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How about that inflation eh?


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Haven't played in a while (maybe a year or two?), and I came back again to finish some of the storylines.

 

I used to be considered... "well-off", financially in the game. (but not rich, by any means. Just "comfortable".)

 

I made a lot of money crafting and selling dyes, and I also had a pretty decent income from buying hypercrates using my CC grants and selling those on the marketplace.

 

This let me concentrate on just playing the storylines and not grinding or end-game content. Which suits me just fine!

 

 

However... I just went on the GTN to look at the prices of some of the stuff I didn't have... and wow!

 

It used to be that something that was "expensive" cost a few tens of million.

 

Now we're talking hundreds of millions.

 

Some of the items that I was interested in were over half a billion! :eek:

 

Now, you can't tell me that the average SWTOR player is running around with those kinds of funds.

 

So has the GTN (and by extension the Marketplace) been taken over by whales and power-grinders?

Edited by OddballEasyEight
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So has the GTN (and by extension the Marketplace) been taken over by whales and power-grinders?

 

1. Welcome to SWTOR 2021

2. They took over years ago

 

What would be nice is a separate "poor people's GTN" (PPGTN):

 

So I'm not posting the same post twice, I've moved my suggestion to the Suggestions forum.

Edited by xordevoreaux
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You don't need things off the GTN to enjoy the game.

 

I have no idea what shape you were in in regards to assets when you stopped playing, but many of the sellable items you may have still sitting in your inventory have most likely also been affected by inflation. It's all relative. Research what those things are selling for (including the things you can craft that you used to sell before) and with a little effort, you can get caught up to a comfortable status in a few weeks.

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Regardless of how and why this situation came to be (because what I'm about to say is accurate, but also merely the result of mentioned inflation)..

 

Now, you can't tell me that the average SWTOR player is running around with those kinds of funds.

 

Whether the average player is..? Probably not. The average player could be, though. By selling off mats earned through conquest, deconstructing gear, playing flashpoints and/or converting tech fragments, any casual can earn a few hundred million within a reasonable amount of time now.

 

I have several friends that barely play outside of weekends that went from having tens to hundreds of millions of credits to a billion overnight when I told them to sell off any Solid Resource Matrix, Legendary Ember and Processed Isotope Stabilizer they had sitting unused in their mats storage, and that was before the new augment materials could be bought with tech fragments.

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Regardless of how and why this situation came to be (because what I'm about to say is accurate, but also merely the result of mentioned inflation)..

 

 

 

Whether the average player is..? Probably not. The average player could be, though. By selling off mats earned through conquest, deconstructing gear, playing flashpoints and/or converting tech fragments, any casual can earn a few hundred million within a reasonable amount of time now.

 

I have several friends that barely play outside of weekends that went from having tens to hundreds of millions of credits to a billion overnight when I told them to sell off any Solid Resource Matrix, Legendary Ember and Processed Isotope Stabilizer they had sitting unused in their mats storage, and that was before the new augment materials could be bought with tech fragments.

 

Solid Resource Matrix is one example of where a huge amount of credits were made. They use to sell for 1 - 2 MILL credits EACH !! Now they average for 1/10 that value. ( I found some old notes that I use to keep when playing the market more aggressively. ) Now the big item(s) are :

** finished goods that people post cheap and other buy and resale

** Decos (some of which are actually sold at vendors on the stations or on planets OR items that can be earned while playing the game ! :eek:

** Armor sets (pieces of sets such as Satele "Boots") that are also readily available on the CM .

 

(Please note that this list is not inclusive of ALL hot items sold on the GTN)

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Solid Resource Matrix is one example of where a huge amount of credits were made. They use to sell for 1 - 2 MILL credits EACH !! Now they average for 1/10 that value.

 

If you '1/10' that then you're cheating yourself. :p

 

Edit a second time: I changed my mind.. eh, the response sort of goes beside the point I was making. The people I mention did no activities to try and make credits, unless you count selling off the things you already had to be an activity.

