The biggest credit sink is missing the biggest trades; items now traded above GTN cap

[Xhuuyaa]

Augments are not necessary for newer players. I doubt they'll be going right into HM and NiM ops.

 

Thats not the point.

# I barely knew any player who could afford 14 x 1.5+ bn for OLD lvl 75 gold augments

# nobody should need them, because with the new level cap there schould be new lvl 80(!) augments with proper lvl 80 stats - as mentioned before, augments make ~30% tertiary stats, without lvl 80 crafting/augments this is more broken than ever

# with tendency to make some mats ultra rare to make players grind for them longer and longer, the devs are directly responsible for the ridiculous inflation in the GTN

[Toraak]

Thats not the point.

# I barely knew any player who could afford 14 x 1.5+ bn for OLD lvl 75 gold augments

# nobody should need them, because with the new level cap there schould be new lvl 80(!) augments with proper lvl 80 stats - as mentioned before, augments make ~30% tertiary stats, without lvl 80 crafting/augments this is more broken than ever

# with tendency to make some mats ultra rare to make players grind for them longer and longer, the devs are directly responsible for the ridiculous inflation in the GTN

 

Hate to say this, but even as a Vet player gold augments are definitely a waste. Use purple Augments. Much easier to craft, and the minimal loss of power/tertiary stats won't make much of a difference.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Toraak

[BRKMSN]

The only thing requiring stupid amounts of money to be spent is the ridiculous demands by some players, with warped senses of achievement or genuinely bad intent, for the price of items. There is no game mechanic requiring the acquisition of such huge sums of money as an objective for all players. Sure there're the Stronghold expansion costs, some Endgame pieces of equipment and account and character unlocks, all of whose (meagre) inflated costs were feeble attempts to soak up credits from the otherwise bottomless influx of "corrupt" credits into the game.

 

The reason so much money is flowing in the game is precisely because huge amounts can be transacted via GTN and inter-character trade between players. So first and foremost you need to constrict that flow. Look at all the items sold by vendors or bought back by them as "trash", mostly valued at mere hundreds or thousands of credits, they don't back up truckloads of credits to compensate you when you vendor the junk you acquire from trashing increasingly more powerful mobs at higher levels. The in-game economy amongst NPCs is a modest and reasonable one.

 

- So, firstly, cap all transaction amounts between player accounts to 1 million credits (MCr), there's nothing in the game that necessitates more than this for "progression". That's toon-to-toon by gifting or in exchange either "face-to-face" or by mail or GTN (or whatever else).

 

- Cap all toon "wallets" at say 10 MCr, Legacy and Guild banks at 1 billion (BCr). Move all bar 5 MCr of each toon and bank balances over 1 BCr into escrow, which is then free to withdraw from but cannot be added to. So once you fill up your wallets you cannot accept any more credits. Additional toon slots can be (temporarily) bought for 100 MCr up to current cap of toons per account.

 

- Make all CM items BoP or BoL, i.e. non-tradeable between players. So now the only "unreasonable" economy is driven by craftable or dropped items.

 

- Reduce (or increase) the cost of each existing credit sink to what's now reasonably attainable by all players and depending on how necessary or luxury they are.

 

- Introduce some time-limited buy-back vendors who will exchange credits for CC at say 10 MCr to 1 CC (or higher if the community of veterans and bad actors is so unreasonably wealthy). These vendors could be re-deployed if the economy gets overblown again at whatever exchange rate is needed.

 

- If it isn't already then make credits an in-game "cryptocurrency" so chain of custody is maintained and now bad actors (and their customers) have nowhere to hide.

 

- Revise material costs and requirements for current end-game craftables to make them more reasonable in the revised economy.

 

- Increase the tempo of release of new items in CM (BoP or BoL) and as BoE drops across all levels and play areas, but at suitable drop rates to reward reasonable graft for luck or grind of combinations of untradeable mission materials and currencies. Items should include moddable armour, accessory and weapon skins.

 

- Start adding new exploration and treasure hunts and Heroic missions in existing play areas with some of these new items as rewards.

 

- Add more craftable item and modification schematics (up to Endgame stat levels) to be dropped and found.

