The Era Problem

[Sinkler]

Era's situation is a rather unique one. We have a management that is oddly successful and stable -- something I did not see in the three years I was a member of the Playerworld Administration.

The one problem Era has, and has had for a long time, is how to effectively manage the economy. Previous Era administrations (and the public) have called for a reset as it will allow for the Era administration put in controls that will allow for effective economic growth and for the players to attain an income level that will allow them to participate in an enjoyable and entertaining manager.

Note, that while I was PWA Chief, I did give approval to the current administration the right to reset its economy. This was a right extended to me by previous PWA administrations and approved from upper-level Graal administrators.

What I propose is a rather simple economic plan:

1) Reset Era - this eliminates the income gap between the extremely wealthy and the poor. Why is this gap problematic? The poor are unable to purchase guns that allow them to effectively participate in the main of the aspect of the game, which is to neutralize opponents on the GMAP. Of course the wealthy members of the society will disagree with me, but their arguments are purely self-interest and have no legitimacy.

2) Enact effective economic controls that allow for all players to gain enough disposable income to purchase weapons. This, in tandem with the reduction of weapon prices, will allow for newer players to gain access to superior guns. What will this trickle down into?

What are these effective economic controls?

a) allow for more easy accumulation of capital - mining, fishing, digging payoffs increase. More money will allow these subject to buy more goods.

b) lower prices of expensive/rare "balanced" guns as well as all guns

c) increase availability of guns that give unfair advantages (i.e. guns that have a higher probability of winning in a fight due to its advantages)

What will these changes trickle down to?

a) effective and increased gang participation - there will now be more competition since the members of the gangs will have access to guns that they normally would not have. This increases gang involvement throughout the server and will add to the overall enjoyment and further increase playercount

b) player retention will increase - in the status quo we have seen players leaving the game because they are unable to have meaningful participation in the society. Having access to better guns and less time working in menial jobs will increase player enjoyment.


I recognize that this is not a panacea for all the problems that plague Era. I would like to open this up as a dialogue and see what you all thing. Please note that I expect appropriate decorum when discussing this matter - useless and ignorant statements will be ignored and deleted.

Best,

Gabriel

[swift]

I would have completely condoned this idea a few months ago when Era was lifeless and no one logged on.

But since we've buffed jobs and money making, now i'm not too sure how this would play out.

Would hate to see a lot of people leave just as we started to improve the game.

[Chorchizcool]

I think that option two is the ONLY viable option because of the players we will lose that has saved items for so long. Plus the players who have spent hundreds of USD on the gelats shop to sell lightweights/vitalities/workers potions. Therefore diminishing our playercount which is the complete opposite from what the staff team and the players are pushing for.

Option two is perfectly in effect right now as you can make 50k in an hour picking trash/shelling, thus allowing a new player to grab a tier 3 gun within a week of working, therefore putting them at a good advantage to progress into the REAL moneymaking which is pking.

[ooger]

I feel like this has already been accomplished with how easy it is to make money now. The end result of this plan will just be the same Era without as many rare items. If guns were brought back down to the system with 0.1 minimum freeze maybe things wouldn't be as "lame" as they are now. Idk I don't see how this solves anything on Era. "noobs" get rich just fine you can make 100k in one day so in 2 weeks you can get a top tier gun. Maybe bring back the missions instead of the hp level system so that people can get to the maximum competitive level faster? I'm just spitballing but I don't think your solution is going to fix anything as we will lose players due to reset (that's unavoidable) and even with the radical new changes making the game 10000000000x better we haven't gained a lot of new players as much as old players just playing more.

[Reddy548]

The game is fine as it is , no need to reset.
Now that money is easier , players can build his set of guns quickly and all the guns are balanced (even rare guns can be compared to the ones on shop).
Reseting probably will make alot of people giving up and quiting. The reset is only good for those who gamble all their money.

[Zongui]

yeah, i would've agreed with a reset a few months back before the update. but since the update, more people are playing. it is easy to make money and get good weapons. overall, era seems to be doing fine now. i don't think a reset is necessary.

