100k Eds

[ticketguru]

One other option is to make certain items that are currently available only with ED available for gold or tokens. The item bless deed is an example where it is available for gold or ED now. A couple of the deco type ED items like Item Rename Deed or Appearance Change Deed could be made available for gold or tokens without effecting game play or balance. Most of the ED only items should remain ED only, like relayer, Omni Magis and +1 pet slot, but there are a few others that might be made available without a large disruption to game balance. This might ease slightly the demand on the ED market.

[fingers]

One other option is to make certain items that are currently available only with ED available for gold or tokens. The item bless deed is an example where it is available for gold or ED now. A couple of the deco type ED items like Item Rename Deed or Appearance Change Deed could be made available for gold or tokens without effecting game play or balance. Most of the ED only items should remain ED only, like relayer, Omni Magis and +1 pet slot, but there are a few others that might be made available without a large disruption to game balance. This might ease slightly the demand on the ED market.

I hear you, thoses are good suggestions as well. For my part, I beleive that anything that gives a fighting/hunting advantage should be available with gold, and all that is easthetics should still be Eds only. Again, I want to remind that donation should be made on a base of being willing to help the shard as recognition for the nice place they have made for us. By definition, a donation is made without expecting a reward. Sure that the the Eds are a good motivation for donators. But making them necessary to get most of the good stuff in the game has brought us to a 90k per Ed market, wich pretty much is disgusting for many players with who I have talked.

Anway, I hope to read more posts about how the Ed market is at the moment and suggestions on how it should actually be

[Lust]

As mentioned in game, kind of strange to have ED discussion in a topic called "Recalling in Fel!" but whatever...here goes.

I believe i was the one that initially suggested a gold to ED stone, but again that should be implemented in conjunction with EDs being non-transferable that way donations will not be affected as much (I acknowledge it will nevertheless affect donations). Since fingers mentioned that the stone will never exist, that should pretty much be the end of that concept. Again I completely understand the staff's decision to not implement this.

As for potentially converting some ED services to ED/gold services, I would lean more towards ticketguru's suggestion of opening up some of the aesthetic services (connecting houses, item renaming, etc.) and reserve the more potent services to ED only. Although this does not solve game balance, I think it'll be a welcome addition to many players that love the sheer customization UO has to offer. Another disadvantage of this however is that staff would be more busy taking care of these requests rather than implementing exciting changes (like opening new areas, creating events, etc.).

Another concept that I've been thinking of to "stabilize" ED prices is to make EDs transferable only once. I do not know how difficult it is to implement (since it would require more of an account tracking) but this would theoretically make ED resale value zero. I would say a fair amount of the ED inflation is due to resellers buying at 50-70k and reselling at higher prices. If resale was prohibited then prices should fall theoretically to initial sale price. Only those that want ED for their incentive/reward will buy preventing resellers from distorting prices.

[fingers]

I changed the title for this thread, I hope it brings more players to be curious and share their experience/thoughts.

For the Ed stone, even if it is "never going to happen" according to a staffer with who I chated, I still think it would be the best gold sink ever. Also, it wouldn't prevent to potential donator to get a bunch and resale at 45k, wich imo is more than a fair price for them. The third advantage covers exactly what lust talks about in the last paragraph. It wouldn't be possible for very active players to buy every single Ed offered at 50-70k and resale at 95k on their vendor. In fact, this is the biggest problem atm. Where does it stops? Donators start to ask 95k because they see others sell them at that price, then the same small group starts buying them for 95k and resells for 120k? And so on?

I know staff is aware of what is going on and I trust that they will find a solution

[+Chaos]

I have a solution to the problem of which you speak... Dont Buy Them.

[fingers]

I would first like to say that I am not doing this for me: I possess and have the ability toproduce enough gold to pay 200 000 gold per ED without any problem. I have bag of holding, 6th follower, two 18X18 joined toghetter, a castle (3rd house), two relayered peices (ultimate spellbook, butchers resolve tshirt), an ankh, a druid spelbook, i used several +10 levels to weapon and spell chanelling deeds, multiple custom ethys. Just this morning I bought a +20 skillball because lockpicking was going nowhere at 96.1. I also have 500+ eds that are waiting in bank for when i finish leveling an awsome axe i have into a ultimate quiver. I have ate every 120 powerscrolls that drops from champs too. So I could have bought my last Ed and that wouldn't be a problem for me.