 

- There are no doubt other additions to generate (persisting) player interest

beyond just new zones and Operations. E.g. allow raiding of Guild properties either as PvP or PvE (where defenders in the latter are automated member toons). Loot would be random draws from equipped items and specific trophies for destroyed assets (yes that means destructible decos and infrastructure). Defenders would reap the random loot from defeated attackers. Guilds would then have to re-build damaged properties. Attackers and defenders would earn "Siege" XP (at different rates for victory or defeat) that could be traded for ship encryptions, stronghold reinforcement bonuses, destructible defending decos, siege attack bonuses and, maybe, even destructible multiple-toon crewed siege mounts.

Such epic confrontations could be automatically streamed to various platforms and even monetised by rewarding participating players with CC or real-world loot and cash.

 

People who genuinely feel the acquisition of wealth is the be all and end all of the game and would quit because of these limits aren't of the mind to keep the game healthy. We're better off without them. People who play the game for the love of the IP and experience they can generate within the game world are who are needed and should be nurtured.

 

Note: Any commercialisation of the above ideas will require the appropriate negotiated compensation for licensing.

 

Why didn't you cover specifically how the "inflation issue" directly funds this game? You are proposing that the game should defund itself. This game currently makes a pretty nice profit. Even with that, the development issues persist and the product is problematic with long waits between fixes and new content. I can't understand how anybody can believe that cutting the profit margin will lead to a better product. Things just don't work that way.

 

Your last sentence was a real laugher. Hopefully that was your intent. You start off your post calling out evil players of bad intent (greed) and conclude it with demands for personal compensation (for the concept of defunding of all things). Brilliant!

[Xhuuyaa]

Hate to say this, but even as a Vet player gold augments are definitely a waste. Use purple Augments. Much easier to craft, and the minimal loss of power/tertiary stats won't make much of a difference.

 

Youre right, especially because in 6.X most things were capped to 70.

But with 7.0 thats a bit different... 14 x 300 augments mean + ~400 Endurance + ~400 Power and + ~300 tertiary stats.

All in all ~1100 statpoints more than 75 purple augments.

[DurdensWrath]

The mats for augments have not been harder to come by since 7.0. Go out and spend some time farming them by hand (thats's what I do). It does take time and patience, but it can be done easily without anything other then time spent.

 

The only people paying for augments on the GTN are those that just want them quickly, or don't want to spend the time to get the mats themselves.

 

Where do you get the embers? Those were easy to come by pre 7.0. I have been raiding in 7.0 and haven't gotten one to my recollection.

 

In 6.0+ gear dropped and I got embers from it, or at least jawa junk. Now in their infinite stupidity, the devs gave dried up those two sources.

 

Augments are not necessary for newer players. I doubt they'll be going right into HM and NiM ops

 

That isn't your call to make. Regardless of your beliefs, those take quite a few million credits to be able to have required stats.

Edited April 3, 2022 by DurdensWrath

[Xhuuyaa]

Where do you get the embers? Those were easy to come by pre 7.0. I have been raiding in 7.0 and haven't gotten one to my recollection

 

Slicing to get Crew Missions - than run those missions.

[Taurax]

The GTN is not a credit sink, its a credit transfer. Raising the limit only transfers more money to another person. Go ahead, make it 4 bill, means everything will be simply 4 bill now.

 

The other credit ideas though in this thread are good ones.

 

Here's another. These new Underworld Syndicate plans, where's a vendor for them? Many people make or pass the cap on them weekly. So, we cash in 100 of them, AND pay 10 million credits, get a very special holographic mount. Or armor pieces. Or a holographic trench coat that we can put mods in.

[Mercielaga]

Currency Exchange.

 

1 million credits for 10 Tech Fragments

5 million for 1 Flagship Encryption

100 million for 1 Recovered Relic

1 billion credits for 10 Cartel Coins

 

Those are just numbers out of the air, and obviously would need to tweak the numbers, or even have them fluctuate with the market like actual currencies do.

 

But they have to be reasonable enough to get people to spend the credits, yet significant enough to take large numbers of credits out of the economy.

 

And best of all, it will reduce the credit stockpiles of people who have them, while not touching new players and people who are struggling for them.

[illgot]

The GTN is not a credit sink, its a credit transfer. Raising the limit only transfers more money to another person. Go ahead, make it 4 bill, means everything will be simply 4 bill now.

 

The other credit ideas though in this thread are good ones.

