Some Inflation Suggestions

[HRBEK]

The inflation is only getting crazier by the day (it was horrendous already, but it has skyrocketed - more than normal 😛 - in the last couple of months), so I thought I'd make a couple of suggestions as to how it might be addressed. Game economies are inherently pretty inflationary, but at the very least, something can be done to slow this down a bit. I'm sure none of the things I mention will, in isolation, achieve much. However, with a multi-pronged strategy, perhaps we can put the brakes on. Would love to see some smarter suggestions from others, but the following are just some pie in the sky ideas from off the top of my head:

1. First off, seeing as some level of inflation is pretty much unavoidable, the credit caps are a needless and painful farce, compelling people to bid up prices for items that they think can act as stores of value. If the credit caps are not going to be removed (which they should be, if possible), then a workaround that would require less effort would be to create some NPC vendor good that is otherwise useless (e.g., high-value credit certificates), but which can be sold back to the vendor for the exact (or near enough, if you want it to be deflationary) purchase price at any time. Set that price high enough (e.g., 1 or 10 million credits), and people can just buy up those useless items and retain them for later resale to NPC vendors. This will reduce the inflation-driven demand for items and remove the upward pressure it exerts on prices.

2. As for actually reducing the inflation, an obvious start would be to eliminate the limit on listing prices for the GTN. The current price limit achieves less than nothing, as all the cap does is tempt people to utilise trades and e-mail-based exchanges, thereby avoiding the GTN tax on significant sales (i.e., of over 1 billion credits), which means that more credits remain in the economy. While many would still use such trades to avoid taxes, the lazier among us would settle for using the GTN; I certainly would at times, especially if the GTN tax-rate for every credit over a billion was reduced (e.g., 8% for every credit up to the billionth, and then 6% for every credit thereafter). But regardless of whether a single rate is retained, I see no reason not to eliminate the price-cap entirely, as there are now far too many items that are too valuable to be sold on the GTN. It might even be worth adding an achievement (and perhaps a small reward) for a player’s first sale of an item priced at over 1 billion credits, and then for their 10th and 25th to give them an additional incentive to sell on the GTN.

3. This one would only work if suggestion 2 were to be adopted. Some players in another suggestion thread suggested that eliminating the use of credits in in-game trades and via the mailbox system might be necessary; but that would carry consequences worse than what the intervention would be trying to prevent (e.g., making it hard for lowbies to sell low-value items to friends/guildies directly). I'd suggest merely placing some loose restrictions on monetary transactions via in-game trades and in e-mails to characters outside of your own Legacy. For example, similar to how the Guild Banks work with regard to withdrawals, you could make it so that any given character can only transfer up to 2 billion credits within a certain time-frame (e.g., per transaction, or every 12 or 24 hours). This would make large transfers of credits a little more difficult and time-consuming/labour-intensive for credit scammers. If they want to transfer credits to buyers, they will need to do so via separate accounts or organise for multiple transfers over time, causing them an inconvenience and complicating their transactions. Additionally, sellers trying to fetch high prices for sale items might be worried that buyers won’t make their promised follow-up payments for items costing more than 2 billion credits. This will tempt them to use the GTN and simply pay the sales tax. This would also put downward pressure on the prices of items that hover around the 2 billion mark, as people may just settle for the convenience of the lower price in in-game trades, as they can still dodge the tax.

If this method is to be adopted, it would be imperative that the GTN tax be reduced on all credits beyond 1 billion in a single sale. This would dampen the blow a bit, and would make people more willing to use the service for high-value items. The reduced tax and the heightened risk incurred by in-game trades would cause an upswell in high-value GTN sales.

4. Substantially increase the cost of the Tax Evasion bonuses, as they are currently far too lucrative. I alone saved over 200 million credits during one cycle of Tax Evasion II in a lazy month. Sure, small guilds (like mine) would be frustrated by the higher upfront cost, but this price would be worth tweaking, just to make people consider whether or not to unlock that bonus more carefully. I would recommend at least(!) quintupling the Tax Evasion bonus prices. And if the above recommendation about a lower GTN tax-rate for credits beyond the billionth is taken up, Tax Evasion perks should only apply up until the billionth. People charging beyond that amount do not need the extra help.

