Is there too much money around?

[DollarPhil]

I've noticed a fair few players who recently seem to be able to turn over very large amounts of gold for their PCs very quickly by powerquesting as opposed to trading or crafting, rapidly acquiring Patricianship/powerful wands in a week or so. One guy I was speaking to was planning a collection of L4 wands and claimed to rake in >3k a day, which i found surprising. Having an Cure Crit wand as the medium term goal for every ranger and Imp Invis for every guy with a bard level doesn't seem to be that great a thing. This isn't aimed at singling out players to say "U SHOULD SIT AND RP MOAR" but to ask  whether the rest of you feel there's a growing amount of ready cash of late. I might be wrong, or it might be that the lowered general server level has lead to more spamming of lower level, good gold reward quests.  

It's not a suggestion so much as a discussion thread, as I'm unsure if my experience is representative. It might be I just ran into someone who's very good at quest trains. I think though, it might be beneficial to tweak some of the quests to give out less gold but more lightweight valuables and consumables to encourage trading. Stuff that most PCs want, rather than gold which allows made to order consumables, especially for wand users. Recently I have noticed more of well, every sort of activity, even PC trading in the formerly barren docks, so I wouldn't say that's been harmed.

However, gold is very convenient. It's easily converted to just the supplies you want with just one PC interaction (talking to a crafter). On the other hand, everyone wants blurs and healing, but it's less easy to convert those into a Wand of Darkness, haste pots or custom Fullplate, and the trading needed to acquire gold from them acts to slow down consistent questing and keep areas lively. Possibly this whole thing is just a temporary effect from everyone making a fortune off the gem dealer before he got nerfed and it'll go away. Possibly it's just proof of how far determination will get you.

Opinions, please.

[SelfishMan]

Being rather very good at the gaming the quest system, i must say, that 3k per day is an absolutely ridiculous myth, ser, and you were probably trolled. Your average quest pays 200 gp. And most in fact, pay less.

Or, the person you spoke with, spends 12+ hrs/day questing/selling loot from questing/brewing potions, and/or the person is a caster and has 2 melee PC minions to crush each quest for him.

IMO.

[Capricious]

One dangerous thing about changing how much gold is out there is you don't want to gimp the people who maybe don't "grind" for it, or don't play as much, and are always on the low end of the scale. I personally don't feel as if everyone should feel the need to play a merchant or a crafter in order to just stay afloat goldwise.

[sylvyrdragon]

The amount of coin around has pretty much stayed the same.  But, yes, I do agree that there are some that always seem to have it.  

They know the best ways to get it, they know which Quests to hit with exactly the right number of players to get max coin, they know what to sell and how to sell it and at one cost.  

I have found that generally it's those that are "Masters" of the game that are capable of doing this.  Personally I have NEVER had enough gold to become a Patrician.  Thankfully I have never wanted to buy the Full Plate, because I would never afford it.

*shrugs* Don't worry to much about it.  The only time is really 'sucks' is when you want to buy a item but are out bid by those same players. :P

[Cerberus]

I have no clue how some players rake in gold at all (save for from DM events). I've never had a PC that made enough coin to buy Patricianship (even if I wanted it, which I dont).

[Ordeal]

I haven't noticed that there is a lot of gold. I myself am relatively poor. However, it may be due to the fact that people are getting better at the game, and it costs less to survive a quest.

[Craig210]

Working on the assumption there is a reset a day,

You can useually do the following, goblins, trogs, harpies, snakes, gnolls, TOM, orcs, Ooze.

Between waiting for them, you can go skinning and rack in 2-300 gold a trip.

Throw into that RP that pays gold.

Selling of items accumulated on quests.

And accumulating stacks of CSW on quests, selling them at 900, and buying wands with more charges at 6-800. In a single day its preatty easy to make money.

[Nufferz]

Edit: Regret contributing.

[DollarPhil]

Craig has it rather succinctly. It is IMO easier than for a while to be able to pull off that sort relentless questing and acquisition, which can let you pull right ahead of most PCs.  

There's a partial level cap at 8, but smashbotting your way around the server is a good way to pull in gold for supplies, which can count as much if not more than levels here. Thing is, I can't think of a way to suggest a similar sort of tail-off for being able to powerquest for gold without actively penalising higher levels that aren't in a paid faction or getting DM quests. I've known a couple of players reach level 10 just by surviving for ages rather than aiming for it, and then say "well... that's dull, can't do any quests, any exploring and RP will just wear down my stash.".

