Korn schrieb: And finally, we can drop satisfying amounts of gear, addressing one of Albion's greatest weaknesses, without upsetting the player driven economy.



Korn schrieb: It allows us to significantly increase overall mob drop amounts, making the PvE experience more rewarding



Korn schrieb: It supports the crafting, refining and gathering economy (instead of competing with it)



Korn schrieb: It encourages and increases trade & transportation



Korn schrieb: It allows us to introduce a new item sink to the game in the form or "corruption", that we can freely configure



Korn schrieb: It allows us to remove essences from refining as this feature already creates a link between PvE and refining/crafting, hence essence are no longer needed to fill that role



Korn schrieb: It allows us to remove enchanted resources as a reward for hell gates and chests and replace those with additional drops - player crafted, of course!



I'm going to address this a bit out of order...How was this one of Albion Online's greatest weaknesses? The only reason it could be considered a "weakness" is because some people wanted gear like they had in "those other games" and no one took a minute to make artifacts, runes, essences, souls, a silver seem cool to these players. Personally, a gear drop for an item that I can't wear (which is most of them) or don't want to wear (which is more of them) is only valuable to me by selling it in the auction house or giving it to my guildmate who may also just turn around and sell it.So to address this supposed weakness... you've introduced a system which draws players away from the player-driven market by creating artificial demand for certain items. This, in turn, creates an artificial market floor for items and encourages players to hold on to their items so they can sell to the NPC instead of other players when the market buy prices are too low.Subsequently, by artificially propping up market prices (installing a safety net for people crafting certain items) you limit the amount of blow-out wholesale deals which would cause traders to journey to the far reaches of Albion. This sort of trading is a primary reason that some players play the game. I've personally dragged my ox between cities multiple times for this purpose.At the same time.... And if the products aren't in high demand... then why would PvE players be so very thrilled to get a generic item that most people aren't interested in?I suppose the NPC could get a bargain basement deal on an item that otherwise could have went to an attentive and resourceful player, but again... this just adds a step in the process where players don't have to deal with the player-driven market. And it potentially takes advantage of lazy players like other real players would have otherwise done. And yes, it is a negative thing that economic PvP is being limited in a full loot game which is essentially a cut throat war simulation.But if the product is in demand and the NPC keeps raising its bid... the additional pressure to keep prices up will effect players who are trying to save up money and get the special item they want. This negatively effects a different group of players.It also doesn't encourage crafters to make what's in demand in the player-riven market.Some of these scenarios are almost certain to play out (with greater or lesser negative consequences) and it's likely that all of these scenarios will be played out at different times involving different players.Overall... I just don't see how this system is going to work sufficiently -- even in regard to satisfying PvE playes. And while I suspect that this system may have partly been introduced to help new players who join the game later than at the start, I can't help but to wonder how this system will operate at the start of the game (slowly but surely driving the price of items up while players are looking to try out new things). And if the NPC raises its price high enough for some item that no one is producing or which everyone is buying... then more established players will probably be in a better position to step in and fill the order before new players do.The items that drop the most will be the items that the NPC can afford because no one is buying them on the open and free market. I don't see how getting an unwanted item with little real value would be very rewarding.It potentially creates artificial demand for products which will then raise the price of resources for crafters who want to make other things (perhaps even things that players desperately want).It encourages dumping items to the NPC rather than creating blowout deals that would have otherwise drawn traders to town in their trading business.I mean, yeah, it's an item sink for items that don't have much value on the open market. However you arbitrarily configure the "corruption" you're going to have hard time getting around that.At least the essences caused players to actively participate in the same system. You could have just increased the drop rate so that they're not highly valuable items. Then you put the real value in runes, souls, artifacts and the silver rewards.You're going to replace the god-tier drops of the current hell gates with drops containing items that the NPC could afford because those items couldn't compete in the free market. I'm not so sure that will go over well.