5. You could use easier Conquest completion as a way to get some credits out of the economy. For example, you could add some NPCs on Nar Shaddaa, Mek-Sha, and other places that have downtrodden populations, and add charity vendors there. You could grant Achievements and Conquest Points for those who donate regularly and/or beyond a certain amount over time. For example, you could grant an achievement for reaching 25 million credits in donations overall, and grant 2,500 Conquest Points for a 1 million credit donation (for example) on a given day. If you add an unbound decoration prize (and perhaps a Title) for gaining the Achievement, that would be an incentive for people to do this, and if they decide to sell the prize, this could allow further credits to leave the system via the GTN tax.

6. Add the portable GTN console to the Legacy menu and charge a ton of credits for it. This would increase GTN listings (and hence, taxes collected), and GTN low-lives like me would pay loads just for the novelty of having it.

7. Increase the repair costs of endgame gear. By the time players reach the endgame content, they are usually sufficiently stocked with credits. Repair bills are a trifle now, whereas they used to be a slap in the pocket. I think it would be worth altering how repair costs increase in accordance with Gear Rating so that endgame repairs end up being at least thrice as high as they are now. This won't do a whole lot, but it would do something, and would help to restore repair costs, so that they serve their proper function.

I'm not going to pretend these are amazing or original, but they'd be something, at least. The measures in the last update were never going to achieve anything. In some respects, they made things worse (e.g., making Personal Conquests harder to complete, and thus, reducing the supply of Flagship Encryptions, which caused them to rise in price). If anyone can think of ways to improve my recommendations, or knows some reasons why they're nonsensical or impractical (I know nothing about game design), fire away :D!

[xxSHOONYxx]

I had always though that the steps to combat what is happening with credits right now needs two steps, and this is coming from someone that has no knowledge or studies on economics so everything i say can have a worse impact. I have always heard about how the economy in a game is essential for the game and if the economy is bad it causes the game to fail or lose players.

I think its safe to assume that if not everyone 99% of people already think the issue with credits is dire or worrying and some even have to go through hoops because they are at the max capaity of credits. 

A sort of "clean slate" is also needed for the new players that come into the game, if new player retention is awful the game eventually will die. A total clean slate would not be fair to existing players either so it would need to be something in between. Like idk creating a new currency and give it an exchange rate of 1b credits = 1mil new credits, and all the quests, adds, rewards go from giving credits to new credits.

And after that is implemented steps can be placed to stop this crazy inflation from happening again or more/better credit sink implenetation (and change the gear repair prices, augmentation costs and the sorts according to what people will have). 

[Darcmoon]

36 minutes ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

I had always though that the steps to combat what is happening with credits right now needs two steps, and this is coming from someone that has no knowledge or studies on economics so everything i say can have a worse impact. I have always heard about how the economy in a game is essential for the game and if the economy is bad it causes the game to fail or lose players.

I think its safe to assume that if not everyone 99% of people already think the issue with credits is dire or worrying and some even have to go through hoops because they are at the max capaity of credits. 

A sort of "clean slate" is also needed for the new players that come into the game, if new player retention is awful the game eventually will die. A total clean slate would not be fair to existing players either so it would need to be something in between. Like idk creating a new currency and give it an exchange rate of 1b credits = 1mil new credits, and all the quests, adds, rewards go from giving credits to new credits.

And after that is implemented steps can be placed to stop this crazy inflation from happening again or more/better credit sink implenetation (and change the gear repair prices, augmentation costs and the sorts according to what people will have). 