 

Not all content in the game has the same potential, absolutely, and you can make a lot of credits if you try, but the mats I pointed out are things that I see my friends getting and selling while doing the things they were doing anyway. A lot of people out there are richer than they think they are.

Edited by cyrusramsey
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Regardless of how and why this situation came to be (because what I'm about to say is accurate, but also merely the result of mentioned inflation)..

 

 

 

Whether the average player is..? Probably not. The average player could be, though. By selling off mats earned through conquest, deconstructing gear, playing flashpoints and/or converting tech fragments, any casual can earn a few hundred million within a reasonable amount of time now.

 

I have several friends that barely play outside of weekends that went from having tens to hundreds of millions of credits to a billion overnight when I told them to sell off any Solid Resource Matrix, Legendary Ember and Processed Isotope Stabilizer they had sitting unused in their mats storage, and that was before the new augment materials could be bought with tech fragments.

 

I suppose you missed the bit where I said I don't play end-game content like that.

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I suppose you missed the bit where I said I don't play end-game content like that.

 

Nope. Conquest isn't end-game. Story flashpoints also drop the exotic mats. Anyone can get gold gear eventually if they play long enough, all lvl75s will earn tech fragments. None of this requires end-game content.

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Nope. Conquest isn't end-game. Story flashpoints also drop the exotic mats. Anyone can get gold gear eventually if they play long enough, all lvl75s will earn tech fragments. None of this requires end-game content.

 

I think the person you responded to and myself do not agree with your definition of "end-game." I agree conquest is not strictly end-game but since it's an activity that can be engaged in at max character level I consider conquest to be both a leveling and end-game activity.

 

I've no real idea what stokes the massive inflation in SWTOR's economy. People buying from credit sellers? Credit exploits that are either still active or were active long enough for people to acquire credits via the exploit and then quickly use them to acquire goods which makes the exploited credits unrecoverable? I do not know.

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... concentrate on just playing the storylines and not grinding or end-game content. Which suits me just fine!

 

The only things that anybody actually needs from GTN are augmentation kits and augments. However, those are only needed for characters that will take part in the harder group content (MM Uprisings, possibly MM FPs) and end game content like Operations and PvP.

 

A character "just playing the storylines" can entirely ignore the GTN. Of course, like others above, I too recommend selling stuff off on GTN that you get through playing the game the way you want. That way, the inflation will only impact you positively.

 

Conquest is not an endgame activity; vast majority of Conquest activities can be done without top-level gear and without a lot of expertise and experience with your character's discipline. You can get CQ points for defeating enemies, completing missions, gathering materials, sending companions on crew skill missions, raising their influence level, even for assigning your combat proficiencies. It is, in fact, easier to do with sub-75 characters. And Conquest is profitable. Having a character join a large-conquest guild and incidentally complete the 50K CQ target every week is a nice and easy way to make some money.

Edited by mike_carton
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I suppose you missed the bit where I said I don't play end-game content like that.

 

Even without doing end game stuff, as long as you're level 75, and gaining ranks from the content you are doing, you'll be able to save up you tech ****, and buy the rpm/oem mats, and sell them, they go for a round 40 mill each. Don't list them below that, unless you are just trying to rid of it. If you have a little patience, it will go for the 40(+) mill

Edited by DarkTergon
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The only things that anybody actually needs from GTN are augmentation kits and augments. However, those are only needed for characters that will take part in the harder group content (MM Uprisings, possibly MM FPs) and end game content like Operations and PvP.

 

A character "just playing the storylines" can entirely ignore the GTN. Of course, like others above, I too recommend selling stuff off on GTN that you get through playing the game the way you want. That way, the inflation will only impact you positively.

 

Conquest is not an endgame activity; vast majority of Conquest activities can be done without top-level gear and without a lot of expertise and experience with your character's discipline. You can get CQ points for defeating enemies, completing missions, gathering materials, sending companions on crew skill missions, raising their influence level, even for assigning your combat proficiencies. It is, in fact, easier to do with sub-75 characters. And Conquest is profitable. Having a character join a large-conquest guild and incidentally complete the 50K CQ target every week is a nice and easy way to make some money.

