Economy Suggestions

Hi guys,

Now I know things are in development and I appreciate this game completely. I offer these suggestions as I play as a sort of notebook that you can look at from time to time and see where the average player stands and what is going on in the head of the average player. Since the game is in development, this is a great time to look and see what a player is doing, going through, and longing for. If any suggestion is insulting, I am not intending it that way--I want to be a helpful community member.

At the moment I am noticing that the in game currency (or its equivalent values of commodities) is useless atm. I know this will change at some time in the future but I think there needs to be more generic things that can be done with currency. Let me relay in game experience at the moment:

It is frustrating to find your weapon or equipment has broken down and you are missing one or more vital commodities to craft the item. Aside from friendly help, you are out of luck. The game then grinds to a halt because you can no longer hunt or mine for the items you need. This is a game ending scenario and will be a major hassle for the average user. Trading one commodity for another is equally useless as values and rarity is not quite established. What is a player to do?

This is where currency and a trader steps in. Allow resources to be recycled for currency. This currency could then be used at a trader (like a trade terminal) to purchase basic items such as low end weapons, ammo, low end mining equipment. Make it cost more in currency than it would in commodities to still encourage people to craft their own items. This gives the player the choice of purchase at a higher cost or craft at a lower cost.

When you do not loot the needed commodities and have no one to trade with, it is really.....really.....really frustrating.

Thanks for posting this Max,

You are certainly not the only one running in to this. We've been handing out items ourselves and added the treasure boxes to increase potential ways for players to keep going. The only other thing we were able to do in the current (0.5.5) version was to increase/maximize the chance of looting specific resources and (adj) components. This should help to alleviate the frustration experienced by new players.

Although it's nice to see the more settled players helping new people, we realized this needs to be fixed in another way. That's why the next update will feature improvements in many different areas effecting the economy. Most notably the introduction of currency, a pwnshop (trader), and a reward system for donations. I'm being careful with giving out too much details here because I know our competitors are looking for inspiration...

this^. Very happy to see things economy wise incoming, everyone get your hats on and hold onto your pants fun times are a comin.

Adding value to the live release:
Trough the initial Project Ion rewards for testers, ambassadors, supporters and event-developers along with the initial value for pick-ups given by the developers on live-release can be considered as the total economic platform value.
Trough donations PID and items enter into the Project Ion platform, but this can be considered as another add on the total economic value from the platform.
Like this it will be very easy to track the total value present at any time in the platform, giving an insight on the total value from the economy.
Donations should always offer an extra opportunity and should not become a standard habit of depositing your donations in turn for only in-game currency.
The developers can create packages containing both special items and currency.
Making a combination from the both, and make them change from content preferably related to the on-going storyline will offer a nice opportunity for supporters at any time.

Optimal game-play for gamers:
The main goal from this new platform should be that it is playable and payable for everyone.
As the developers not planning to offer an opportunity to withdraw your funds directly there is also less need to create a losing formula or being dependable on sponsorship to keep the game going.
An as good as 100% from all activities done by the player base can be fully controlled, affect and flow back into the platform itself.
This approach will offer more game-play as the developers will have much more opportunity to create ways to make it exciting to find valuables on a constant basis. The feel for mass of wealth or at least the pursue of being able to accomplish this trough playing the game will be the main reason many people will play it.  

How does PID and value disappear?
The developers should offer over time more opportunities for us to invest in.
Being able to buy or rent an apartment, invest in a swap of land or any other activity offered by the developers that are considered as first-time sales or as continues offered additional features can disappear from the platform.

Withdraw value from your avatar:
Being able to withdraw/trade valuables in MMO’s is not something new.
As is seen in many MMO’s were some people are not afraid to pay real money for virtual objects it will be very nice to look for ways to withdraw your avatar valuables for real life valuables.
Besides being able to just act on trust it will be pretty unique if community members or the developers will create ways that will be considered more save and even legit.
As for the economy platform it is important to remember that when someone withdraws any value, the value itself will not disappear from the platform but just have changed hands.