[Supaman771]

Originally Posted by Sinkler

We have a management that is oddly successful and stable -- something I did not see in the three years I was a member of the Playerworld Administration.

I did give approval to the current administration the right to reset its economy.

-----

What I propose is a rather simple economic plan:

Both of these are/were beyond our control and at the fault of those who made the decisions (at the time; you). We've been asking on these forums and in other mediums about such actions being taken for years stretching toward the better end of a decade.
-----

This "plan" has been discussed many times before and may well work; but at this point I rather doubt it.

After so long we've shunned so many players away and I doubt we'd get another shot at most of them.
We've allowed players to attain Mining levels in the hundreds, and introduced Gelat/USD currency items which are ingrained into the economy.

A reset at this point would produce a more negative effect due to such things that we cannot fairly compensate (will people get Gelat refunds? if they keep the items through a reset they would have extreme advantage resulting in the same persistent 'Gap'. Is deleting them really a fair option or even possible in Graal TOS?).

The flow of new players from my view (online daily) is slim; while the activity of the old has risen with recent updates... the addition of newer players is the same or even less than before (most of iEra's standing populace has tried Era by now).

The game is peaking at it's highest in years (let's be fair; ~100 was the best average we've ever had) with recent updates and additions; and changing our approach at this point (rather than having that goal from the beginning... like we wanted many times) could be more detrimental than ever. It would've worked when we had 40 players a day and begged for a reset and a decent manager; not today.

Overall; I like and have liked/advocated this idea in the past. But we're so far past it by now that I personally wouldn't want to be apart of doing something like that.

If we somehow magically opened the void into another dimension and our normal player-count doubled instantly (those players weren't eased into the system individually); this idea would be great. But everyone is on the same playing field in reality (online time doesn't affect monetary gain; this isn't GK) and the betterment of the one player logging on this week who may(?) join the community doesn't outweigh the hundreds of active players at this point.

[Zongui]

Originally Posted by Reddy548

The reset is only good for those who gamble all their money.

this x2.

[bradigger]

I went from having nothing to having millions in a day of betflipping. I don't think it's hard to make enough money for any gun in a day. I do think the economy is pretty messed up right now, though. Prices are going up and down, a lot of people (me included) are just refusing to sell things anymore. I think we'll soon see the revival of people regularly buying things from the store. The street price of Navy is already starting to peak around 810k, only 90k less than the price in the store.

I would like mining to be overhauled somehow. I don't really wanna trashpick or dig shells, but mining is so obviously slower than other jobs without a worker's potion.

[Lime_O_Matic]

Hear me out people.

There's no clear plan to what kind of things the staff would do in the case of a reset. So there's no way this reset would happen suddenly.

With the recent spike of new players, it is the perfect moment to engage a "Everyone gets everything stage". Everyone can use any weapon, use any hat, try all items, etc. This experiment phase will allow ALL players to be rich and try out the items they would pursue after a reset. New players would be at a fair playing field, meaning more new players would give it a chance. For the next month, have staff work hard on balancing of the economy.

Sure people who built up their wealth will be upset at first, it likely took them years to build up the wealth. But building up wealth IS part of the game now, and I'm sure everyone will have fun doing it again.

I've noticed many posts saying, "We needed one in the past but now is not a good time". Do you know how long people have been crying for a reset? It's the best time because staff can actually do it! It's with the risk, raiding has already almost died again once 2x point week ended. This activity will not be long lived, as much as we all want it to.

The only people who are COMPLETELY against it are people who didn't achieve their wealth in a fair way. Cheaters - Afraid they won't be able to cheat it again. USDers - Paying real money for items that got reset. Things like that.

Nows the time. Do it up.

[Chorchizcool]

If it was left up to a poll, there would be no reset. And i made 2.2 m just pking and picking trash in 2 weeks, were already at the point of anyone can get any gun.

If there is a reset you can most assuredly count me outta playing this game any longer and a majority of other players.

No one is addressing the point where people have LEGALLY SPENT HUNDREDS OF USD on this game in the gelat shop.

wheres their refund?

-era og from the beginning.

p.s. erik im completely against it and i have not usd'd nor cheated in the past 2 weeks of me playing ty. your point is invalid.