 

Well said !! Excellent !!

[/two thumbs up]

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I think the person you responded to and myself do not agree with your definition of "end-game." I agree conquest is not strictly end-game but since it's an activity that can be engaged in at max character level I consider conquest to be both a leveling and end-game activity.

 

That seems like a strange definition. What activity can't one do at max level? Is <75 pvp the only non-endgame activity..? You can get the exotic mats while not at max level (though I believe that requires being guilded), and you can in fact finish conquest easily by doing story missions. Conquest isn't an activity, it's a reward system that involves many activities, most of them are absolutely not endgame.

Edited by cyrusramsey
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I guess the intention was to talk about stupidly high prices on cartel market items.

Immense level of greed is increasing with every month. Bioware should do something to stop it when it's still not too late.

 

Best would be to implement a proportional increase in taxes for selling stuff on GTN. Lets start with new taxes up to a level of 50% - 75% on most expensive items. People driven by greed would be still getting a lot, but not that lot of money like today. Tempted to earn more and give less to taxes, they would be decreasing prices.

 

This is a community of people who exchange money for items. Greed of one group work against delicate balance on the market. People who enjoy game want to earn credits while playing to spend them on products they can afford from GTN. If they can't afford most items, the balance is broken, people loose interest and leave the game.

Edited by Grendel_Echo
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Some of the items that I was interested in were over half a billion! :eek:

 

I suspect you mean the gold augments. Don't get those. I have no idea why BW put them in the game but you can do just fine with the purple ones. Word of advice: There is a livestream starting soon, so they might announce a new expansion. The current gear will be obsolete by then anyways. So don't buy any gear just yet.

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I guess the intention was to talk about stupidly high prices on cartel market items.

Immense level of greed is increasing with every month. Bioware should do something to stop it when it's still not too late.

 

Best would be to implement a proportional increase in taxes for selling stuff on GTN. Lets start with new taxes up to a level of 50% - 75% on most expensive items. People driven by greed would be still getting a lot, but not that lot of money like today. Tempted to earn more and give less to taxes, they would be decreasing prices.

 

This is a community of people who exchange money for items. Greed of one group work against delicate balance on the market. People who enjoy game want to earn credits while playing to spend them on products they can afford from GTN. If they can't afford most items, the balance is broken, people loose interest and leave the game.

 

All this would accomplish is for people to stop buying stuff from the cartel market to list on the GTN. This would be effective to piss of the following groups:

- Bioware: less income from cartel market so its a non starter.

-Whales: they would no longer have incentive to purchase items from cartel market to sell for credits.

-Grinders: the people who have loads of credits from grinding content, but don’t spend real life money for cartel market items would not longer have as good a supply from the whales.

 

Your average joe player would be largely uneffected because the ultra expensive items would just not be in supply anymore. This would do nothing good for the in game economy.

 

To fix the greed and inflation bioware only needs to implement 2 things:

-Market history: even just a history of the last 10 sales would go a long way for people to have a better idea of prices on items. Some players have no idea how much something costs and if there is only one seller selling it for 10x the normal price the buyer wouldn’t know any better. Better yet make it a searchable history: last 10, avg for the last 3 days etc.

 

-Nonrefundable Deposit of 5%: Having no skin in the game also enables people to just post something up for 100m just because. If it doesn’t sell they don’t lose anything. So we need a 5% non-refundable deposit on all items placed for sale. This fee would then be deducted from the final market cut when the sale is actually made. This would make it so people don’t just post something for an extreme amount in the hopes of getting a lucky sale. If I post a random decoration for 250m and don’t make the sale then I am out 12.5m credits. So sellers would then need to be careful about their pricing and sell it for an amount that they know will work.

 

Those two things alone would work wonders in curbing rampant inflation and people listing items for outrageous prices.

Edited by Saikochoro
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The simplest way to stop over pricing items??

