2 Quick Solutions to improve GW economy

1. In UW, drop ectos more frequently, but remove or lessen gold coin drops and weapon/item drops. How will this work as a gold sink? Let us take an extreme case to illustrate. Say nothing drops at all except ectos, and they drop at the current rate of about 1 ecto per smite run. In this situation, you have created a gold sink, as ectos are created but not the gold to buy them. People will use up the ectos to buy armor, and gold is removed from the economy. In the current situation, completing a smite run gives you one ecto and around 3k-6k and up in gold coins and if item drops are sold to merchants. (My personal theory is that the long term equilibrium price of ectos will equal the amount of gold coins and gold coin equivalent of drops obtained along with the ectos).

2. Create a rare crafting material that is very rare, but may drop anywhere and from any monster, and with a drop rate that is around the drop rate of silver dye. Create an FoW type armor set that uses this rare crafting material. How will this work? Since even new players or non hardcore farming players have basically equal chance of getting this rare drop as professional farmers, this technique will redistribute wealth from the wealthiest to the rest of the populace. An argument against this would be the mass farming of low level maps to get this crafting material, but if drop rate is sufficiently rare, I don't believe this would be a problem.

Another way of understanding this technique is to ponder what would happen if for example, all gold coin drops are 1 gold coin, no matter how high or low the monster level is, while item drops remain as they are now. Interesting, isn't it?

/signed for the most part. The Ecto drops REALLY need to be changed. I did like 20 runs with a full team of 8 each in the last time. I did NOT get a single Ecto in all that time. How anyone is supposed to get enough Ecto to get a FoW armor this way is beyond me. I did those runs for fun since I already have a FoW armor but if someone does these runs for the armor (which is legit), they probably get frustrated beyond belief. People are pretty much encouraged to farm for the money and simply buy Ecto, instead of getting them the way they are supposed to be collected. Personally I would like to see Ecto as a quest reward in addition to the puny drop rate from monster. This way it wouldn't matter anymore if you go to UW with a full group or even solo it. Everyone would get around the same amount of Ecto per run.

Nice idea. It would only work if the material is worth at least as much as Ecto though, to get the desired effect. However, if they are too expensive, people (even rich ones) won't be able to get the armor since buying the materials from other people will be the only feasible way to get it. The prices per piece of material should always to be in the 10k - 15k bracket, assuming that you'd need like 100 pieces for a set of armor. A nightmare for Anet to balance out correctly, but I am all for it.

Yes, the idea for #2 is that the only way you can get this crafting material is to buy it from other people. I'm guessing that if the drop rate is the same as the drop rate of silver dye or monstrous claws, and if an armor set requires 100 pieces, the long term price would be higher than that of ectos currently (10k). A technique to combine with this would be to add this item to the stock of every type of merchant in the game, so even newer players know its worth, although this might detract from the rpg aspects of it. On the other hand, if the item is a bit more common, it could probably work as a currency alternative to gold coins, and might help to sidestep the current problems with most gold being concentrated in a small population of guild wars players.

Bad Wrong there are a lot of people who don't even play in FOW/UW and still want fissure armor so both are bad ideas. Keep it the way it is. I make plenty of money the way it is to afford my fissure stuff without ever going into FOW/UW.

I agree with two myself...But I like things the way they are, most of the time

All your ideas would do is make the wealthy mad and the people who are saving ectos for fissure armor mad.

I think I agree with your ideas, and I think #2 should be candy canes! =)

Red Sonya, I don't see how my suggestions on curbing gold coin drops in UW/FoW affects your ability to afford UW/FoW armor, unless you are talking about the 1 gold coin drop for all maps scenario, which is an extreme case to illustrate a point. If UW/FoW lessened its drop of gold coins, and increased its drop of ectos, it should actually help you, if you are going for the FoW armor. If you are hoarding ectos only to exchange for gold coins, then that will hurt your wealth, which is the point.

Jhawk, that's the point, make FoW more affordable to more people. These changes will make people who actually farm ectos for their fissure armor happy. And it will be a move in the right direction for balancing the economy if ectos are created and consumed at a faster rate than gold coins are created in this area. Remember, gold coins are consumed only in the creation of armor.

Riceboi, actually it turns out that candy canes have an effect like that of #2 already. Imagine a professional farmer collecting 5000 candy canes by sitting in Nolani buying skulls for 150 each. Thats 750k that has been distributed from an elite rich to many many newer players already.

isnt it amazing that Anet/NCSoft has a whole company with experts and you come up with their solution just like that.

possibly your ideas were tossed out long ago as unworkable...........who knows

Or maybe the dp eliminating candy cane was a test of this technique? That's why we have these discussions. Otherwise what's the point of having a bug or suggestion thread since Anet/NCSoft has a whole company with experts that have already explored all ideas, right?