 

Here's another. These new Underworld Syndicate plans, where's a vendor for them? Many people make or pass the cap on them weekly. So, we cash in 100 of them, AND pay 10 million credits, get a very special holographic mount. Or armor pieces. Or a holographic trench coat that we can put mods in.

 

The GTN is by far the best credit sink in the game removing 8% of every transaction (less Tax Evasion Perk). Do you know how many billions go through the GTN every hour? Do you know what 8% of one billion credits is? Multiply that by the hundreds of billions taxed every day and maybe you would get a hint at how much the GTN removes from the game.

 

The issue is that inflation has made the GTN useless on a lot of items. People aren't selling items on the GTN that are worth more than 1 billion credits so they are instead trading which completely bypasses the tax.

 

My last big ticket sale was 30 billion credits. That could have easily been taxed 2.4 billion credits if sold through the GTN.

 

The GTN is by far the best credit sink we have in the game and if to think a 10 million credit mount will remove more credits than a GTN that allows players to sell items for more than 1 billion credits...

[DurdensWrath]

Slicing to get Crew Missions - than run those missions.

 

So you still need significant credits to do this. First to level the skills, then to level the companions, then to run the missions.

 

And that is with the 6.0+ taps dried up. Because the Admiral Ozzels in charge don't allow for jawa junk or embers to come ftom deconstruct of even rakata gear.

[Pricia]

The GTN is not a credit sink, its a credit transfer. Raising the limit only transfers more money to another person. Go ahead, make it 4 bill, means everything will be simply 4 bill now.

 

The other credit ideas though in this thread are good ones.

 

Here's another. These new Underworld Syndicate plans, where's a vendor for them? Many people make or pass the cap on them weekly. So, we cash in 100 of them, AND pay 10 million credits, get a very special holographic mount. Or armor pieces. Or a holographic trench coat that we can put mods in.

 

You forget the tax. That's money that's lost from the economy.

 

And sure, you can put everything on sale at 4b, it will never sell, but whatever.

[illgot]

I dont think your sarcasm would solve the problem. Consequences of the current state of the GTN are;

# new players stop playing or

# buying credits from credit sellers

# or buying cm stuff to sell it for credits, to buy such things as augments (you can consider this a form of ptw)

 

None of this is very healthy for the game. And to be honest; even the grind isnt the same as in other MMOs - in STWOR its not for some kind of progression, its because the devs are trying to hide the lack of any new content.

 

what game or even MMO have you played that gives new players the best items instantly? The whole point of a game is to explore, find, or earn items in various ways.

 

And in this games current economy you can make billions selling level 5 green mats easily farmed via companions or tromping around level 20-30 planets.

Edited April 3, 2022 by illgot

[Taurax]

The GTN is by far the best credit sink in the game removing 8% of every transaction (less Tax Evasion Perk). Do you know how many billions go through the GTN every hour? Do you know what 8% of one billion credits is? Multiply that by the hundreds of billions taxed every day and maybe you would get a hint at how much the GTN removes from the game.

 

The issue is that inflation has made the GTN useless on a lot of items. People aren't selling items on the GTN that are worth more than 1 billion credits so they are instead trading which completely bypasses the tax.

 

My last big ticket sale was 30 billion credits. That could have easily been taxed 2.4 billion credits if sold through the GTN.

 

The GTN is by far the best credit sink we have in the game and if to think a 10 million credit mount will remove more credits than a GTN that allows players to sell items for more than 1 billion credits...

 

What the GTN is, is an easy way to sell wares, so you dont have to be online in the chat channels competing for sales. As it stands, unless you go into the chat chanel to sell something more than a billion, its the only thing in this game keeping any sort of price in check..meaning you cant sell more than a billion...unless you make the effort. Lets be honest, people want the GTN to have its cap raised so they can sell items for more than a billion...so they can just list something and move on. People dont even care about the tax for GTN.

 

and the 10 million mount, was one specific example. Make it a billion...2 billion..

Edited April 3, 2022 by Taurax

[Taurax]

I dont think your sarcasm would solve the problem. Consequences of the current state of the GTN are;

# new players stop playing or

# buying credits from credit sellers

# or buying cm stuff to sell it for credits, to buy such things as augments (you can consider this a form of ptw)

 

None of this is very healthy for the game. And to be honest; even the grind isnt the same as in other MMOs - in STWOR its not for some kind of progression, its because the devs are trying to hide the lack of any new content.

