Note:
- I did a forum search on this topic and its not the best search bar so I got a lot of random crap with crowns and CE in it so sorry if this is a duplicate thread.
- Also I'm asking for thoughts, if it belongs in the suggestions I can easily move it there later
Discussion:
Looking at the value of CE to crown ratio and I see a major fluctuation. Game states that value is set my players. And I am wondering on what all your thoughts are about this. It does make for some interesting economic and market strategy into the Spiral Knights MMO, but the flux might be too much to handle and is not controlled.
I personally think that each day crowns to CE should return to a default of 5k crowns per 100 CE. (another person suggested that as well - again although this is a suggestion I want to know everyone's thoughts on player's making up the market)
- Does OOO give the players too much to handle by letting them set the prices?
- Is getting the crowns or crystal energy your way, the way business should be conducted? (edit - added comma to question)
- Do crowns and crystal energy have different values?
- Are crowns worth more than crystal energy (vice versa)?
Feel free to discuss
The reason a default of 5k cr for 100 ce won't work is that even if it resets to that value every day, the actual value of ce will be much more. So people will mass-buy at the 5k rate, driving up the price back to equilibrium. It wouldn't be a very good fix, as ce would probably only be at 5k for a few minutes at the start of each day, after which it would go back up. The fact that OOO doesn't directly interfere with the game's economy, and the fact that it's player driven, means that the price of ce reflects how much cr is in the game. With the release of missions, more cr has come in due to FSC being accessible as a mission. FSC payout is 7-8k in pure cr, with the tokens worth 1k each. So on 50 energy, you can get 10-11k in cr, and a full mist tank double that. Basically, 8.5k cr for 100 ce, which was the pre-promotion rate, isn't really so bad when you consider how it can be driven up by so much more. The problem is that ce prices affect newbies the most, and it makes progressing in the game so much difficult. Personally, I would prefer ce rates to be lower, even when I'm at a point in the game where I can profit off of being a ce banker. I remember how tough it was to work my way up to 5*, and that was when the ce market rate WAS 5k per. To answer some your bulleted questions:
-It's probably more of a subjective question, but I think the economy is fine as it is. I can't see OOO interfering any more than releasing promos to drop the ce price, which works up to a point. I'm not an economics expert, all I did was sleep through the 101 courses in college :/
-Not sure not you mean by this, if you mean buying ce with cr, but the business model has worked so far.
-Cr and ce are related, but the way they're used is a little different. Cr is used mostly in SK, but ce has a higher value per unit, and because of steam trading either cr or ce (usually ce) can be converted into other things, such as steam games or metal and weapons in tf2. Essentially cr and ce are both currencies in the same market, but with different values. Kinda like how we have dollars and pennies, except their values relative to each other can change.
-Ce is worth more than cr per unit. At current market rate (7858 cr per 100), 1 ce = ~79 cr, which changes per market.
Hope this answers some of your questions. This is probably my longest forum post to date.