If reward merits were traded on the AH...

[Yomo Kimyata]

Do you think that would be a good thing, bad thing?  What sort of trading range would you expect to see?  What other impacts (e.g., converter prices) would you expect to see?

 

 

[Obus Form]

I think directly selling merits would be the equivalent of buying/selling index funds.  Ultimately, the merits themselves would become the "gold standard" currency, replacing converters as the current pseudo-gold-standard currency.

 

I think the price of merits would join the other normalized "currencies" such as converters, and whatever the math became, would normalize to its own price.

 

I imagine the fluctuations of demand (and therefore price) in the expensive IO market (purples, winter IOs) would lessen since if demand skyrocketed, instead of buying that one IO at a higher price, just buy merits and make it yourself.

 

Edit: IMO, this game doesn't need to simplify any further for market or AH purposes, except maybe QOL when mass posting and mass converting (e.g. "keep using converters until this IO hits RARE quality, or hits whatever-named-IO-I-want).  At the same time, like all markets, it is the marketer who has done research that benefits most.  As an e-bill, I like that my own research pays dividends and selfishly want to keep it for myself. Those sky-high weekend prices on IOs feel great on the "sold" tab.

Edited February 26, 2020 by Obus Form
Simplifications and QOL

[Dazl]

Might be better to have the merit vending machine give you an option to convert to influence.

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, Crimsonpyre said:

Might be better to have the merit vending machine give you an option to convert to influence.

That was a topic in the Suggestions forum, which is what sparked my question here.  I'm opposed to any vendor buying and selling the same item, as that puts really hard floors and ceilings on things.  Why would you suggest a direct influence conversion?  And what would you suggest that conversion be?  I noted that due to the salvage seeding, rare salvage is capped at 1mm and floored at 5k (assuming you neither overpaid nor dumped).  Would you think something like 5k is appropriate for the vendor to pay?

 

It seems the free market on rare salvage splits the difference, and I suspect that the free market on merits would do the same.  

[Dazl]

First of all, I'm not asking for any change to the current system. As a regular hami raider I'm more merit rich than influence rich. However if there was going to be some direct conversion of merits to influence I would suggest 100,000 per merit. In one way it would be nice to have a quick and consistent way to convert merits, but I suspect this would ruin the enhancement converter market and have other negative effects. 

[Fan Mail]

I'm not suggesting any changes either but don't you think a more viable INF number per merit be more like 250,000?  That would align more with the running sell price of Converters.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I do not in any way advocate a fixed exchange rate.  I think a market rate would probably be in the 200k+/- range, and easy converters would go away overnight.

[Obus Form]

On 3/5/2020 at 9:46 PM, Yomo Kimyata said:

I do not in any way advocate a fixed exchange rate. 

This ^

 

Don't fix the exchange rate.

[EyeLuvBooks]

On 3/6/2020 at 11:09 PM, Obus Form said:

This ^

 

Don't fix the exchange rate.

Why not? Just curious as to the thought processes behind both sides.

[Yomo Kimyata]

3 hours ago, EyeLuvBooks said:

Why not? Just curious as to the thought processes behind both sides.

This is my opinion and thought process against fixing an exchange rate:

 

1.  When they introduced the AH, CoH was designed to be a player-based economy.  Although there were (and are) still things that can be bought or sold from or to vendors, the intention was that players would provide supply and demand.  As the game progressed, and as we went from Live to HC, the smaller user base led the powers-that-be to provide more supply.  That supply could either be direct, like seeded salvage, or indirect, like buying purple recipes with merits.  This put effective bands on just about everything.  I feel that if there were a fixed exchange rate*, that would stifle the motive for people to produce supply.  To take it to an extreme, it would be leading back towards a merchant-based economy like an RPG game like Skyrim.  Some people may actually prefer that, but I would not, which leads to my second point.

 

2.  The AH in and of itself is an entertaining mini-game, and I would hate to see it go away.  I've said before, I *think* I would play CoH without the AH, but I *know* I would play the AH without CoH.  I think the devs, past and current, have done a great job in setting floors and ceilings on things and letting market forces work within those bands.

 

I'm not against making merits tradeable, although they already pretty much are.

 

* A fixed exchange rate that sets a very low floor as a backstop is fine in my eyes.  As I mentioned above, rare salvage serves as a pretty good proxy for the soft floor (5k if you sell it to a vendor) and the soft ceiling (1mm if you buy it from seeded salvage).  You can currently buy merits for 1mm a pop, the same price as rare salvage.  I'd be ok with a floor at something like 10k -- something low enough that if you absolutely wanted to extract value without using the AH you could.