 

All of those you mentioned have been going on for ten years in this game. There were credit sellers day 1, as people bought from them. New players quit, not because of new prices/GTN, but because of lack of content, or toxic community. People have been buying crates with CC to sell for credits since they were conceived. Its not a current state...it was already happening and none of it is due to the GTN.

[Pricia]

What the GTN is, is an easy way to sell wares, so you dont have to be online in the chat channels competing for sales. As it stands, unless you go into the chat chanel to sell something more than a billion, its the only thing in this game keeping any sort of price in check..meaning you cant sell more than a billion...unless you make the effort. Lets be honest, people want the GTN to have its cap raised so they can sell items for more than a billion...so they can just list something and move on. People dont even care about the tax for GTN.

 

Quite sure all the people spamming that they have stuff to sell over 1b are still willing to sell the item over 1b WITHOUT the GTN. So it really doesn't change much.

 

And they might ignore the tax but it's STILL money that would get out of the economy.

[illgot]

What the GTN is, is an easy way to sell wares, so you dont have to be online in the chat channels competing for sales. As it stands, unless you go into the chat chanel to sell something more than a billion, its the only thing in this game keeping any sort of price in check..meaning you cant sell more than a billion...unless you make the effort. Lets be honest, people want the GTN to have its cap raised so they can sell items for more than a billion...so they can just list something and move on. People dont even care about the tax for GTN.

 

and the 10 million mount, was one specific example. Make it a billion...2 billion..

 

When I need credits I regularly sell items for 10-20 billion credits. There are a plethora of people spamming they WTB or WTS items for 2-3 billion credits constantly.

 

Raising the limit on the GTN won't raise prices as much as allow people to sell items they are already trading for more than 1 billion credits.

 

If anything, allowing items to be sold on the GTN for more than 1 billion will drop prices of many items currently over a billion because there will be visible competition on the GTN versus being lucky and seeing someone sell the exact item you want in trade.

 

If the rare items I sell could easily be found on the GTN I wouldn't be able to command prices of 10-20 billion I get now because other people would post their items for a lot less.

 

Plus the GTN tax of 8% is the best credit sink we have in game and it's being bypassed every time we trade multi-billion credit trades.

Edited April 3, 2022 by illgot

[cjmarsh]

When I need credits I regularly sell items for 10-20 billion credits. There are a plethora of people spamming they WTB or WTS items for 2-3 billion credits constantly.

 

Raising the limit on the GTN won't raise prices as much as allow people to sell items they are already trading for more than 1 billion credits.

 

If anything, allowing items to be sold on the GTN for more than 1 billion will drop prices of many items currently over a billion because there will be visible competition on the GTN versus being lucky and seeing someone sell the exact item you want in trade.

 

If the rare items I sell could easily be found on the GTN I wouldn't be able to command prices of 10-20 billion I get now because other people would post their items for a lot less.

 

Plus the GTN tax of 8% is the best credit sink we have in game and it's being bypassed every time we trade multi-billion credit trades.

 

To play Devil's Advocate, raising the ceiling on the GTN credit cap definitely would raise prices. It doesn't matter much for things that go for 20b but when the items are priced around the 1b range it encourages people to put it under the cap so they don't have to trade it manually. However, the credit sink is so badly needed that it might be worthwhile anyways.

[illgot]

To play Devil's Advocate, raising the ceiling on the GTN credit cap definitely would raise prices. It doesn't matter much for things that go for 20b but when the items are priced around the 1b range it encourages people to put it under the cap so they don't have to trade it manually. However, the credit sink is so badly needed that it might be worthwhile anyways.

 

true, a few items which are hovering around 1 billion would probably go up immediately. I can easily see Master Datacrons instantly jumping to 1-1.2 billion over night but other items that are being sold around 2-3 billion will probably go down because of visible competition.

 

And items I sell for 10-20 billion would definitely go down because visible competition would exist.

 

Over all it doesn't matter, the market will regulate over time, what does matter is the GTN would act as a credit sink for trades over 1 billion credits.

 

The active credit sink for multi-billion credit trades helps the economy more than worrying about a few items currently hovering at 1 billion credits increasing in price 20%.

