First, for those of us that have been playing and subscribing for the last 10 years, we should be rewarded 1B credits for each year. Simple math says that if you were a subscriber for since launch, that's $1800 (USD) you have invested into this game via subscription fees. How much more have you invested buying Cartel Coins in order to keep this game going? We should have LOTS of credits. This game would be dead without us.

Second, for new players and free to play players or players that have left the game and coming back to a huge credit inflation, get over it. How much have you invested? $15 (USD)? Do you think this game would still be around if not for those people that have been around since launch? As a matter of fact, let me help you afford items you want within the game. Spend some actual money on a subscription!!! Then spend some actual money on some Cartel Coins. With those Cartel Coins, buy the Master Datacron. Then sell those Master Datacrons on the GTN for 600M credits each. BOOM...you can now afford items in SWTOR by putting some actual investment into the game.

LMAO 🤣 How does that address the inflation problem at all.

Doing as you suggest would add a vast amount of credits to the game that would drive inflation even higher and faster than now.

First, for those of us that have been playing and subscribing for the last 10 years, we should be rewarded 1B credits for each year..

I should be given 1 million dollars for the time it took me to read this utterly insane post.

Did you even bother to take the time to think this through?

How childish can you get?

The definition of inflation is there's too much money in the market - and you want to give yourself 1 billion credits out of thin air just like that.

You're making this vastly worse...not better. I suggest you pick up a book on economics before you try again.

LMAO 🤣 How does that address the inflation problem at all.

 

Doing as you suggest would add a vast amount of credits to the game that would drive inflation even higher and faster than now.

this was satire my dude

I should be given 1 million dollars for the time it took me to read this utterly insane post.

Did you even bother to take the time to think this through?

How childish can you get?

 

The definition of inflation is there's too much money in the market - and you want to give yourself 1 billion credits out of thin air just like that.

 

You're making this vastly worse...not better. I suggest you pick up a book on economics before you try again.

this was satire (i hope)

this was satire (i hope)

You don't sound convinced.

You don't sound convinced.

Given the things I've seen over the years as proposals to "fix" the inflation problem, it's really hard to be sure any more.

The solution for the credit inflation:

A story update: told exclusively through video cutscenes (like those fancy trailers they did back in the days) about a massive galaxy-wide money scam and on top of that a wicked heist (two different stories happening at the same time, maybe even intertwined).

This is sooooo huge, that credits as a currency, become completely worthless (due to the scam) and/or get stolen (due to the heist).

All credits in the legacy cargo will become worthless (scam story). And thus reset to 0.

All credits in the inventory and in in-game mails will get stolen (heist story). And thus reset to 0.

The Intergalactic Banking Clan gets ordered by the Republic Senate and the Sith Empire to compensate all their customers with 1.000.000 new-credits (non-subscribers: 500.000 new-credits).

All listings on the GTN will be reset. Items go back to the seller via mail, so that they can then relist at new prices.

Problem solved. (Yes, we would all lose all our credits, but we would get a most spectacular Star Wars short movie in return which is totally worth spending billions of virtual currency on it.)

The solution for the credit inflation:

 

A story update: told exclusively through video cutscenes (like those fancy trailers they did back in the days) about a massive galaxy-wide money scam and on top of that a wicked heist (two different stories happening at the same time, maybe even intertwined).

 

This is sooooo huge, that credits as a currency, become completely worthless (due to the scam) and/or get stolen (due to the heist).

 

All credits in the legacy cargo will become worthless (scam story). And thus reset to 0.

 

All credits in the inventory and in in-game mails will get stolen (heist story). And thus reset to 0.

 

The Intergalactic Banking Clan gets ordered by the Republic Senate and the Sith Empire to compensate all their customers with 1.000.000 new-credits (non-subscribers: 500.000 new-credits).

 

All listings on the GTN will be reset. Items go back to the seller via mail, so that they can then relist at new prices.