 

Easy: don't spend the credits on the ridiculously expensive stuff (regardless of what it is). This also pertains to CM items ! ;)

 

BUT ... the real problem is that too many people prefer to blindly shell out credits hand over fist for stuff. That part of any game will never be "governed".

 

Greedy whales ??

 

Frankly they don't make squat off of me.

 

If I need decos: I rarely buy them off of the GTN. Only those items that are no longer found in game do I even look at on the GTN! I either get them in game as a drop OR once in a blue moon off of the CM (and only when on sale).

 

OH ... also: I have 4 strongholds that are at 100% (and have been for the last 2 years). AND YES there are a couple things I'd like to get. But ... I'll just sit pat with what we have for now ... (I'll get them one day).

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I suspect you mean the gold augments. Don't get those. I have no idea why BW put them in the game but you can do just fine with the purple ones. Word of advice: There is a livestream starting soon, so they might announce a new expansion. The current gear will be obsolete by then anyways. So don't buy any gear just yet.

 

No.

 

Like I mentioned, I only play the stories.

 

All I wanted was cosmetic stuff.

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I think the person you responded to and myself do not agree with your definition of "end-game." I agree conquest is not strictly end-game but since it's an activity that can be engaged in at max character level I consider conquest to be both a leveling and end-game activity.

You start earning conquest point at level 10.

If you do conquest at a slow pace, like simply doing your class story (and planet story, and side quests), you will have your conquest done in an one or two hours max. Easy.

 

On my F2P account (limited to level 60), I reached closed to half a billion in the legacy hold by selling the mats from conquest rewards. 50k points is all you need for that mat. At level 60 you are limited in some of the mats you get from conquest. So if your toons are above 60, I'm confident you will earn a lot more and faster than me on my f2p (which I don't play as much as my main account).

 

Doing anything outside of that, sure it gives conquest points, but the stuff you get (loot from boss, for example) is not related to the conquest itself. It is just stuff earned for doing content. If you pick up a Daily or a Weekly that gives stuff, same thing, you get it for completing the questst, and the extra conquest points is just the competitive part of it, within a guild, I guess.

 

Conquest is not end-game, and doing end-game content is not ncessary to make millions.

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Even without doing end game stuff, as long as you're level 75, and gaining ranks from the content you are doing, you'll be able to save up you tech ****, and buy the rpm/oem mats, and sell them, they go for a round 40 mill each. Don't list them below that, unless you are just trying to rid of it. If you have a little patience, it will go for the 40(+) mill

 

Sell my what?

 

And where do I buy rpm/oem mats?

 

Like I said, I haven't played in a long while, so all of that stuff is new.

 

Listen, some of you guys seem to miss the bit where I say I'm new... you've been here all this time so you've kept up with trends and changes in the game... I haven't.

 

So you just stomping in here sayin "oh, you just get X and sell it to buy Y" isn't really helping when I don't know where to get X or where to buy Y.

 

EDIT: Hell, I had to google-fu the heck out of this just to figure out that your "tech ****" comment meant tech fragments.

Edited by OddballEasyEight
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The simplest way to stop over pricing items??

 

Easy: don't spend the credits on the ridiculously expensive stuff (regardless of what it is). This also pertains to CM items ! ;)

 

BUT ... the real problem is that too many people prefer to blindly shell out credits hand over fist for stuff. That part of any game will never be "governed".

 

Greedy whales ??

 

Frankly they don't make squat off of me.

 

If I need decos: I rarely buy them off of the GTN. Only those items that are no longer found in game do I even look at on the GTN! I either get them in game as a drop OR once in a blue moon off of the CM (and only when on sale).

 

OH ... also: I have 4 strongholds that are at 100% (and have been for the last 2 years). AND YES there are a couple things I'd like to get. But ... I'll just sit pat with what we have for now ... (I'll get them one day).

 

This is 100% correct.

 

If people stopped paying the high prices for things, especially those they CAN MAKE THEMSELVES, prices would drop.

 

The problem as I see it is people are lazy and also uneducated on how the crafting system works or the GTN for that matter.