There is functionally no difference between your suggestion and just removing one or two numbers from the end of everyone’s current amount of credits or just capping everyone at a predetermined credit amount and erasing everything above that.  Unfortunately, for myself at least, that would be reason to quit the game.  As someone in another thread mentioned, even if they didn’t take all your credits that would be the way everyone would portray it. 
Additionally, they have tried alternative currencies before but they usually go away after a xpac or two.   Now granted, they weren’t total currency exchange like you are mentioning but I’m not sure how long or we’ll it would work for. 

[xxSHOONYxx]

32 minutes ago, Darcmoon said:

There is functionally no difference between your suggestion and just removing one or two numbers from the end of everyone’s current amount of credits or just capping everyone at a predetermined credit amount and erasing everything above that.  Unfortunately, for myself at least, that would be reason to quit the game.  As someone in another thread mentioned, even if they didn’t take all your credits that would be the way everyone would portray it. 
Additionally, they have tried alternative currencies before but they usually go away after a xpac or two.   Now granted, they weren’t total currency exchange like you are mentioning but I’m not sure how long or we’ll it would work for. 

Its would not be exactly earsing everything more like a conversion, you and everyone elses credits are divided by 1000 or whatever, but npc prices are also reduced and gtn or player set prices would regulate itself when no one will buy something overpriced with the amount of credits everyone has now. So the difference of credits you and i have would be the "same", that wouldn't fix inflation and would be a "soft patch" but will help greatly new players that are starting the game. 

If that is done, to prevent that level of inflation again other ideas would need to be implemented. Either credit sinks, more gtn taxes/trade taxes or whatever

But that is just what i was thinking, doesnt have to be exatly like that, i just think the issue with inflation while its detrimental to the existing player base its the same or even more of an issue for new player retention. Someone with studies on economy can come up with better solutions for both issues though, as i said my economy knowledge goes as far as "printing money = bad and causes inflation"

[Darcmoon]

12 minutes ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

Its would not be exactly earsing everything more like a conversion, you and everyone elses credits are divided by 1000 or whatever, but npc prices are also reduced and gtn or player set prices would regulate itself when no one will buy something overpriced with the amount of credits everyone has now. So the difference of credits you and i have would be the "same", that wouldn't fix inflation and would be a "soft patch" but will help greatly new players that are starting the game. 

If that is done, to prevent that level of inflation again other ideas would need to be implemented. Either credit sinks, more gtn taxes/trade taxes or whatever

But that is just what i was thinking, doesnt have to be exatly like that, i just think the issue with inflation while its detrimental to the existing player base its the same or even more of an issue for new player retention. Someone with studies on economy can come up with better solutions for both issues though, as i said my economy knowledge goes as far as "printing money = bad and causes inflation"

So it would effectively be the same as removing the last three numbers from the amount everyone has.  I know you say conversion but that is what it equates too.   Items will still be overpriced, but that amount will just be less.  Because something that is selling for 1B before the conversion would probably go for 1M after.  While the actual number amount changes, the effective difference between what people have vs the cost doesn’t change.  And you mentioned new players. How would you explain to them that where they had, say, 10000 credits before, they only have 10 now?   I’ll grant that players that start after that would be coming in clean and not having that issue.  You mentioned reducing the NPC costs but unless you have the rewards similarly reduced then inflation would become just as bad even more quickly. 

[xxSHOONYxx]

38 minutes ago, Darcmoon said:

Items will still be overpriced, but that amount will just be less.  Because something that is selling for 1B before the conversion would probably go for 1M after.

That is kind of the point though and what i tried to explain, conversion is not to help you me or anyone that plays, but for newer players. New players while leveling or doing quests can get the credits through doing story missions, earning 20k "new credits" a quest when end game players have millions and expensive item prices are on the millions is a LOT different than earning 20k a quest and players have billions of and gtn is not even used. 
 

44 minutes ago, Darcmoon said:

How would you explain to them that where they had, say, 10000 credits before, they only have 10 now?

