Balancing the economy.

IrksomeSolid09 · January 2016

ESO current trading economy is incredibly out of balance right now. I would like to see if we can grab the attention of the gaming gods (Flattery works well also

) by coming up with some tools we would like to see on the website or in game to assist with balancing the economy.

One thing I believe is a major must would be a tool to establish pricing. This tool would assist players in finding the average price range of items listed on active guild traders, and allow the market to balance itself with time. Current trader listings vary by double sometimes triple for different traders, oftentimes even traders standing next to each other.

Please post any thoughts or suggestions on this matter I am very curious to hear what you all have to say no post is to small or inconsequential.

bikerangelo · January 2016

IrksomeSolid09 wrote: »

ESO current trading economy is incredibly out of balance right now. I would like to see if we can grab the attention of the gaming gods (Flattery works well also ) by coming up with some tools we would like to see on the website or in game to assist with balancing the economy.

One thing I believe is a major must would be a tool to establish pricing. This tool would assist players in finding the average price range of items listed on active guild traders, and allow the market to balance itself with time. Current trader listings vary by double sometimes triple for different traders, oftentimes even traders standing next to each other.

Please post any thoughts or suggestions on this matter I am very curious to hear what you all have to say no post is to small or inconsequential.

The addon "Master Merchant" already assesses the average price of items and is driven by players retrieving data from merchants and comparing it to others. Anything added into the game by ZOS directly will automatically define a set average price, which will kill supply and demand. The best thing anyone can do in the game to get the best deals is, like any normal person, shop.

Yes, the economy isn't in a great state, mostly due to gear restrictions and the incessant Crown Store additions of in-game content, but an objective average pricing tool is not the way to fix the economy by any means.

Didgerion · January 2016

It is a confusing thread.

The title says you want balance and the post states you want tools.

ADarklore · January 2016

Clearly the OP doesn't understand basic real-world economics and how supply and demand work. Sure there are some who are guilty of colluding with other Guild Traders to drive up prices on various items. There is no rule of thumb across the board regarding what any player can set their pricing at... and the reason for such drastic pricing is because some players only belong to one guild, so they check what other players are charging within their guild and seem to think this is what prices are across the board- they are not- which is why some Guild Traders are full of high priced items while others are more reasonable.

For console players without the availability of the PC add-on "Master Merchant", I imagine it can be quite frustrating. Also, just to clarify, Master Merchant only accesses sales information from the Guilds that you are are a member of, so even with it your information is limited to, at most, what the market is for up to five guilds.

IrksomeSolid09 · January 2016

Didgerion wrote: »

It is a confusing thread.

The title says you want balance and the post states you want tools.

If you read the text all the way through it states clearly tools to assist with balancing the economy.

IrksomeSolid09 · January 2016

ADarklore wrote: »

Clearly the OP doesn't understand basic real-world economics and how supply and demand work. Sure there are some who are guilty of colluding with other Guild Traders to drive up prices on various items. There is no rule of thumb across the board regarding what any player can set their pricing at... and the reason for such drastic pricing is because some players only belong to one guild, so they check what other players are charging within their guild and seem to think this is what prices are across the board- they are not- which is why some Guild Traders are full of high priced items while others are more reasonable.

For console players without the availability of the PC add-on "Master Merchant", I imagine it can be quite frustrating. Also, just to clarify, Master Merchant only accesses sales information from the Guilds that you are are a member of, so even with it your information is limited to, at most, what the market is for up to five guilds.

The tool I suggest would have current average LISTED prices, not a set price for people to abide by, supply and demand would effect the information on the tool not vice verse.

IamNoobee · January 2016

bikerangelo wrote: »

The addon "Master Merchant" already assesses the average price of items and is driven by players retrieving data from merchants and comparing it to others.

the master merchant only shows you the average price of items that were sold in all of your guilds guildtrader.

unless there was a change to this addon that i have been unaware of, it doesnt compare it to any other guilds that you are not associated with.

