Market

[minibagge]

You want to fix drugs? You want to fix the larger economy? It seems to me that there are two viable options. 

1) Remove the market system entirely. 

It was implemented in order to make people switch up their gameplay and break up the meta of doing one activity all day everyday while all other activities were completely ignored. In this respect the market has worked to some small extent, increasing the number of meta-viable vocations from 1-2 to 2-4. But this meager increase has only served to move people en masse from one activity to the next, rather than ushering different people into different activities simultaneously. Not only has the market failed to have its intended effect on gameplay diversification, it has actually caused problems. Most notably, inconsistency, bugs, frustration, hindrance to group play, and an all around devaluing of players' time and effort.

All of this to say, it has tipped the fun/grind ratio in the wrong direction without really adding value to the gameplay experience. So scrap it. 

2) Positive Scaling

If you are intent on having a market, allow it to function like a real market. Instead of solely penalizing a lack of scarcity, reward scarcity. Allow activities to scale positively when no one is doing them, allow them to scale a lot. Perhaps a 3 tiered system based on risk and legality. So for example if the whole server was running drugs and no one was doing diamonds, eventually diamonds would become so scarce that they were so valuable people would be highly incentivized to make a run. This would go a long way in achieving what the market initially set out to do, it would allow players to speculate on the markets with carefully timed buying and selling, it would assure players are able to make good money at any given time while allowing a variety of gameplay opportunities, and allows the market to reward trying new things, rather than simply penalizing you for having a routine. 

Specific amounts would have to be carefully tweaked to keep risk/reward metrics intact, but if it was done right it could go a long way in making the grind less painful. 

 

That's just my opinion of course. 

 

TL;DR: Fix issues by either removing market entirely or adding positive scaling. It's not adding much gameplay value at the moment, scrap it or improve it.

This idea is @Buckwalter, 

[MR. COW]

1+ for the second option!

[Scott]

"This idea is buckwalter"

[Frizzy]

+1 for both

[M R. O R A N G E]

+1 Agreed @bamf

[Gatorade]

Why the hell would I spend all my time making money that can be lost in 20 seconds. Not a fair ratio

[Buckwalter]

10 hours ago, Sugarfoot said:

Why the hell would I spend all my time making money that can be lost in 20 seconds. Not a fair ratio

I'm not sure what you're referring to specifically. But if your post is in reference to the two solutions proposed above, you only stand to make more money. 

Everything to gain, nothing to lose.

[Gatorade]

9 minutes ago, Buckwalter said:

I'm not sure what you're referring to specifically. But if your post is in reference to the two solutions proposed above, you only stand to make more money. 

Everything to gain, nothing to lose.

No i meant in general asylum. Running meth for 2 hours with like the maximum stuff you can use and protection yields prob 130-150k. Loadouts are damn near 30k , 5 loadouts blows by quick that doesn't seem like a worthy use of my time 

[Corgi]

The way I see it, for money making to be "worth" it to die hard cartel rebels, money making needs to yield a ratio such as 2:1, or higher. With the 2:1 ratio shown, money should "last" twice as long as it takes to make, at least for standard loadouts, minus Ifrits and such. Isn't exactly "balanced", but its a game, should be able to fight and not have to constantly worry about how much money you are spending on standard loadouts, once again minus Ifrits and orcas ratio wise.

Just my two cents.