 

Problem solved. (Yes, we would all lose all our credits, but we would get a most spectacular Star Wars short movie in return which is totally worth spending billions of virtual currency on it.)

That is exactly what I have been thinking for years. And you could even improve it , add a story questine where you can hunt down the scammers and get at least revenge and maybe some credits back.

I really wonder why never any of the hyperinflated MMOs had the guts to do something like that.

I really wonder why never any of the hyperinflated MMOs had the guts to do something like that.

Because none of them wanted to be the game that stole 99% (or whatever) of their players' gold.

The solution for the credit inflation:

 

A story update: told exclusively through video cutscenes (like those fancy trailers they did back in the days) about a massive galaxy-wide money scam and on top of that a wicked heist (two different stories happening at the same time, maybe even intertwined).

 

This is sooooo huge, that credits as a currency, become completely worthless (due to the scam) and/or get stolen (due to the heist).

 

All credits in the legacy cargo will become worthless (scam story). And thus reset to 0.

 

All credits in the inventory and in in-game mails will get stolen (heist story). And thus reset to 0.

 

The Intergalactic Banking Clan gets ordered by the Republic Senate and the Sith Empire to compensate all their customers with 1.000.000 new-credits (non-subscribers: 500.000 new-credits).

 

All listings on the GTN will be reset. Items go back to the seller via mail, so that they can then relist at new prices.

 

Problem solved. (Yes, we would all lose all our credits, but we would get a most spectacular Star Wars short movie in return which is totally worth spending billions of virtual currency on it.)

While at least you put some effort into this - once again you did not think about the consequences of your suggestion.

All your going to do is make people rage quit the game faster than you can drop a credit chit/coin.

No one likes having their stuff "stolen"

The only way your going to remove inflation is to remove the demand that feeds these idiots that sell items for insane prices.

If they can't get any money for their #### - they won't be putting things up for sale. - the answer is not simple - it never was.

Its a very ugly - involved monster in terms of removing inflation.

Items need to be devalued to such a high level that people won't want to spend credits.

So long as there's a demand to sell something like a piece of gear for 900 mil credits and there's that one idiot who buys it - you will never have this problem removed....ever.

Supply and Demand - the cornerstone of any market - that has to be changed.

Throwing credits at the problem - or entirely removing them - is not going to work.

Steve the Cynic said it best, SWTOR doesn't want to be known as the game who removed 90% of all players credits, "because".

Look at NW. They have had massive duping issues (some unintentional) since day 1. Were some people banned? Absolutely. In some cases for.....drum roll please....24 hours. (<<-- NOT A TYPO)

EDIT: Me buying a {COOL WIDGET} for X00 million contributes nothing towards inflation. Same with CQ, or buying from BoT / Farmers.

SCARCITY drives up price.

Steve the Cynic said it best, SWTOR doesn't want to be known as the game who removed 90% of all players credits, "because".

 

Look at NW. They have had massive duping issues (some unintentional) since day 1. Were some people banned? Absolutely. In some cases for.....drum roll please....24 hours. (<<-- NOT A TYPO)

 

EDIT: Me buying a {COOL WIDGET} for X00 million contributes nothing towards inflation. Same with CQ, or buying from BoT / Farmers.

 

SCARCITY drives up price.

Add to this - a sucker buying an overpriced item ALSO drives up the price.

And suckers breed like wabbits.

You feed the system - the system gets nastier. Sad truth - but one that must be faced.

People only make credits when you feed them credits.

You wanna deal with credit inflation here's an idea use those casino's on nar'shadaa make it so players can play pa'zaak or any of the slot machines with prizes being cosmetics or pets you can no longer buy in the cartel market, u can either buy cartel credits for slot machines or use a marked up credit prices based on what ever your reputation with the hutts is. its an idea I thought about for a couple of years, they did something similar a few years back but it didn't last in long run

after all Nar'shadaa is supposed to be the gamblers playground, Are those casino's just there to look pretty

That is exactly what I have been thinking for years. And you could even improve it , add a story questine where you can hunt down the scammers and get at least revenge and maybe some credits back.