There might need to be restrictions, which? i don't know because i havent thought about it what i said about the conversion example was an idea i had on the spot, it doesnt need to only be a good or fair idea, but also needs to not be able to not be exploited by players creating new accounts and storing credits on new accounts.

 

48 minutes ago, Darcmoon said:

You mentioned reducing the NPC costs but unless you have the rewards similarly reduced then inflation would become just as bad even more quickly. 

Yes, thats why i tried to explain, that 2 steps need to be done to deal with infaltion, one is to help new player retantion, and the other is to create good systems so inflation doesn't happen again, or at least not at this degree, right now it seems like  the game is based in Venezuela and not in a galaxy far away. Inflation will always happen because "money" is always being "printed", but with good ccredit sinks or taxes on gtn or trades it can be slowed. And as i said, i don't know anything about economics, but if inflation is only seen as for end game fixes, maybe prices will start to reduce on the long run, but it might take years for new players to feel again like they can atually purchase anything in game, even the most basic things and the game will still have an awful new player retention. 

It's not my case but if i started the game and see the credits i gain and the credits i need for anything that should be basic, it would make me to uninstal so fast.

[Darcmoon]

12 minutes ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

It's not my case but if i started the game and see the credits i gain and the credits i need for anything that should be basic, it would make me to uninstal so fast.

This is part of the problem though.  Basic items are still affordable.  It is items from the cartel market, augs, gathered items and things that have gotten to be so expensive.   Gathered items can be gotten effectively for free by doing it yourself, augs are not required items and not worth it at all before endgame and still not required then. Cartel Market items seem to be what most everyone is talking about when it comes to inflation and while I agree that the costs are ridiculous I also know that none of those items are required.  So equating basic items with non-essentials for new players is a bit too far. 

[xxSHOONYxx]

23 minutes ago, Darcmoon said:

This is part of the problem though.  Basic items are still affordable.  It is items from the cartel market, augs, gathered items and things that have gotten to be so expensive.   Gathered items can be gotten effectively for free by doing it yourself, augs are not required items and not worth it at all before endgame and still not required then. Cartel Market items seem to be what most everyone is talking about when it comes to inflation and while I agree that the costs are ridiculous I also know that none of those items are required.  So equating basic items with non-essentials for new players is a bit too far. 

I mean augment kits, augments, adrenals stims medpacs as basic items, nothing cosmetic. Anything that is requiered for a player to stay and do end game content. When i do ops on a character that doesn't have biochem i end up spending 50-100m credits on one operation. Not that new players jump straight into nim when they reach 80, but everything for them is beyond expensive.

I remember when i did DvL event of doing all the class stories again if you did everything and sold everything you got gear included up to shadow of revan included you could make around 2m credits by what i remember, maybe 1 or 2m more now to lvl 80? Maybe rewards changed, but if they are the same you can buy one adrenal if you are lucky at current prices and it lasts a few seconds, with the credits it took you several hours/days to get. 

Edited October 13, 2022 by xxSHOONYxx

[Darcmoon]

16 minutes ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

I mean augment kits, augments, adrenals stims medpacs as basic items, nothing cosmetic. Anything that is requiered for a player to stay and do end game content. When i do ops on a character that doesn't have biochem i end up spending 50-100m credits on one operation. Not that new players jump straight into nim when they reach 80, but everything for them is beyond expensive.

I remember when i did DvL event of doing all the class stories again if you did everything and sold everything you got gear included up to shadow of revan included you could make around 2m credits by what i remember, maybe 1 or 2m more now to lvl 80? Maybe rewards changed, but if they are the same you can buy one adrenal if you are lucky at current prices and it lasts a few seconds, with the credits it took you several hours/days to get. 

You are talking about the player made medpacs, adrenals, and stims.  Those are not basic items. You can buy medpacs and stims from NPC vendors in game.   And they drop also as you are playing. They have remained the same price.  Also, I wouldn’t consider end game content as for new players.   Even when they get to max level and start doing operations they don’t need augs, aug kits or player made items.   If they are going for NiM OPs then I imagine they are also probably doing the crafting on a few different characters so they don’t have to buy them off the GTN.  I still can’t in anyway classify those items as basic. 

