Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So a disturbing trend i have noticed lately is that Plex prices as well as the prices for everything else have gotten higher and higher over the last few months.
The prices of plexes has caused more then a few of my friends to leave the game. Not to mention the cost of everything else. This is caused primarily due to the influx of ISK generated by Incursions and the sheer amount of people participating in them.
There are multiple solutions to this but i have one that can possibly stabilize the Eve Economy.
A mechanic similar to a Gold Standard. Make a Set price point for PLEX. i know alot of people will EMO Rage about this but its rather Simple. Plex's where introduced to combat Isk farmers. its having the opposite effect. I recently spoke to someone who bought isk from a site in order to buy PLEX. seems kinda bass ackwards dont it?
Setting a gold standard with plex prices will in turn be able to help lower the economy becuase people like me that do industry and other things wont have to jack up prices in order to make our monthly plex fee. now my recommendation for plex prices is somewhere between the 300-400 mil range. 500 mil is a bit to high imho.
im sure ill get flamed relentlessly over this post but meh.

-Wes-

CCP is regulating PLEX price through lovering the real money cost of it. Last week they lovered the price and the in-game price is dropping. But its not enough.

What I dont like is the fact, that buying plex costs more real money than month subscription. Also its not profitable to buy more than 2 plexes. 1 plex costs 19,95E. If you buy more it costs 17,495E per plex. Monthly subscrption costs 14,95E.

As mission-bears get older, they will have the skills to support flying fancier ships. They will accumulate the ISK required to fly fancier ships. The fancier ships will help them acquire ISK faster. Over time you would expect prices to rise simply due to the mission-bears getting better at making ISK over time.

As traders get older they accumulate more wealth, and better knowledge of the market, and thus better ability to generate riches. Over time you would expect prices to rise simply due to traders getting better at making ISK over time.

As mission-bears get older, their ships get more valuable. Thus the rewards for suicide ganging mission-bears become better over time: especially when the mission bears move to high gank/low tank ISK grinding machines. Over time you would expect prices to rise simply due to the easier access that suicide gankers have to rare modules.

Note that we can currently manufacture trauma heavy missiles for far less than the market value. The current inflationary bubble is due to speculation.

Totally independent of Incursions, there are many reasons why prices will be rising in the marketplace. There is the increasing ability for capsuleers to make ISK as they gain SP, the increasing ability for players to make ISK as they gain experience in the game, the inflationary pressure of speculators, and finally the pressure of extra ISK entering the economy via Incursions.

I am not disputing that Incursions have some impact on PLEX prices. After all, last year when the Incursion interdiction was running, the price of PLEX stalled. It is foolish to attribute the rise in prices of PLEX to Incursions alone.



Which option do you want? Lots of ISK available for a few dollars in order to be competitive with IGXE, or PLEXes available for only a few hundred million ISK in order to be attractive to people trying to pay for their game time with ISK?

Paying for your game time with ISK is a luxury for those who have ISK to spare. PLEX-for-ISK is an ISK pump intended to make CCP's legitimate RMT more attractive than IGE's illegitimate RMT, it's not a means to subsidise the gaming habits of poor people.



The loss of subscribers seems to be due to the foolishness that accompanied Incarna, rather than being anything to do with PLEX prices soaring over the 400M ISK mark.

Yep, CCP should do something about PLEX prices. Lowering the cost of large blocks of PLEX to reflect the subscription prices for a similar length subscription should do the trick nicely, since it would encourage more people to buy PLEX with real money.

Just checked, and there's a 30 dollar premium for buying 6 PLEX vs subscribing for 6 months.

According to Eves on market data this time last year Megathrons sold for around 78 Million currently they are selling for 120-125 mil. Ravens this time last year where around 80-83 million now they are around 105-110. Tengu's where around 235-240 mil right now they are selling for 310-320 mil. This time last year Scourge heavy missiles (now trauma) where 37 isk they are now 60-70 depending where you buy them. Warrior II;s where around 230k they are now 300k....

i can do this all day long. there is inflation. and it adds up. Sure some commodities have stayed around the same price but for a good chunk of the standard items things have gotten more expensive.

We didn't think this through, did we, OP?

Ok - so you cap PLEX prices at, say, 350mil. Now, players USED to have to grind 8-10 hours in L4 missions for their PLEX. Now, they can grind 3.5 hours in incursions and get it.

With prices being capped - less and less people will be buying PLEX to support their account, as they're worth less and less due to inflation. Additionally, less pilots will be paying anything, as PLEX will be used for all accounts, since they're so cheap.

Also, how are you going to cap the price on a player-driven market? You **** with that part of the market, you **** with ALL of the market.

Sounds like you're pretty butthurt that you can't afford PLEX right now; either run some incursions, play the market, or just subscribe.

There is a definite inflation in some sectors of the Eve economy. One of the main reasons it does not manifest in minerals, and some other areas, is because many of those items, minerals, salvage, a few odds and ends, are sourced, in part or entirely, by activities that also create ISK.

This however does not mean that PLEX price should be set. If anything it helps indicate the imbalances in the Eve economy. PLEX is an expression of time, purchased and traded with another expression of time, ISK. Prices that do not keep pace, are an indication that the value of time, in those activities, is worth less than the time actually consumed, when compared to the price of PLEX.

If you should be upset by anything, it is CCP's failure to address this imbalance. Correction of the imbalance will encourage more time being spent on activities that do not generate ISK directly, which would then tend to push PLEX prices down, though how much is anyone's guess.

Regarding plex specifically.

Also volumes of plex sold per month are considerable, much more then you'd expect from just incursion runners alone.

So plex behaviour cannot be attributable as an incursion issue alone.

Needless to say plex is nothing to do with inflation as it simply moves isk around.

However, if behavioural shifts are changing that certain professions are neglected because people are focusiing on isk generation to obtain plex, then the supply of goods will dimish due to the industrial profession being neglected as an isk generating proffession.

As such if plex prices spike again behaviour will shift to compensate for those wishing to plex.

First prove that the main plex issues are associated with incursions. Rather than using it as a scapegoat.

Plex volumes are too large to soley be attributable to incursion runners. Incursions are not the main isk faucet to the game by contribution.

Also negating the effects as you claimed as an inflation issue to the economy and behavioural changes and neglect to the industrial base now or the isk transferance associated with supply and demand? Wonder why?

Thusly other issues either associated with behaviour or other income generating sources may be the issue here.

Possibly erroneaous tactics focussed by predjudice IG as a meta issue while missing the real problems or issues could simply propogate if not make the EvE experience even worse in the long run.

And the plex spike occured around the time of the crucible announcement and was a "spike" not a gradual increase you would have seen over time if incursions where he cause for the period they have been introduced.

Prior to that there was the "power of two" promotion.

There were also people manipulating the prices at the time of the spike.

Seems to me to be more likley attributable to re-activation of accounts and ongoing plexing to achieve things, maybe stock up on new BC BPs or the BCs themselves aswell as numerous other additions. Seems more likley seeing as it occured co-incidentally around it dont you think?

When you combine that with volumes of plex as I mentioned before and all other potential isk faucets it still seems unproven to me in a big way.

Seeing the price history does not attribute who is buying them then if you can't find an attributable link to incursions as the main issue for plex increases then you can't use it as a logical argument to afford changes solely to them as a "nerf" as a result. QED.