IrksomeSolid09 · January 2016

I have yet to read any suggestions just people pointing out faults. If you disagree with my suggestion I would genuinely like to hear why, and what you suggest in its place.

sylviermoone · January 2016

What they are saying is that there is a PC add on called Master Merchant that does basically what you are asking for. It compiles sales data across the guilds to which you belong, and shows you an average price for an ifem, based on the sales data from your guilds. It also allows you to focus on longer or shorter spans of times, to see if an item is going up or down in value, as well as complaining a graph of each have individual sale of an item, so you can see the range of prices that the item has sold for.

If you're playing on PC, it's pretty much a must have. If you're on console....I have all the feels for you.

cyx54tc · January 2016

are you talking about... this

Zyle · January 2016

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info874-PriceTrackerUpdated.html

^ Pretty much does what you're talking about

IrksomeSolid09 · January 2016

I understand what the master merchant does I also understand its a somewhat limited system and also only available for pc.

However what I am suggesting is a tool that incorporates the sales of ALL active guild traders. It would allow you to see how much items are selling for server/zone/faction wide.

Whatever options are suggested, shot down, or utilized I think most would agree that something needs to be done. Therein lies the purpose of this thread I want to get the viewpoints of others on what they think could help to stabilize the economy.

I appreciate your help in trying to point out the available resources however none that I currently know of encompass all platforms, nor are they able to encompass the market as a whole.

sylviermoone wrote: »

It compiles sales data across the guilds to which you belong, and shows you an average price for an ifem, based on the sales data from your guilds. It also allows you to focus on longer or shorter spans of times, to see if an item is going up or down in value, as well as complaining a graph of each have individual sale of an item, so you can see the range of prices that the item has sold for.

If you're playing on PC, it's pretty much a must have. If you're on console....I have all the feels for you.

I do like the features above about sell prices instead of my suggestion of list prices. I also like the feature to graph time over price. Maybe even take it a step further with an average time the item remained listed.

ADarklore · January 2016

IrksomeSolid09 wrote: »

Whatever options are suggested, shot down, or utilized I think most would agree that something needs to be done.

Well, count me as one who thinks things are fine as is. First and foremost, ESO is a lore-based MMORPG, and back in Tamriel we didn't have 'internet' or computer access to browse for the best deals... in Tamriel, you have to travel from Guild Trader to Guild Trader in order to shop for the best deals. Even a tool that lists what is selling or what an item has sold for across platforms doesn't mean things would get better- and in fact- would get worse. Right now you have a good chance of finding a great deal on an item if you take the time to travel from Trader to Trader, but if you had a global list, then these items would be bought up quickly by the more wealthy players and re-sold at higher prices... which is already done but not on a 'global' scale. Further, even if you had a global list, that doesn't mean that you can SELL on any of those Traders because you have to be a member to be able to sell... so you'd still be stuck still only being able to sell at your own Guild Traders.

It seems in reality what you really are asking for is a Global Auction House, and the devs have already said NO multiple times in the past to the point that now they just refuse to even discuss it. While it is a pain to travel from place to place, it is also part of the RPG aspect of the game.

Heindrich · January 2016

What you are asking for has nothing to do with "balancing the economy".

However I wouldn't be opposed to a global guildstore sales database, though Mastermerchant suffices just fine for me.

BabeestorGor · January 2016

I'm pretty happy with things as they are. Something like MM added to the game would be useful but thats sale prices which is much more useful than listed prices. Average listed prices will be inflated by things put on at crazy prices that probably won't sell (eg I saw a 1st zone provisioning writ recipe at 15k the other day).

Also there are different markets. The big guilds with good sites tend to be more expensive but you know you can probably get what you want there. Smaller guilds especially guilds without a site tend to be cheaper but you won't always get what you want. Then there are the nice people who'd rather sell cheaply to a guild mate. I've picked up some real bargains from guild mates.

Sausage · January 2016

At least on PS4, some players realized how easy its to make money in IC and some didnt, so thats why economy is screwed up, currently we have very rich and very poor players and of course prices are accordingly to that. IC messed up things pretty good.