I thought this topic was created so the players can post their ideas, not argue about private houses.
My idea, and I've been trying to achieve it for some time ( I hope I will manage to some day) is creating a player-run store in town, with high price-level and good stuff in it. Such stores could start many servies working, such as :
Delivery companies,
Security companies,
Other companies
BR,
Chris.
"As I have discovered by examining my past, I started out as a child ... "
Actually the real money sink in a game like this are consumables. Wands are a consumable, but since players make them, the money just changes hands (although the crafting cost makes the money disappear).
Along Akimbo's suggestions, you could add an NPC enchanter who will allow you to enchant items for a large fee. I am not sure how hard it would be to script. The fee charged should be considerably higher then it will cost a PC to do the same thing (whenever it is they figure it out) so PC crafters will still be the preferred method of getting enchants done.
Finally you could stick in an 'artifact merchant' who doesn't sell artifacts but every server reset ends up just 3 or 4 rare powerful items at outrageously prices. Think of wirt from diablo. The trick is that it would have to be absolutely random items (maybe one of each type) and he would never restock until the server reset.
- In game Characters:
Zin
Sunshine
The_Specalist
Damien Faust
Anyone with too much money is welcome to contribute to any of my characters. Currently the one I play most has 36 gold, and my partner had 400, before he died twice. At the level we are stuck at (8 and 10) there are NO quests we can do with out a group, and no groups on our level when we can play.
SO personally, I don't see the need for any money sinks. Death seems to be taking care of that quite well, thank you.
TheSilverHammer wrote:
Finally you could stick in an 'artifact merchant' who doesn't sell artifacts but every server reset ends up just 3 or 4 rare powerful items at outrageously prices. Think of wirt from diablo. The trick is that it would have to be absolutely random items (maybe one of each type) and he would never restock until the server reset.
Yeah let's give good items to gold horders and not the normal players. Balancing.
I've always burned through my gold by crafting wands.
On a PW I played during my NWN1 days, a money sink was implemented by introducing expensive ferrymen, coaches, etc. that allowed you to tavel fast from one city to another. This may not be opportune at the moment, but as the word grows this can be a good sink.
Other PCs: Haven't touched these in ages: Lok'Tok Lorne Mearesworth Mars Benedict Cpl John Mackev Gutsnikk Lorne Xavier Sunderson Falderhouse Skulltickler Mearesworth Oronar
The issue is, if I'm understanding correctly: we have too much cash, and how do we spend it all, right?
If this is codable, how about this:
(1) Put a banking system in game.
-Offer a fee attached to exchanging large sums of money, and items.
(2) Put a limit on how much cash can be exchanged in game.
-5k limit, with a banking system, as described above, could leech a fee
based on how much cash is exchanged, or the value of the items.
(3) Put an increased scale in place for merchants appraisals vs. items
-in other words, you have 5k on your character, he's not very bogged
down with coins, so you get the regular pricing.
-however, your character has 200k in coins, he should be suffering
encumbrance, not to mention this is too much money for a normal person
to have without attracting a heck of a lot of thieves.. so you'll be charged
more because the greedy merchants see you have more cash.
(4) Charge more for Identification of Items.
-instead of 100 coins, charge 1000
-this will also allow Sorcerers, Mages, Bards, anyone with the Lore skill to
be incredibly more valuable in game, and thereby encouraging RPing by
interaction
(5) "City Tax"
-automatically take a portion of your money, a percentage, based on
where you zone
-for example, you zone from Trades & Commons to North Cear, the
game automatically drains you of 1% or whatever percentage set by the
DM Staff, when you zone
-if you have over a certain amount of coins on you, it will constantly tax
you, until you are below a set amount (if you have 200k on you, it will tax
until you are below 5k, for example)
Just some ideas, and probably not popular ones.
K
Dame Edana Genvaldi - Knight of Argentum Vigilo Brion Genvaldi - "Obtainer" of Lost Items Amarenth Dormagic - A Trickster
Famous Last Words: "A lich, huh? No problem; I steal his spellbook."
There is already a steep tax in the game. The death tax.
Money sinks shouldn't arbitrarily take away wealth from players, they should at least give you some value.
I do think the community should step back and ask why you are even having this discussion, aka, why is there a need for a money sink? No Virgina, it is not because people have too much money.
The correct question is: *why* do people have too much money?
The simple answer is, if you have an income of gold, be it small or large, if your ability to spend the gold is sufficiently hampered, you will end up with very rich PCs.
In other words, players have 100s, of 1000s of gold pieces because there is nothing to buy. Even ealdin with his gimped buy cap of 1000 gold per item isn't enough. Just a few items will cover your adventuring expenses, the rest is profit.
Arbitrary costs are just wrong. A tax is just wrong.
There have been several good ideas in this thread, all of them involve the player getting some value for the gold they spend. That is the way to go.
From memory (I can't review the enite thread from this post):
1. Tailor who can alter the look of equipment for a fee.
2. Consumables merchants with better / more consumables: Such as: Wand merchant, superior charm merchant, superior potion merchant, trade-skill merchant, etc...
3. Enchanter who can enchant items.
4. 'Artifact' merchant.
I suppose there could be some 'service' merchants too. I think these would be a bad idea, but ill mention them anyway.
1. Mystic who can 'respec' you. They set your level to 1 and let you 'level up' again. Maybe the cost could be 10,000 gold x your level.
2. Elite trainer: Charges 100gp per 1xp he trains you. So 100,000 gold would get you 1k xp. Not very good, but if you have nothing else to spend it on...
3. Buff Bots: Any buff for a price. The problem here is that you are geographically limited to where the buff-bot is. The longer it takes to get where you want, the less time the buffs work. I think just a better charm merchant would be a better idea.
- In game Characters:
Zin
Sunshine
The_Specalist
Damien Faust
Uhh how is a tax wrong? Aren't we supposed to be roleplaying here?
And no there isn't a death tax. There is a "Whoops i did something stupid" penalty.
The real question is. Who the @#$% cares if some people have too much money? No really. Who cares? No matter the system there will be people with arbitrarily large sums of money.
The point shouldn't be to have "Money sinks" the point should be to add things that add to the richness and depth of the world and characters. So vanity stuff like changing armor appearnce is a good method. Respeccing is not, because it takes away from the believability that the character is a living breathing entity.
I'm always right. I'm also a jerk. It's not my fault you can't get over the latter to see the former.
Hurray for Me!
Topic titles are like turn signals. They aren't for your benefit, but for the people around you.