[xxSHOONYxx]

3 hours ago, Darcmoon said:

You are talking about the player made medpacs, adrenals, and stims.  Those are not basic items. You can buy medpacs and stims from NPC vendors in game.   And they drop also as you are playing. They have remained the same price.  Also, I wouldn’t consider end game content as for new players.   Even when they get to max level and start doing operations they don’t need augs, aug kits or player made items.   If they are going for NiM OPs then I imagine they are also probably doing the crafting on a few different characters so they don’t have to buy them off the GTN.  I still can’t in anyway classify those items as basic. 

Guess we will have to agree to disagree then. To me all of those are basic and the only luxury cosmetics and yellow augments to a slight degree. As i recall last time i transfer a character and tried to learn the biochem reusables i spent 3 hours gathering mats, got bored and ended up buying the materials to level biochem and then trying to learn reusables or purple grade items and spent 3b credits to not learn any reusable and ended up just buying the reusables of the gtn.

To me specifically the prices barely affect me, just the slight inconvinence that if i want something i ask in trade because gtn has barely anything anymore. I don't even know where to save credits anymore.

But at the end of the day if nothing is done also for the new players everyone can keep their billions on their pocket and without an influx of new players the game population turns to dust. I don't know who would want to stay around in a game with a messed up economy

[BRKMSN]

2 hours ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

Guess we will have to agree to disagree then. To me all of those are basic and the only luxury cosmetics and yellow augments to a slight degree. As i recall last time i transfer a character and tried to learn the biochem reusables i spent 3 hours gathering mats, got bored and ended up buying the materials to level biochem and then trying to learn reusables or purple grade items and spent 3b credits to not learn any reusable and ended up just buying the reusables of the gtn.

To me specifically the prices barely affect me, just the slight inconvinence that if i want something i ask in trade because gtn has barely anything anymore. I don't even know where to save credits anymore.

But at the end of the day if nothing is done also for the new players everyone can keep their billions on their pocket and without an influx of new players the game population turns to dust. I don't know who would want to stay around in a game with a messed up economy

The biggest problem is that players keep whining about the player to player trade inflation. Bioware's go-to fix is to nerf credit rewards again. I remember really enjoying conquest during 6.0. There wasn't a lot of new content rolling out, but conquest was rewarding and it kept me doing a lot of things. Now that they removed the extra credit and XP awards, conquest has lost it's appeal and for the first time since launch, I'm considering other games (or alternatives) for my free time. 

 

The bottom line is that games need to feel rewarding to play. Like others, I feel a massive move to devalue or remove credits without the implementation of credit sinks would lead me to quit. My sub hasn't lapsed since the game launched. I understand with gearing, the system has to be overhauled every so often and we basically have to start from scratch with a new system at a new max level. But credits have been a staple throughout all the changes within the game. If they take away what I have built up, I won't be starting over.  Any new player just starting out is very unlikely to plan to be subbed for 10 years. If the game caters to the players that just arrived and feel the game just isn't fun unless they look a little bit cooler, then they'll be selling out to a portion of gamers that don't subscribe for long. It would be one of the dumbest business decisions a company can make. 

[HRBEK]

I know the previous thread about the inflation mentioned augments and such for credit sinks, which was why I didn't add it here. Personally, I like the idea of decorations for credit sinks. It would be sucky that newer players would struggle to be able to buy them, but it would be a way to reduce overall prices without having to resort merely to increases in costs, which add no fun to the game. Definitely a good point about the need for the game to feel rewarding, as the best answer is always going to be more items, not more costs. If they could do enough of that, there'd be less of a need to mess around with in-game trades and such (I use them rarely anyway, despite their massive advantages). Trouble is that adding things is more difficult for them, and I feel that difficulty is something that they are looking to avoid in their inflation fighting :P, unfortunately.