That being said, "the problem of wich i speak" affects the new players who don't have the possibility to donate at the moment. Just yesterday, a player told in the public chat that he was giving everything away in Brit because he was quitting the shard. Having less and less ways of effectivly farming gold while giving the quasi-exclusivity of Ed's to donators and veterans is going to draw alot of players away from the shard imo.

I could easily jump on the short bus of the "buy at 60-70, sell at 90; and that would most certainly solidify the value of the Ed market. Instead, I am trying to get the players and the staffs attention over that situation that is getting ridiculous. At the end of the day, I feel that I am seen as a greedy troublemaker...

But I am about to say: "whatever"

[Rainmaker]

I am gonna post my opinion here it is:
like a year and a half ago (maybe more) (560 day exactly ^^) i joined Excelsior UO after triying ALOT of different UO servers that where based on the typical PK sistem and players not being friendly. in that time Each ED was worth 25k yes they where.. i was talking one day to my brother Kaimelar bout buying an omni magis shirt i think, or maybe a bag of holding. the thing is that in that time it was soooo dificult to buy ED's for 25k, so we tried buying them for 30k and they rained over us. THERE i think the overpricing of ED's started. i imagine they should cost more depending really on how much a dollar cost or wether the price of a dollar rises or decreases. i know the Shard cant take measures about it becouse they only give em as donation but this overpricing puts the wrong idea in the head of the new players and put them think they have to save for example 45 mill (90k per ED) instead of the 15 mill (roughly estimated) 500 ED's if you look it as if each ED would be worth 30k . i think we all should get to a point of agreement on what the static price should be. i am talking about a price that everyone could buy.

dont get mad at me, this is only my opinion.

[Tahris Nayloc]

Okay, these whole ravings on "This is how it should be" or "The price of EDs is outrageous!" is getting OLD.

I'm tired of logging into UOEX, only to have this debate going.
I'm tired of reading the forums only to see this debate is the highlight.

I'm sorry that you contest the price of EDs that people are selling at but arguing about it is like arguing that the latest generation of iPhone is too expensive. Apple sells their iPhone at whatever price they want and people will either buy it or they won't. Likewise, people acquire EDs and will buy it at whatever price they want based on how badly they want it. Continously arguing over this isn't going to magically cause staff to require EDs to be priced one way or another and since we know that EDs aren't going to hit the stone, what's the point of continuing this discussion?

There was mention that the lack of ability to farm gold and acquire EDs is going to drive new players away. I can think of several ways a newer player can easily start to farm gold rather effectively, including the new player organics quest and bees. What WILL drive players away is the constant bickering this topic has inspired amongst the player base. If you don't like the price of something, you're not required to buy it. If you don't agree with the donation system, you don't have to donate. In the end though, you DO need to respect the players who do donate and feel they want to buy the EDs. And I feel you should also respect the rest of us who are sick and tired of this discussion.

[Calan Caitin]

You know, I have heard this argument so many times on global chat over the last couple of weeks that it is really getting old. Players can try to charge whatever they want for any item they want to sell, but if there isn't a buyer for their price, then eventually the price will drop. Like +Chaos said... If you don't like the price, don't buy it. But for the love of all that is good, quit complaining about it. Desperate people set the prices on the shard. Someone that think they really "need" an item, whether it be ED or a power scroll, will undoubtedly offer more than what the normal price is. THAT is what raises the price of any item on the shard. Some things that require ungodly luck to acquire, like sampling for bios, people discount as easy to obtain. I don't get it. But then again, perhaps I have been too easy going on the sampling for people. Maybe I should let more people blow through 30k organics, failing to sample, before they come to me to make a bio for them. The GoC now takes 1100% more time to complete, but the increase of cost is a mere 25%. Maybe items like this shouldn't be put up for auction any more since I think that is what helps to drive the price up. Players get stupid on paying more at auctions than they would otherwise and then it make others think that if someone pays that much at auction, they will pay that much all the time. I used to base most things I sold on the value of ED, but these days, it is ridiculous what things would cost if based on ED value of some players. Something will need to be done to level out the base value of ED to curb the inflation as I think most of the player base uses it as a baseline for the value of things.

That is my 2 cents worth.

