Regional Trade, another slap in the face for diplos

leavwiz

Sorry, but as a dedicated diplomat since day one I see the current regional trade option as nothing more than a slap in the face.

I admit that the outrageous earnings that were available recently were out of bounds and needed correction. But now we are at a point where it would be ridiculous for any of us to pursue regional trade as an income source.

Lets be frank, how many players will sit for 30 minutes to wait for a refresh timer so they can earn a few silver?

Last I checked, there were no lockout timers for killing npcs that dropped sellable loot.

Last I checked, even crafters could make a few coins from their work without lockout timers.

So apparently only diplomats have both a limited earnings potential and significant time penalties if they choose to make a living via diplomacy.

Unlike adventurers and crafters that can sell their gains at whatever market prices happen to be in play, I havent heard of anyone selling civic buffs. Instead, diplomats tend to give of their time to help other players by buffing.They also tend to give each other gear instead of vendoring it, perhaps that was intended to be our income source. The run around to collect rents is another time sink that masquerades as an income source. Just my opinion of course, but I have 3 diplomacy toons and thankfully, if I need anything in game i can generate other income to support their needs.

Lets try to get real and make diplomacy a viable sphere in it's own right. Some of us actually enjoy the relaxed gameplay of the parlays. Why shouldn't diplomats have an economic sphere that rivals crafters and adventurers?

I am not sure what the right return on investment ratio should be, but the lock out timer is absolutely wrong. The parlays should be there at all tiers just like bartenders. And now that the value is reduced the items should stack again, although with the lockout timers, i cant see anyone sticking around for a couple days to parlay out one stack of goods.

My opinion for what it is worth,

Leavwiz

leavwiz

Golbat

Heh. In a way, I'm glad they nerfed this. As someone who grinded out 10 land deeds from NT, it was a slap in the face that some lvl 30 or whatever johnny-come-lately dip can do two parleys and earn more money than I could earn for the 22,000+ NT Prestige that it took to earn all the land deeds.

Earning money in diplomacy is still viable. Just don't look for devs to spoon feed ya options for making the money. Be creative, and use the exchange.

leavwiz

i already agreed that the "easy" money was out of line, my specific complaint is that if the amount is small and reasonable, why have lockout timers? My point was regarding regional trade being introduced as a means of earning money , in other words, an economy for diplos that doesnt involve selling diplo gear on the market to other diplos. I just have an issue with a lockout timer being applied when they dont exist in other spheres for routine activities.

leavwiz

Golbat

leavwiz wrote:

i already agreed that the "easy" money was out of line, my specific complaint is that if the amount is small and reasonable, why have lockout timers? My point was regarding regional trade being introduced as a means of earning money , in other words, an economy for diplos that doesnt involve selling diplo gear on the market to other diplos. I just have an issue with a lockout timer being applied when they dont exist in other spheres for routine activities.
leavwiz

Well, I haven't done much in the way of regional trade. However, I would be adamant that if they fix this to remove lockout timers, they also address the land deed situation. Land deeds should be worth more value than the regional trade because of the LENGTHY amount of time they take to get. Oh, and did I mention that Land Deeds are on a THREE HOUR lockout timer (actually, it's a cooldown timer, but same net effect). You get 30 minute cooldown... I get 3 hour cooldown for something that cost me 22,000+ prestige to get. Oh, and did I mention Regional Trade still is more profitable?

**arneson**

as I posted on vgtact, I agree that the pendulum swung too far on this one.

yes, the gu6 values were out of whack on the gray market items but I don't believe that this was the best fix. I think each NPC should only accept 1 or 2 goods and pay 5x or 10x on those items. To keep this from being continuously exploited, there should be a 5 min or 10 min timer (5x payout for 5 min timer or 10x for 10 min timer). This way, dedicated patient diplos can still make money on regional trade but no one can just sit and do continuous parlays for fast cash

Devs, please balance this - find the middle ground so the economy doesn't tank and the hours spent coding regional trade don't go wasted and unused

**Kindair**

It was not the meaning to just pile your bags full and diplo 1 guy.

As far as what I understood from the posts by Jansan it was more a oh look I'm near a trader, let me trade something and move along. Or just a oh look I'm busy in this town, I do a full diplo round and ah let's go to make a few silver and go back to what I was doing.

