You're coming up with new systems for something that essentially isn't broken.
A new player can farm enough gold in a reasonable time frame to advance their character. Kill monster, get gold, buy better stuff. It's a very simple concept for new players.
A mid level player can gather enough sought after resources to enter the player-to-player economy and start moving up the ranks.
A high level character can wheel and deal in sums that reflect the current economy.
Back in the early days of UO, the economy was mostly player-to-npc based. It is now mostly player-to-player. That is surely a good thing (unless you're starting out on an empty shard).
It's all well and good saying the economy should be changed back to being NPC based and gold should be driven through low level resources - but it neglects the fact that 95% of the player base are veterans who don't want to, and for the most part won't, go back to farming leather, feathers and meat. Currently if they want gold they can farm stuff other players actually want. Spending large amounts of the developers limited time re-working major systems for the benefit of the trickle of new players would be silly, particularly as it is already easy for new players to get a foot in the door, and the new system would actually make it more complicated for them. And it is not an easy game to work out as it is.
The problem with the current inflation is gold storage. One system to change that benefits everybody, without trying to balance out the underlying principals of the economy.
A new player can farm enough gold in a reasonable time frame to advance their character. Kill monster, get gold, buy better stuff. It's a very simple concept for new players.
A mid level player can gather enough sought after resources to enter the player-to-player economy and start moving up the ranks.
A high level character can wheel and deal in sums that reflect the current economy.
Back in the early days of UO, the economy was mostly player-to-npc based. It is now mostly player-to-player. That is surely a good thing (unless you're starting out on an empty shard).
It's all well and good saying the economy should be changed back to being NPC based and gold should be driven through low level resources - but it neglects the fact that 95% of the player base are veterans who don't want to, and for the most part won't, go back to farming leather, feathers and meat. Currently if they want gold they can farm stuff other players actually want. Spending large amounts of the developers limited time re-working major systems for the benefit of the trickle of new players would be silly, particularly as it is already easy for new players to get a foot in the door, and the new system would actually make it more complicated for them. And it is not an easy game to work out as it is.
The problem with the current inflation is gold storage. One system to change that benefits everybody, without trying to balance out the underlying principals of the economy.