The State of ML's Economy and Event

I used labor as an example for deflation since it's the first example I thought of. I also hesitate to think in the long-run since there's events every season that affects the server economy. Who would have foreseen the scale of the influx of CS/WS from the event or the increase in player base (without looking at gtop100 daily vote counter)?

What I meant by less buyers and sellers:

Spoiler: uwu

AS1 -> AS2 is people quitting the server (^:

Let them - and the sink becomes even bigger and price will be forced back down. As for our pseudo-monopolists, a lower price will force them to revalue their portfolio.

 

I would still argue that an increase in supply and greater access to the supply would break up the monopolies. I was an ore merchant on GMS and it was me and a few others who would control the market on ores within reason. I always undercut my competitors because I wanted to help lower the price on high demand plates (Orihalcon and Adamantium were in high demand when the Maker Skill was in effect). At the time, KPQ and general farming made these ores accessible to everyone, so the prices never went too crazy (max were Orihalcon at 2M a plate, but only infrequently...average was 750k-1.5M a plate). The same was true when my friend decided to try cornering the market on Pieces of Time. It was only when players wanted/needed them and chose the easier route of buying them rather than farming them did it turn a profit for him - which it frequently did. He only did it for a short time until he was overcome by the stress and pressure to keep close tabs on the FM for competitors. I played on the Khaini server, and we generally used the price of Onyx Apples as an indicator of the state of the economy. Onyx Apples were 2M for a very long time, but after the Maker Skill came out, Apples hit 3M quick and then not too long after rose to 8M. The inflation on Khaini got ridiculous. As it stands right now, I don't see MapleLegends having any kind of runaway inflation. The problem is strictly in the high-level and end-of-game items. The demand is high and the supply is low. The only way to really combat the prices is to increase the supply.

 

All analogies break down at some point, so arguing the obvious doesn't do anything for us. You are, however, incorrect on this being an unfair comparison. As I stated, there were four of us cornering the ore market on Khaini among thousands of players - trust me, it was manageable WITHOUT owls (I never bought NX in GMS - I went through every store in every room, and then I waited outside KPQ to buy ores from noobs...and my ore market made 12B). My friend tried it with Pieces of Time and it became overwhelming for him because it was one person among thousands of players. On MapleLegends, we have two players among hundreds. So I agree with you it is easier for them because it is a smaller population and they have easier access to Owls and the like. Nevertheless, these monopolizers can be broken up - no matter what they are trying to monopolize - if you increase the supply and increase the access to the supply. You just have to do it correctly or you'll cause a massive deflation.

 

Id say give everyone white scroll, everyone will be happy

 

In regards to the issue of 30% scrolls being obtainable from gacha only, why not make monsters drop something like Mystery Scrolls 30%. When the player double clicks it, a random 30% scroll would spawn in their inventory. It could be something as trashy as OA DEF 30%, or something that is worth 15mil like Earring INT 30%. Drop-rate wise, it could be slightly higher than the old gacha hunting tix, in my own opinion (could be tweaked to your favour eventually).

 

Don't the Hunting Gach Tix already provide such rewards? I'm honestly asking because I don't know for sure.

 

It doesnt solve the issue that you cannot farm for the 30% scrolls that you need.
Lets say I farm 30 hours for a Helmet acc 30% and I get 10 of these <mystery scroll boxes>, it doesnt assure me that the scroll I will get will be a Helment acc 30%. Thus, i just wasted 30 hours of work trying to get 1 scroll and instead I got bunch of other scrolls that I now have to try and sell or let take space in my inventory.

It would be much better if I can go to a specific mob and farm 30 hours on that mob where I know I am guaranteed to get the Helmet acc 30% at one point or another.

Since 2016 people have been asking for farmable 30% scrolls, yet some have been against it for being <too custom> or <taking too much time>. We attempted Hunting Gachapons and a better reward system for GM events because of this need. However, after almost two years its clear it has not really solved it. Thus, I personally think that even though it will take time to decide which mobs drop what and at what droprate, making all 30% farmable is the only solution (for that specific problem).


Please note I have not addressed any other topic in this thread and that this is strictly about the need for certain 30% scrolls to be available elsewhere.

 

i reaaaaaallly think this is a beautiful idea. needs to implemented correctly, but absolutely beautiful.

 

It's just gachapon with more steps.

 

i mean its actually a random scroll drop but ye i feel u

 

Some of the high price scrolls could be made more common at certain gacha spots, just like how the towns have modified rates. Certain high price 30s could be more common at Sleepywood, Showa, Ludi, etc.

 

Ludi has a Gachapon?

 

no

 

*sad*

 

Yep!! If GMs won't step in and ban them, then name, shame, and boycott.

 

The GMs would never ban someone for being a merchant in the game, even a monopolizing one - there is nothing in the game mechanics where such an action would be considered cheating. So this is just a nonstarter.

Very little has ever been achieved through shaming. You could boycott them. You just need to have everyone be in consolidation with you. But as long as not everyone is in solidarity, a boycott wouldn't be effective. Even more to the point, as long as a boycott is in effect the person running their store will begin to entice players to buy by lowering prices - which is exactly the intended result both parties want. Merchants who try to monopolize a market do it for one of two (or both) reasons. They're either trying to make money, or they're trying to create convenience for players by establishing a place where all players know where they can buy commonly sought after items.

In order to solve the problem you must first understand the problem and the environment in which it rests.

 

The reason people monopolize is to control the price by removing competition from the market. They do this by buying out all listed scrolls and then reselling them at a higher price. If sellers boycott them, their supply diminishes and sellers can sell directly to people who want to use the scrolls at a fair price.
It should be banned, BTW, because not only is it illegal IRL because of the massively detrimental effect it has on markets, it is also just plain shitty and unfair. This isn't a matter of "merching" or buying low and selling high, it's a matter of gaming the market to try to remove all competition, forcing people to pay their price.

 

What you are saying has merit, but I don't think you can find anything that matches what you are saying exactly on maplelegends.

When a merchant buys out the entire free market, they are only buying out items available for sale at that time. Others may have that same item stockpiled, but not necessarily listing or selling it at that time. The person buying out all of fm is taking some risk that they may not be able to cause the item to raise in price or that their items will take too long to sell effectively turning their capital into something illiquid.

Furthermore, new items are gained in maplelegends every day from gachapon and monster drops. It's actually impossible for someone to have 100% market control on this server because we have players constantly farming and adding new items to our pool. Sure, the monopolist can get a large percent of market share, but not 100%. Also in my experience browsing through fm, I see a lot of 30% scrolls available from tons of different sellers, so I don't think any of us are forced to buy them from one person. Maybe I am wrong on some specific scrolls.

Also, I think the main reason people are doing this is that they have a lot of mesos sitting around and want to try and get a return on them. There are not many options other than investing in end game items or scrolls.

Regardless if this is actually a huge problem we should probably try to discuss ways to break such monopolies.

I think that if more people try to do what the monopolist are doing (basically buy out all cheap scrolls and try to resell them for a higher price), we can get some actual competition going which can hopefully reduce the average price of some items in the long run.

Anyone got a huge bank of mesos to vonlunteer for the task?