ANSWERED:Cap market prices

[caseytalk]

As there is a maximum of earning 100 shards a week, it would take a year to collect 5200 shards.  The Staterae is nearly there now.   As the system is now, I will never be able to save enough shards to get one because it increases by 100 shards a week and I can only earn 100 shards a week.  I don't think it would flood the site with Strataere dragons if you have to save up a year to get one from the market.   A cap at 2600 would mean 6 months of saving.  A cap of 3600 would mean 9 months of saving.  

 

Thank you for your consideration. 

Edited January 22, 2022 by caseytalk
Clarification and spelling

[HeatherMarie]

Honestly, support, just because of Stats. Staterae kind of broke whatever we thought we knew about Market prices, imo. They are the *only* breed that has consistently increased in price for such a long amount of time, they are now the most expensive thing in the Market and over *twice* as much as the old 'true rares' (Gold and Silver), and if this upward trend continues much longer they will soon be the most expensive thing we've ever had in the Market (long ago that was chickens at something like 5600).

 

Originally the basic idea was roughly 6 months to earn a rare, as mentioned in TJ's post here  ("due to prices fluctuating it's not exact").  That seems to not even be relevant anymore with the prices we have nowadays. I *want* to believe there is already something in place to balance price vs earning abilities, just like I want to believe Stats will level out soon, but I've been hoping for that for a long time now. 

 

I don't know how a cap would be set that would allow things to still fluctuate without just going up forever, but it does seem there should be *some* sort of upper limit.  (I also think an older suggestion about prices changing less often might help at this point too, just in terms of being able to actually buy something before the price changes yet again.) 

[Jazeki]

I support a cap or some sort of limit. There's no feasible reason why any dragon in the market should take nearly a year to get. 

[OMGitsKairi]

+1 support for this. I don't tend to buy from the market often but I can see it being a quality of life improvement for others.

[Keileon]

Support.

[animatedrose]

Support. I'm still kinda surprised that staterae is still increasing at this point. It almost morbidly makes me wonder how high it could feasibly become. I would've thought that it would have balanced out by now...but I guess not. A cap would be nice, unless one already exists that TJ has kept secret. In which case, it'd be nice to know what it was.

[Shokomon]

I would appreciate a limit please! Either this or some other upper limit!

[Moriaty]

Yes please stats are going crazy now

[LevelsOfViolence]

As someone who doesn't use the market at all and doesn't care about Stateraes, full support. The fact that one breed's price can continue going upwards every single week with a hard 100 shard cap is nonsensical, especially when the market is supposed to be your go-to place for things that you cannot catch in the cave yourself.

 

If TJ doesn't wish to implement a hard cap for each breed, this problem could still be solved by one simple change: make all market prices have 1 week 'cooldown' on increasing the cost. What I mean by this, is that if [for example] Staterae went up by 100 shards this week, the price cannot rise again until the week after that - this way things could still remain 'expensive', but at least users would actually have a chance of getting their eggs.

 

Because what is even the point of having certain breeds available, when you pretty much guarantee that most of users will never be able to buy them?

[KageSora]

Support.

 

There really should be, at least, some sort of maximum ceiling the prices stop going up at.  And it should be something reasonable.  There's gotta be a compromise between "encouraging weekly play" and "making people play for months at a time without missing a single week of max shards to have a hope they can purchase it and they better pray it doesn't go up in price again before they save up enough"

 

I know in-game economies aren't easy, even one as simple as this one.  But it could definitely use a re-examination to re-balance it at this point.

[HeatherMarie]

1 hour ago, KageSora said:

There's gotta be a compromise between "encouraging weekly play" and "making people play for months at a time without missing a single week of max shards to have a hope they can purchase it and they better pray it doesn't go up in price again before they save up enough"

 

Completely agree, and actually  'playing for months at a time without missing a single week of max shards' would be a vast improvement. Golds and Silvers taking 6-ish months of consistent playing hitting max shards every week is totally understandable and realistic. Having to choose between buying some cheaper breeds and saving up for months to afford that rare thing is totally understandable. But a breed that consistently increases almost every single week and now costs *eleven months* worth of max-shard-weeks (actually 11 months plus 1 week, I believe), with it increasing by 100 shards nearly every week when users can only *earn* a max of 100 shards every week, that just seems plain broken. 

[Nightmon]

Agree, been wanting to get another one for a while and I don't feel like playing for a bit. I don't want to be "punished" for that as the price goes higher while I'm not getting any shards. 

[KageSora]

2 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

But a breed that consistently increases almost every single week and now costs *eleven months* worth of max-shard-weeks (actually 11 months plus 1 week, I believe), with it increasing by 100 shards nearly every week when users can only *earn* a max of 100 shards every week, that just seems plain broken. 

 

It wouldn't be as much of an issue if, say, the price increase and the weekly shard cap were different--such as if things could only go up a max of 50 shards a week, or if the weekly cap were boosted to 200 but things could still go up 100 shards.  But the fact that it can rise at the same rate users are able to earn shards means that every week it rises effectively cancels out all the shards earned towards purchasing one.  (Obviously not exactly since users can still choose to use the shards for other things, but in terms of saving to afford this specific breed it basically cancels all progress)

 

It's not quite unobtainable but getting up there.  I understand it should be very rare--I have no objections to that.  But there's a difference between "very rare" and "why is this even in the market if it's practically impossible to save for even to the exclusion of all else?"