 

I really wonder why never any of the hyperinflated MMOs had the guts to do something like that.

Because if that happend i think 70% -80% of the subscriber will cancel there subs immediately.

For me I have seen many bad in that game, including the abdomination 7.0 - but if this happened I cancel my sub on the same day and delete the game from my PC.

You wanna deal with credit inflation here's an idea use those casino's on nar'shadaa make it so players can play pa'zaak or any of the slot machines with prizes being cosmetics or pets you can no longer buy in the cartel market, u can either buy cartel credits for slot machines or use a marked up credit prices based on what ever your reputation with the hutts is. its an idea I thought about for a couple of years, they did something similar a few years back but it didn't last in long run

That might eat into them making money off the cartel market, and therefor unlikely for them to do it. Because just cause an item isn't in the cartel market for the time being, doesn't mean it won't be later on, and therefore get people to buy CC with real money. They could just reskin some pets, mounts, decorations etc and do as you suggested, without affecting the CM.

That said credit sinks are needed so a few ideas.

1) Bring back Amplifiers - This was a good credit sink, not sure why they got rid of it honestly.

2) Remove getting credits back from the GTN if the item doesn't sell, it's supposed to be a fee for putting up items, why are we getting it back? I know it's a small fee, but with how many items are listed on the GTN which don't end up being sold, it'll add up over time, and honestly should always have been this way.

3) Raise the GTN tax from 6% to 10%. It's a steep increase, and would be a kick in the balls to myself and many others, but it's kinda needed.

4) Introduce more quests like the one from pirate incursion. Where you pay 15 mill to easily complete it, and if you do it 10 times you get a useless achievement and gold coin. Honestly this was brilliant, 150 mill gone for an achievement, even more when you consider the fact that some people already have the achievement and have still paid more just to breeze through the quest. Add some more in, people with money won't really care, and it'll slowly but surely remove a lot of credits from the game.

5) More strongholds, make them expensive, make buying rooms expensive. I thought Alderaan would have been a good way to remove credits, but it was only 18 mill, which is pocket change. Should have been closer to 100 mill.

6) Stealing Krismb's idea of just add more vendors for pets, decorations, mounts, etc. Make them pricey. With how SW is, where 90% of the items are just reskins of something else, it's really not that hard for you guys.

7) Expand on crafting more. This is honestly a good credit sink already with vendor mats that are needed to craft anything (as I've blown through millions and millions on mats needed to craft), but since I can get all that money back from other players by putting stuff on the GTN this is more than worth it, and the thing is there's so much money in the economy that no one even notices the credit sink costs here. But to elaborate on the point, add things like crafting decorations, craft more mounts in cybernetics, craft unique armor sets etc.

8) increase the travel from planets a little bit. Gotta be careful here, cause it'll affect new players, so maybe have the costs scale with level as we travel from world to world.

9) Don't see this one happening, but it would be cool if it could. Have an item say costs 10 million+ credits, and for one hour, you get a buff where you can summon 3 companions if you're not in a party (since the party limit is still 4 counting companions). Its not needed for any content, but I know people would spend money on this because why wouldn't you want your own little follower army? I could see people rping things like a Havok squad team, or many others. Companions would keep the roles they're set to already, and would need like a new menu for active companion # 2 & 3, that you could put in the tray, and those are the ones that would be summoned. Again don't see it happening with the skeleton crew you guys have, but would be neat. Hell people might just opt for this to run vet / mm mode FPs as solo.

10) Galactic Raffle : Once a week a galactic raffle happens. 10,000 Credits for 1 ticket, up to 10 tickets max. Half the money goes to the void that is the Hutt Cartel or some other organization holding the raffle, the other half goes to a lucky player. Winnings are based on the number of raffles sold.

Honestly I'm sure there are many more ideas with mini games and what not, this is just crap off the top of my head, but it's not a complicated process I don't think, it just requires the will to do so, and therefore will never happen here.

