So, I had an earlier thread, and it got some good kicking where needed. I'm gonna take another stab at it, ranging far and wide, and hopefully it'll get the same treatment.
BASIC STUFF
This is just general hoopla...
GENERAL EXCHANGE: Put in a button that opens up a window that's a hybrid of the merchant window and the energy market. In it, you can put stuff up on sale, and others can post buy offers, etc; just as with energy, again. One tab for each * of materials and goods makes a lot of tabs, but it'd sort things neatly. Or just two tabs - materials & goods. Or whatever. 10% tax, maybe even up to 25%, but that's pretty high.
SMALLER CHUNKS: Shift down the size of crystal energy 'lumps' on the market to 50, rather than 100. In lower chunks, we'd see greater market liquidity. Plus, it works well with a couple things below.
RAISED CROWNS FOR MATERIALS: Vendor prices offered on materials changed to 5c for shards, 20c for *, 40 for **, 80 for ***, 120 for ****, 160 for *****. These numbers are probably totally silly, but good ones would set a minimum for the general exchange (or I'd just sell to a vendor), ensuring that crafting doesn't become too cheap even if there's a wild surplus.
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SUBSCRIPTION-STYLE OPTIONS
Because some people like to manage things on that basis. These would be available in addition to, not in place of, the current bulk buys of crystal energy, trinket slots, and such.
CRYSTAL CONDENSER: For 30 days, you get an uptick of CE, at around 100 CE per 30 hours or so. Should end up as a little more than the bulk package of the $7.50 cost, but less "right now". Priced at $7.50. This also works neatly with lower crystal trades - sell 50 a day, and you've got some walking-around money.
MIST CONDENSER: Also for 30 days, you get a 200-point mist tank, and double regen. Priced at $7.50.
ELEVATOR PASS: Again, 30 days, halves the cost of all elevators for you. Priced at $5.
ALL THREE: Priced at $17.50.
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THE BIG TRINKET FIX
With a general exchange, the utility of Brinks and his token trade goes totally sideways... at first glance. He has less special stuff to offer, meaning there will be more trinkets on the market, and those will start going up for sale, fast. The thing is, that's fine! Strip out the rest of his inventory completely; it's okay, I got you covered. This is a solution, not a problem. You could even make it cheaper! Er. No, probably not much. But yeah.
For each set of armor, add one new note: Trinkets that the armor is NOT compatible with - which should be the trinkets that double up on it's special protection. So, the Vog Gear and other good Elemental Resists become incompatible with Crystal Pins. Okay?
Suddenly, a whole bunch of "Well, I dunno..." armor becomes very viable, even for the fairly hardcore. Where it's weak, on go the trinkets. No giant nerfs or buffs needed - everything gets a tiny down-tick incompatibility, but it's universal; no biggie.
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Okay.
So, what doesn't work here?