Era Needs Change...
 

A lot of people say resetting the server is the way to go, but the economic problem will just repeat itself. Era is in a loop. Though resetting will provide a short-term solution to the problem. We are just going to see the same situation sometime later on in the future, followed by another annoying reset x_x. In my eyes, a reset would be pointless unless a plan for a better economic system is developed first.

Here go a couple of my ideas for a better economy on Era:

Fixed prices for guns:
A big reason why the richer players overshadow the other players as much as they do is because they know how to trade well and make a profits off trading. Era should not be mainly a bartering-for-profit server. This is especially true for the newcomers not knowing what to do. How would you feel if you were a new player and your working your ass off spending hours to make 10k, when other players around you are shooting you as soon as you leave 'unstick me' with guns worth 200k, 300k, and beyond? Guns they earned simply by trading and having connections? Gun prices are fluctuating by the week and this is a big problem. For example, weeks back I remember an MP40 was around 70-80k. Today, people are telling me that it is worth about 50k now. Wtf? This is should not be happening. My suggestion is that Era have more gun stores that sell guns with fixed prices. This way people will actually have to work for their money instead of hustling and manipulating other players who don't know any better for profit. And to keep rare guns rare, the NPC-Server can just spawn one or two of these guns every so often, but not enough for the weapon to lose value.

Higher paying jobs:
Lets face it, you didn't mine or pick flowers to earn that 1 mil to buy that Metal Storm (if its even worth a million dollars right now). Newcomers have no idea how to make the good money like the more experienced Era players do. Era could have such a bigger player base if it was more newb friendly. Honestly if I was a new player and I saw how long it took to make just 1k off picking those flowers. I would quit. Which is why I believe jobs should pay a lot more then they do now. This would be compatible with the fixed guns price system as better guns would be more accessible. Current jobs on take way too much time to make good money, and we have a business system that is being used ineffectively.

Better management with guns:
Era needs a lot more guns. Period.

Taxes and Interest:
Periodically, depending on how staff feel the economy is doing, bank accounts should be either taxed or given interest by a fixed percentage. Business safes should be taxed as well. This should help keep the economy in equilibrium.

And a better staff team:
Lets face it we don't have the best staff team.

We are told to contact GP's when we have a problem. But what if the only GP is Squirt? Your screwed aren't you?

Or what about if you have a question PM a FAQ? There have been many times where I have asked a FAQ a question and they had no idea what the answer was."

Levels team? What do they do? I don't see any new levels or quests? Do you? :confused:

The events team does an excellent job, no complaints there.

Not trying to bash on anybody or complain but I'm just telling it like it is.

Constructive criticism and more ideas are welcome.

1) We've done a much better controlling gun prices. Yes they're still high, but they're much lower than they used to be.
2) You can work at businesses. Gun Point and Ammo Mart pay like $5 per lead and iron.
3) Masa has been doing a fine a job on fixing guns.
4) We do have taxes on businesses not banks. We don't need interest. How would you even calculate the interest? Compound by using the compound interest formula money(1+rate of interest)^number of days (instead of years)
5) Our staff team is fine. The GPs are doing their job and my FAQs are do theirs. Our development team is doing a great job fixing old errors as well as implementing newer updates to Era.

1) I agree, you guys have been doing a lot better. But your efforts aren't enough. The prices will always fluctuate.

2) Last time I worked at a business, I was fired on payday. Tsk tsk.

3) Masa who? I've seen Masa online literally 3 times since I came back to Graal.

4) Why only tax businesses? Why not tax players too?

5) The staff team is better than it has been before I agree, but they need to be more active.

Selling every gun at a shop would only fix the price inflations/deflations as long as they were constantly stocked. The rarity thing goes out the window, then.

And secondly, you can't spawn an item in such a way that it doesn't lose rarity. Until guns break or fall apart, the only way to keep a gun's original rarity is to never release any more.

High paying jobs always sound like a good idea, until you realize something: That just pushes all the prices up further. Let's say originally it took you an hour to make 1k, and a Metal Storm was being sold for 1 million. Now if it only takes you one hour to make 3k, the price will be adjusted accordingly. Now you're staring at a Metal Storm with a 3 million dollar price tag. It solves nothing.

As for new guns, it depends on what your idea of a new gun is. If it's just another set of dual handguns or boring assault rifle, no. That won't solve a thing.

