Important System Improvements in Going Rogue

The crucial difference is not that level 50s earn more or play differently. The crucial difference is that at every level you earn more but have more opportunities to spend more in gear (i.e. enhancements). Earning goes up, and costs go up, because gear expires. Except at level 50, technically at level 47. Once you reach level 47, your gear can't expire anymore and there's not much to spend inf on besides pursuing high-order inventions. Unless you turn XP off, as a practical matter there is really a limit to the amount of influence you can earn at every level (because if you earn more, you're guaranteed to level) and there is a limit to the amount of inf you can reasonably spend on that level (before you've bought everything you can use). Its that rule that breaks at level 50 (47). Except for things like special inventions, your costs drop to zero while your earning capacity becomes unlimited. This eventually causes inflation at the top.

The theory that drops and influence are earned in sync so they should balance out doesn't happen because separate from mechanical issues (for example you can fill all your slots and stop earning drops easier than you can cap out your influence) not all drops are equally valued. Eventually, some are singled out for special pursuit by the playerbase, and their collective influence gets concentrated into attempting to acquire them (things like special procs and purples, for example). The other items which might have actual value to the players gets relatively ignored by comparison. You end up with a form of auction frenzy where some things sell for less than their actual worth to the players and some things sell for astronomically high values. This isn't true market inflation as such, but its all but indistinguishable from it.

Wait, so you don't ever train or buy enhancements?
That's a true MAN approach.

Or do you mean you disregard/handwave/turn a blind eye to those aspects? Because "throwing out" implies you refuse to acknowledge or interact with the systems that involve experience and influence. So no training above level 1 or purchasing anything in game, ever.

I agree with your premise (price caps are bad), but the section I highlighted is actually not how the market works. A bunch of us on the market channel did an experiment to see exactly how it did work if there were a bunch of bids in place at the same price. We found some garbage item and bought them all. Then we had a whole group of people each put in a bid at the exact same price. Then the items were put up for sale at 1 inf, one at a time to see whose bid was filled first.

It is NOT first in, first out. It's basically random. It wasn't truly random. If we had a fixed number of people putting in bids at the same price, they would always get filled in the same order. If you have a large number of bidders, and they don't know the sequence in which everyone else listed their bids, it's EFFECTIVELY random.

You are right. I shouldn't have said "reluctance" to create a third market. I was responding to the question "Why now?" My response was meant to reflect the idea that this was the perfect opportunity

I was there when you did the experiment. That's the only reason I bothered listing a bid at all, and it's probably how I got it. I cut in line. That still doesn't mean that I somehow managed to cut in line in front of 300 or so other people.

You should see a game like DDO, where there are copper, silver, gold, and platinum pieces...and stuff sells for tens of thousands of platinum, if not more.

At low level, getting 100 copper pieces is great; at even the low-middle levels (around 6 or 7), you don't even stop for bags of silver.

I know that testing long ago proved it was definitely not first-in first-out. The fact that your tests showed a repeating order suggests someone made a goof again and is either attempting to write their own random number generator, or is incorrectly seeding the one they are using so it generates the same pseudo-random sequence every time. Its happened before.

If the Devs need a workable market model I'd suggest taking a look at EVE. I'm in love with the market system and BrokerFee formula. What other games allow me to export market spreads with median day pricing directly to excel spreadsheets. <3

Only a red name can make that statement.

It's 106 miles to Grandville, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing faceless helmets

... Hit it ...

If you need that kind of detail on this market I think you're doing something wrong.

What can I say, I'm high-maintenance.

Besides who said anything about "need?" What's wrong with a little obsession to detail?

That depends. If we consider Venture realistically he is only one player and thus doesn't make much of a difference on his own.

If we consider Venture according to his own sense of self-importance, then the merged market will have lost something like 60-70% participation.

And you have oxygen-for-sale booths...

It's 106 miles to Grandville, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing faceless helmets

... Hit it ...

You underestimate the value of oxygen in as large a vacuum as space. ;D

True true. Good news, at any rate.

DOOOOM!!!

...

Oh wait, never mind. That's cool.

Yeah, I remember that experiment (I helped run it, actually). I was exaggerating for the sake of making a point - it will be random, yes but you don't know how long you'll be waiting. At least two examples from this thread (two weeks and won a bid, and seven weeks and didn't win) plus one example from a friend in-game (four weeks and didn't win) show that it's random but if you want a guarantee of obtaining that item in a reasonable timeframe you're better off just finding it off the market.

@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."

They are extremly rare and wiping clean wont change that