Honestly I'm sure there are many more ideas with mini games and what not, this is just crap off the top of my head, but it's not a complicated process I don't think, it just requires the will to do so, and therefore will never happen here.

And no matter how many more credit sinks you come up with, none of that will solve the problem. To repeat it, yet again: You have cap(s) and you have an influx. Some idiot designer without a clue decided to make the caps insanely high ("they will never reach it!"), which means the game has no inherent protection against exploits of any sort or other mishaps/bugs which can trigger a very high influx of credits. Even without that, there is a steady net positive influx, because vendors never run out of credits, plus there are other sources of money. BW hammered hard on the last part and tried to lower the influx in other ways, but it must stay net positive, otherwise you will see major problems, aside of new players never getting anywhere in terms of money (= bad).

This means, no matter what, over time more and more money will pile up and consequently more money is available to buy things. But only once the prices become obviously insane players tend to call this inflation, even though it was happening all the time already.

If you want to get a handle on this, you ideally have "sane" money caps right from the start of a MMO, and even if the designers have been stupid with that, there is always the option to enforce sane player-to-player trading caps. The caps are currently at 1b for GTN and 4b or something like that for direct player-to-player trades if I'm not mistaken. Make of that what you want, but with >100b you can stuff alone into legacy cargo it should be clear that whatever BW changed to the influx does absolutely zilch to the still raising prices, because the only way to curb them is lowering the (trading) caps.

And no matter how many more credit sinks you come up with, none of that will solve the problem. Snipped

I agree on one thing, and disagree on others. First I suppose we have to define what fixing the issue is. Are we ever going to go back to like Vanilla SWtoR prices? No. How about Kotor prices? No still unlikely to get here. However can we fix the economy in a way where it doesn't continue getting further and further out of hand? Yea I believe we can.

Some idiot designer without a clue decided to make the caps insanely high ("they will never reach it!"), which means the game has no inherent protection against exploits of any sort or other mishaps/bugs which can trigger a very high influx of credits.

Yes this was a massive oversight on their part, they F'd up, more times than I can count. That said here we are now, and need to look forward to prevent this from getting even worse.

Even without that, there is a steady net positive influx, because vendors never run out of credits, plus there are other sources of money. BW hammered hard on the last part and tried to lower the influx in other ways, but it must stay net positive, otherwise you will see major problems, aside of new players never getting anywhere in terms of money (= bad).

Here is where I start to disagree. There does not have to be a net positive of cash coming in. There is so much money in the economy that it can easily transfer hands, without creating more than can be spent. Some players will grow richer others will grow poorer, that's perfectly fine. Credit sinks can help achieve this. New players can still earn money just fine via gtn and selling off low lvl mats. There's enough money in the economy that they can still be well off for their level, and get anything they need in game aside from the "luxury cartel items" from the GTN that cost and arm & a leg.

This means, no matter what, over time more and more money will pile up and consequently more money is available to buy things. But only once the prices become obviously insane players tend to call this inflation, even though it was happening all the time already.

This only happens when there are not enough credit / gold sinks, and / or there are to many botters which is another issue altogether. Or as has happened in some games, clearly not this one, cause it's a top shelf mmo. An exploit was found to generate funds out of thin air. I can't imagine what an exploit like that would be, but hypothetically speaking one could buy a stack (9999) of something for 1 credit per item and selling it back again to the vendor for 100x the credits, over and over again. And then the company just let it go, cause you can't get rid of all the money created, since they didn't keep track of it well. Thankfully we've not had that issue, and it's just a hypothetical. Could you imagine if that happened though? It would probably F up the economy pretty bad....

