Money Sinks and other things.

[Kvetch]

Ok, we've talked a bit about a pwipe... Good or bad, can anyone really argue with the fact that the economy of 4D is way (way way way way way) out of control?  People get money through killing mobs, people spend money on... erm... what?  Potions?  those that need them can't afford them (18,000 gold for an opa, people - you don't get that going through mudschool). Those that can afford them, don't usually need enough of them to make it worthwhile.

Tochy's post about shops got me thinking, what are some honest ways for 4D to have money sinks (those things players spend money on) so gold isn't just a get and horde philosophy?

I've already mentioned the armor/weapon damage/repair that used to be in a mud I played - and from what I've been told is actually in the basic circle (which we are based off) code.  If armor can be damaged, than the player would have to have it repaired - whether from someone that has the blacksmithing (or leatherworking or whatever) skill (if there are such skills in the new program) or a local blacksmith - it would have some sort of cost to it.

What other money sinks can other people come up with?

And come to think about it - what would be some honest ways for people to make money instead of just killing some random mob that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?  Should we allow players to open up their own shops?  I ask this thinking a bit of Nicoli's shop (btw: I assume there really was a player sometime ago named Nicoli and he ran said shop - or something?) which I had as a mort thought would be in interesting idea.  But then again, you have to come up with costs/profit - the lower a player can make his costs, the more profit said player can get.  A thought on this would be someone who can brew (which will hopefully be a cool skill in the new system) that can make potions.  Now, they could go get the raw ingrediants (eye of newt?  tail of rat? nectur from a purple enchanted flower?) themselves, or possibly pay someone else to get them (perhaps harvesting body parts of corpses could be its own little skill).

And what about having some little auction house other than the auction online?  Something like (yeah, I'm gonna say it...)  WoW has (haven't playd for almost a year and still remember it) where you post the item for x amount of time and after said time you either have sold the item and get the gold or you get the item back - no worse for wear?

I'm just throwing out some ideas here.  Anyone else?

[Virisin]

I'm not the biggest fan of equipment getting damaged, generally it's more of a hassle to repair it than a gold sink.

Otherwise I think recoveries, all shop items and healer spells, spaceship fuel, experience (if the ratio wasn't 4:1) are good gold sinks, and especially training skills and spells costing gold are all very good gold sinks.

I'll try think up some more potential gold sinks, though I think we might not even require any more once gold has been wiped. Most of the problems we have economically currently I think are actually fixed, it's just that we still have the consequences of the broken economy with us - billions and billions of coins in clan treasuries and on GM players that barely ever leave recall and even when they do, don't need to buy potions because they're GMs, don't buy spaceship fuel yet because it's not implemented, rarely convey experience because they're already GM and don't need to level and don't have to retrain any skills or spells as long as they don't remort. It's kinda left us with a huge gold bubble. I know if I ignore my own clan treasury, I am extremely low on cash constantly because of how much everything costs in relation to how much I earn. I actually feel sorry for newbies at the moment that are negatively affected by the huge gold bubble in the GMed nations.

Gold sinks are always good though so imma get brainstorming anyway. 

[Asmodeus]

Again, I think clan upkeep is a great way to keep gold from being hoarded... provided you care about your clan.  Thats why there should be automatic deductions for membership fees, monthly dues, etc into the clan treasury, and then automatic deductions for upkeep etc from the clan treasury.

Personally, I think people opening their own shop is dumb, unless each character is allowed a personalized potion they can sell.  Honestly, what else are you going to buy in the game.  Maybe theres a weapon, maybe some rp clothes, but honestly, you'll probably buy it one time and never go back (unless its a good weapon to tinker or whatever).  Potions seem like the only thing shops are needed for anyway, unless they're somehow part of a quest.  And if thats the case, you cant be a part of them anyway.

[Virisin]

Oh yes, clans will surely become good gold sinks. Forgot about them.