 

But the underlying reason for run away inflation at the moment is lack of supply on certain items due to the removal of free referral cartel coins. And this was predictable and posted about when it was announced. So the run away inflation should be no surprise to people or Bioware for that matter.

 

There are limited ways BioWare can increase CM supply back on the GTN again to reduce inflation. One would be to have more 50% off sales. Another would be to permanently reduce to cost of some CM items. A third would be for them to have sales and promotions to buy actual CCs.

 

And yes, GS is giving everyone who participates some CCs. But as another poster in another thread pointed out, the amount they’ll get from fully completing GS doesn’t even equal the amount they use to get from one months worth or referrals.

 

Personally, I’m hoarding the CCs I’ve still got left and I’m sure many other people are too.

 

It’s my also making obscene amounts of credits off the GTN for crafted items because people are lazy, silly or both. I list my stuff much higher than everyone else and it still sells. And while some people call it greed, I call it thinking ahead for when I want to be able to afford a CM item on the GTN that’s super expensive. I can pretty much buy anything on the GTN I want, but I don’t waste my credits. And never ever buy crafted items to use because I can make them myself. I only buy them to flip when people sell them below the cost of the actual mats to make them.

 

Anyone who thinks I’m being greedy doesn’t understand that all my credits were earnt solely from crafting and not one person “needs” to buy my GTN items. ALL of them can be crafted by anyone willing to put in the effort. But if you are lazy or can’t be bothered to put in the effort, you will have to accept the prices listed for non CM items. It’s not hard to craft any of the items I make and most of the credits come from schematics that are readily available on the fleet trainers.

 

The only real inflation problem in the game is a direct result of Biowares CM and CC policies. Crafting inflation can be easily negated by the players themselves if they choose not to be lazy. Wether that’s from doing a little web research or spending the time to craft. People who cry about crafting inflation only have themselves to blame.

 

Moving toward, BioWare could add more GTN taxes to the CM items. It’s also a great credit sink too. It’s currently at a flat 8% rate. But they could add a variable rate for CM items that scales the higher something is listed. I would remove or reduce the GTN tax for crafted items or mats under 100,000,000. But I would cap it 30% for items up to and over 500,000,000 because sellers will only incorporate the tax into their sell price (like I and many others already do).

 

With less tax paid on crafted items and mats, prices on those items should theoretically fall. The short fall can be made up by the increased GTN taxes on CM items. This will remove the excess credits from the game and also keep some items from riding higher into the next tax bracket.

 

Edit:

I’ve also posted a lot the last 18 months on how to make credits. There are also plenty of guides out there too. People still complaining about inflation can help themselves by making credits.

 

Everything on the GTN is capped at a billion credits. Learn to craft and make credits. Become a billionaire in the game and then eventually nothing is out of your reach because the more billionaires there are, the less valuable those 1 billion items become.

 

I can’t ever see BioWare increasing the capped GTN price above 1 Billion, the more people who become billionaires the less a billion is actually worth.

Another option is BioWare start flooding the game with even more credits so that the majority of players become Billionaires.

Either measure would devalue the credit system and inflation will eventually hit a hard cap.

Edited by TrixxieTriss
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Sell my what?

 

And where do I buy rpm/oem mats?

 

Like I said, I haven't played in a long while, so all of that stuff is new.

 

Listen, some of you guys seem to miss the bit where I say I'm new... you've been here all this time so you've kept up with trends and changes in the game... I haven't.

 

So you just stomping in here sayin "oh, you just get X and sell it to buy Y" isn't really helping when I don't know where to get X or where to buy Y.

 

EDIT: Hell, I had to google-fu the heck out of this just to figure out that your "tech ****" comment meant tech fragments.

 

Did you google the RPM/OEMs and how to get them from tech frags?

 

If you still need help, ask and we’ll try and help you.

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No.

 

Like I mentioned, I only play the stories.

 

All I wanted was cosmetic stuff.

 

It’s not hard. Learn to craft and spend sometime doing that to make credits. Then you can afford what ever you want. If that doesn’t work for you, then buy cartel coins and buy the stuff off the cartel market.

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