[Lime_O_Matic]

Yeah my post was obviously in favor of a reset.

Leaving a trap for people to not be against it, because according to my post they would be a cheater or USDer. Whatever.

[Venom_Fish]

A reset is unnecessary as of this moment, since the players are more engaged in the game than ever. However, this engagement only arose from the collapse of the old economic regime to one where attaining an adequate or beyond weapon is a seamless process.

As has always been the case, see Jenn/Snk era, whenever players are able to easily attain items and incentives (gang points, event coins, guns, etc), they will have a blast and then there will be a steady decline in pleasure, eventually leading to absolute boredom. As such, I do not think it necessary, but prudent, that the staff team begin constructing a plan in case such boredom develops.

In the past, the crux of the plan has been to reset and return to the old economic (burdensome) regime. Once players hate it, flood the economy with the same incentives that led to its breakdown, then do it all over again. Right now, we're in the early stages of flood the economy. If we want to get out of this cycle, I think now is a good time to start devising a strategy.

However, I, myself, am not sure we want to (lol). It seems to work just fine, and has kept us entertained for quite awhile, why ruin the fun? Meh, let's just keep rolling and when the time comes where everyone is bored because there's nothing to gain in the game, let's then address the question of a reset or other alternatives. For now, let's not worry where there's fun. It's not like this is a real economy and real lives are at stake.

[shrimps]

Originally Posted by Lime_O_Matic

The only people who are COMPLETELY against it are people who didn't achieve their wealth in a fair way. Cheaters - Afraid they won't be able to cheat it again. USDers - Paying real money for items that got reset. Things like that.

Sorry, I'm against a reset, I didn't USD or cheat so yeah.

A reset is not going to solve anything, you don't even have a decent development team to make a balanced/ improved content for the game. It's just going to end up with a mishmash of changes and it's going to result in the same thing.

As long as there's an economy there will always be a gap between the rich and the poor. New players will always be at a disadvantage against older players, that's just how it works. Older players/ Nolifers (me) will always have an advantage over people who don't play much or are new.

[paintballdude956]

Originally Posted by Sinkler

1) Reset Era - this eliminates the income gap between the extremely wealthy and the poor. Why is this gap problematic? The poor are unable to purchase guns that allow them to effectively participate in the main of the aspect of the game, which is to neutralize opponents on the GMAP. Of course the wealthy members of the society will disagree with me, but their arguments are purely self-interest and have no legitimacy.

2) Enact effective economic controls that allow for all players to gain enough disposable income to purchase weapons. This, in tandem with the reduction of weapon prices, will allow for newer players to gain access to superior guns. What will this trickle down into?

I'm neither coming out publicly for or against a reset. I just want to essentially copy/paste what I sent a few players regarding how I see the current state of our economy.

Our current economy and gun-layout allows any player to get a competitive gun in a reasonable amount of time (perhaps 1 week of play). Will they be able to afford the $1.2M Photon Rifle? Probably not. But the Sten is still a great gun for 400k street.
What's more, it's still relatively easy to get up to $1.2M by PKing and other money making means.
This means that, in theory, everyone can get a "God-tier" gun without too much difficulty. We can crunch the numbers here, but I think you could easily make 500k a month just PKing. So, on the surface, if you can get your "God-tier" gun quickly, why is that bad?

To answer, we'll have to ask: what are the pros and cons of everybody getting exactly what they want (cf. Erik's extreme example). The folks who play this game just to PK, well, they're pretty happy. They can compete and ruffle up their feathers about who's best etc. etc. But for the large percentage of the population who sit at OSL and more-or-less merch all day, getting what they want will be a bad thing. They'll be aimless.
This is where items like the Ares, ARG, Odachi come in. They are rare and give people something to collect or work towards. In fact, because of their limited releases, they will always be something to be coveted, worked toward, and, generally, a reason to keep playing.