I agree with the posters above that a nominal decrease in credits (i.e., trimming a zero) would achieve very little. The only up-side I can see is that it would be a back-door way of eliminating the problems created by the credit caps (so long as they don't trim those too, lol). But I think the better solution would be to simply eliminate the credit caps, so as to avoid any confusion amongst players who would think they had just been expropriated if they saw one or two fewer zeroes in the balances :D.

[HRBEK]

16 hours ago, Darcmoon said:

This is part of the problem though.  Basic items are still affordable.  It is items from the cartel market, augs, gathered items and things that have gotten to be so expensive.   Gathered items can be gotten effectively for free by doing it yourself, augs are not required items and not worth it at all before endgame and still not required then. Cartel Market items seem to be what most everyone is talking about when it comes to inflation and while I agree that the costs are ridiculous I also know that none of those items are required.  So equating basic items with non-essentials for new players is a bit too far. 

Agreed. It's the later and optional items most affected, as they are really what all the richer players are spending their credits on. I was keeping track of prices on a fairly large number of armour sets and decorations, and just within the last couple of months, there has been an incredible boom in prices. The price trajectory was already bad, but it's gone into overdrive regarding a lot of the decoration prices (some jumping from tens to hundreds of millions over that timespan). Any approach needs to be targetted in such a way that it addresses absurdities like what we see on the GTN for such items, instead of affecting all items (e.g., lowbie essentials), which you rightly say would just cause other problems. Making some of the items cheaper in terms of Cartel Coins would help to increase supply and bring down prices, but I don't see EA doing that :D, even though they absolutely should for some of the individual decorations (and whatever else), which are priced almost as highly as some of the bundles.

[WHTJunior]

I always thought that, in order to curb inflation, one goal is to also curb resellers. Once an item is placed on the GTN, it should be BoP to the purchaser, making it only sellable once on the GTN. Then, make Cartel Market items so that they can't be manually traded to other players, making the GTN the only way they can sell it. At the very least, you could then prevent resellers from resetting the market, and/or just buying things to list higher.

[HRBEK]

I don't think curbing resellers is the best approach. If people want to speculate, they should be able to speculate; and not all people who buy and then resell are people who bought those items to resell them (e.g., maybe they changed their mind about consuming an item they bought). It's always fun buying something, forgetting about it, and then finding it years later and seeing that it has appreciated.

One priority I should be reducing the supply of new credits (e.g., by removing credit and - credit certificate - rewards from completion of CQ objectives); or at least doing so for players passed a certain level. More importantly, they need to make sure there is a big supply of things to use credits on (i.e., "credit sinks"). WIth more things to do with your credits, prices get pushed downward; and people have listed some interesting and very doable suggestions in this forum. And certain costs need to be brought into line with the inflation rate because they have been rendered completely meaningless (e.g., repair costs need to be massively increased for endgame gear).

I definitely agree that in-game trades definitely present a challenge. I think the best start to addressing that would be eliminating that senseless price cap for GTN listings. From there they can assess how effective this is and then possibly impose some mild restrictions on in-game trades (e.g., imposing a daily or weekly credit limit for in-game trades; see my original post) if the inflation is still out of control. But this will ultimately require a multiprong approach because they have let this get so out of hand that any single measure is not going to dent the inflation machine.

[DarthSpekulatius]

5 hours ago, HRBEK said:

(e.g., repair costs need to be massively increased for endgame gear).

in my Experience People who play the Game in modes where Repair bills stack up the most aren't necessarily rich and those who are didn't get their credits from the same Game mode that they were getting the Repair Bills from. Did you notice that you don't get much in the way of credits, but a lot of deaths -> big repair bills, in hard Raids? you aren't getting many Tech fragments (that can be sold to players in the form of Crafting mats) either.

meanwhile SM OPS generate way more Fragments / time spent, and if you get repair bills in SM you are doing things very, very wrong.
PVP&GSF don't generate any repair bills whatsoever but you do get Credits and Fragments.

 increasing repair bills will increase Inflation not reduce it (because it would force People who don't care about credits currently to find the fastest ways to make the most amount of credits Possible) with extras to spare.

