World Wynncraft Economy Fixes! (community Thread)

Before getting into this all, I want to let you know that this will be a pretty lengthy thread, with the purpose of providing ideas on how to change the economy in Wynncraft for the better. Giving it a full read and providing your own thoughts and ideas at the bottom is greatly appreciated! Will have more information about it all at the end of the thread!

Also, huge thank you to xSuper_Jx for giving me the inspiration to think about this more in depth, and _Mimo for helping me with the research, math, and ideas!

With that being said, the majority of the community could probably agree that there are quite a few flaws with the current Wynncraft economy. You often hear people saying that there's no good way to make money endgame without loot running, or that dupers ruin the economy, or whatever else. That information isn't very helpful though, and there's a lot more to the economy than just that. I want to take the time to go in depth and explain everything relating to the economy and ways that could make it all more stable.

MAIN SUGGESTION​

My main suggestion really is to remove emerald blocks and liquid emeralds from the game, and instead have a scoreboard on the side that shows exactly how much money you currently have, or something of the sort. This is the single change that Wynncraft needs, in order to have a stable economy.

What is it's main purpose?:
It prevents the ability to dupe emeralds in large quantities.
How does this fix anything if you can still dupe items, might you ask? It's quite simple, really. Duping emeralds has the ability to cause a very large amount of currency to come into the economy very quickly, with no equal money sink for it. In 1.18, quest rewards, Selchar, and other ways of generating emeralds were cut down quite a bit. This is because generating currency into the game, without an equal money sink, inflates the economy over time. Whereas finding a mythic, or something along those lines, only circulates existing money. Circulating money is healthy for the game. Though, duping of any item will still devalue it overtime, which is quite unhealthy too, but not as unhealthy as generating money.

Currently there's lots of issues with various features in the game that can cause these glitches, and it's impossible to prevent them, really. Wynncraft is a game built inside of another game. Nothing here is really built from scratch, it's all just pieces of one thing put together with pieces of another. There's bound to be glitches, and nobody is at fault for them.

While I think this change is very necessary, it would take well over a year of hard work, if not a lot more, I'm sure. Having to redo the code for a lot of things. Changing trading, the trade market, merchants, quest rewards, the way currency is generated from mobs and chests even is a possibility.

So if this is going to take so long to implement, what changes could be made in the meantime? What's some things people are unhappy with? Let's take a look at some of those!

CHANGES TO EARNING PROFIT​

The most common thing to be heard around the community is that making money endgame is all based around "loot running" and it's all about whoever finds a Mythic. I want to spend some time talking about making money endgame and changes that I feel would greatly benefit Wynncraft.

The first of these changes being, adding a negative loot quality bonus to chests, or changing the value at which existing loot quality affects chests, sort of like how it's done with loot bonus. Really, anything that's possible. While I feel that loot quality is interesting, I feel it was introduced at a very poor time. A time when loot running was already the most efficient and effective way to make money, and directly buffing this only makes it feel more unbalanced. Even with the loot quality changes that have already taken place, it still a bit too strong. Mythic items used to be very uncommon, and I think they should go back to being exactly that. Finding Mythic items every 2,000 to 3,000 chests on average should not be normal at all.

Another change I'd like to see is the introduction of loot mobs. These mobs would be the complete opposite of grind mobs. High spawn rates still, but give minimal xp and much more item loot. This would allow for the ability to grind mobs, while hopefully being able to find something like a Mythic within the same amount of time as you would from a chest, on average. Of course, while providing decent raw emerald income too, just like chests do. Giving players another way to grind items that are just as valuable.

A third change would be to Selchar's Seavale Reefs. I do like where the prices are at now, in terms of selling back the treasures. However, I want something more there so that it can still be quite profitable, without generating a ton of emeralds. An idea was to make some good ingredients, emphasis on good, that would be used in some meta builds, perhaps. They would be special item drops, sorta like the Ultramarine Set or Coral of Nelfros, which are items that drop with a use aside from being sold to the treasure merchant. These ingredients would have a very rare drop rate, and due to being meta, would hopefully be sought after and allow players to earn a stable amount of emeralds that can somewhat compete with other methods. Of course, while being as healthy for Wynncraft's economy as possible.

