(This is in reply to the "
Any ideas on how to fix the dead economy?" thread by
@crunchynasty.
@Kyronix suggested we post ideas in this thread.)
One major cause of a weak and dead economy is too few players on most shards. External to the game itself, somehow enticing a large number of new players to come and try out UO is one solution. In game, consolidating very low population shards would be another (at the risk of vehement protest by existing players who love their shards).
Going past the "more players per shard" option, a long-term problem is items from monster drops are viewed to be as good or better than crafted items. The devs have tried various ways to address this:
- the BOD system, giving crafters something to do besides sell to fellow players
- the imbuing system, allowing crafters to customize their work in a controllable fashion
- the vendor search capability, actually allowing players to find what is being proffered
#1 is not a solution to a dead economy. It is very useful and popular, but is a surrender to the concept of making crafters' goods desirable. Nevertheless, I believe the BOD system should stay. Even a healthy economy could not support a large number of crafters who like using their skills. Supply >> Demand. That said, it could be tuned. Something that frustrates me about BODs is their total randomness. I'd like to see BODs for a certain skill to be allowed to scale to a character's current ability. A new blacksmith in training, but past New Haven, would much more benefit from "make 20 bone harvesters out of iron" (33 base skill) than "make 15 dread swords out of dull copper" (75 base skill). Once a player reached 100 skill, item level would once again become random. Or the player could shut off the level-scaling at any time (so BOD-gatherers could continue what they have grown accustomed to.)
#2 helps a lot. I'm sure there are ways to improve it, but it already allows, for example, a skilled Blacksmith or Tailor to design whole armor sets balancing item properties with certain overall goals. If there is a problem, it is player ignorance, or even an attitude of, "I don't care. Monster drops are good enough."
#3 is also extremely beneficial. To help the economy, it might somehow favor exceptionally crafted goods over monster drops.
Another unpopular, but I think useful, idea is to simply make monster drops less powerful. There is currently little desire to use crafted goods. The goods of high-end crafters should not be dwarved by random monster drops and artifacts. While a crafter might enhance a random monster drop, it's sort of like helping your competition. A balance here is admittedly tricky. A player who likes PvM should be rewarded and be able to find really nice items. This is especially true on the many shards with low populations and few active crafters selling to players. Yet there still should be a perception that exceptionally crafted items are as good or better than what may be obtained via hunting. How vet rewards should be balanced is yet another permutation. The overall goal, though, is to make high-end crafted stuff perceived as very desirable. Of course, they already are, but the perception doesn't seem to match the reality.
Part of this post is driven by a positive anecdote from this morning. On Sonoma right now, two crafters have for sale Gargish armor sets mostly tuned for LRC. My new Gargoyle there lusts after either, but he needs 30,000 gold for one and 50,000 for the other. The more expensive one has additional value in that it adds a Gargish ring and bracelet, both with +13 magery and +13 mysticism. Just about perfect, with more Magery skill than a human's 20 JOAT. Add in a +10 Magery spellbook, and he could even Recall effectively. (His template doesn't offer any means of long distance travel; Mysticism is his only magic.) I'd like to thank both crafters for their work, and I'm about to go back in game to earn the gold to buy a set.
