Greetings, glorious adventurers! If you're joining in our Alpha One spot testing, please follow the steps here to see all the latest test info on our forums and Discord!
Options
Currencies
RazThemun
Member
What are people's thoughts on currency? Are people wanting something simple such as just Gold and Silver? Or are people wanting multiple currencies that may pertain to each zone? I have found in Games such as wow.. one of the big complaints is that there are to many currencies to organize or collect to buy items(to then never use it afterwards)
What I believe would be ideal is to have silver and gold (repair costs, buy ingredients, rewards for a bounty hunt, etc)... and then each playable race to have a currency (purchase armors, mounts, pay for caravans, buy a home of that style ) Then at a trade house or auction house, one can pay a fee to purchase or sell that racial currency, for Gold or silver.
What I believe would be ideal is to have silver and gold (repair costs, buy ingredients, rewards for a bounty hunt, etc)... and then each playable race to have a currency (purchase armors, mounts, pay for caravans, buy a home of that style ) Then at a trade house or auction house, one can pay a fee to purchase or sell that racial currency, for Gold or silver.
3
Comments
Gold, obviously, and then something that is tied to time or higher-level investment, that new players don't even need, and isn't obtainable through just throwing gold at it in a conversion situation.
This provides a buffer against gold duping exploits while Intrepid flushes all those out, and prevents higher level players from completely dominating all new players in the realm of Gold (where low level players need it).
It's also good to have some stuff that is tied to something other than just 'time input' to slow down or otherwise stress out RMT/bots more quickly. Forcing players who want a secondary currency to 'spend gold on the things to prepare to get it' and then still have to actually do some content or group up, will help people find gold-buyers quicker, and gatekeep them in certain ways other than 'having to constantly track them down and kill them' or similar things.
I am not sure that Ashes would need a third currency, but it might be good to tie one to high ranking node or Castle stuff, basically something closer to a bartering thing that has less purpose, but most of the time, in games, some specific gatherable item that is rapidly consumed (for example, things used for enhancing) manages to fill this purpose.
In Ashes, I'm not sure that would happen, because they intend for you to be able to play Artisan stuff 'all the way' without having to raise your Adventuring level 'all the way', but the secondary currency might handle that if it 'activates' around level 30 or so instead.
I don't like single currency games without the buffers because they fall apart quite quickly with even a single gold-bug or a strong economic group banding together, and reward Goldsellers so fast, that it's usually worth it for those people to keep creating accounts.
In a no-box-cost game, I would not want them to risk a single currency 'relevant across all player levels'.
However, anything of enduring value can be treated as a pseudo-currency. Examples in our current economy are gold and silver, while not legal tender, they retain value reliably.
So, in AoC I expect that materials which have reliable demand at a recognized value could function this way. For example, if Iron Ore has a recognized price of 5 gold, someone might be willing to take 20 iron ore in exchange for a knife worth 100 gold. A crafty merchant might offer the knife for 25 iron ore or 100 gold, and be happy to take the iron ore form the country bumpkin who does not bother to keep track of commodity values.
There no reason to over complicate currencies.
Although if could be interesting to have a currency type for the 5 races species where there exchange rate is based on how much of that type in the game and vendors take the currency of what there building architect it like but i think thats complicating something that doesnt relay need to be
Good post though if I'm honest I have not really thought too much of where they will go with this.
Twitter
Discord- Azrial#4925
While this is true, multiple currencies as you are describing them result in significantly dumbed down economies.
A game as you describe it would not have a high end player to player economy at all.
Gold + 1 more currency would mean a healthier game.
Stuff like undaunted chest keys from eso are also currencies, forcing you to do a very specific tast every day to get something from a very specific vendor.
Same thing with tomes in ff14.
Ideally, a good mmo should only have gold coins. Let the players play freely and earn with various ways.
You know what this game needs?
NFT's!
Could you imagine a Verra where each region, race, or node has its own currency?
I mean....
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Hunting_certificates
Are the same things intimidating to you in this system than in an exchange rate system @Vaknar? That sort of reaction might be good for the devs to consider if so.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yhr9WpjaDzw
Multiple currencies sounds like a head ache.
These are less of an alternate currency or item to be exchanged with variable rate, and more likely to be distance based where the further you take them, the more they are worth.
As a system, it is very similar to early trade packs in Archeage (the game that is the biggest influence for Ashes). They originate in one zone, and you turn them in for gold in a different zone. The greater the distance between the two, the greater the profit you make.
There's enough complexity due to the degree of variability in the cost of commodities. i.e. some common gatherables will hold a stable value, others will be more variable. As @tautau mentioned above, pseudo currencies will exist in the form of bartering goods at semi-fixed (semi-variable!) gold equivalent values. The variability leaves room for smart traders to make a profit.
Doin some PvP? Get PvP coins! You mostly can not exchange them, so that a Farmer can not achieve stuff in PvP reward structures easily.
This is a very themepark way of doin things, the best example is lost ark. That game wants everyone to have the same requirements to progress.
At any point where Intrepid wants people to be funneled through the same requirements, they are gonna need some kind of extra currency.
According to the wiki Social orgs and Religions are such systems.
As for regionalized currencies… why make things unnecessary complicated? Fluctuations and huge sophisticated macro economic systems are not that fun lol
Whether it be artificial currency from global drop tables like runes in d2 or orbs in PoE, or just regular currency like every game, as long as it exists, there will be bots, gold farming and pay to win.
They need to center the game around a barter system that discourages having anything take the place of currency, which they already sort of have just by the very nature of AoC regarding it's highly dynamic world and the pvp system.
But they should also limit trade windows, not make things stack to high and not have an automated bartering auction house.
Do that and you effectively disable gold farming by obfuscating and making volatile the price of goods.
Words I expect to hear from a RWT.
Reminds me of roaming minecrafts badlion forums and hearing people pull out their hair arguing against badlion using client side anti cheat software(because it's fucking LIT)
Like you might as well write "HACKER" in big bold letters on their forehead
Yeah, anyone wanting a functioning currency in an MMO must be a gold seller.
Great argument.
It'd also force you to participate in stuff that may or may not interesting for you. It'd be a huge turnoff for me.
The main point of currency is the store of value of your efforts and successes in the game and to promote conflict. To make the most money from gatherable materials, I believe the idea is to make you transport them through the caravan system to a biome where those materials do not spawn. This opens up PvP opportunities for ambushers that obviously want those materials and to stop you from making money.
Barter systems make trading much harder because you have to find someone with the exact thing you want and they have to want exactly what you have to trade.
Multiple currencies enables a sort of node vs. node or guild vs. guild economic battle to make your currency more valuable (depending on who you let mint currency).
Seperating PvE and PvP achievements are likely to be done through PvP rankings and seasons if I read correctly, with the rewards being automatically given to those who participated. Doesn't seem like there is a need for PvP coins or anything like that.