[black_pyros]

The Remnant sets should have been Credits only to unlock account wide.

Why on Earth would I spend credits to account wide unlock something I can transfer between alts for free since it's legacy bound:rak_02:

[black_pyros]

GTN cap encourages people to put items under it so they don't have to trade them manually. Because of that raising of it wouldn't be beneficial for buyers and it would benefit sellers only. If everything you are worried about is the avoiding of GTN tax credit sink when players use direct trade, simply force same tax on all direct trades involving credits. Problem solved (without raising the cap). Edited April 4, 2022 by black_pyros

[tritiya]

Why? Why everyone is asking for a credit sink? Why the inflation of prices of (CARTEL MARKET ITEMS!!!) surprises you? With the exception of 300 Rating Augments you DON'T NEED much credits to Play the game! Maybe other currencies for gear, yes, but cosmetics can be expensive and it's not a problem at all!

Or you need BW to NERF credit rewards or implement something which will make earning credits like what Conquest is now?!?!?! And not be able to afford even speeder/spaceship travel! Dyes, armour skins, weapon skins... these things cost a lot and why these items should be easily obtainable??? Armour/weapons with stats are obtainable thru the gearing system and requires very low amounts of credits. May be augments and stims/adrenals and their crafting materials are really the things which need to be made more accessible (but these mats can be gathered).

And one good solution IMO can be ALL cartel market armours/weapons/mounts/unlocks... to be "Bound on Pickup". Only CC will be able to buy them and there will be no skyhigh prices anymore (at least for CC items). Almost no item from the GTN (augs are the exceptions) is absolutelly needed to play the game.

Another (temporarily) solution may be to raise the cap of creds (both for GTN listings and inventory, why ~4Billion max?!). Inflation is a process which cannot be stopped and sooner or later it becomes exponential.

[Pricia]

Why on Earth would I spend credits to account wide unlock something I can transfer between alts for free since it's legacy bound:rak_02:

 

Convenience. If you're playing Space Barbie and you want the boots from a specific outfit, it's easier to claim it now than having to switch toons, claim it, put it in the vault, switch toon again, and claim it. In that time I can run a heroic and make 25k...

 

Makes more sense than spending CC anyway.

[Pricia]

Why? Why everyone is asking for a credit sink? Why the inflation of prices of (CARTEL MARKET ITEMS!!!) surprises you? With the exception of 300 Rating Augments you DON'T NEED much credits to Play the game! Maybe other currencies for gear, yes, but cosmetics can be expensive and it's not a problem at all!

Or you need BW to NERF credit rewards or implement something which will make earning credits like what Conquest is now?!?!?! And not be able to afford even speeder/spaceship travel! Dyes, armour skins, weapon skins... these things cost a lot and why these items should be easily obtainable??? Armour/weapons with stats are obtainable thru the gearing system and requires very low amounts of credits. May be augments and stims/adrenals and their crafting materials are really the things which need to be made more accessible (but these mats can be gathered).

And one good solution IMO can be ALL cartel market armours/weapons/mounts/unlocks... to be "Bound on Pickup". Only CC will be able to buy them and there will be no skyhigh prices anymore (at least for CC items). Almost no item from the GTN (augs are the exceptions) is absolutelly needed to play the game.

Another (temporarily) solution may be to raise the cap of creds (both for GTN listings and inventory, why ~4Billion max?!). Inflation is a process which cannot be stopped and sooner or later it becomes exponential.

 

Again... yeah no. At least people have the option to buy CM stuff for credits now. Having to spend RL for everything is a TERRIBLE idea. I'd guess that a lot of people would quit the game over that one...

 

But anyway, again, I don't see the issue with inflation. It's easy to make credits and nobody NEEDS the stuff that gets sold on the GTN anyway (except raiders but they can get the parts themselves and ask a guildmate to make the augments).

[DigitalHype]

The inflation is desired by EA/BW. Higher in-game currency prices leads to more and larger Cartel Market purchases by players who resell CM items for credits. Ever wonder why BW doesn't show you the GTN buyer? Think about it.

[BinxyFuneral]

Ad hominem attack instead of a real counter-argument. So you have no real reply to my points? Good to know.

I mean, they were clearly right. You went out of your way to insult an entire class of player and are playing the victim when you got called out.