there would have a bit more value. It would also increase the cost and value of exotics.
3) Add a "mount" to a vendor for 50g. This mount would act like the broom or tunneling device. So it's only usable in town clothes, gives a 50% speed boost, is not usable in WvW and breaks on any form of combat in the same way as the tunneling device. It's a gold sink but at the same time it gives a little bit of QOL.

This might help to create a middle zone for TP items instead of the millions of things that are less than 2g and the precursors at the top. It would also create some more gold sinks and give people some more reasons to buy gems to trade for gold.

Thoughts?

Now, this isn't going to be terribly insightful considering I haven't really tried to make much money in Guild Wars 2 aside from funding what I actually need and then what comes naturally from average play, however, I have a few thoughts.

On point 1, I don't really view that as a necessary change. Now, here's what that means. It most likely will not happen. It's a neat idea, but I'm sure it's one of those things that the average player would tire of quickly. Really in some ways it adds to the gear grind that Guild Wars does not, and is not supposed to, have.

On 2, I personally LOVE this idea. Really after a certain point low level mats are quite worthless and they stockpile. Now, there is a downside here. There would need to be an overall inflation of costs if the prices of low level mats went up. Because, for say a level 11, first character ever, the book that lets you spend trait points (10s) should be a decent cost. Not bankbreaking, but a decent amount. If, say, copper ore went from selling for 7c each to 10-14c each and all other mats experienced a similar change, these costs that come with advancing your character would mean little. So overall, a very cool idea, but it needs some fine-tuning.

And finally point 3. I like this idea aside from it actually being a speed boosted mount by so much. If it were 10-20% or nothing I would like it much more. Mounts tend to have a not-so-great effect on some game worlds IMO. QOL is a good thing in some regards, but if it isn't moderated it can lead to things being too simple. I would however love to see a mount that was a gold sink that you used in town clothes. However, I personally would like it to be more of a, say, pony that walked around and carried you places in style, but not necessarily faster. Think of a pony walking around Divinity's Reach rather than galloping.

That's my 2cents and overall these ideas were pretty neat and would be cool to see, but would need a few tweaks to go in game IMO

[carnifex2005]

Not a big fan of those plans since I like being able to buy a full set of exotic armor and a weapon soon as I hit 80. I really don't think there is a problem with being able to afford almost anything in the game. I think the gem store should remain the main gold sink in GW2. This game doesn't seem to be designed for mounts but if there was going to be something that does have a speed boost, it should be town clothes bought from the gem store and only when in town (maybe a 33% boost).

[Lazuli]

The flaw: Nobody needs exotics beyond two sets, one with MF and one with useful stats. Cosmetics is the only reason legendaries and other things have value.

In other words, 2 berserker sets one with MF and one without.

[MrSerious]

The flaw: Nobody needs exotics beyond two sets, one with MF and one with useful stats. Cosmetics is the only reason legendaries and other things have value.

two sets? I could go with a regen/health set on my hunter, a condition set, a power + crit set, a tanky set, not that interested in a MF set but ok add that one in to.

I want way more than two sets.

As for the OP solution, value also comes from gold into gems. You can buy gems and get things you want from the store without having to spend real money. A mount for 50g is the same as a infinite pick for gems you just have to buy gems to get it. Same thing just one more step added.

[Meledelion]

You may want more sets, but you don't need more. Heck I'd say just a zerker set is more than enough.

[Gray_Matter]

Not a big fan of those plans since I like being able to buy a full set of exotic armor and a weapon soon as I hit 80. I really don't think there is a problem with being able to afford almost anything in the game. I think the gem store should remain the main gold sink in GW2. This game doesn't seem to be designed for mounts but if there was going to be something that does have a speed boost, it should be town clothes bought from the gem store and only when in town (maybe a 33% boost).

The problem with only putting the "good stuff" in the gem store is that it destroys the economy. At some point there will be almost no reason to have the gold <-> gems exchange mechanism because gems will be so expensive that no one will use gold to buy them. Strangely enough, that has the effect of limiting the amount of money that A/Net will receive. There are a number of people with depep pockets. they will happily buy gems to sell for gold if there is in fact something to buy with gold. right now, there is not reason other than the legendaries or precursors which are too expensive. There are also a number of people that will refuse to buy gems with money. They will be quite happy to exchange their gold for gems to buy x or y but not at a figure of 1g per 10 gems which is where the exchange rate is heading. Gold is not easy enough to come buy that people would waste that much gold to buy gems.

That means that two things need to happen:

1) We need to have in game items that you can buy with gold that give gold a bit more value.
2) We need a way to increase the amount of gold you can earn in game by increasing the value of certain things. This will help to try and create a spread of items instead of a whole lot of cheap things and a few expensive things with almost nothing in between. This is not creating more gold, just increasing the flow of gold.

This will also remove more gold from the game as more people will be doing gold/gem exchanges.

A 50% speed boost is almost nothing. It's only 13% over the in combat speed that people have. It's worthless to just use it in town. No one will buy it for that. It's not big enough for people to not use the teleports so it won't impact the gold sink there.

---------- Post added 2013-05-14 at 01:10 PM ----------

As for the OP solution, value also comes from gold into gems. You can buy gems and get things you want from the store without having to spend real money. A mount for 50g is the same as a infinite pick for gems you just have to buy gems to get it. Same thing just one more step added.

The problem is that there is almost no reason for people to buy gems to trade for gold which limits the amount of money A/Net will receive and what they can then reinvest into the game.

---------- Post added 2013-05-14 at 01:26 PM ----------

You may want more sets, but you don't need more. Heck I'd say just a zerker set is more than enough.

And this is the biggest problem. There is almost nothing that people need to buy with gold in game. Raw mats are slowly decreasing in value as more and more people get stuff. All of the lower level mats are pretty much worthless and you can see the same effect happening with Mithril of late. Eventually this will happen with Orch as well. There needs to be a sink for the mats as well as the gold in game. The present model relies on people continuously joining the game at an increasing rate. Crafting stuff is too cheap. It's not so much about gear grind as it is about having a mat sink. The only thing I can think of is to add things in game that people want (not from gems). These things can cost gold or can be things that you craft but with a ton of mats to soak up the excess in the market over time. There are a huge number of raw materials that sell for the same price on the TP as the vendor price. It's because there are an unlimited number of nodes. Everyone can mine the same mine.

As much as I hate RNG, another option might be for them to create combinations of mats that have a chance to get black lion keys in the mystic forge or when you craft. Maybe not keys but a bell, or something else.

[Rukh]

I think the problem, Gray_Matter, is you want a full MMO experience, and GW2 isn't.

[Gray_Matter]

I think the problem, Gray_Matter, is you want a full MMO experience, and GW2 isn't.

Not at all. I love the way the game plays. I love exploring, etc. What I do think, however, is that the economy is starting to get into trouble. There is no reason why we shouldn't have a working economy in GW2. A/Net already tried a couple of things in the past by letting people combine various low demand items in the mystic forge. They realise it's a problem. IMHO, it's only a matter of time before mithril drops to the vendor price in the same way that the wood has. How long do you think it will take for the Orch ore and ancient wood? The rare mats? They will follow too. A lot of people have been banking their mats and only sell when they hit the 250 cap. I was already in that situation for a lot of my top level rare mats. Scales, bloods, claws etc. I had maxed them all out.