Quick note: I see this rarity as the main function of these guns. I've made this implicit before, but, I'll make it implicit here. I do not, nor have I ever, balanced based on rarity. The Ares and ARG are in the God-tier. They are balanced as God-tier. They are not supposed to be better than that (argue away if you want that they are). Why anyone would pay 5-10M for that when, in theory, you can get other god-tier guns for 1.2M is, well, for rarity.

So, I really do think our current model is sustainable if and only if we keep releasing rare/unique items (check out recent M4A3 release for an example of a neat little feature) that are not OP and are in line with easily obtainable guns. That way everyone can compete, but there's still an active economy.

[Lime_O_Matic]

Chooch and Shrimps, I wasn't being serious. It was just a joke. Obviously you can be against it and not be a USDer or a cheater.

I personally would like to see a reset, but it won't bother me if it doesn't happen.

[Supaman771]

Originally Posted by Chorchizcool

No one is addressing the point where people have LEGALLY SPENT HUNDREDS OF USD on this game in the gelat shop.

This was one of my main points.

Originally Posted by Venom_Fish

A reset is unnecessary as of this moment, since the players are more engaged in the game than ever.

Precisely.

Originally Posted by shrimps

As long as there's an economy there will always be a gap between the rich and the poor. New players will always be at a disadvantage against older players, that's just how it works. Older players/ Nolifers (me) will always have an advantage over people who don't play much or are new.

Correct and Agreed upon.

Originally Posted by paintballdude956

So, I really do think our current model is sustainable if and only if we keep doing things.

This is key.
The Era model in general has sustained for over a decade with a majority of the same player-base because they are easily amused (release one item and everyone logs on to check it out/try to get it/etc. same with events/holidays). You really get out what you put in (from a developers perspective).
This can be seen in a very simple way by looking at GK... the player count is low constantly because the game/content was 'beat' by this player-base; but the server easily can reach 50-100 players by hosting a special event/on holidays/new item release. The players are there and remain; you just need them to want to log-in.

That's what we're doing right now on Era. All the times in the past we wanted to reset is because we weren't doing these things (shitty managers/staff teams... Vulcan, Zach, Deo, etc.) and the player count dropped. This results in the GK effect; where when there aren't enough players (a certain % leave) to sustain the competition the whole concept of the server goes out the window.
------

Overall though; it seems like the majority of us came to the same conclusion on this topic.

[Demisis_P2P]

No need to reset, just keep releasing quality updates.

[swift]

I really don't understand why reset now.
4-5 months ago when I was a mere developer and 20-30 players logged on daily we didn't raise a single discussion about reset.
When player activity was at an all-time low, gang bases were empty, and the only people online were idling, it was not considered.

Now, after myself, Ishmael, and other development staff have released several updates that deal with gangs, weapons, and other content, the playercount has skyrocketed to nearly 100 players every single day... but the management wants to reset the server..?

I really don't understand that ideology at all. Players today now can earn weapons, money, whatever they want if they decide to work for it (which is how it should be).

This new economy, and new gang system has clearly brought life back into Era (even though they may need some tweaks) and if we reset now we'll lose a lot of old players who came back, and a lot of the newer players who just started a couple months ago and worked their way into this new system.

I think we've easily proven that if we work with the players and work through errors in these systems, we can actually change the game without saying "hey lets just reset everyone on the game once again and start over".
It solves no issues, it is a weak and short-term solution, and only leaves the same problems to be solved by a future staff team.

[Godzilla]

A reset? Ridiculous idea.

How about we start making the game look a little more professional. I mean for heavens sake we have 4-5 different GUI's that are being used, we have chat commands that no one knows about and a team of 10 year olds bossing 20 year olds around.

That's what we need. Professionalism. We don't need a reset. We need Professionalism, perfection and word of mouth will easily get us past the 125 mark we hit the other day.

[Sinkler]

So here is where this idea is stemming from:

Since the last reset, duping, spawning, and a variety of other corrupt practices by staff have led to unfair economic advantages for a select few. Those people still retain these unfair economic advantages. This is in the form of one-of-a-kind weapons and highly valuable rare items.

The reason we need a reset is to eliminate this excess that has been plaguing Era's economy for quite some time. I agree with all of you in keeping with the high pay-off structure that has been enacted, but that was only enacted to try to fill this wealth gap. Unfortunately, this wealth gap is still not closed, meaning we need to find a different solution: this is a reset.

