Tbh i am disapointed, i expected some big update. I guess i was wrong, but the announcement really sounded like something big will happen.
I quote: 'We're getting ready for some future updates to take place soon!'
That sounded really like something big, but guess i fooled myself..
I didn't say it would be next update, but the update itself did contain some backend preparations for what I mentioned earlier in the week. I'm currently putting together the "presentation" for you all to see.
Setting buy price is quite annoying, I guess i'll have to scrutinize and count the 0's and hope there's no oopsie.
Just as annoying as ever, the change to add your transaction history there a long time ago was awesome, but not so useful with the NPC's shouting a mile a minute. Can't this go somewhere else entirely, or your transaction history go somewhere else entirely?
The suggestion of having it auto-format the commas to separate values is something we want to do, however it apparently is not as simple to integrate as we hoped at the start.
"Players can set any prices they want but if no one buys the items, the prices will come down"
swing and a miss.
"No other game allows this much 'player control'"? Most games I ever see with the ability to put something on auction or trade with others have no forced restriction on what you can sell an item for, at best a suggested price to its value either based on market or materials involved. The only exploits we prevent are the ones that can result in an infinite money generation from purchasing/selling/crafting mechanics, which we've stopped every time found. Finding an item and selling it, is the same as finding a zulie drop, it's just not a direct value the game generates for currency, as you can make use of the item in possibly other ways.
But yes, players can have a level of greed, which is their right and choice. Offering to sell an item for more than what you would be able to purchase it from an NPC vendor is subject to situation, where if you're several zones away from where it was purchased, one justifies it as a convenience fee for providing it locally to the zone, instead of the customer needing to go back to town. I've seen some players simply offer a discount service, right next to the NPC that sells various items, simply because they can offer it at a small discount, but still a profit for themselves. It's one of many ways I've seen players opt to play on a tycoon type level.
As for the contractual Item Mall items, it isn't as though we made the decision from the start to not continue to contract, so no it was not a mistake, it was a venture decision that didn't go so well. How you spin it makes it seem like it was disastrous, where as I see it, the items were popular, enjoyed and gave the community something they wanted at the time. The contract wasn't continued because it was not beneficial for us to continue, so don't speak as if you know what the situation was behind why the contract was not kept active. Holding on to something we no longer have control over, doesn't change the situation we are currently in. We have created versions of our own for several of the items. But for some players, the rarity and exclusivity of the items because they can no longer be introduced to game play, is what it is and we've moved on from it. The high priced value there is with the items, is entirely within the community's right to price because of that situation and we're fine with it.
As for forgetting old event items, we've been trying to bring back those old events, but because of how they were originally worked in to game play, and all the advancements, changes and updates we've had over the years, they don't exactly work straight out of the box anymore and we need to fix them. There are quite literally tens of thousands of items in ROSE and more being created all the time. Thousands of quests, events and activities, with rewards of varying nature, that can get lost through time. It is one of the very reasons we set out the goal to be able to have all our events operate on an automated occurrence, so that such events didn't have to fall to the human error of forgetfulness, or simply being overlooked because we got so busy we couldn't get to it to turn it on.
The only thing that would help the economy is for NPCs to sell valuable items at ridiculously high prices. And make those items exclusive. As in, not available through IM and whatnot.
It isn't the "only thing" that would help the economy. Selling valuable items at high prices, would standardize what their price would be because you can now purchase it from the NPC. Unfortunately, that can't happen for every item that's considered highly valued, because they're intended to be rare and found through game play. Now, some items can be offered at a high price, and be coveted as something of such a high value, but I wouldn't want to make it a benefit for the rich, just because they have the money. That feeds further in to the rich being powerful and continuing to remain rich based on that power.
The ideas provided and from many years of experienced developers and game players talked with over the years, all seem to agree that without impacting game play, those high priced items could be simple vanity aspects, much like how the Item Mall provides a large list of costumes to change one's appearance, we could have a high priced shop that could offer unique costume styles for various armor types. Fortunately for us, we already have a costume system in place, we don't have to go as far as being fancy with skin overlay coding. A community member recently provided several unique weapon designs which we intend to have part as a in-game offered costume choices for the players who want a bit of a different look. It's been my personal point, for most community submitted equipment pieces, that they be added to game play in some manner, not the Item Mall, so the community can have the chance to enjoy it the same as anyone else would who plays.
But I digress, these and several other projects are on the horizon, it's just a lot of work for us to handle, in conjunction with another tasked project that has been very involving to complete. I very much look forward to when we are able to finish it, so we can return to the community with working on the content and future updates we have mentioned and promises to.