Issue 17 Overview

It really doesn't matter how hard it is to switch over from side to side (and I don't think it will be that hard because PS doesn't want to put ordinary players off). If it is hard for one player to do, someone will team up with them to create a mule. Marketeers will look for the best arbitrage opportunities, which will usually mean stripping out the BM and selling things for a profit back at WW.

As for obtaining those items for arbitrage, assuming inf is stripped out in a transfer (or perhaps Castle is on the cusp of releasing the next round of PvP strongly focused around economics) then it will be a matter of taking over items to sell from WW to BM in your inventory, like Sardan indicated. Barring a massive influx of players redside to increase the supply to the market of items, this kind of behaviour is just going to drive BM's prices on particular IOs and recipes through the roof.

To some degree this is going to be an issue unless a character gets stripped of pretty much everything apart from Inspirations. If there isn't an inventory transfer when characters switch over, the truly dedicated marketeer could always have the desired IOs slotted, then retcon out of them for sale / arbitrage. However, that takes a lot of effort and probably would only be worth it for purples. But my point is that the 'smuggler' impact on the market really needs to be considered (if it is possible) and that this email system's ability to enhance smuggling appears to make the potential to have some pretty heavy consequences on BM and WW.

Some people oppose a market merge on the grounds that linking the markets would have a lot of negative consequences. Smuggling will link the markets and I can only see this kind of linkage being detrimental to the markets, BM especially.

i don't see linking the markets directly as being anything like the doom some feel is the case. i would expect merging the markets to reduce the scarcity and price fluctuations in the redside market and actually make the blueside market a bit more robust since it increases the total market size. Which, at least to my admittedly limited knowledge of economics, should make it more difficult to manipulate prices.

i agree that the "smuggling" is more likely to harm than help the redside market, but i suppose we'll find out soon enough, eh?

You never responded the last time I asked you this: why do you think those rare, desirable items are cheaper Villainside?

Did you never see this post?

Here, I'll repost the image from Smurphy's original post again:



Please explain why you think that moving items from a low supply market into a high supply market is the smart way to make money. Because I'm seeing the opposite direction as the money making opportunity. It will be easier for me to obtain high value goods faster and cheaper heroside, and sell them for more villainside, due to the supply discrepancy.

Edit: This is obviously irrelevant if your goal is to make money heroside only, and inf is not transferrable (though I interpreted War Witch's remark to be about villainside contacts not giving missions to Vigilantes, or heroside contacts to Rogues, which we've been told will be the case).

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I'd argue that that's more a lack of interest, than a failure to surprise.

I really hope so, I also hope we can pre-purchase GR next week before x2 xp

Confirmed. Pistols should be live for DXP. Says War Witch.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Then I know what I'll be doing!

So because you don't need a feature, nobody does?

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

Yes. That is right.

Do you play on more than one server? Your own base won't do you any good when you get a drop that you want on a character on Virtue, but you get it on a character on Freedom. This will save a lot of hassle in that kind of situation.

Ultimately I think they are cheaper because when I've looked at various things between the markets, villain-side has been cheaper. It might have been just for the items I was looking at and each market does have some particular quirks due to different powerset requirements, but that's been my experience.

However, my perceptions might be wrong - I'll see if I can pull together more data.

The redside markets suffer from having less supply, less demand and lower inf liquidity (i.e. generally less currency travelling around the BM). The blueside markets are more attractive - more supply, a lot more demand and lots more inf around compared to redside - so I see the potential for smugglers to strip redside to sell blueside (depending on arbitrage opportunities) simply because there is more to do with your inf blueside.

I should say I'm in favour of merging the markets, but allowing smugglers seems like a weak way to do any kind of linkage.

And then there is the issue that Vigilantes (i.e. slightly turned Heroes) can go to the Rogue Isles and team up with villains there, but can only use WW. This sees all those people taking their hero characters - of which I believe there are more of than villain characters - over to RI and getting drops that would otherwise go into the BM. (Noted: yeah, if a mission isn't run at all it provides no drops, but my point is that there will be more characters in RI, but they won't be feeding into the local market, thus not helping BM's supply issues at all).

Another unknown factor in this is what Praetoria holds for the markets. In a recent interview War Witch said, "I had to ask the question, 'What does it mean to be Praetorian?' It sounds simple enough, but there are a lot of details: What kind of currency do they use?" which could just be a comment about flavour, or could be a literal comment about designing a different economic system for GoRo. Something more regulated in Praetoria, where everything can be bought for a fixed price, would definitely pull the other markets into line. Probably wouldn't be popular though.

For the pure marketeer, who exists for no reason other than generating inf, then they will likely take advantage of any opportunities be they red- or blueside. However, I don't think smugglers are going to cause prices to come down in the BM; rather, they'll see prices remain at similar levels because they are looking to take advantage of already well-defined arbitrage opportunities. The second that prices start to equalise for one item, the smuggler is off looking for the next place to make their money.

... pending further information about exactly what is going to be carried across from red- to blueside, of course. ;-)

Actually we have bases on 3 servers,even thoe we only play on Virtue. And on those 3 servers we have fully pimped bases on both blue and redside.

When they did those free prestige give aways, we made alot of throw away characters just to play around and make bases...

Hmmm... I don't have a SG and thus, I'm baseless. I don't want to be a part of any SG as I think they're a waste of time and most feel the need to apply draconian rules like saving a costume slot for the SG costume or always running in prestige mode and so on.

Also, even if I had a SG I'd still wouldn't be able to trade inf with myself and would require a second party for no vault can store inf.

As such, I very much welcome this new feature and can't wait to see it implemented so I can stop hassling the people I have met in game and owe me nothing to waste their game time on silly transfers.

Thanks.

Doesn't work, since you can't invite alts to it by yourself unfortunately.

Am I supposed to be thanking someone now?

Emphasis mine. I don't want to wast my time on creating a base... already did that once a long time ago. From that experience, which is no longer in work, I can tell you I don't want to go through that all over again.

What I read of the two posts by Perfect_Pain seemed to imply that he/she didn't want this feature in the game. I may be confused though, as is often the case.

Also, what Carni said in the quotation below.

And please don't shout your thanks, it makes my rabbit ears hurt.

Yes Carni, it's the polite thing to do, dontcha know?

*Pounces* No-one hurts the Bunny!

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

So... you don't want to be part of a SG because most of them have "draconian rules"... thus you refuse to create your own SG...

...my head hurts now.