[Akros]

I have a solution to the problem of which you speak... Dont Buy Them.

I agree with this.... if you feel the price is to much, do not buy them, and the price will go down.... it is all supply and demand

[Steve]

Just thought I’d lighten the mood a bit

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_O3F0fH5AGXQ/R ... obfish.jpg

And so this post isn’t completely pointless...try to remember whatever the cost of ED's you donate to help the shard maintenance, not to line your pockets (hopefully)

[May]

Thought I would throw my two cents in here...

Personally I came to the shard because I was hoping for a friendly shard that had close players and was hoping for a bit of RP as well. When I first started out I was not disappointed either, I received much help and interacted with many friendly players, though a RP element wasn't found I did not mind as I was having fun.

However as time passed, I noticed more and more that the friendly attitude and strong community was a self delusion I cast on myself just from the handful of players I interacted with. As I became more familiar with other players and interacting more I realized that most players are here for their own self satisfaction. I didn't mind too much though, greedy thoughtless people are everywhere and not much you can do about that. After all I don't need to befriend the whole shard just to have fun.

Within the next couple of weeks though, as I was trying to progress my character I started noticing that many players were of no help and some were even crippling me in some ways (like giving me false information: telling me I could handle Mel without pets even after I pointed out my junky gear) and basically sending me to my death. While I continued to run into the helpful soul, it was becoming more uncommon.

Okay so at this point I figured I would just have to handle things for myself from now on as it was becoming clear that the community wasn't going to be much help in general, excluding a few people here who are actually nice. So once I started finding some good places to get money going I wanted to try and buy up my character. However the more impressive the item I tried to buy, the more people tried ripping me off. As an example, one of the last items I bought was a GoC and before actually buying it, I had people try and charge me anywhere up to 18m (not even joking). At that time I was also trying to buy EDs as well (finally a bit on topic here) but everyone was out to fill up their coin purse instead of charging reasonable prices, so I just gave up on that.

Now I am at a point where I want to play but can't bring myself to log into a shard full of greedy little children. Of course I realize that most of the greedy people that may be here are over 18 and not technically children, I find their greedy and selfish behavior can be labeled as such. I came to this shard (with two other family members who also quit because of similar reasons) because I wanted a friendly atmosphere of people who just want to have fun but you will have to excuse me if I do not see the fun in amassing gold.. unless you find it fun to have bragging rights over it.

I am commenting on this topic because I think there should be some sort of regulations in place. I say this because I was told scamming isn't allowed and while everyone can define a word in a way that suits them best, I find scamming to be an act which takes advantage of someone so they can make a great profit. My sister left this shard because she was scammed in a sense, being charged triple the price of something only to find out later the actual going rate, which of course was someone just taking advantage of a new player.

To try and put an end to my rant here, I just want to say that if you want to attract more players that are only interested in self gain, there isn't a point to do much about any of this but from my point of view, it clearly chases off new players trying to start off. I know everyone can say "don't buy things if you think it is too much" or "hunt for better prices" but honestly, doesn't anyone else get tired of seeing all these people trying to rip others off all the time? It seems to me like nobody cared if people are getting ripped off or over charged because those people know the estimated value of items but what about the new players who come here and don't know... I've overpaid for so many items its rediculous, mainly because I didn't know what their value was when I was trying to buy them and before you think "ask on chat" I did and most price checks typically go unanswered or some insanely incorrect answer is given.

Sorry if this went off topic and for the long post but I really like this shard and I want to play here but some of the players here are so selfish and greedy that it just turns me away. I know they exist everywhere but why should they be enabled to do as they please to even the newest of players... Regulating some prices would certainly help out newer players and keep certain players only out for the pleasure of ripping others off in check.

Anyways, hopefully I will come back soon. I do miss the shard but right now I am more disappointed by the lack of a nice community with a balanced economy.

[fingers]

...right now I am more disappointed by the lack of a nice community with a balanced economy.