Now, Tim has an excellent idea that I think would make Era extremely fun. He would make the gunshop have a certain amount of items, priced at some market level and with a set quantity depending on the tier of the weapon. Each week, new guns would replace the last week's old guns with the attributes applied. This would lead to two things:

1) A more diverse gun economy (not everyone will have the same high-tiered guns, placing emphasis on PK skill)

2) There will be more trading in the secondary market. This is good because it creates a more complex and enjoyable market structure. People will now be able to merchant.

Finally, in regards to the potions issue: this is easily curtailed. People who have potions will not lose them. People who have already sold their potions already gave up their right to own the potion, therefore is neither liable to Graal nor to the Era. They are subject to Era's macroeconomy.

[geneticfrog]

did you guys remove the shop that has most of the guns or something? that was the best way to balance prices. (im stillbanned)

since all players no matter how rich needs to give better prices then the shop gives and if you cant sell an item at worst sell back to shop at low price.

you only get rich people controlling prices when there is no shops. shop price = max possible sale price cuz if anyone tries to sell over it they buy from shop.

same for sale they have to sell higher then pawnshop buys back. no matter how many are duped its always the same price for all.

if anything duping would reduce its price and make it affordable in this scenario. (supply vs demand + restricted prices.)

[xAndrewx]

limiting weapons? make them a really high price.

[Demisis_P2P]

Originally Posted by Sinkler

So here is where this idea is stemming from:

Since the last reset, duping, spawning, and a variety of other corrupt practices by staff have led to unfair economic advantages for a select few. Those people still retain these unfair economic advantages. This is in the form of one-of-a-kind weapons and highly valuable rare items.

The reason we need a reset is to eliminate this excess that has been plaguing Era's economy for quite some time. I agree with all of you in keeping with the high pay-off structure that has been enacted, but that was only enacted to try to fill this wealth gap. Unfortunately, this wealth gap is still not closed, meaning we need to find a different solution: this is a reset.

Now, Tim has an excellent idea that I think would make Era extremely fun. He would make the gunshop have a certain amount of items, priced at some market level and with a set quantity depending on the tier of the weapon. Each week, new guns would replace the last week's old guns with the attributes applied. This would lead to two things:

1) A more diverse gun economy (not everyone will have the same high-tiered guns, placing emphasis on PK skill)

2) There will be more trading in the secondary market. This is good because it creates a more complex and enjoyable market structure. People will now be able to merchant.

Finally, in regards to the potions issue: this is easily curtailed. People who have potions will not lose them. People who have already sold their potions already gave up their right to own the potion, therefore is neither liable to Graal nor to the Era. They are subject to Era's macroeconomy.

I agree with geneticfrog.

The moment they increased the payouts from jobs any advatage that people had from having spawned guns was diminished proportionately. So that weath gap is effectively already filled (or is easily fillable, given that the most expensive gun can be bought in just a few days now). No need for a reset.

I think that players having access to wealth and the current gun shop which contains almost all of the guns is a fine system, and probably the most equitable situation we've ever had on Era. The system you described actually seems less equitable because a temporary advantage (like having spawned guns) could become a much longer advantage depending on the rotation and supply of the guns.

With the current system eventually there will be market saturation of all gun types and nobody will buy guns from the store anymore and the secondary market will take over, but players haven't had access to wealth for long enough yet for the supply of weapons to drop the price enough for that to happen yet.

[geneticfrog]

Originally Posted by xAndrewx

limiting weapons? make them a really high price.

not limiting weapons, having a shop with a sale price for all weapons and that automatically makes the shops price the highest possible sale price. (if no one has any yet) and shop buys it back at 25% of sale price.

so players are forced to sell between 25%-99% of shops price and the more there are the closer it gets to 25% for players who are not rich as there would be high supply (duped scenario). automatically over time the price go down.

only the rich will buy the first weapons in stock but again over time prices would adjust as high supply from all the people buying from shop over time.

each time you add a new weapon to shop it would e high demand rich ppl spending money then later it adjusts for less rich automatically.