One final change would be to increase the amount of emeralds quests give. To at least what it was, prior to 1.18. Doing all the quests in the game currently gives just 1 stack, 13le, 25eb, and 22e. This is very insignificant for the amount of time it takes. I talked about introducing money into the economy and why it's bad, so how would this be balanced? Larger money sinks in specific areas, of course.

I think professions are currently perfectly fine as they are, in terms of profit. Once you get into the higher levels, you can start selling tier 3 materials for over 1le each. On top of that, ingredient farming can be as profitable as earning a stack of le every three hours by selling them to other players over the trade market, without the need to even level your professions. Though, with crafting items yourself and selling, you're able to nearly double that profit. Of course, more could be added to give an incentive to grind professions. I think introducing the Gathering Xp and Gathering Speed identifications would be very healthy and welcomed, as that was planned, but hasn't happened just yet.

MONEY SINKS​

A big money sink I'd like to see is the chance to upgrade from brown to black horse be lowered, and possibly the chance from black to chestnut or chestnut to white be raised slightly to make up for a portion of it. I feel like this is a healthier change than increasing the horse prices, because it allows newer players to still get their brown horses at a fair price. You also can't go down further than a brown horse, so you're always either guaranteed a brown or black, compared to breeding a chestnut with two blacks, which gives you the chance to go back down to brown.

Another change would be to buff the armor and weapons that you can buy from merchants in towns, or lower the costs. Currently, the items you buy cost too much to be worth it, and aside from very few items (i.e. Ornamental Plate, Pirate Luck, Emerald Pendant...). This is one of the money sinks the game has to offer, yet isn't doing much to help, due to the rewards being lackluster overall.

One last money sink would be to change identifying and selling to items to The Blacksmith. Currently, at lower levels, you do generally have a higher rate to earn more emeralds than lose, and a level 1 Unique has a 100% chance to earn more emeralds than it costs to identify it. Compared to higher levels, where the margin for earning money is a bit lower. I think a further increase to this at higher levels would be better, if more money sinks are still needed after everything else mentioned. The amount of money you can circulate with these items is already pretty high.
Perhaps less people would want to take a lot of these items, if they're commonly going to lose money, which can also be beneficial, as prices for really good Legendary and Rare items could increase again, as the market would be less saturated with these items.

Here's the current simple math behind it all:
Level 95 Items:

Mythic: Grandmother
ID Cost: 1800
Blacksmith: 665-1996
Low Earning: 36.94% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 110.88% of the ID Cost

Fabled: Time Rift
ID Cost: 1200
Blacksmith: 381-1143
Low Earning: 31.75% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 95.25% of the ID Cost

Legendary: Aquarius
ID Cost: 491
Blacksmith: 239-718
Low Earning: 48.67% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 146.23% of the ID Cost

Set: Snail Leggings
ID Cost: 164
Blacksmith: 69-208
Low Earning: 42.07% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 126.82% of the ID Cost

Rare: Leictreach Makani
ID Cost: 129
Blacksmith: 67-201
Low Earning: 51.93% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 155.81% of the ID Cost

Unique: Neuron
ID Cost: 53
Blacksmith: 27-83
Low Earning: 50.94% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 156.60% of the ID Cost

Level 1 Items:

Legendary: Rarity
ID Cost: 40
Blacksmith: 23-69
Low Earning: 57.50% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 172.50% of the ID Cost

Set: Leaf Cap (level 2)
ID Cost: 16
Blacksmith: 4-13
Low Earning: 25.00% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 81.25% of the ID Cost

Rare: Awesome Bandana
ID Cost: 17
Blacksmith: 10-31
Low Earning: 58.82% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 182.35% of the ID Cost

Unique: Collector
ID Cost: 6
Blacksmith: 6-20
Low Earning: 100% of the ID Cost
High Earning: 333.33% of the ID Cost

From this math, we see some inconsistencies, like how the low level Set item has no chance to make profit from The Blacksmith, yet the higher level does. And how Fabled items can also yield no profit, yet Mythic items of the same level can.
Either way, the gist would be to make it so higher level Legendary, Fabled, and Mythic items cannot make their full money back (i.e. changing the high earnings of each to be under 100%).

