4Game

Pestily hit a billion roubles 6 weeks into the last wipe. When players have that much cash, capitalist system break down like shitty capitalist M4 in desert. There's no flat amount you can charge a streamer to make him care that won't wreck even someone hitting level 40 now, much less someone unlucky enough to be starting out.

Availability for a lot things kind of looks like this right now:

https://preview.redd.it/obavu45mbv341.png?width=1539&format=png&auto=webp&s=910b93ecf8c14f3d041a032e44ead512e3771982

This is a bit boring. There's tons of people who won't even consider using something like GenIV at all, and immediately sell it if they find one. Then there's other people who can run it constantly. It's only the slice in the middle that actually have to choose whether to run it or not.

Ideally you want as many people as possible making that choice. If I'm brand new and accidentally a thiccboi, I should want to wear his shit and not just flip it. Likewise the thiccboi himself should probably have to think about whether he goes back out with the same kit straightaway.

So it would look more like this:

https://preview.redd.it/g4x65rsodv341.png?width=1539&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec847d2ad4d76b919a40ca076890cad413c38b74

The thing is, shitty capitalist system can't do this on its own.

Making stuff more expensive, or reducing the amount in circulation, shifts the curve but doesn't change the shape:

https://preview.redd.it/n2pbl0yccv341.png?width=1534&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d80d4546c731ee5bcce47555c7bd40e9c26d278

There's still people who ignore the item, and still people who ignore the price. There's just more of column A and less of column B.

A good way around this is to use restrictions that can't be avoided by simply throwing cash at them.

I won't make specific suggestions, BSG are more than smart enough to think some up. I will say that a really good mechanic we already have are per-player buy limits. Each player gets a small amount at a reasonable price, and if they want more they need to go to the market and buy it at a ridiculous price. This is smart and I would like to see it more.

Some other things worth looking at could be find-in-raid barters, higher market taxes on guns/gear to encourage people to run what they find, and ways to scale healing costs into lategame.

I'll also say there's two things that look like they do this, but really don't.

First, restricting supply (eg. lower trader stock, lower durability/uses, lower droprates etc) is the same as increasing the price. It doesn't spread things out, it just makes everything more expensive. Second, barters are just an annoying type of cash as long as the flea market exists. Instead of buying the thing, I just buy the goods to buy the thing. I still turned money into a GenIV, it just took more clicks.

TLDR stuff like per player buy limits are a good way to make things rarer that affects everyone from newbies to the top. In the long run people need to be able to pick up the game a year into the dynamic economy and still play, and if the whole market just inflates to keep up with the rest of us, that probably won't be much fun.

Thoughts? Ideas?