[geneticfrog]

btw the idea is having unlimited stock so that over time players stop buying that gun from the shop and its fully supported with buy and selling over players.

so the shop ends up being the price regulator that staff can controll stats (thus the value aka sell and buy prices) of the gun.

isn't this what all staff want? controlling the economy and basically making the desperate rich people who require strong guns right off the bat basically help out the poor by increasing the supply of the gun "on the streets".

(or take a page form delt make a OP wep all rich buy then reduce its stats after a month to vertually useless stats so all of a sudden millions are taken out of the economy do it over and over lolool LOL DONT START DOING IT TOO)

makes people hate you and dont want to spend their time jsut to lose money and items so its a lot of power over the money and people basically 100% power as you can make any weapon useless. if it cost 2 million and you nerf it to 100k theres 15 its 28.5 million gone.

[Reddy548]

I still dont know what sinkler want to do, really i came back to this game after 1 year , and it was 1 week before the cash update, and i came back with navy and pbp.
Now i own 3 rare guns , and i bought them with my own cash and effort, theres no point on what you said about rare weapons , because rare weapons are being released constantly in auctions and EC/gang shop, if you have EC/Cash/Gang Points , you can buy them.
Also when i came back the newest release was the Sable/Tempest , now we have alot more guns on the shop, and theres alot more on era database like Tar21 , SG17 (etc) and we have the best gun admin (ish) to release more weapons and give new players a chance to have them , even if they dont have to , because these weapons are balanced with the ones on shop.
Sorry, but a reset now, will destroy all the job that this new admin team did.

~best br player

[ooger]

Originally Posted by Reddy548

~best br player

I must concede that Reddy is in fact the best BR on the server and everything he said was right. Resetting will create more problems than it 'solves'.

Like Swift said the server basically fixed itself without a reset. (Thanks to staff for all your recent hard work, you guys are killing it.)

I don't see why 'rare' items are a problem when Ishmael is a balancing genius. The only reason for rare items is to play more to pay more and have some street cred (or look like a loser with a bunch of pink hats ) Things get balanced and nobody has a significant advantage because their gun is one of a kind.


"A more diverse gun economy (not everyone will have the same high-tiered guns, placing emphasis on PK skill)"

This statement literally makes no sense.

[geneticfrog]

you could always soul bound rares so you cant sell it xd

[Sinkler]

Originally Posted by Demisis_P2P

I agree with geneticfrog.

The moment they increased the payouts from jobs any advatage that people had from having spawned guns was diminished proportionately. So that weath gap is effectively already filled (or is easily fillable, given that the most expensive gun can be bought in just a few days now). No need for a reset.

I think that players having access to wealth and the current gun shop which contains almost all of the guns is a fine system, and probably the most equitable situation we've ever had on Era. The system you described actually seems less equitable because a temporary advantage (like having spawned guns) could become a much longer advantage depending on the rotation and supply of the guns.

With the current system eventually there will be market saturation of all gun types and nobody will buy guns from the store anymore and the secondary market will take over, but players haven't had access to wealth for long enough yet for the supply of weapons to drop the price enough for that to happen yet.

So this is not true for a few reasons:

1) The wealth is still centered around those who were able to get access to weapons unfairly (we have all agreed that the previous staff administrations have been rather corrupt when it comes to permitting duping/spawning). In addition, wealth is centering around those who own player-businesses, which in my opinion should be eliminated. You keep reiterating that the wealth gap has been filled - NPC data has shown this to not be true, in fact, the gap is increasing.

2) The convergence to market saturation will not push for an efficient secondary market. In fact, once the market is saturated and everyone has the gun they desire, the game loses its secondary market. With my model, we'll be able to allow for the constant change of weapons (with effective price controls and qoutas) and make the secondary market a great aspect of the game. Right now, you can but any weapon and that's fun, but with my new system, high-tiered weapons will randomly be available weekly. This means that there is:

a) incentive to accumulate money (so, PK, work, etc...) in order to get those top tier weapons when they appear (which is randomized). This randomized model allows for their to be temporary rarity which means prices can fluctuate on the secondary market based upon quantity. I think this price fluctuation adds a more interesting dynamic to Era than the current ability to purchase every gun.

b) trade more goods in the secondary market to attain a higher-level good. This makes Era not only a PK/gang based server, but also an economic game.