[LadyLoki]

I wholly support this. I worked for months to earn enough to get myself a Gold when the Market was first added; and it felt really rewarding when I finally managed to get enough to get one.

I gave up on getting myself a Stat. I have over 4,000 shards, and it's still not enough at this point. Now I've resolved to just spend a hundred shards here and there to get myself more Aqua/Amethyst/Citrine Gemshards since I can't catch/trade enough for them half the time.

So I'll say it again - I 100% support this.

[Fuzzbucket]

1 hour ago, KageSora said:

 

It wouldn't be as much of an issue if, say, the price increase and the weekly shard cap were different--such as if things could only go up a max of 50 shards a week, or if the weekly cap were boosted to 200 but things could still go up 100 shards.  But the fact that it can rise at the same rate users are able to earn shards means that every week it rises effectively cancels out all the shards earned towards purchasing one.  (Obviously not exactly since users can still choose to use the shards for other things, but in terms of saving to afford this specific breed it basically cancels all progress)

 

It's not quite unobtainable but getting up there.  I understand it should be very rare--I have no objections to that.  But there's a difference between "very rare" and "why is this even in the market if it's practically impossible to save for even to the exclusion of all else?"

 

The bolded part is my issue with the price as it stands. I realise it's because EVERYONE wants one, but still.

 

And I speak as one who was lucky enough to get CBs right at the start and to manage to buy one before the price shot up (I think it cost me around 2000.... I would really like a fourth... Saving madly...

[Xopwe]

Full support! 

[Guillotine]

Strong agreement, even as someone who had saved enough to get a breeding pair back when they were more reasonably priced. The Staterae price increases are absolutely absurd at this point, and something has to be done--one dragon shouldn't cost a full year of saving.

Edited January 22, 2022 by Guillotine

[purplehaze]

I think the frustration here is seeing the price of the Stats going up each week to keep them just out of reach. I did just manage to purchase a 2nd Stat in the market, but I went for many weeks being just 100 shards short of the price, thinking that the next week I could purchase one, only to have the price go up the same amount as my shards. Week.After.Week!

Finally there was a week when the price didn't rise, which allowed me to get one.

 

I will probably never have more because saving for another would be too frustrating. I was even debating about buying this one, because I could have purchased every other dragon I still need for my scroll goals (some of the new Xenos, Cantormaris, new Gemshards, Sapphires to turn yellow) with the shards I spent for the Stat and still have some left over!

 

I'm not sure how the prices are set -- only TJ knows that for sure, but I am leaning toward supporting an upper limit. We should know that if we earn max shards every week and save them up long enough, all dragons should be obtainable. That is the purpose of the market, isn't it? If it is in the market there should be some assurance that by diligently saving one can obtain it. The Stats don't feel that way.

Edited January 22, 2022 by purplehaze

[AngelicGracelyn]

Full support for something to fix the market prices for the Stat. I don't mind prices being high for very rare dragons, but they need to be some degree of achievable for more than just long time players with a giant hoard of unused shards. Newer players or players that have gone on a hiatus at this point will never be able to afford a market Stat at the rate it's been increasing. 

[missy_]

19 hours ago, LevelsOfViolence said:

As someone who doesn't use the market at all and doesn't care about Stateraes, full support. The fact that one breed's price can continue going upwards every single week with a hard 100 shard cap is nonsensical, especially when the market is supposed to be your go-to place for things that you cannot catch in the cave yourself.

 

If TJ doesn't wish to implement a hard cap for each breed, this problem could still be solved by one simple change: make all market prices have 1 week 'cooldown' on increasing the cost. What I mean by this, is that if [for example] Staterae went up by 100 shards this week, the price cannot rise again until the week after that - this way things could still remain 'expensive', but at least users would actually have a chance of getting their eggs.

 

Because what is even the point of having certain breeds available, when you pretty much guarantee that most of users will never be able to buy them?

Full support for boldface suggestion.

[GhostMouse]

Full support. I'd love to see a hard cap of 6 months/2600, but a year/5200 would do. Definitely not more than a year. But if the goal was to keep prices around the 6 month mark (for rares), I think it's fair to suggest the cap be closer to 2600 than to 5200.

[UnicornMaiden]

At the moment it looks like there are only five eggs that cost more than 2,600 shards: Ice, Magma, Thunder, Staterae, and Chicken. Even Gold, Silver, Paper, and Dinos can all be obtained in less than six months. Of the five that take more than six months the Staterae is the most expensive, currently at 4,900 shards.

 

I think a cap of 5,200 shards, or one year's worth of max earning, would be a fair cap. It would be attainable even if players don't max out their shards every week.

[missy_]

I have a related suggestion; don't know what you guys think of this.

 

What if there were sales periodically? Maybe a Black Friday sale, or holiday sales, where market eggs were 40% off or something. 

[Moriaty]

5 hours ago, missy_ said:

What if there were sales periodically? Maybe a Black Friday sale, or holiday sales, where market eggs were 40% off or something. 

 

That doesn't remove the possibility of stat prize going to like 10k shards though. 

[Elizabeth Moonstone]

Also support. I don't think you should spend more than a year saving for a single egg.