If it's guns that offer other features or cater to playstyles beyond that of just better freeze, reload, or accuracy, I agree.


Ugh, taxes. No thanks. Putting up with them in real life is annoying enough as it is. It'd be cool to take a long break from Era, and come back to find your bank account drained.

What's exactly wrong with the staff team?
There's been updates, you're blind if you say there hasn't been.

There's been minor level adjustments the LAT team's done, they've been working on some new event rooms/spaces, etc. But, you're forgetting a really big part of the development: Era Dev server. I'm assuming they're doing work there. If not, then your complaint is justified.

The GP thing seems a little more like you just felt a need to throw in a personal attack. Why pick Squirt, and what did he do to you? If it's some random isolated incident involving one person, you hardly can criticize the entire team.

As for the history, all it proves is you're rather good at asking the same vague question a thousand times over.

1) We do our best and we are still working on it. It takes time, not one night.

2) How long ago was this? A long time ago businesses used to do that, but now it's 100% illegal.

3) Masa is on usually early in the morning or late at night.

4) How are you expecting to tax players? Do you know how hard it will be to tax players? What happens if they have $0? It's a bad idea.

5) We ARE active. I am on every single day. So is Squirt and so is most of the Development Team. Deophite is on daily as well. What do you mean "be more active"? We're VERY active.

1) When I said spawn rare guns I meant like one or two with a time interval of by-yearly. Releasing some and never release any more works better I suppose.

2) That's what you DON'T bump up the price for the guns, this is where having more a lot guns come into play.

3) No, when I say new guns I don't mean having more duals or modding current guns, I mean actual new guns with a varying array of stats.

4) Taxes are only taken to bring the economy back into equilibrium if staff feel it isn't doing well. Other wise you would receive nothing or maybe a little bit of interest.

5) I guess I just don't notice these things.

6) I've seen the Era Dev server when I was staff here like a couple weeks ago. There is barely any work being done there at all. Only thing there is a couple systems that Chris Vimes is working on to make optimize Era and make it more secure. Other than that there is hardly any other development going on at all. There is a new map which is almost done, but they aren't even going to use that map from what I was told. Don't get your hopes up for a new era any time soon.

7) Not trying to put Squirt on the spot but hes not the most friendly player relations staff we have.

Let me just tell you a little tidbit that you most likely fail to realize. When I was hired as a GP there were MULTIPLE people who had greater than one mil cash wise. However, through auctions we did and by taking money out of the economy through other ways not ONE person currently has over one million. Do you know why the MP40 went down in price. Well, let me tell you. It's because there's less money in the server, therefore, of course it would go down.

In regards to staff/GP. I don't get why people are 'screwed' when i'm the only GP on. I help people daily in regards to guns, gangs, businesses, and my other GP duties. I don't think I come off like a person who seems unfriendly and unreachable. Whenever someone has a problem they PM me and I help them with the best of my abilities.

In regards to inactivity, yes, I do believe I have been on less than I was on previously, however, i'm still on several hours a day and can be found if needed.

Being on several hours a day doesn't mean you're inactive...

How exactly did you guys 'lower the price' of the MP40? Also Less money in the economy? Why was the MP40 the only gun affected by this price change because from what I see in mass message the prices of the other guns are unaffected. (luckily i got rid of my mp40 before this price drop)

Again I didn't mean to come at you like that but from what I remember, I have tried to get your assistance in the past only to receive no response. Then minutes later I would see you walking around on the GMAP and sending mass messages. You don't think you come off as a person who is unreachable, but believe me you certainly do. I have heard numerous complaints about you. I don't know if they are all true but I used you for an example because I don't really have complaints about other GP's.

Number one, the less money in the economy, the less chance of you being able to sell the gun at a higher price hence why prices will go down. I can sell a one of a kind hat for 10 million dollars, and no one will buy it, therefore I'd have to lower it.

Squirt and I talk all the time on Era about GP issues as well as other issues that need to be handled. He quickly responds.

I still fail to understand why the MP40 is the only gun to be affected by this price change. The only example I can give you from my own experience is that the Neo Rifle is still worth about 100k when I ask for a price check. But the MP40 went from 80k to 50k. How does that happen?