If you want to get a handle on this, you ideally have "sane" money caps right from the start of a MMO, and even if the designers have been stupid with that, there is always the option to enforce sane player-to-player trading caps. The caps are currently at 1b for GTN and 4b or something like that for direct player-to-player trades if I'm not mistaken. Make of that what you want, but with >100b you can stuff alone into legacy cargo it should be clear that whatever BW changed to the influx does absolutely zilch to the still raising prices, because the only way to curb them is lowering the (trading) caps

Another thing I'm going to have to disagree with. I mean I agree with the first part that much, much lower caps should have been in place, but I already mentioned that earlier. At this point, what you want to do is increase the GTN cap and let people list stuff for 10 billion for all I care, and let the GTN tax start depleting funds like crazy due to higher listing prices. At a certain point you hit a negative influx of credits compared to what is being generated in the game, and hopefully the economy will come back down a bit. It'll never be great, because as you remove enough credits prices will fall, and will begin to stabilize against the money coming in, and should zero out. Again this assumes things like bots and other exploits are not an issue. However again ultimately this would require a bit of work, on Bioware's part, and well probably a lost cause.

New players can still earn money just fine via gtn and selling off low lvl mats.

Let me rephrase your idea here: They must sell stuff via GTN. And that is, by design, stupid. The money they get via the game directly without interacting with any other player should be, more or less, sufficient to get around. I started ~6 months ago, and the amount of lift you have to do is rather substantial. Also note that many are F2P, and while some may sub earlier, others only think about it once they hit 60 and such. If the game doesn't work in terms of money for them ... bust.

This only happens when there are not enough credit / gold sinks

I repeat it again: No matter how many sinks you create, it will not work. You can go net negative by forcing certain sinks on players no matter what, but make a guess what will happen then ... Also, I've seen enough games where the designers tried big money sinks of all sorts and the games are still suffering from inflation, many years later. It. Does. Not. Work.

[...] botters [...] exploit [...]

This is, from a technical point of view, just an increased / higher influx. Or, if you want, they speed up the process to eventually hit the ceiling / caps. Which is why these caps need to be sensible and not "oh they will never reach that!".

At this point, what you want to do is increase the GTN cap and let people list stuff for 10 billion for all I care, and let the GTN tax start depleting funds like crazy due to higher listing prices.

What you want are (a) lower caps (because the prices are stupid already, no matter what), and (b) any player-to-player trading cap must be lower than the (GTN cap - GTN tax), so you get to make some profit from GTN and GTN is used for the highest price trades (to draw money out of the system via tax = decreasing influx). Raising the cap will just make the inflation worse, and if you tax it too heavy, players will not use it, because there is still the player-to-player cap, which is not fully exhausted, yet. Or they will split up stuff into parts, if that is possible, do multi-step trades (= trust/risk issues) etc. Players are not that stupid, and they can do math and risk assessment to a certain degree.

Or as has happened in some games, clearly not this one, cause it's a top shelf mmo. An exploit was found to generate funds out of thin air. I can't imagine what an exploit like that would be, but hypothetically speaking one could buy a stack (9999) of something for 1 credit per item and selling it back again to the vendor for 100x the credits, over and over again. And then the company just let it go, cause you can't get rid of all the money created, since they didn't keep track of it well. Thankfully we've not had that issue, and it's just a hypothetical. Could you imagine if that happened though? It would probably F up the economy pretty bad....

SWTOR actually had one of those issues, more or less exactly as you described (buy for 1 credit per item(0), sell for, if memory serves, about ... um ... 100 credits), although the maximum stack size was only 999 at the time, maybe less.

The difference was that when it came to BioWare's attention, they very quickly issued a crisp statement that anyone taking advantage of it would be sanctioned for exploit use. I don't recall if they said anyone got an actual ban(1), but there were almost certainly some accounts suspended(1).

(0) If memory serves, it was one of the early credit-buyable special decorations. I want to say one of the temple chairs, but that's testing the limits of my recall, sorry.

(1) Ban == permanent subject to questions of appeals, suspension = temporary.