You are right that I am giving a temporary advantage to players who have the capital to purchase these low-quantity, high-tiered goods, but due to the fact that the players are aware that that item will occur in some random time in the future, it forces the player who wishes to sell to act as imperfect monopolist - the player won't be able to set absurd prices because of the information the players have.

[Zongui]

really not seeing it sinkler. just doesn't make sense. you talk about a wealth gap and there being super rich people, but like shrimps said, there will always be a wealth gap. some players play more than others and know how to make that paper. a reset would be pointless because it would eventually come back to the way era currently is. you would just be making people spend hours doing what they have already done before. that's just wasting people's time.

you're like that dude from batman begins that wants to cleanse gotham city. batman disagreed with that guy. we are all disagreeing with you. we all batmans.

[ooger]

Gabe you're honestly just making up theories to support your idea. It would have worked a year or 6 months ago but things are fine now. Get more players (new players) instead of trying to make all of the current players quit by reseting.

If you think that some people are 'too rich' then you really don't understand the point of the game. At least 5 people have come on here and said that MAKING MONEY AND GETTING A GOOD GUN IS EASY
You won't make new players better by resetting, and I know for a fact that many players in other countries don't play a lot because the actual host is not good enough to support international connections. If graal put resources into upgrading the servers and prettying things up a bit (like godzilla stated) then maybe we would get NEW players instead of trying to 'fix' the game for all of our OLD players (who will just quit if you reset because lets be real i only play this to look at my cute pink hats)

Edit: possibly the biggest source of your 'wealth gap' is the betflipping system that can make one player twice as rich and the other one quit. Also, a lot of these old players only get a thrill out of grabbing some npc saying heads or tails 5 times in a row then quitting if they lose, or buying mad amouns of gelats to legally usd their way back into the game (shoutout to young kareem the boy). If you're a noob and don't give a ****, you'll just get frustrated, delete your graal folder, and never hear the word graal again in your life and be happy.

[Zongui]

this boggles my mind. why make this suggestion now when era is doing fine? where was this months ago? it's a straight up bad time to bring it up. era is doing fine now guys, but let's reset it because it still feels dirty.

[Tim_Rocks]

It may be wise to put this idea on pause for the moment. The server is doing fine for now. A lot of people have brought up good points. It's not going to be fair for those who have spent hundreds of dollars in real money over the years. I look at it as a slap in the face for those who have used the potions to make money. A reset isn't going to be an over night process though. Most of you have expressed a reset would be a bad idea. I say, disregard us staff for now. Lastly there is not an official reset date, and there may never be (please stop asking me in game for a date, lol).

[Zongui]

Originally Posted by ooger

Gabe you're honestly just making up theories to support your idea. It would have worked a year or 6 months ago but things are fine now. Get more players (new players) instead of trying to make all of the current players quit by reseting.

If you think that some people are 'too rich' then you really don't understand the point of the game. At least 5 people have come on here and said that MAKING MONEY AND GETTING A GOOD GUN IS EASY
You won't make new players better by resetting, and I know for a fact that many players in other countries don't play a lot because the actual host is not good enough to support international connections. If graal put resources into upgrading the servers and prettying things up a bit (like godzilla stated) then maybe we would get NEW players instead of trying to 'fix' the game for all of our OLD players (who will just quit if you reset because lets be real i only play this to look at my cute pink hats)

Edit: possibly the biggest source of your 'wealth gap' is the betflipping system that can make one player twice as rich and the other one quit. Also, a lot of these old players only get a thrill out of grabbing some npc saying heads or tails 5 times in a row then quitting if they lose, or buying mad amouns of gelats to legally usd their way back into the game (shoutout to young kareem the boy). If you're a noob and don't give a ****, you'll just get frustrated, delete your graal folder, and never hear the word graal again in your life and be happy.

this. graal is laggy for a lot of people, even people that have a good pc and good connection. can we fix this? you can't even change your e-mail address on the website (even tho the option is there). can we fix that, please?