Prices go up and down. It's essentially a free market. I can buy an Uzi and sell it for 10 million but no one HAS to buy it.

MP40 isn't the only gun to have this problem. GG, Famas, Deagles, FN2K, and several others. The guns which people usually buy with money went down in price since there is less money in the economy then before.

I don't have any PMs of you asking me of anything, so i'm not really sure what you're talking about. I'm checking the history between us and you never asked me ever about anything.

(Way too many arabic-numeral) lists here)

II. If it's a player run price-market, it'll go up. Always has, always will. If it's using the system you suggested where guns are sold in stores at a fixed price and these guns are also constantly stocked, there would be no need to increase the pay of jobs. They could simply make prices that are more reasonable to the current pay of jobs.

III. That's what I'm saying, I don't think a new gun with a little less freeze is going to make anything more fun in Era. It's just another "oh, this is just like a <sten,m1,insert gun here>. Pointless. Unless we're going to release guns that have more interesting attributes other than freeze, accuracy, fire rate, and reload speed, there's really no reason to keep mass producing ****. Guns with secondary fire, guns that are like support weapons (GC suggest a gun that launches gas canisters that hurt player's vision, and also has a 5[percent] chance to poison them or something), things that go beyond the usual WHATS THE FREEZE ON IT MANG?

IV. So one second they're taxing you, then they're throwing money back in your account because of interest? I think both are bad ideas. Taxing discourages players from keeping money in their bank, and a fixed interest would spawn tons of money into the server. Do you really want someone leaving Era with 500k in the bank, and coming back in six months to have three times that amount (rates wouldn't be THAT high, but the principle remains the same)?

V. ___________

VI. I haven't been there, I wouldn't know. If what you're saying is true, then your complaints have more weight.

VII. "not the most friendly player relations" - the hell does that mean? First off, who's the friendliest? Rank the members of a team from friendliest to unfriendliest. When was he unfriendly to you? When did he not do his job for you? ...yeah, you get the idea. Specifics.

Seriously, have some decent complaint other than "WELL HE'S NOT FRIENDLY TO ME ALL THE TIME". Give examples of times when a staff member isn't doing their job, don't just make these vague blanket statements that mean nothing.

when it comes to Era's economy, you have no idea what you're talking about.

auctioning off items is probably one of the most ineffective methods in an attempt to take money out of the economy. I've proved this several times before but nobody likes to listen to me.

money isn't the only thing offered in a trade these days. you may take 300k out of the economy by auctioning off an item, but what you fail to realize is that instead of that player having 300k in cash, he now has an item that's worth 300k which he can still use to trade for expensive items. in the end you're not really accomplishing anything.

if you really want to take money out of the economy you need to introduce items for players to buy that are non-durable, and make sure it's something that it's something that players will want to buy and constantly buy.

guns are durable goods. they last forever unless you destroy them which is unlikely to happen. you buy a gun for 100k, you'll always have that gun and it'll be worth 100k. grenades aren't durable goods. you use them and they're gone. if you spend 100k on grenades, eventually you'll use them all. you just spent 100k and after using all the grenades you no longer have 100k worth in grenades. this truly deletes 100k out of the economy instead of just replacing 100k with an item that's worth 100k.

pyro tech items are pretty much the perfect example of what I'm talking about. if you create multiple different money sinks where people spend their money on certain items and those items eventually are used up and disappear, there will be a greater effect on the money supply.

I don't believe that's true. Even if we auction off items for a certain price, who says that price can't go down? Like we proved before not all prices are set and they can change overtime. Who says the price of that item won't go down in the future since there's less money in the economy. While yes, usable items for only a limited amount of times is good it and perhaps the best way it isn't the only. Also, we've been adding non durable items into the EC shop since there has been a few problems in regards with EC as well.

lol wessypoo

I have to go with R.W. on this one.
I say we have more auctions. The economy on Era is just screwed up. Everyone has well over 1 million now and it doesn't really make sense.
Also, I have seen Masa on about 2 times. I am still waiting for him to go online to actually ask him something. I go on every morning about 9 AM just to see who is online. I even sometimes stay up all night, and I still don't recall seeing Masa online.

I have about 40 cents of change in my wallet...is that enough? :confused: I mean, the title says Era needs change just not how much!

