4Game

One of those EFT veteran "elitists" here!

Here's an idea for a better solution to the lvl 15 Flea Market lock (because botters?)
Limit Flea Market selling to Find on Raid only.

Don't REE just yet!

I know, I know, this will split opinions too so BEAR with me and entertain the idea at least for a bit.
Take a deep breath and keep reeading.

• You could still buy from traders AND from the Flea Market just like before and there would really be no need for the lvl 15 lock
• However you'd likely have to pay a bit more premium for the item to somebody who actually found it in his raid instead of just having flipped it on the market (supply & demand!)
• Devs would save time that is wasted on balancing chronically out of stock Trader items etc.
• The servers would have less market activity (less back and forth between players)
• Leveling up your PMC and unlocking Traders would become more meaningful and exciting again!
• No more getting ultra rich very early wipe just for being among the first to unlock traders
• The wipe cycle might remain longer in the "early-mid wipe" type of gameplay which most players enjoy and for better reason, also periods of momentary scarcity (an idea Nikita has been talking about) would be much easier to implemented by the devs – The game would feel more dynamic
• With the upcoming overweight system, the higher resulting prices would somewhat compensate for the less amount of loot you'd manage to get out – Less weight carried would also mean more corpses with some loot left on them, so even those slow and meek new players could end up with something more valuable, more often!
• Technically (programming wise) this would be a very simple thing to do. No new systems would need to be built as everything already exists. This could also be implemented as a pre-wipe event just to test it out.
• Harder time for pro botters and those who sell in game items IRL

Thus in a nutshell, loot would become more exciting once more to find on raid, as it once used to be.
The game would reward playing the game and surviving more than just clearing the stock of the AI Traders and grind the Trader rep as fast as possible.

Sure, yes of course some items would be much more expensive than they are now and especially in the beginning of each wipe, but then the economy would be more pure supply and demand kind of free market and much more simple overall to manage, regulate and upkeep from the developer's end. It would save and free resources and at least in my opinion would result in much more fun interesting experience for the players.

PS. Please note that if this change was to be implemented, it might be better to have it done along with rework of loot being more random (more of the items to be found in raid) and dynamic (more randomness in the spawns) in the raids overall. So perhaps this is something to consider over longer time horizon.

^{Repost because forgot flair.
AND I meant Flea Market Lock in the title, oops!}