Hi,

I would like to introduce a system which probally reduces the inflation/deflation in diablo 3.

I have been thinking about this:

They should make all items 'binds on used'. So whenever you find an item, and you equip it, it's bound to your char. (you probally think this is wow-style, but let me explain further)

There is a possibility to unbind the item from your character. I think they should introduce 'scroll of freedom', you can use this scroll to unbind an item. This way you can trade it again. They should make these scrolls pretty expansive, not like the townportal scrolls like in D2.

I'll try to explain the system with an example:

Scroll of freedom price = 5 000 gold
you find an item X , you check an auction house (or wathever the trade system will be) and you see Item X sells for 6 000 gold.

You don't sell it but you use it for some time, after a few days you find annother item Y, which is better than item X. So you equip item Y and want to sell item X.

situation 1:

You check the auction house and you see Item X is worth 6 000 gold. So it's worth it to use a scroll of freedom. You will have a final profit from 1 000 gold (6 000 - 5 000 (scroll of freedom)).

situation2:

You check the auction house and you see the item X is worth 4 500 gold. So it's NOT worth it to use a scroll of freedom. You would make a loss from 500 gold. ( 4 500 - 5 000 = -500)

conclusion:

Items which are worth more than the price of a scroll of freedom will be traded when they are no use anymore. Items which are worth less than the price of a scroll won't be worth it to trade.

What is so positive about this system?

let's compare with D2, there were a lot of shako's / wizzardknives / vipers / ... in game, which relatively had a low value. With this system the prices would be higher, because: there will be less items of that type for sale (most of them are bound to a character). So after a few months these items wouldn't be as cheap as they are now. Because many people would still buy them but won't consider it to use a scroll of freedom because you would make a loss. Unless the prices go above the scroll of freedom price these items will be worth it to unbind them.

This would give a money sink because if you ever would like to sell your gear you have to pay some gold for it.

it's just an idea to keep the prices a bit stabile so we don't get a huge deflation when diablo 3 is started

let me know your thoughts please

regards,

Why not just make the scroll reduce the price for you by 'X%', but only for you. Lets say something costs 100 coins, and the scroll removes 10%, that way it would cost 90 coins for you but the person who is selling that thing gets 100.

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Q u o t e:
Why not just make the scroll reduce the price for you by 'X%', but only for you. Lets say something costs 100 coins, and the scroll removes 10%, that way it would cost 90 coins for you but the person who is selling that thing gets 100.

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because that is no money sink. You would only buy that scroll whenever you gain some profit with it.

for example:

scroll cost: 50 gold

item cost : 100 gold

-> not worth buying a scroll

item cost : 1000 gold

-> worth buying a scroll because it only costs 50 gold for a scroll but you gain a reduction from 100 gold, which is a profit of 50 gold. So no sink hole, only a creation of more gold.

I think this system you present only gives the opposite function from what i try to explain.

The scroll of freedoms gives a money sinkhole, your system increases the gold creation.

But what about those people who like to trade items for items. They would be loosing more than they are gaining.
Example:
2 players trade items that are roughly same value, it is a basic swap of items. They would then have to pay in order to unbind their currently equiped item in order to equip the new one. This would mean they would try to charge extra when trading, but so would the other person. In the end both players are loosing out so they would not want to trade.

Then there is the items you find from item drops. You have to pay to remove the currently equiped item in order to equip the new one.

To me it just seems like an excuse to take gold off players, and a very bad excuse to say the least.
Plus, people shouldn't be forced to spend any gold at all.

Now, your idea could be used for "cursed" items which the idea of has been going around for a while.

That would work, but I hope there's enough Leah and Tyrael videos and not a lot of Tyrael and Cain videos. Hope there's a genre filter.

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Q u o t e:
Tyrael videos and not a lot of Tyrael and Cain videos.

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MY EYES!!!! IT BURNS IT BURNS!!!!!!!!

I don't think they'll need this if they don't have + gold find and scale money gain appropriately.

I can not even begin to formulate a way to say how appalling this suggestion is, even dropping into profanity and getting banned from the forum probably would not cover the sheer horror. Money sinks are one of the very bad things we get from WOW and the MMO world.

They exist there to encourage people to spend (waste) time grinding gold from mindlessly doing the same high income tasks repeatedly. This mindless and boring repitition helps fool players into thinking that they are getting tons of time worth of content and gameplay for their dollar, when in reality all they are getting is . . . their mount, their flying mount, anti-ICE so they can use their flying mount in cold weather, a high-prestige recipe for faction X, ect . . .

Sure gold could be worth more in D3 than it was in D2, but the money-sink method is NOT the way to go. Anyone else remember how annoying it was to constantly buy scrolls in earlier games? It wasn't pretty. Granted it was better than WOW destroying your armor on every death, or forcing you to win 80 battlegrounds to buy a buy . . . but lets avoid the horrid errors of the past shall we?

Money and time sinks aren't good gameplay, they are a way to artificially expand the time you spend playing the game without actually giving you content, storyline, or value . . . it's like a resteurant trying to give me "MORE" pop by adding extra water to the mix.