Ask Chris to post the bank accounts with the most last time no one had near 1mil even. Mp40 is still 70k. Prices only drop when there is an influx of the gun into the economy(smgpk) or someone intentionally attempts to ddrop the price.(ex: sales was selling deagles 50k each). If you want to talk about drop the mp40 went from 200k to 85k in one week. People only think mp40 sells for 50k because I sold mine for 55k because I needed some cash

are you going to use methods that might lower prices or use methods that will lower prices? I've seen the administration, numerous times, use the auction house as a method to remove money out of the economy before you probably even touched Era. I can guarantee that you're better off without it.

besides, I don't believe your theory is true either. lets stop using the word "price" and use the word "value" instead.

if players don't have the cash to buy a certain weapon, they will throw in other items in the trade to reach the value of the weapon they are buying. do you think players will actually think, "hey, there's less money in the economy! I'm going to sell my items for less now." not exactly.. if a player wants to sell his gun for 1 million, but nobody on the server has 1 million in cash, he's most likely going to accept maybe 600k and a bunch of other items to match the value of 1 million. it's basically the same thing.

what happened with the mp40 is sheer coincidence in my opinion. what about other guns that are more expensive than the mp40? how could your auctions effect only one gun but not other guns? it doesn't make sense at all.

but what really happened? CharlieM is exactly right. it only takes 1 person to screw up the price. if CharlieM advertises that he's selling an mp40 for 55k, then when the next person advertises that he's selling one for 200k, players will say, "well, some guy earlier was selling for 55k.." and then word of mouth goes around and eventually the price drops.

hypothetically speaking, if those auctions did in fact lower the price of the mp40, who says it can't go back up? what if the gun is buffed? the price will sky rocket. you can argue "who says the price can't go down?" but I can throw the same argument right back at you.

auctions are no good for the economy. but hey, I'm not in charge here. go ahead and do what you guys want, but I suggest you listen to what I have to say or else you're going to wind up screwing the economy after the reset since you guys think you have it all right.

Nobody is going to reset the server without fixing all of the problems that have put Era in the state it is in now. Why do you think it hasn't been reset yet? It has been talked about for a long time, but we realize that it won't fix anything just yet.

The reason there's such a large money gap and so much money in the economy is because of duping and spawning incidents in the past. Before duping, the economy really wasn't that bad. People actually earned things by working. There were a few bad decisions and problems, but it was mainly duping that threw off the balance.

Squirt is right. A LOT of money has been removed from the economy which would definitely cause prices to drop. A few months ago there was players with cash in the millions, but now, not a single person has over one mil in the bank.

In response to Frankie's post: Even if the value is retained in an item when it is auctioned off, if nobody has enough money to rebuy that item for its "value", eventually it will drop in price. Mission accomplished.


As someone has already said, higher paying jobs will not solve anything. Putting more money into the economy just causes prices to rise.

I'm not really a fan of the way guns are normally released...but I agree that there needs to be more of a variety.

Taxing bank accounts is an extremely lazy way to remove money from the economy and shouldn't be considered an "idea" at all. Instead, there needs to be more "money-sinks". Things players can spend their money on. Things that don't last forever, or novelty items.

As far as interest goes, It's seems pretty counter-productive to encourage players to save their money instead of getting involved in the game.

Businesses are already taxed heavily.

Speak for yourself, or atleast provide some examples of why you feel this way. "Best" is a relative term, what are you comparing us to? The current staff team has it's pros and cons, but it's far better than what we've had in the past. Change is coming, and a lot is planned -- I promise you that. You might also be surprised to hear that we actually know what we're doing ;)

off-topic: what happened to you anyways? I never really heard why you stopped working on Era...did you quit?

I'm just a developer but I always see GPs online and helping players. Squirt in particular is always reversing trades, checking logs, and banning noobs.

Not going to argue with you here...there hasn't really been much assigned to the levels team, but I'm hoping that will change soon whenever they begin working on a new gmap.

did you even read my post? lol.

items have value. you guys are so focused on a few numbers in someone's atm account. look beyond that. look at their assets. those effect the economy just as much as money does.

besides, it's still not clear that you lowered the mp40 price by auctions. if you're taking so much out of the economy, EVERYTHING drops in price. not just a ****ing single gun. so no, mission not accomplished.

No, I didn't read it. I was referring to your other post. You posted that one while I was typing my own.