 

unless you make the Areas around the GTN free for all PVP areas with Equipment Damage on death, and make repair bills be based on Total Credits across all Legacy's on all servers and also tax Credit transfers so that alt accounts don't work. I don't see how increased Repair bills would reduce the Amount of credits circulating around.

(btw I'd watch the fire while eating Popcorn if the GTN PVP was a thing)

[BiggerChickens]

I think that people are missing an essential point: BioWare actually prefers it when game currency is worthless.

When I look at an item that I really want for my character or a stronghold and see that it is 1 billion credits on the GTN and $5 USD in the Cartel Market, it comes down to a pretty simple calculus: which is worth more to me?  The time it would take me to make a billion credits, or the time it would take me to earn $5?  BioWare wants me to spend the real money.  

There are multiple threads with pages of posts about this "issue".  What players fail to realize is that this is working as intended, and that BioWare has no motivation to change this.

I'd also like to suggest that if BioWare is not actually selling game credits through shell companies, they are being completely foolish.  Why would you allow someone else make real world money off of your in-game economy when you could do it yourself, and without the need for "farmers" or "bots"?  

Curb the credit sellers?  They are the credit sellers!

Edited November 5, 2022 by BiggerChickens

[microstyles]

On 10/13/2022 at 8:40 AM, HRBEK said:

1. First off, seeing as some level of inflation is pretty much unavoidable, the credit caps are a needless and painful farce, compelling people to bid up prices for items that they think can act as stores of value. If the credit caps are not going to be removed (which they should be, if possible), then a workaround that would require less effort would be to create some NPC vendor good that is otherwise useless (e.g., high-value credit certificates), but which can be sold back to the vendor for the exact (or near enough, if you want it to be deflationary) purchase price at any time. Set that price high enough (e.g., 1 or 10 million credits), and people can just buy up those useless items and retain them for later resale to NPC vendors. This will reduce the inflation-driven demand for items and remove the upward pressure it exerts on prices.

I've seen this suggested elsewhere and I'm just not sure it would have the effect you want. A benefit of hoarding hypercrates or whatever is that they have intrinsic value to people regardless of the value of credits. The item you describe has the same perils as hoarding credits. 

8 hours ago, BiggerChickens said:

I think that people are missing an essential point: BioWare actually prefers it when game currency is worthless.

They should definitely be concerned about the current state of credits. We're really not that far from a full barter economy, and I'm not sure the game would survive that.

[Ner_idia]

I expect the reason they aren't doing anything about inflation is because it's entirely in player to player transactions.   Unlocks still cost the same as well as anything you purchase from an NPC vendor with credits.

The inflation is caused (ultimately) by player greed as no Cartel Market item is worth more than (or even close to) a billion credits.   The "fix" is for players to stop asking for ... and paying ... the prices.

[DWho]

The thing that would cut into the inflation the most is limited reselling allowed on Cartel Market items. Set it up so it can be sold/traded once and after that it is bound to legacy. That way you can still convert real money to credits (if you really want to) and it prevents the use of Cartel Market items as an alternate currency. You might need to do the same with rare crafting mats.

[microstyles]

1 hour ago, DWho said:

Set it up so it can be sold/traded once and after that it is bound to legacy. That way you can still convert real money to credits (if you really want to) and it prevents the use of Cartel Market items as an alternate currency. You might need to do the same with rare crafting mats.

I didn't like this idea at first but I might be coming around to it for CM items. I think it would definitely drive prices down. I think you would have to let people sell items opened from packs though, kind of like how the GS3 packs work (but BoL after selling).

This idea might have some problems on bioware's end though. It would probably reduce demand for CM items since they couldn't be used as assets anymore.