On the note of money sinks, it'd be nice to see a new player to player trade system. Currently, it's just flawed due to only being able to send 11 stacks of items across at a time. This means that trading with another player for high value items can lead to scamming. Of course, with currency moving to a scoreboard system, this would be no issue at all. I would really love to see tax implemented in trades larger than 16le as well. More than what you're casually giving to someone, and that way players can't avoid the market tax very easily, because that is also pretty bad. Sort of like the item merchants, if there's money sinks that are in the game, but not being used entirely, they're not as influential as they could be and thus causing the generation of emeralds and the deduction of emeralds to be unbalanced.

EDIT: I also want to add that I think money generators, such as Zhight Island and Dungeon Rewards, along with money sinks, such as The Powder Master, Bank Pages, Guild Banks, and other random merchants in the world are pretty balanced, and probably don't need changing, but of course they can always change if needed! I know Zhight received a nerf at some point, after discovering that groups could farm super quick money from it.

COMMUNITY SUGGESTIONS​

Now, as I said at the top, I do want this to be a community thread. We are a community and this economy is something we all share together. ANY thoughts and ideas are more than welcome to be shared, and I will update this thread with those ideas listed below here in spoilers! Please, all I ask is that there is no flaming. No idea or thought is a bad one, and all will be noted in this thread, unless already stated somewhere else in this thread. Absolutely anything could spark something among the Content Team, so everything is appreciated! All users will be credited with their ideas!

Thank you all so much for reading this 2000 word+ proposal. It does mean a lot, and I hope it's able to make a difference in the future!

 

There's an error with your math here, 1196 is not 110.88% of 1800

 

My bad, thanks for catching that. It's meant to be 1996

 

saving this spot for tommorow, will edit in more detailed opinions after I wake up

The first option here is terrible, newer players should not be basically punished for endgame shenanigans. Definitely the second.

It's actually 4000-5000 on average, with like over 80% loot quality. Which in all reality is maybe a little too common but not that common.

YES. PLEASE. The economy update nerfed it so hard. It was a terrible idea imo, as it separates the rich from the poor even more.

They are not. Will go into why tmr, don't have time.

I don't think this should be buffed as merchant items are, and should be, a kind of last resort. Finding items yourself should be encouraged.

Please don't. People already stopped taking most uniques besides a few godly ones, and a decent amount of rares are neglected as well. This leads to either: no supply at all on market (which happens a lot) or hyperinflation on these certain items, which is bad for players who need to buy these cheap items from the market. They are usually not good, and should stay cheap.

This is a very bad idea, as the trade market tax of current can lead to you paying STACKS more than you want to with tax, or giving the player less money for their items. It's just not good in general. If someone can arrange a trade and stuff, they should be allowed to complete that trade freely.

Might island got VERY, very overnerfed. It is very hard to simple break even on the entrance cost, the only way to do that is pretty much with like 2 other people. Theoretically, it's broken, but you need like 20 people for it to be that bad.

 

You’re actually right about that. Wasn’t even on my mind, to be honest. Hmm...

Maybe if there was a way to make double loot not have an effect on their drops? Because trying to balance something around double loot bombs would just lead to them being inefficient whenever there isn’t one, and that’s why people don’t grind mobs currently for profit

 

You're right about it duplicating the items, which is why it's hard to balance. Loot parties and totems and loot bombs all together would get pretty crazy with a bunch of people, and would lead to some really fast Mythics, probably. Maybe if the mobs weren't affected by totems? That could help balance it, because I know there's mobs in the game that aren't

 

I will be doing some repeating of BTD, so sorry for stealing your spotlight!