It's really not that bad. Making a plat per hour was just overpowered. And who cares. Still nothing to burn money on, unless you want to get overpriced items anyway.

**Brondo**

We should get a seperate coinage for buying expendable items that we can sell to players.

Academic coins for spells\potions\buffs
Solider for buffs\pets
Crafter for dusts\buffs\etc
Outsider for utility buffs\etc
Clergy for rescues\heals\potions\buffs.
Merchant\domestic for faction buffs(KoS faction mount people would like)\buffs\travel spells
etc

**Joodah**

imo the timer is silly. I'd prefer they just took it all out if they feel they needed to gut the system, which is how I think of it now - not worth persuing anymore frankly, heh.

**Jansan**

As some have mentioned, there were some serious issues and holes in the system that people were exploiting. That is why Nelon disappeared for awhile.

Currently, there are still some potential issues at this time. The cash reward change was mandated and will remain until certain code tweaks can be made, when it could possibly be changed again.

The timer is up for discussion, however. I will review the data and the feedback regarding this, so please keep the feedback coming.

As was also mentioned, it's not intended you load up and parley with one guy the entire time.

Thank you for your understanding, and I apologize to those of you who weren't abusing the system and are negatively affected by this.

-- Jansan

**Joodah**

Jansan wrote:

As some have mentioned, there were some serious issues and holes in the system that people were exploiting. That is why Nelon disappeared for awhile.
Currently, there are still some potential issues at this time. The cash reward change was mandated and will remain until certain code tweaks can be made, when it could possibly be changed again.
The timer is up for discussion, however. I will review the data and the feedback regarding this, so please keep the feedback coming.
As was also mentioned, it's not intended you load up and parley with one guy the entire time.
Thank you for your understanding, and I apologize to those of you who weren't abusing the system and are negatively affected by this.
-- Jansan

Understandable - I guess I'm just bummed the people who misused the system caused you guys to need to do something about it, heh

**Brondo**

What is the ideal cash per hour that you're tweaking this system to meet?

Could the system be used to gain rewards that would be more unique than just cash?

Will you be working in the merchant presence usefulness soon?

Purplenv

/agree

Items of some usefullness, as opposed to straight cash generation, would be ideal.

Instead of coin being created from nothing, consumed items, being purchased by players, from players, would actually create a marketplace.

**Britanies**

While I agreed that the coin from regional trade was exceptionally profitable and needed some sort of fix. This kind of fix wasn't necessary. Since of course, it didn't *fix* the issue.

Take OUT regional trade as it currently is. Recode it etc so that they aren't linked to other NPCs needed in game and try my suggestion below.

I posted this suggestion on another thread and I will do it here as well.

--> They should make these Black/Gray Market npcs like quest NPCs.

First you buy items then find out who will buy them by hailing various NPCs.

If they are a Regional Tradeer they will have a list of parley related quests available. You then get a quest which may state something like--- I am seeking XXX number of XXXX. Since you already have the item on you (the reason you were able to see the parley quest to begin with) you accept and begin parleying. Kicker is. When said number is fullfilled. You get locked out from parleying with that NPC again for a couple/three days. (suggestion)

This will still allow ppl to make coin while not really screwing the economy.

Example---
Lowbie player A just doesn't have enough coin to buy some crafted gear that he sees on broker. He can take up diplomacy and parley to make some coin.

High end player B can't really grind away for hours making insane bank.

**Kindair**

Or if you could get random items from him, you had to trade again to another random one. And a entertainment like reward system, but a bit better and not so much junk.

**Aeylana**

The way I view it, diplomacy needs to be just as viable a sphere as any other, and that includes rewards/coin gain as well. While the previous coin gain from RT was, well, out the roof, how about simply tweaking it back so that it is on par with adventuring. For example, what is the average coin possible to be gained, from an equivalently levelled mob? Then, use that as a standard for diplomacy, tweaking for the fact that it usually takes longer to complete a single parley than it does to defeat a single mob. Or something of that effect. Bah, who am I kidding? I dunno...but please don't neuter diplomacy...it is a wonderful sphere with great possibility, but it won't get anywhere if it's relegated to backburner "afterthought" status. It should be more than just a "well, it's a kind of fun, gimmicky diversion with no real value."