A Possible Solution : Loot Scaling.

Lets be honest , alot of people dont like the way anet has done this and I honestly cant see them changing it back any time soon but there is a way that people could still afford the basics they require for armor/skills/keys ect.
The Merchant prices are controlled by anet I believe , so if they were too incrase the price on rare materials then farming UW/FOW and many other areas would be worthwhile again , its just an idea but say they increased ecto price back to like 20k. Youd have alot less moaners..... I think .

Fixed price at 10-15k ? Seems fine by me. Good for trading, good for making money.

I also liked the idea brought up in another thread where you can /votekick your teammates if theres a high enough percentage voting yes. That would help everyone from PvP and PvE for example on a run if someones trying to afk scam , just ask your clients to kick them . In PvP Leeching? No Thanks , Kicked.

Anet devised the economy to be autonomous. All they need now is to hire some guy who sets prices for in game materials.

Also this should be in Sardelac unless I'm much mistaken. In any case...

/not signed

Let's get this straight:
Before the loot scaling, we had two groups of players. Those like me who played the game and simply picked up the money as we went along. Most of the money came from merching whites.

Then, you had the solo farmers who replayed the same area time after time again, most of it whites again, and then by selling the whites, they gained several times as much money as the other group.

The result was that when someone found something worthwhile and offered it on the market, the second group had a lot more gold than the first group. The first group were thus reduced to few purchases of valuable items, while the second group just farmed more and more.

The loot scaling broke this imbalance by equalizing both groups.

The result is that there is the same amount of "interesting" or "useful" stuff (golds, greens, materials, dyes) coming in as before (as they are exempt from the scaling), while the amount of "trash" that is only converted into gold has dropped for the second group.

As there is less gold coming into the system, the prices drop. However, the prices drop for everyone.

Why would 20k ecto be good? It isn't. That's just inflation. Accept that your gold is now worth more, and that your items are worth less in gold but the same in value, and you'll see that this is better.

/notsigned

Anet is not going to turn ectos into a second tier high end guaranteed value second currency for a tiny group of high end hard core farmers who litterally turned a rare material for armor into an UNOFFICIAL second currency simply because they could not hold more millions in gold.

you get 8 X the group rate on all the good high value drops that are exempted.

you get (according to the devs) 2 X the group rate on all other drops instead of 8 X common drops as it is not linear scaling

if it is not worth your work do something instead of whineing about how you cant properly pimp out 20 characters and their heroes on your poor budget just do something else.

the hard core farmer is not Anets target player/buyer as shown by every step take to make it more attractive to the casual player in the face of outrage from the hard core farming community

It was an idea , honestly I dont need any money except for those for new skills but I have more than enough for that . I have 9 pimped out characters with all the equipment they need is that enough . Also you make no sense , if the game is targeted towards casual players , why do some quests take 4+ hours? Im not a farmer , I never have been , I do odd runs every now and then but only out of enjoyment but you cant say that this wouldnt help the economy because it would. Fixing prices means things cant get better or worse .

Loot Scaling was not introduced to stop hard core farmers so you should find that out , it was for botters plain and simple but if a bot can run his account for 24 hours a day where as a hardcore farmer can do it for 8 and a casual player 2 then who comes out better , man or machine?

[QUOTE]if i am incorrect i would like correct information.

i thought those long ones were the optional elite areas not the storyline missions.

please correct if i am wrong and i will thank you

the traders work off a supply and demand system. keep it that way. the price is low because the supply is higher than the demand (ecto are exempt from loot scaling, and people looking for prestige are going more towards vabbian since its more expensive and in most cases looks better than obsidian)

WOW! just WOW can ppl really afford armor such as vabbi armor? Whats their secret? Even with all those hits the price of fow mats has taken, its still far out of ppls reach if u ask me. Even the 15k armor is out of normal players reach now, for what i know. So my suggestion is that they cut the crafting cost down, not that much that it isen't a challange 2 get it but enough so that normal players with a life can buy it within a month (not a year).

[QUOTE=Loviatar]So your saying that anet aims the majority of its stuff around casual players but if they want a true challange they cant have it? If hardcore players arent in Anets masterplan according to you , then why bother with elite areas?


Thank You , your the type of people that I was offering and idea for . People can say well loot scale doesnt affect me because I only play a hour a day but it does , you just wont admit it . I'm sure people are pleased they have to spend probably 8x+ longer than what it use to take to get 15k sets , I mean back then it was in a day now its a month according to some.

It would be good because if people need gold theres a farming option open to them with a good reward so they can afford skills ect. Things will generally rise in price but most of the core stuff is fixed cost so for normal people thats ok . If they want to get very expensive stuff theyll have to put the hours in , if not they can have accses to good skill cash.

It is? Well, think of all the people who do not want to play solo! They gain nearly 8x the whites (=gold) when playing normal now! If I was working hard all week and always looking forward to my long 5-hours-guildwars evening on saturday, I wouldn't want to waste that time for two weeks practising my new solo-farming build and then the next three weeks repeating the same farming tour 20 times over and over again.
I'd like to simply play! And that is more worthwile now, because of two reasons: I get more gold, easily, predictable, while playing normal (in a group) and the materials for a high-level armor cost less! Yay!
Especially nice for people who, even if they found gold stuff, wouldn't want to waste the little time they have advertising the stuff to sell on a large district.

I agree with Iuris: Gold is worth more. It's different than it once was, but I think it is just as good as before, if not better.

And, ironically, I agree with Loviatar mostly. Don't look at me that way, I am as surprised as you are, really.

EDIT
As this has now been moved to Sardelac Sanitarium:
/NOTSIGNED
Low prices for everyone > much much more money for few

You don't actually get any more gold since Loot Scaling has come into effect, you get the same amount of gold as you did before while in a full party.

And the drop in prices of materials siomply means that you make less gold when you sell those same materials from salvaging to the traders.

Gold is worth more because there is less of it in circulation. Which only affects the buying power between players and traders - supply and demand.

Low prices on items again between players/traders, NOT merchants. Since less money is coming into the players hands that used to do the occasion farm run; kits, skills, armor, weapons, keys and other items from weapons crafters, armorers, and merchants has moved slightly further out of reach.

The hardcore farmers have been affected only because most players would now farm for rare materials - which are exempt from Loot Scaling - to make their quick bits of gold. Therefore reducing the value of the same rare materials.

White items gave players a small and quick source of gold.

Collectable drops gave players access to collectors weapons, event items, and another small and quick source of gold.

White items and collectable drops have dried up for solo farmers, and therefore have made the casual player's gold slowly dwindle.

The only saving grace is for those players that have Factions and Nightfall, they can get gold from missions, and in Elona from the Treasures.

Loot Scaling hurt the players more than it hurt the gold farmers and resellers.

I still can't see what everyone's whining about with loot-scaling. It hasn't affected me at all. With the advent of hard mode, I basically can be found vanquishing an area with a full party (usually three heroes and four henchies...) and have yet to complete an area without a full inventory.

Well, there was that one spot on Istan that had like 20 or 30 foes... but in general!

And I get whites. Lots of whites, as well as gold drops and others. Through it all, my gold-in-hand has gone up, noticably. This includes the fact that I buy lockpicks like they're going out of style and aren't afraid to use 'em!

Here's a helpful hint to anyone out there... ID your whites! All of them! You can as much as double the value that the merchant will pay for them by IDing them, at a cost of 5 gp per ID. I almost get sick thinking about the amount of gold I wasted not doing so in the past.

Loot-scaling isn't a problem for anyone by any means except the soloist. If you're a soloist, it's about time you got a date anyhow.