I know exactly what you mean. I saw players asking lockpickers to help open a chest, and some random player grabing the chest on the ground and recall away. I went afk in the mage room in Doom to make my daughters a meal (that room has doors, a very long and narrow passage with elbows in it, it is pretty safe), two players lured the darkfather in there to get me killed (I am not even sure if I am more disappointed at losing worth a few million in arties and such, or at the fact that staff did investigate and ruled out that there was no proof of bad intention) ... I bought 3000 arrows on the trinsic stone and 1000 fell on the ground, a player rushed in and grabed them before i even could try, then he recalled away. I had my two bios out of the new area fences while i was fighting a tuff monster that didnt require bio pets; some other player lured a big bunch of monsters just on top of them and invised. On the first occasion, only on bio got flagged and killed, so he did it a second time. When I paged him, he said "man, I was here before you, dont leave your pets here, its not safe". I think he could have asked who thoses pets were too and to move them instead of doing that.

Now the trend of "i buy all ed's at 55k-60k" and resale at 90k.

You are correct, some members of the community here are... disapointing

[Golden Temptress]

I know what you mean out the people not being as helpful or as nice as they used to be, when I first joined I was impressed by the niceness and willingness to help others.

Now it seems when someone cries out for helps there's a stream of remarks to say "well don't take it on if you can't handle it" thats all fair and well but dont people have scope for abit of trial and error, we all make errors in our calculations of what we take on, and its off putting for those people if they are being told off for trying new things and at least giving it a go!!!

I remember when I got killed in mushroom dungeon, a small group of helpful players came to my aid, this gesture of warmth and kindness touched my heart *gets all fuzzy* I was so impressed that I deciced to play this shard and thought what a great bunch of people.

Now I see people making sarcastic remarks to those who ask for help/ or just ask a random question.

I mean isnt that the point of world chat, to open communication to rest of player base.

If we are not careful we will be pushing people away from playing this shard as can you imagine what a new person would be thinking if they see people being scolded for asking for help, it makes the shard an isolating place

Anyways lets get excelsior back to the nice, helpful, kind place I think it should and has been... awesome and beautifully designed shard, lets have beautiful, kind hearted people too

[Undertaker]

Another concept that I've been thinking of to "stabilize" ED prices is to make EDs transferable only once. I do not know how difficult it is to implement (since it would require more of an account tracking) but this would theoretically make ED resale value zero. I would say a fair amount of the ED inflation is due to resellers buying at 50-70k and reselling at higher prices. If resale was prohibited then prices should fall theoretically to initial sale price. Only those that want ED for their incentive/reward will buy preventing resellers from distorting prices.

Either that, or sky rocket the prices above and beyond...


How ya doin old friend (Fingers) ... I remember the first time we met, you were being murdered by balrons, i knew where you were, so i helped you out, and thus started our friendship over 2 years ago, despite our other friends having the rude run in and getting involved, we remained friends secretly....

What Golden Temptress says needs to retake the flag, and bomb the evilness out

As you may have noticed, I myself along with my wife June have stopped playing, She stopped cuz it got, as you put it "nerfed" some of the changes were so bad, it pushed her away... Litterally it was like this arm came out from UO and pushed her back off her chair (ok not really, but you get my point there)....

I stopped due to my last GoC sale, the price back whenever had just dropped from 300 eds, to like 275... Well i made my macro an put it out for 300, Not even a moment i got flamed over chat so bad for 25 EDs difference, I wont explain details, but you all understand...

Llexa always made a good point on Vet Status... Theres 2 different kinds of Vets, Ones who have put in Time, to build themselves with the community, Building your character thru friendship, -RESPECT-, love, kindness, helping others... That is being a true vet...

Thee other, is after 1 month, claiming vet status, being as strong as the ones that have been here for a long time, and showing Disrespect, wanting to duel them higher vets, using taunts "I know i can beat you, ill even give you a 100k to duel me", ripping people off, basically all the bad stuff...

If a 23 year old works in an enviroment of 76 employees, of which 47 of them have put in 20+ years, do you go in there and demand that They all respect you? Heck No! Respect given is respect earned.... In some cases, you have to try a little harder to show your respect to the vets that worked for a long time there, in order for them to see "hey, this isnt a bad kid, i can see hes trying" That is more then enough for one to see.... I can promise you that most older peeps have seen alot of bad apples, and when they see a young kid theyll assume your just another bad apple, untill you prove em wrong

But back to my point in all this, in all the 30 vets i grew up with, i only see a few remaining... This community has lost its .... ehhh you guys get my point, we need to get back together, and start helpin out eachother and tend the apple trees that need water, im sure theyll appriciate that


Thanks for listening,
Undertaker