Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Mo' Money

One area that Mythic wants to focus on in the 1.3.6 patch is the economy.  As we saw last week, making more items Bind on Equip, is one idea they are kicking around.  While this will certainly give players something to buy and sell, it doesn't help the PvPer all that much as they need a good source of gold.  What can be done?

First, lets take a look at the ways a PvP heavy player makes gold.

Money Drops.  When you kill a player, you get a few silver coins.  However, guild taxes will take a cut in order to pay for keeps and other expenses.

Loot. Players have a limited loot table.  Green/Blue (Tier 4) drops usually go for ~25 silver.  RvR armor pieces (boots, gloves) cannot be sold to a vendor and the AH is usually flooded with them.

Quests.  Each warcamp offers a kill quest for their zone and the associated scenarios. As a reward you get 1.5 gold coins.  The problem is you spend 45 silver to fly to the warcamp, and another 45 silver to fly from the warcamp.  Travel expenses eat a large part of your profits.

Crafting.  This really isn't a PvP specific item, but crafting and selling on the AH can make some nice gold too.

As you can see, PvP is not a very lucrative practice.  Here are some of my ideas to get some money into their hands.

Loot.  The player loot table should be expanded to contain rare world drop items like the Sandstorm items.  I'd like to see whatever is made BoE in 1.3.6 be added to the player loot tables.  Some items which can be sold to a vendor for a decent amount of gold would be good too. 

Daily Quests.  I'm not a big fan of daily quests, unless they reward you for what you enjoy doing.  Add global daily quest givers to every warcamp replacing the current kill quests.  Some quests ideas are:  Kill 50 players, kill 20 Bright Wizards, take a keep and so on.

These can also borrow some Live Event tasks.  For example, go retrieve supplies from Praag in the RvR Lake.  There is a lot of potential for fun ways to make some gold.

Crests.  Quite a few players have no use for Invader crests and below.  Allow players to turn them in for gold.  Another option is to allow players to buy BoE items with crests.

These ideas sound pretty reasonable to me, but what do I know? :)  If economy changes do come in 1.3.6, I hope they keep their PvPing player base in mind.

Mo' Money, Mo' Money, Mo' Money