Okay, since nobody else is doing this, but everyone is whinging about it, I'll step in like I always do and make a thread that everybody will post in but nobody will read.
***ENERGY EXCHANGE***
People complain about the market fluctuating too often and too quickly and I am, in general, worried at how easily the current exchange can be controlled by one player, thus netting them 100% of the profits. I outline the way to do so in this thread here.
I will propose some change that not everybody will like, but will probably end up doing 100% more good than bad in the long run.
***Ideas start here, you can stop reading now***
Currently, the exchange technically has two markets, since both buying and selling are individually influenced by their own levels of supply and demand. Not only is it bad having two price standards for exactly the same item, I have been able to generate profits when the time is right, upwards of 100k in under 2 hours.
Without losing any of my own energy stocks. This means that if I wanted too, I could continue to buy energy low, sell it high, and then buy more energy.
What needs to change:
First, there needs to be one consolidated price for crystal energy. This is not a static price.
Trading energy will change, from being able to offer any price you want, to any price within a range of the current, average price. The instant trades will allow you to buy and sell energy at the base price, so when the game is more popular, people will be able to buy and sell their energy (hopefully) instantly there.
In the market window, you will be able to post your own buy or sell offers, altering your price within the 20% range (10% above or below the base price for energy), as well as see a timeline of the prices energy has gone for previously so you can try to decipher when to buy cheap and sell high, still netting you a profit in crowns, just not such an enormous one.
Obviously, this system would be subject to pumping and dumping and other kinds of economic lingo, but the hope is that enough people are trading at the base price or lower that these tactics ultimately fail.
Obviously, if somebody has an offer below the price you're currently offering to buy for, you will buy that energy instead of the energy at the price you're offering, lower offers take priority over higher ones.
Same for selling.
It essentially tries to give you the best bang for your buck... Or, uhh... Crown.
If, for whatever reason, an instant transaction cannot be processed, the exchange will notify the player that it cannot be completed, then ask them if they want to trade at the next best cost, or place an offer on the market.
This way, impatient people still get what they want.
For those of you who have read this far, it may have come apparent that this sounds a lot like the Grand Exchange on Runescape, and well, that's because it's almost identical to it.
It's pretty much the only way to have an open market without it being controlled by Gold Farming Chinese Kung Fu Dragon Warriors.
No, seriously, it is.
Trades outside of the exchange won't be controlled, however. Since doing everything in this game costs you some level of energy, it's not necessary.
Anyway, that's it, go and post things now.
I agree that the energy price needs to be set around a specific number. The current system is somewhat similar to the one Puzzle Pirates uses for Dubloon trades. The price of dubs there is heavily determined by the amount of active players. (in my experience that is at least) The major flaw about that is when activity goes down, dub prices go up. This pushes the free (or partially free) players away from the game, which makes the game far less enjoyable for the paying players. I can see the same go down for Spiral Knights if the market is completely free. Although there aren't that many group activities yet, I'm sure (or at least I'm hoping) many more will come.
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As far as your proposal goes; I'm not familiar with the Runescape system, but it sounds pretty good. Determining a decent base price for energy is the part left to be discussed then, but I doubt that can be properly done before the energy balancing is final.