ERROR WHILE PROCESSING SUBMISSION:
Email Changer service is currently not available. Please check back later.

it's been like that for over a year or something.

[Sinkler]

I definitely think we should not do this now, but I think we need to keep this in mind for when the playercount begins to decline (which I anticipate as the market becomes more and more saturated).

Thanks for a good discussion.

[Chorchizcool]

So the jist of this whole convo was

the majority do not want a reset, the most active players, the developers, and admins do not want a reset.

the minority does.

[ooger]

Forcing a caste system onto a game just makes the same 70 people that were successful keep playing and all the nerd noobs either quit or just become complacent with being poor and last like 1 year or become of the elite (like michael7lmfao who scammed, usded, csted, and abused the power of his staff friends to get to the top)

'Market saturation' is a ****ing GOOD THING
it means we all have good guns so then the game can be about BALANCING not about NOLIFING
it's a game not a society we don't have to have poor people to have fun you brs.

[Chorchizcool]

And the idea of making money even EASIER to collect will just lead this game into a cycle of resets.

Ive made 2.2 million in 2 weeks of playing this game.

Now imagine, we buff the money making process some more as your point says,
which is one of your reasons why we reset because everyone has so much money.

Now with a even more buffed system, youre just leading a server into a cycle of resets with that mentality. Once the accumulated wealth of era gets to a point where "its too much like now" then your plan is to just keep resetting the server?


-december 25 2001 first graal account. one of Era's oldest oldbies.

[geneticfrog]

Originally Posted by Sinkler

So this is not true for a few reasons:

1) The wealth is still centered around those who were able to get access to weapons unfairly (we have all agreed that the previous staff administrations have been rather corrupt when it comes to permitting duping/spawning). In addition, wealth is centering around those who own player-businesses, which in my opinion should be eliminated. You keep reiterating that the wealth gap has been filled - NPC data has shown this to not be true, in fact, the gap is increasing.

2) The convergence to market saturation will not push for an efficient secondary market. In fact, once the market is saturated and everyone has the gun they desire, the game loses its secondary market. With my model, we'll be able to allow for the constant change of weapons (with effective price controls and qoutas) and make the secondary market a great aspect of the game. Right now, you can but any weapon and that's fun, but with my new system, high-tiered weapons will randomly be available weekly. This means that there is:

a) incentive to accumulate money (so, PK, work, etc...) in order to get those top tier weapons when they appear (which is randomized). This randomized model allows for their to be temporary rarity which means prices can fluctuate on the secondary market based upon quantity. I think this price fluctuation adds a more interesting dynamic to Era than the current ability to purchase every gun.

b) trade more goods in the secondary market to attain a higher-level good. This makes Era not only a PK/gang based server, but also an economic game.

You are right that I am giving a temporary advantage to players who have the capital to purchase these low-quantity, high-tiered goods, but due to the fact that the players are aware that that item will occur in some random time in the future, it forces the player who wishes to sell to act as imperfect monopolist - the player won't be able to set absurd prices because of the information the players have.

with having random strong weapons pop out only allowing the richest to buy it just to resell it later on, you are only catering to the rich only. the rich players are not contributing to anyone but themselves and their frinds/gang. they make bank off it so no need to waste time on low level players. you need a shop so even low invome players can buy cheap weapons off people and resell for profits while still helping otehr people by getting weapon cheaper then shops.

if anything the random weapon should be in a chance event or a PK event of some sort something big not just for rich players. ( after the event is over the rich players can pm and bid for that items if owner wants to sell instead of always the same damn players getting the items)

if you just had a shop with every weapon available the players with money will also be the weapon suppliers to not only high levels but low levels dealers as well. some would specialize in low level items while other high level items.

also the player shops dont acutally need an owner i think the jobs should stay but the money generated (profits) go to the lottery and or special events.

you cant get rid of rich players but change their means of profits and how it impacts the players in this case they are cheap weapon supplyers taking over the NPC shops.