(most of the below covers some of the same topics BTD hit, but It'll get to my stuff soon <3

What do you mean by "duping" do you mean something illegal/already against the rules or Loot drop chances? If your issue is with things being able to drop more often then I'm not sure I can get behind that. If you mean something illegal then yeah we can agree.

To go with @btdmaster anything that hurts new players is a bad idea. As a general rule the start of the game is to teach basics and get people enjoying it and falling in love with the story. Not have them have to have the most meta build at level 1, and to farm forever if they ever want to make enough money to but their second page.

Farming/Finding items is apart of an MMO/RPG, it's kinda the point. Merchant items are if you really want it. Quest items are average for the same reason. If you want good stuff, go out and get it. It's avoid the lazy game play of welp, I got some emeralds from a quest now I have a good set that'll last me 10 levels

Mythics in and of themselves are a money sink, you can spend up to over 5-8 stacks of LE rolling them to MAYBE get them to 100% in all their stats levels and just finding them can be quite the challenge (I got my first fabled, "nighthawk" but I'm a mage :^) )

Now it's time to start using more quotes

Alright, so this is alright for people who have 3k+ hours, all the bank pages, two mansions and a harem of women who make them pb&js. But us poor people (Literally anyone who hasn't found a mythic yet) can't afford to do this in mass (I got to a black and had to stop) While the most expensive white horse I've seen so far is a stack of LE, you'll see the rich mass horse breed, stock up on white horses and when the update comes out, sell them for two stacks because NO ONE NEW can get the horses now because they're rare as shit. You'll be hurting newer players and casuals more than once again the people with 3k+ hours.

Once again, this suggestion while it might help slowly drop the rich down, it's only going to negatively affect the poor. Right now, I'm not too worried about IDing items, I have a good chance to make my money back. But if this gets added? I'll just have to sell the unID'd crates or hell just take the stack of emeralds over loot. You don't hurt people with money like this, you hurt everyone else. Because the players that have a bank page full of LE will just ID, shrug and sell another mythic if they get low. But everyone else will make less money (Because you get so little emeralds for selling crates) and they'll slow down to a crawl.

Not sure how your main idea would be helpful... I mean I guess it would mean we carry around all our cash and make it a GUI? But if it's duping your worried about (I'll assume illegal duping, cheating in items) one could lag themselves and spam click and probably end up with the same result of cheating in items. Let's fix the system we have (If this is the case, if not you can ignore this part)

A big money sink I'd like to see is the chance to upgrade from brown to black horse be lowered, and possibly the chance from black to chestnut or chestnut to white be raised slightly to make up for a portion of it. I feel like this is a healthier change than increasing the horse prices, because it allows newer players to still get their brown horses at a fair price. You also can't go down further than a brown horse, so you're always either guaranteed a brown or black, compared to breeding a chestnut with two blacks, which gives you the chance to go back down to brown.

I do think quest emerald amounts should be buffed considering their glitchy, annoying, long, unfulling state of some of them, where you have to /kill six fucking times, or reset by running far enough away six fucking times to get it going and PRAY to Clang the physics Engine God, that things behave as they should and you finish it. Quest should be a great equalizer in pulling players up to the long time people's level.

Good money sinks you say?
More Bank Pages.
More pages in your ingredients bag,
more bags (For emeralds, UnID's, and crafting materials),
skill points,
more soul points #YellowDamage ,
having a more stable guild with things, (like a place off the map that teleports you to YOUR guild hall, like an instance and/or a room of NPCs to buy upgrades for your guild. 1% XP boost or whatever or guild members regen health inside flag areas, buffs for classes, buffs for Captain's and Chiefians when attacking flags.
Maybe even set up passive income like banks that you can throw your money into and it's locked away for 3 weeks or something and you get a small return, a decreasing percentage as you put more and more in to try and keep balance, this could help tie up people's money?
Or allow us to bribe Mister ID man to try to increase our roll chances, while it still passively goes up (The cost) each ID, I'm sure he wouldn't mind a little shaking of a LE in his face to get him to get those stats higher

Edit: But thanks for bringing something that concerns you to the table