Let me rephrase your idea here: They must sell stuff via GTN. And that is, by design, stupid. The money they get via the game directly without interacting with any other player should be, more or less, sufficient to get around. I started ~6 months ago, and the amount of lift you have to do is rather substantial. Also note that many are F2P, and while some may sub earlier, others only think about it once they hit 60 and such. If the game doesn't work in terms of money for them ... bust.

They're not forced into the GTN. I would encourage it, but no one is forced into it. Low level characters make jack in terms of credits, even from quests. Thankfully they don't need to spend any credits on almost anything anymore either. Gear is provided via quests, heroics or flash points. Abilities are now free, and the one change I suggested upping travel costs from planet to planet that could have affected them. I specifically stated those should be scaled with levels so it wouldn't effect new players. You're grasping at straws to win an argument, and failing. This is not anti new players, it's anti established players with billions of credits.

I repeat it again: No matter how many sinks you create, it will not work. You can go net negative by forcing certain sinks on players no matter what, but make a guess what will happen then ... Also, I've seen enough games where the designers tried big money sinks of all sorts and the games are still suffering from inflation, many years later. It. Does. Not. Work.

Agree to disagree. The game has a certain amount of credits generated each day, we don't know what that number is only Bioware does. However it is very possible with the right steps to make it so that more credits are lost than gained, but actual steps have to be taken to do so. Furthermore as I stated before we have to be realistic about what type of change we expect. I don't expect that we will go back to things costing under a 100 mill. I expect that we prevent this problem from going further out of control at a rapid pace that it seems to have climbed recently, and still seem to be climbing even today. Idk maybe that conquest nerf will help, time will tell, but I think that more drastic measures are needed.

This is, from a technical point of view, just an increased / higher influx. Or, if you want, they speed up the process to eventually hit the ceiling / caps. Which is why these caps need to be sensible and not "oh they will never reach that!"

And yet you're missing the point. Us getting there faster is the problem, either through botters or exploiters. If it wasn't for these things the economy while inflated from the conception of the game, would have been considerably more reasonable to the player base. Perhaps even through out it's full life cycle however long that is at this rate. Yet these things shot us up to the broken economy we have now.

What you want are (a) lower caps (because the prices are stupid already, no matter what), and (b) any player-to-player trading cap must be lower than the (GTN cap - GTN tax), so you get to make some profit from GTN and GTN is used for the highest price trades (to draw money out of the system via tax = decreasing influx). Raising the cap will just make the inflation worse, and if you tax it too heavy, players will not use it, because there is still the player-to-player cap, which is not fully exhausted, yet. Or they will split up stuff into parts, if that is possible, do multi-step trades (= trust/risk issues) etc. Players are not that stupid, and they can do math and risk assessment to a certain degree.

Raising the GTN cap would actually allow for items that are not currently sold on the GTN to be sold on the GTN. There are a number of items now being sold from person to person because the GTN cap is too low. Or lower than the player trading cap, which you believe to be a problem. Raising the GTN cap means those items can go on the GTN (for convenience reasons) and thus take more money out of the system's economy. Instead your suggestion of lowering the player cap to less than the GTN cap creates a problem where people will still say I'm still selling this item for x amount (say 2 billion), and if you want it, you'll have to pay me in increments to get it. Creating a problem with ripping people off by taking the first increment and bouncing. Thus forcing Bioware's skeleton crew to deal with it as others start to report people. And before you say, oh people are smart, they would never trust a random person and pay them in increments. Have you met people? Seriously this type of **** has happened so many times before in other games, and will continue to happen if this is the route you take with your ideas. It's better to raise the GTN cap and let more money be taken out of the economy via more expensive transactions.

SWTOR actually had one of those issues, more or less exactly as you described (buy for 1 credit per item(0), sell for, if memory serves, about ... um ... 100 credits), although the maximum stack size was only 999 at the time, maybe less.

 

The difference was that when it came to BioWare's attention, they very quickly issued a crisp statement that anyone taking advantage of it would be sanctioned for exploit use. I don't recall if they said anyone got an actual ban(1), but there were almost certainly some accounts suspended(1).