Thing is though I'm really just musing and talking crap here, because the server does seem active more than usual. However, we all know how finding an optimal way for supplies tends to lead to bandwagons who have all the stuff. (See "spamming lizards for cure crits back when fewer people knew the way")

[Sandstorm]

Or be a merchant! Definately 3k gold a day. <_<

[Emprez]

Never forget you have to live in the Police State you create! Not sure that is relating to the subject completely. But yes, perhaps one person can make that coin a day, but as you raised your brow, we all do, its not common. So, to stop one person we change everything? Im never a fan of nerfing as you know, i dont believe in changing the laws for everyone just cause there is a small percentage of [insert namecalling] running around.

[Cerberus]

One of the problems with it though is that those that know how to do it, get it with each and every PC they create. We all would do that as it's fairly simple to justify alot of OOC information to IC info. Just like other OOC knowledge that seems to carry over per PC. Those of us that don't know how to make the tons of gold, mix those herbs and potions, locate those hiden groves, etc., etc. never will. Because the only answer you get when you ask is FOIG. Kinda like a palm to the forehead; Hello, I wouldn't be asking if I could foig kinda thing.
 
I've probably spent weeks of real time IG trying to mix ingrediants in that damn herb pouch and only found one that works.

[Drakill Tannan]

Working on the assumption there is a reset a day,

You can useually do the following, goblins, trogs, harpies, snakes, gnolls, TOM, orcs, Ooze.

Between waiting for them, you can go skinning and rack in 2-300 gold a trip.

Throw into that RP that pays gold.

Selling of items accumulated on quests.

And accumulating stacks of CSW on quests, selling them at 900, and buying wands with more charges at 6-800. In a single day its preatty easy to make money.

There are two things necesary for this to happen, first, you need a decent party to do so. The part needs to be thew right level, and it needs to be an optimal team of over 3 people usually. Also, none has to have taken the quests previously. This is not as easy to get, not for me at least, perhaps due to my schedule. Usually i can get a friend and a random PC to quest with me and do 1, 2 quests at most. If we are lucky, other PCs will join us and we'll have a small powerquest train of 3-5 quests, but then, that happens once every three months for me. Ocacionally i join a party headed to orcs I, very, very rarely i manage to get myself into a powertrain. This due to how hard it is to get a party.

Additinaly, a new player, or just a non-hardcore non-veteran player like me is unlikely to be able to do all this quests without a large consumable waste, that is unless i play a wizards who sits back and scratches his wizardy balls the whole quest, OR i metagame everything and manage to get majorly unharmed through all the quests. Lag is also an issue. A bad lag moment and BOOM either suck on 3 cure serious wounds potions or die.

Second, it's time. Firstly, you need to log and wait untill people are avilable. Sometimes that takes 5 minutes, others, it takes 2 hours. Let's leave it at mere 10 minutes, perhaps becuase you OOCly agreed to powerquest through IRC or somethign. It takes 30 minutes to get all the PCs to "finish" their stuff and be ready to quest toghether. Then, it takes about half an hour for each light quest, and about an hour for heavy quests, like orcs. This considering the time to reach there and stuff. So, you named goblins, trogs, harpies, snakes, gnolls, TOM, orcs, Ooze. That's 9 quests if we count both snakes 1 & 2, 4.5 hours. Plus the time to wait for people to be avilable, plus the time to wait for them to be ready, plus the time it takes for the rest in between quests...

sure, it's easy to get 1K cash through quests a day, if you an spend more than 5 hours dialy on EFU (or should i say waste? it's fine to play 2-3 hours, and the ocacional 8 hour marathon may be harmless if it is not frequent, but spending 5 hours dialy on EFU, or just in front of the computer, is really, a waste, no offence DMs, the gameworld is awsome.)

[Craig210]

Unfortunately Im currently Unemployed, my uni degree doesnt start till september, and I've moved to the back ass of nowhere in NI. My play zone has a good amount of new and old players willing to quest, And im finding myself hoping off one quest to go onto another.

Sure im spending an unhealthy amount of time playing right now, unfortunately until I get a job to do the summer so I can afford to do something other than a Free MMO, i'll be wracking in alot of game time. And hopefully contributing to other peoples game times.

That said, the moment someone announces a quest and it shows on IIRC, you get alot of takers. Especially if its one of the harder lot.

[Drakill Tannan]

Craig, no offence meant. If you felt my post was some kind of personal attack, it wasn't. I was actually grounding myself because i've spent too much time on the PC lately >.>