Lets vote NO to rip-offs!

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Q u o t e:


Gambling in Diablo II. Money sink.

If you want to get into, buying anything from any vendor is drawing wealth out of the economy and therefore could be considered a gold sink.

I know what you mean though, you're talking about the huge $$ investments that don't provide immediate benefits to your character. Which, by the way, ground/flying mounts in World of Warcraft wouldn't figure in to as your increase in income from simply traveling faster more than makes up for it. But that's not really important here...

We're attempting to build a more stable economy in Diablo III, and just like Diablo II did, we will have ways to draw money out of players. If that means there will be big ticket items or not, I don't know, could be. If we want to throw out gold as much as Diablo II did we'll definitely need some better places to spend it if we want gold to be worth anything.

To address the OP, we don't like the idea of binding items just because Diablo is a trading game. To take away that ease of trade but add an asterisk behind it stating "Unless you pay a lot of money", it'll just make it feel... I don't know... kind of crappy. There are better ways to go about keeping a stable economy, and whenever possible they should be on things the player finds helpful, useful, or at the very least "fun".

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An important part of having a money sink, is by making gold valuable enough to save for something. You could buy anything in D2 with trash money (1-2 items = tons of gold)

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Q u o t e:



We're attempting to build a more stable economy in Diablo III, and just like Diablo II did, we will have ways to draw money out of players. If that means there will be big ticket items or not, I don't know, could be. If we want to throw out gold as much as Diablo II did we'll definitely need some better places to spend it if we want gold to be worth anything.

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I honestly think the only way to stabilize the Diablo economy would make gold rare, but allow alternatives like Copper/Silver x copper = 1 gold x silver=1 gold and x copper+silver = 1 gold. i dont know if this is true but isnt that how WoW does it? I know people complain about how diablo 3 is looking to much like WoW but Diablo 3 only really has some features that WoW has and graphics. Do you think it would hurt to add something like this?

For me mounts in WOW were a money sink, I only used them in groups to rush up to instances. If I was running solo or with my actual friends I avoided using the mounts like the plague. The reason being that I could get within a close range to most locations via the transport system.

Running through level appropriate areas without killing enemies and picking up loot actually cost me money and xp per/minute . . . not to mention the fact that I could not defend myself on a mount and had a fairly decent chance of being knocked off by a horde of trailing monsters. In which case I would have to fight anyway, against more mobs at once, and generally after having been injured already. The first mount I felt would actually pay for itself was the flying mount, but it's cost was excessive and it's use limited to outland alone.

I wouldn't consider gambling in D2 to be an actual money sink because I generally was able to get decent items from gambling. In earlier patches I was able to pick up the chest peice for the "Arctic Gear" set on a frequent basis. Having that chest peice which leveled up with me paid for itself (and then some) in actual play because I could then sell or trade decent drops for more cash and/or items. I also was able to gamble for blue or better items that were levels above what I could find in drops, which also would generally paid for itself. Sure there was risk, but overall I got value for my gold.

Another difference between gambling and an actual money sink is that I was never forced by either game mechanics or peer pressure to gamble. In WOW if you were of level X and wanted to group with anyone you needed your mount even if you felt it was an otherwise bad investment of gaming resources. At high levels you had to group because more and more content requires a team, and eventaully the flying mount was required even to get to the content at all. It was all about forcing me, like a mini-bill within the game.

That said, your right that we do need more ways to spend our money for actual value. Perhaps something like having "Charsi" or "Griswald" craft my items into something potentially more valuable would be consistant with lore and useful.

I said it once, and I'll say it again.

Vendors that can do things to your items, for money.

Examples:
Switch graphics for two similar items (Maybe you love the rare leather armor you got, but prefer the look of chainmail)
Switch properties from one item to another, all of them. (Put the mods from your rare leather onto actual chainmail armor)
Add a random suffix/affix with rarity/power dependant on how much you shell out and the base item cost. (add a random attribute to your unique sword, might be good, might not be, a sort of gambling)
Pallet shift on an item (make it different color)
Personalizing items
Etc...

I think this would be a good way to let people customize their characters, increase the variety of items, and sink gold all at once.

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Q u o t e:
I said it once, and I'll say it again.

Vendors that can do things to your items, for money.

Examples:
Switch graphics for two similar items (Maybe you love the rare leather armor you got, but prefer the look of chainmail)
Switch properties from one item to another, all of them. (Put the mods from your rare leather onto actual chainmail armor)
Add a random suffix/affix with rarity/power dependant on how much you shell out and the base item cost. (add a random attribute to your unique sword, might be good, might not be, a sort of gambling)
Pallet shift on an item (make it different color)
Personalizing items
Etc...

I think this would be a good way to let people customize their characters, increase the variety of items, and sink gold all at once.

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i like this idea other than the fact it totally demolishes the fact of item class

money dont have any meaning in diablo .. this is a item item trade game, money has never been envolved. i mean u get like 4k in act 2 normal mode for a chain armor, what you get in hell for one ? money has no meaning, binding is retarded for diablo and it should never be used cus its a item item trade , not like wow when its gold