Whoosh

Okay I didn't recall if the cap was 999 or 9999, but the point still stood. And while some people may have been banned a lot of money still existed in the economy because they couldn't trace all of it. Botters who made new accounts and got banned probably still got away with tons of money. There was a reason why there was massive inflation after, because billions upon billions of credits were now created out of thin air.

First, for those of us that have been playing and subscribing for the last 10 years, we should be rewarded 1B credits for each year. Simple math says that if you were a subscriber for since launch, that's $1800 (USD) you have invested into this game via subscription fees. How much more have you invested buying Cartel Coins in order to keep this game going? We should have LOTS of credits. This game would be dead without us.

 

Second, for new players and free to play players or players that have left the game and coming back to a huge credit inflation, get over it. How much have you invested? $15 (USD)? Do you think this game would still be around if not for those people that have been around since launch? As a matter of fact, let me help you afford items you want within the game. Spend some actual money on a subscription!!! Then spend some actual money on some Cartel Coins. With those Cartel Coins, buy the Master Datacron. Then sell those Master Datacrons on the GTN for 600M credits each. BOOM...you can now afford items in SWTOR by putting some actual investment into the game.

The only way they can fix the inflation is set credit caps on paying accounts as well as f2p accounts to combat the credit sales sites that still post on gen chat and send mails in-game. I play the GTN game as well but to combat gold farmers. I sell generally for half the lowest price on most of my sales just so that the farmer doesn't get that sale. If I buy an item and I want it on all my characters I unlock it via collections with CC bought from EA/BW. If Bioware were smart they would add Dyes to collections like they did crystals to help fight inflation on harder to get dyes like Black/Black.

The only way they can fix the inflation is set credit caps on paying accounts as well as f2p accounts to combat the credit sales sites that still post on gen chat and send mails in-game. I play the GTN game as well but to combat gold farmers. I sell generally for half the lowest price on most of my sales just so that the farmer doesn't get that sale. If I buy an item and I want it on all my characters I unlock it via collections with CC bought from EA/BW. If Bioware were smart they would add Dyes to collections like they did crystals to help fight inflation on harder to get dyes like Black/Black.

LOL.

Bioware profits from "inflation." Those Dye Modules sell over and over and over again because they aren't in collections.

Also, you don't prevent sales by undercutting a price with one item. Yours likely sells first, but so does the next item. In fact, there's a good chance your item just got flipped if it was listed for half the selling value.

Finally, there are already credit caps in place for all accounts.

They're not forced into the GTN.

But you wrote that they should use GTN to get any useful amount of money. That is conceptually broken, as I outlined.

Agree to disagree.

There are absurd amounts of money in the game. How many sinks do you want to force on players for that to matter to the point you will eventually see falling prices? Also, as hinted at by me already, if players start to see they are constantly losing money where they shouldn't, especially in larger amounts, they will put on the heat and tell you off, which is why this option is not working to the extent it will make any difference. That boat has sailed.

And yet you're missing the point. Us getting there faster is the problem, either through botters or exploiters.

I don't see that as a problem, because you have to expect exploits and also automation to happen. Which means when it comes to "economy", you have to put safeguards in place accordingly, and many games have failed to do so properly and suffer from it now. You can try to have telemetry and logging in place to backtrack potential issues and catch things early, but personally I wouldn't rely on it, because what are the chances ... the longer a MMO runs, the more likely it will see money exploits, and if there is a market for it, automation for "gold farming". This is the reality you just have to accept.

Instead your suggestion of lowering the player cap to less than the GTN cap creates a problem where people will still say I'm still selling this item for x amount (say 2 billion), and if you want it, you'll have to pay me in increments to get it. Creating a problem with ripping people off by taking the first increment and bouncing. Thus forcing Bioware's skeleton crew to deal with it as others start to report people.

Sorry, but that argument is outright stupid. If you turn it around, you want player-to-player trades entirely uncapped, because that is the only solution to that. We were talking about what? Right, inflation ...