The
Wholesaler Changes previously discussed have now been implemented in Beta Server.
Dear Humans and Elves,
We have updated Elvenar Beta to version 1.100!
Improvements
- We have now introduced the changes to the Wholesaler as announced before in this post, with the addition (after receiving your early feedback) that quests requesting only Wholesale trades have gotten their amounts reduced by 50%. This change has not made today's update, but will be implemented shortly.
Here is the original Announcement
Dear Humans and Elves,
Thank you all so much for all the feedback you have given us on our proposed changes for the Trader star rating. Check the post above for all details on that if you hadn't yet. We've enjoyed reading your comments, and are happy to announce that we will be adjusting the rating to 1.5:1 very soon. We are currently aiming to release them with the daily Beta update on Thursday, 23 January. That also means they should go into the 1.97 version for our Live worlds, if everything passes testing and works as we intend it to.
Several of you have also raised the topic of adjusting the ratios of the trades listed in the Wholesaler. We agree that they need an update, and have done some further calculations to also fine tune those more, both for the regular and Sentient Goods. Please read on to learn what we have in mind, and how we plan to achieve those goals we've set for ourselves.
- Make the Wholesaler easier to use
We feel the Wholesaler is rather click-intensive, especially if you would want to use it a lot, and we want to make that more convenient to use. Therefore, we will be increasing the volume of Goods that you can buy at a time (that is: per click). While that means that the overall cost for a batch is higher, you also get more Goods with one transaction. The Wholesaler's price will still increase by 50% after every purchase (as it is now), but with higher volumes per trade, you will end up paying less for more.
- Align the Wholesaler with the new star ratio for equally valuable trades
The Wholesaler currently has a ratio of 4:1 (between tiers). This is already more expensive than regular, player-to-player trades, but it is of course much too high when considering the changes we will apply to the Trader. Therefore, we would also apply the 1.5:1 ratio between tiers in the Wholesaler.
- We want the Wholesaler to be more expensive than regular trades, but it must also be fair
The Wholesaler is intended to be mostly a last resort in case you need resources fast, as you should generally be trading for the resources you need with other players - even though this will take more time. We need the Wholesaler to be more expensive because it provides you with the resources you'd need instantly. However, because of how it is currently set up, you pay vastly more for some resources than you would for others - even if you take their trade ratios into account. This happens because the amount you can buy per trade differs a lot, while the price increases at a similar rate. To combat this, we will make the cost the determining factor in the amount of resources you can buy with one trade. You will be spending the same amount of Coins, Supplies or Goods for each option, regardless of its type or tier - of course the amount of Goods you receive in return are adjusted based on their tier and overall value.
Example: Imagine a player who currently would need to pay 44K Supplies for 1.1K Steel, 176K Supplies for 1.1K Crystal, or 704K for 1.1K Gems. In the new system, they would be asked to pay 380K Supplies to receive either 7.6K Steel, or 5.1K Crystal, or 3.4K Gems.
- Improve the supply of Sentient Goods in the world economy
We regularly hear that the supply of Sentient Goods can be a problem for some players: they simply do not find the Goods necessary to progress. This problem may be more visible on some worlds than on others, and may affect certain types of Sentient Goods more than others, but we know the issue itself exists. We will increase the volume of Sentient Goods that you can buy per trade significantly. The price will still increase with every purchase, as before, but as the batches you buy are larger, you will need to spend much fewer resources to purchase the same amounts of Sentient Goods.
Example: Imagine a player who would be able to purchase a base value (no bonuses applied) of 1250 Moonstone. They would have to pay 6250 Platinum or Elven Tree Gum to make this purchase. In the new system, we will increase the base value. That will allow the player to purchase more Sentient Goods for the initial 1:5 ratio. In this example, the new (base) value would become 2050 Moonstone, for which 10250 Platinum or Elven Tree Gum would need to be paid.
With these changes to the Wholesaler, the Goods (especially if you buy multiple batches in a day) will be much cheaper than they were before. With that, we hope to make the Wholesaler a more relevant and viable alternative for those of you who struggle to gather the required amounts of Sentient Goods from just trading with other players.
We will offer these changes to the Wholesaler alongside the changes to the Trader's star ratio planned for this week (see the top of this post), as the two topics do tie in to each other, and we would like you to experience them at the same time for a more realistic testing scenario.
Kind regards,
Your Elvenar Team
Disclaimer: As always, changes made on Beta might not make it to the Live worlds in the exact same way, and especially with balancing changes like these, we need to be careful to not hurt the game's economy in the process. Therefore, if something doesn't work as we intend it to or can currently foresee, we may need to make adjustments to the values we'll be offering.