MP40 isn't the only gun that has dropped in price. Whoever said that isn't very informed. Fact is, just about everything has dropped. I'm not saying that auctions are saving the economy, but making players spend their money (such as through auctions) is certainly lowering prices.

The way i see it is that theres
Money value
and
Item value.
I understand how Frankie is putting it, and it makes sense

spending money is good, but like I said, permanent (durable goods) = bad news bears when it comes to money sinks.

Yea I agree. I'm not really arguing you with except when you say that item-values haven't lowered as a result of money being removed from the economy...and auctions have clearly removed money from the economy (particularly ones that sell things already circulating). It may not be the best way to do things, but it has worked.

It's far cheaper to get your hands on things than it was a few months ago.

It hasn't been reset yet cuz you all suck.

Yeah, you're right. It has nothing to do with wanting to be ready or anything.

The whole "we're going to reset the server!!!" statement wasn't even our mess. It was just passed down to us by previous staff teams. Not trying to play the blame game or anything, but if it hadn't already been promised by someone else, I would never have mentioned a reset until being ready.

Maybe because resetting it without fixing these economic problems that have plagued Era since its creation won't solve a thing.

It's a quick fix that doesn't last. It'll lower stuff for a short time, but until something's done (like making guns break...not a huge fan of the idea, but something like that would help the economy) that actually addresses the problems, it's only a matter of time until we're right back where we are today.

yeah, but also tie into my theory that npc jobs give an unlimited amount of money. you may lower the money supply but the money will eventually get it's way back into the economy through jobs (or spawning, glitching, etc)

it might be slow, but it's still working it's way through and shouldn't be neglected. especially over the span of a few months. Era hasn't reset in almost 3 years if I remember correctly. all the auctions that Smu did in the beginning eventually canceled itself out because of people that made money through npc jobs. to top it all off, you guys don't do auctions too frequently so I'm sure that most of the money that was deleted back when you guys started auctioning stuff has made great progress in getting it's way back into the economy. I could be wrong, I'm just going by my judgment. I also don't suggest to do any more auctions, but to focus on other things I've suggested to help create a stable economy.

When I first came back to Era after about a year, I asked Chris to reset me so I could start fresh. After the reset I painfully worked for hours doing the various jobs around Era only to earn a couple thousand dollars. And the thing is, I only made as much as I did because I knew that the jobs on Era did not pay equally and I knew which jobs were the ones that would make me money quicker, but these are things a newcomer will not know. I sent a mass message asking, "How much do I need before I can get a decent gun?" I received messages with prices ranging from 30k-60k. I said screw this there's no way in hell am I going to pick flowers or do any of these other stupid jobs for chump change until I reach 30k. I got my lucky break when I found a locker for $125 and sold it for a lot more, only because I used to play Era and I knew that they sold for a lot more.

My point is, if your going to have a server based on doing things that require decent guns (i.e. gang raids, events, sparring) then you should definitely make the decent guns easier to access for the new players. You have to realize that Era is one of the top servers on Graal and it will attract a lot of new players. I'm pretty sure that they deserve to have fun like the more experienced players are having. Right now, mainly the only thing you can do when your new on Era is work. You can't join a gang, you can't participate in a lot of the events that are hosted, all there is to do is work, work boring jobs and try to stay away from the other experienced players who keep killing you, it gets frustrating. This is why a lot of the newer players quit. The reason I say to raise the amount of money jobs pay (and keep the guns the same prices) is that it will make guns more accessible. But this will only work if A LOT more guns are released.

I didn't really put much thought into the taxing and interest thing, but after reading all your posts it does seem like a bad idea to me now.

It doesn't really matter why I don't work on Era anymore. I didn't quit. I was removed because I did something that doesn't really matter but it's all good.

If anyone asks me about jobs I list them all and say what's best

That's what I said ^_^ lol!

I agree to a point but. . . some guns tend to get buffed/nerfed, therefor manipulating it's economic price. They also start to become more common, which decreases the price.
Perhaps they should look at Runescape and take there "Grand Exchange" system into consideration by having set prices etc. This can also prevent scamming :P

Well, most people like Era due to its simplicity. A lot of gamers nowadays dislike games that are complex, unless it has a larger playercount and big all around.

I was told that most people don't have have 1,000,000$ in there bank account, and that players are only worth what they are due to there guns they own. Which is why I shot my idea out that guns should break and players should pay to fix them. The price to fix them would rely on the guns economic price.

Agreed, I've witnessed some naughty things staff do. From abusing there rights to spawning guns for friends, I've seen it all.
One thing I find fishy is that, when Deo was promoted to manager, why were his friends Squirt and Dunez all of the sudden hired/promoted? Hmm.

It's true me and Squirt are friends. However, he came to Era on his own and he applied for GP on his own. I never suggested either to him. I hired based solely on the top apps and history. If you had seen his app you would have known why I hired him as GP. As a matter of fact I remember showing people his application as proof at the time when they came to me complaining. As for the position he is in now, it is well deserved. He worked harder than any of the other GP's to work his way up, and he has always been good at the job. So I would appreciate if you and anyone with the same views would stop with the assumptions.

As for Dunez, we were not friends before he came to Era. I barely knew him. I would just see him from time to time on servers, that's all.

Ok sorry to bash you Gab. (dont take it personal)
1. the prices omg when i left a SG was worth like 25k to 30k now i came back and there worth 60k so it seems like gun prices went higher.
2. Why work at a business when for 5g when u can sell it to the npc mining shop for 6g per mineral don't make sense.
3. Like i said i really haven't came back so idk about masa but to me the guns are normal just move guns around the Status.
4. U can easily script it where it takes 5 percent or 10 percent of the income coming in each week.
5. I seen gps around but honestly Every server knows Era is the lazy Staff Team on Graal Classic Tab. The Staff team could be more active and its been a year since a new quest came out or anything worth playing. This dont include the ec shop actually content. Honestly the gang system will fail again and era will too unless u guys can get control over the economy. I know your staff and stick up for them but honestly how would u know u don't develop how long u been FAQ Admin u could at least already learn how to lat decent so ya also Era as the Less staff team and hard to get on even ur the best if ur not friends u don't get hired or anything

Another thing the business ya Ammo Mart and Gun Point blah blah same old stuff i want to see a Business/Gang that has the balls to say u know what this is a good idea ill give them a shot without them like well i got to talk or im scared i might screw up

Alright, so, first off...unless every gun previously made (and those released in the future) is subsequently released in a shop and set at a fixed priced and constantly stocked...you'll never be able to "keep guns the same prices."

Not with 50 guns, not with 1000. What part of player-run economy don't you get?

Secondly, clearly it did matter, because you were removed for it.

And finally, I'd just like to address the Deophite discussion here for a minute. I think a lot of people are forgetting the staff team disaster that occurred once Frankie and Icarus stepped down. The issue was being fixed with Sales and Mange heading the dev and player relations administrations, but then they also ended up leaving for personal reasons.

From what I've seen and the discussions I've had, Deo (and please, he can certainly correct me if I am wrong) didn't really even want to get manager in the first place. He was asked to take it because no one left on the team was trusted or able enough for the position. So he did. And he helped bring some stability back to the server and rebuilt an entire staff team that for the most part has done a great job. So what if Era isn't Deo's greatest passion. He might not live to be immersed in development ideas and the future of Era. Hell, he doesn't even play Era really at all. But ye, that's enabled him to be an unbiased judge of player situations and staff situations. And for a job like manager, I think that unbiased decision making is not just a good thing, but a necessity. He stepped up to the plate when he needed to, and he did a damn good job of bringing some order back into the server. And for that, I salute him.

needs more drifting

As I stated earlier, the market shifts, but we have MUCH better control than we used to.
The interest/tax system is a ridiculous idea. They're mutually exclusive. If you tax a person but then give them interest in their bank account? You're taking money away THEN giving more back.
I have been a FAQ Admin for let's say 5-8 months. I have been a staff member for a total of one year. I know how well the staff team works since I have been both a FAQ Admin and a GP and it's working well. The development team is doing MUCH better. You ask "how do you know thing if you're not a developer," well I am on RC every day when they talk about development ideas and how to implement new updates. Do I know exactly how these ideas will work? No because I am not a developer, but I know they're WORKING on it.
The current staff team is the LEAST LAZIEST staff team that I have seen in a long time. They work VERY hard and do a good job at it. Just because the past staff teams are lazy doesn't mean that the current one is just as lazy.